I'd been participating in a couple of recent Facebook threads about budget and kid friendly Staycation ideas near the Seattle area. Since I just posted the new Suncadia Spring Fling deal and recently wrote about our Staycation in downtown Seattle, I thought I would dig up my receipt records from our 1 night stay at the Great Wolf Lodge. Every so often I see Groupon or Living Social deals for Great Wolf Lodge. These deals are often advertised as low as $159 a night. But when you add in the taxes, fees and extra costs for meals and activities, how much is a single night at Great Wolf Lodge really going to run? Keep in mind that since we're a family of 5 our costs tend to be a big higher due to most rooms having a max of 4.
When I made the original booking online, I reserved the Family Suite which consisted of 2 queen beds and a pull out sofa for our family of 5. I forgot to change the drop down menus for occupants so the room was reserved for 2 adults only. Since I wanted to make sure that everybody received a wrist band for water park access when we checked in, I called in to make the change in number of occupants. What I didn't realize is that the room rates are quoted for 4 occupants - even if you are in a room that is clearly meant to hold a max of 6 or 8 people. For each person over 4, you are changed an extra fee of $40. :( I would hate for this un-advertised fee to kill someone's budget so be prepared that you'll need to pay extra if you've got more than 4 in your room.
The other thing I did, perhaps unwisely in hindsight, is bite on the bait when they lured me with the thought of possibly getting a room upgrade for a small fee. They will lay out for you the different room types that might be available and how much more it would cost. It's totally up to you to say yes or no (check box form all done through their online reservation system) for each room type and the associated cost. The thing you don't know is which room type out of the ones you aimed for that you'll be getting until you're at check in. These upgrade fees are a lot less than it would cost you outright to book that higher room class. This is good and bad in that you may or may not end up being completely satisfied about your upgrade and the fee.
When we arrived for our check in, we discovered that we had gotten one of our possible requested room upgrades of the Grand Bear Suite. The new suite consisted of a separate bedroom with a king size bed and 3/4 bath, with a main outer room of two queen beds and a sofa bed. The 2nd bathroom was a very nice addition to have with 5 people in the room though in hindsight, we would have been perfectly fine in our original Family Suite room. The cost for the room upgrade was a not-small amount of $45.00.
Great Wolf Lodge is rather isolated and there's not a lot of choices for outside eating establishments. McDonalds is a short drive away and a bit farther drive away are a few restaurants. We did try one of those for a late lunch after leaving the waterpark on check out day.
One suggestion that I've see on discussions of how to save money on a Great Wolf Lodge trip, is to plan ahead and bring your own food. An easy and more obvious tip is to bring breakfast and snack food - fresh fruit, bread, jam, peanut butter, juice boxes, snack bars, applesauce cups, etc. A little more complicated, but novel, ideas involve packing some of your fridge foods in a cooler and bringing a crock pot or other plug in electrical cooking devices. ;) I like to feel that I'm on vacation from cooking so I haven't gone the route of bringing a crock pot or planned to cook actual meals in my room but I know some people have and do and I say "More power and savings to you!"
(We ended up making a late night McDonalds and Convenience store run and I didn't save my receipts from that but I estimate we probably spent an extra $10 that's not included in the amounts below.)
Great Wolf Lodge
1 night
Sunday 1/27/13
5 guests
$167.99 - Base room rate, Family Suite
$ 40.00 - Fee for 5th guest in room
$ 45.00 - Upgrade fee to Grand Bear Suite
$ 14.99 - Resort Fee
$ 26.80 - Room Tax
$ 67.90 - Lunch at Tutta Bella (on the drive down to GWL)
$ 84.00 - Dinner at Camp Critter (casual restaurant inside GWL)
$ 24.00 - Mini golf $6 X 4 = $24
$ 50.00 - Virtual Arcade token card
$ 59.01 - Breakfast buffet X 5
$ 9.00 - Locker rental fee
$ 55.22 - Lunch at Country Cousins (down the road from GWL in Centralia)
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$643.91 - Total spent on our 1 night Staycation at Great Wolf Lodge
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