Great Wolf Lodge Minneapolis / Bloomington

Expensive and exhausting and fun? The water park is great. The rest is super expensive and they nickle and dime you for everything. $15 just to park at the hotel! So many ways for your kid to ask you to spend more money it’s insane. Food was mediocre and costly. Staff was great or terrible. Cool activities for kids like craft hour, morning yoga, pics with Santa – all free. But you pay for it with the very high cost of the room which has tiny beds and barely any seating for rooms that are supposed to accommodate 6. Very loud, very busy even on Sunday and Monday.

My main complaint is that it is way over-priced for what you get. Check-in when smoothly, however they do not do a daily towel service. You have to go to the front desk to get extra towels. There were no extra pillows in the room and only 1 extra blanket. The room was a decent size and had the amenities advertised. However, the blankets and sheets were poor. Very thin, one single blanket on each bed, and the sheets were not long enough to cover the length of the bunk bed mattresses. The blankets also did not cover the bunk beds- essentially a thin lap blanket was on each bunk bed. The restaurant had very good food at the buffet, however it was still over-priced as they also charge for each beverage, so it quickly adds up. They have sparce staffing in the restaurant, so we were not able to get any beverage refills because they were too busy to assist and had to stand and wait every time we were ready to go because they didn’t have our check ready to sign. While the lodge offers additional entertainment- rope course, arcades, bowling, etc- they are all additional charges and all over-priced for the service or quality you get. Check out was automatic and we received an invoice after leaving that also charged us $15/day for self-parking in the lot that we were not told we would be charged. Ultimately we stayed for the water park, which was a great experience, but next time I would stay at a different hotel and do the day pass for the water park to avoid excessive price gouging.

This was our first time at any Great Wolf Lodge, and we were very impressed. The staff is incredibly friendly and goes out of there way to make it a fun experience for kids. The lifeguards take water safety extremely seriously and do an excellent job keeping everyone safe. The rooms are very spacious. My only complaint is that there is a little wear and tear on the paint/wood in the rooms (which is not a big deal). We loved all of the activities for kids!

We last minute decided to use the deal we received for a night at $124, water Park was included day of check in and day of checkout which was great because we ended up arriving with only an hour to swim.

We plan on coming again mid-winter so we can afford more and plan it better, but even going last minute it was still a great time. We didn’t get the breakfast or dinner packages(which IMO are a bit too expensive) the arcade and other activities are included with a separate package for extra money.

Room selections were great! Food service and activities are very fun, TV services that are included were surprisingly kids friendly, which is great because usually at hotels we can never find a good, free show or movie. Parking was surprisingly accessible and slide to the entrance.

All in all, I think it was a good deal! But the rates quickly go up closet to the date you’re trying to book so make sure to book with enough time before your stay date. The deal in great Wolf Lodge website was cheaper than Groupon!

The rooms are clean and as quiet as you should expect for being a kid friendly hotel. The kids will love it here because there is lots to do outside of the water park. That being said if you would like to do those things be sure to plan and paying extra for all of that (this feels like where they make all of their money). They have package deals that I’m not always sure are worth it. They have a nice ropes course (bring close toed shoes), mini bowling, rock climbing wall, and one of the kids favorites is the magic quest thing. They run around with a wand completing quests and it keeps them occupied for a while and also does a good job tiring them out. The hotel also has lots of other activities like dance parties, yoga, crafts and other seasonally themed activities. These are free. The main thing is the water park and it’s nice but not huge. My kids spend a majority of the time in the lazy river. And the older ones like the slides. They have a nice area up top for the little ones. There is no hot tub or fitness center. Rooms have a small fridge and microwave. Some of the rooms have nice views of the airport if you like to watch planes.

The staff were welcoming & friendly (as always). The water park was all in one area. Features included a wave pool, a lazy river, a small kids area, several big slides (5 body, 2 tube, and one raft slide for up to four people), and a bodyboard ride called the flow rider which I have never encountered before. There was an arcade with plenty of games and things to do. There was a miniature bowling alley. There was a Dunkin Donuts. There was also two features I had never encountered before a rock climbing wall and a rope course.|The resort featured free WiFi. There was a breakfast package you can purchase for every morning you stay. It’s worth it; however, I believe the breakfast buffet that comes with the package was better at the Mason, Ohio, Great Wolf Lodge.|Our room was plenty big enough for the four of us (2 adults and 2 kids under 7). Our beds were comfy. We had the 2 were beds family suite. We did miss the patio/balcony that was offered at the Mason, Ohio, Great Wolf Lodge.|Overall I would say this resort is great if you have older children. Like children 7 and above. There is much more to do for them. Personally I felt like this Great Wolf Lodge was a hotel with wolf themes and a water park attached. If you are looking for a more of a rustic lodge Great Wolf lodge I would try one of the other locations. My rating for this location:BEST|I would rank my favorite Great Wolf Lodges in this order from favorite to least left to right (Mason/Cincinnati, Ohio, Bloomington, Minnesota, Kansas City, Kansas, and Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin).