{"id":123858,"date":"2025-03-27T09:18:43","date_gmt":"2025-03-27T10:18:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bestratefinders.com\/blog\/?p=123858"},"modified":"2025-04-01T12:03:03","modified_gmt":"2025-04-01T12:03:03","slug":"great-wolf-lodge-scottsdale-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bestratefinders.com\/blog\/everything-else\/great-wolf-lodge-scottsdale-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Great Wolf Lodge Scottsdale Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m excited to share a full review of the new Great Wolf Lodge in Scottsdale, Salt River, AZ.\u00a0This kid-friendly resort has lots of fun options for families. Read on for the good\u2026 and the bad. \ud83d\ude09\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Hi friends! Hope you\u2019re having a wonderful morning. \u00a0Today I’m sharing\u00a0a full review of the new Great Wolf Lodge in Scottsdale!\u00a0<\/a>It’s\u00a0a super fun and kid-friendly resort that the WHOLE family will love! Let’s take a look at this review to see what we thought so you can see if it’d be a vacay your fam would like!.<\/p>\n

\"Great<\/p>\n

\"Great<\/p>\n

We spent 3 days and 2 nights at the brand-new Great Wolf Lodge, which is basically a kid\u2019s dream come true. The girls lost their minds! I\u2019d seen a few posts about Great Wolf Lodge over the years and was excited finally to take the crew. When I found out this summer that we were getting one, I booked our rooms the first day that they opened the system for reservations. The site crashed multiple times during the process. I was able to snag a room for the end of the month, which ended up being their grand opening weekend. The room rates were pretty fair, and I was happy to pay them.<\/p>\n

Great Wolf Lodge Scottsdale Review<\/h2>\n

Great Wolf Lodge is a family-friendly resort with a lodge \u201ccampfire\u201d kinda vibe to it. The two wolf mascots, Wiley and Violet, and other characters<\/a>, stroll around the property for photo ops, and they have quite a few fun amenities.<\/p>\n

\"Ropes<\/p>\n

\"Water<\/p>\n

Activities at Great Wolf Lodge Scottsdale<\/h2>\n

I was pretty blown away by the amount of activities they offer on-site. They have a mini golf area, gold panning, a mine exploration activity, an indoor ropes course, a mini bowling alley, a rock-climbing wall, and a full indoor water park. The waterpark is climate-controlled to 86 degrees year-round and has various slides, a lazy river, a wave pool, a giant splash pad, and a baby\/toddler area.<\/p>\n

\"Great<\/p>\n

Inside the resort, they also have a Build-A-Bear workshop, a kids\u2019 area (where they offer childcare), a candy store, and MagiQuest.<\/p>\n

MagiQuest ended up being one of the biggest hits with the kids. It\u2019s an indoor scavenger hunt using magic wands (that you purchase for around $20). You pay an additional $15 to participate in the MagiQuest game, and as you find different spots throughout the property – they\u2019re marked with a little green leaf – you flick your wand at the object and something will happen.<\/p>\n

It can be something small, like a picture on the wall will light up or do something pretty intense, like the giant animatronic dragon that will come to life. You have to follow a \u201cquest path,\u201d collecting different runes and objects, and battling different characters on screens throughout the property, and it can turn into a very involved game. This part was truly magical and kids everywhere were running around waving their wands at various objects, then heading to the portal to see what they needed to do next. It was very Harry Potter.<\/p>\n

Saturday morning, the girls and I hit the road fairly early and made the quick drive up to Scottsdale. We checked into the hotel, where the girls received cute wolf ear headbands,<\/p>\n

\"Wolves\"<\/p>\n

and since our room wasn\u2019t quite ready, we spent an hour at the arcade, which is conveniently open 24\/7. \ud83d\ude42 I managed to win stuffed sloths for each of them from one of the claw machines and they were pretty pumped.<\/p>\n

We checked into our rooms and grabbed dinner on-site before heading to the waterpark. We spent a few hours jumping in the waves, and playing at the splash pad, and the girls rode the slides until it was bedtime. The Pilot came into the room when we were all crashed, and we spent the next couple of days alternating between the waterpark and the indoor activities. It was a great family staycation and the perfect way to celebrate the end of airline training.<\/p>\n

The Pros<\/strong><\/h4>\n

The activities. I was surprised by how many of the activities were included with the cost of staying on property. The waterpark was included, where we spent hours each day, and they also offer a daily schedule with various activities on the hour. These include character greetings, face painting, story time, a dance party with the wolves, Bingo, etc. Some of the other activities were an additional purchase, like the bowling, ropes course, gold panning, rock wall, etc. I didn\u2019t find the prices to be unreasonable for what they offered. You can buy a Wolf Pass for each kid which includes everything, but I wasn\u2019t sure how much we\u2019d actually do, so I opted out of it.<\/p>\n

The waterpark. The girls LOVED the waterpark and we literally spent hours here each day. There was so much for each of them to do, and I think it\u2019s perfect for babies all the way up to teenagers.<\/p>\n

\"W<\/p>\n

The Cons<\/strong><\/h4>\n

The food. The food was overpriced and horrible. We usually love hotel food – the girls have a serious obsession with room service – and we can easily find something we all love. That wasn\u2019t the case at all here. Even if you compare it to Disney food, it’s also overpriced, but at least it\u2019s good food and they have tons of options. I found the options to be very limited, not very healthy\/fresh, and overpriced. I will say the fries were great but you can\u2019t live off fries for 3 days. \ud83d\ude09 (Liv even said the pizza was gross, which I\u2019ve never heard her say before.)<\/p>\n

Here are the saddest tacos you will ever see in your life. They were called \u201cfajita veggie tacos\u201d which were on very small tortillas, filled with pico salsa and one or two slices of bell pepper on each taco.<\/p>\n

\"Sad<\/p>\n

We\u2019re in Arizona. We do tacos well and this was just an abomination.<\/p>\n

Great Wolf Lodge was obviously still working out some of the kinks since it just opened. It wasn\u2019t unusual to try something (like a vending machine or a drink machine) to find that it was broken. We also found the rooms to be so-so. The duvet was like half an inch thick. I have the worst time sleeping when I feel like the blanket is just a sheet. So I take towels from the bathroom and cover myself in towels lol. They also had a smoke detector in the room that flashed a super bright light every 10 seconds. We didn\u2019t get great sleep the first night.<\/p>\n

What’s Nearby?<\/h3>\n

The good news is that Prep & Pastry, Fashion Square, and more is only 12 minutes away. There are so many awesome dining options nearby too. There’s no denying that Scottsdale has a ton of wonderful food. So I think it\u2019s worth it to go off-property for real meals and just depend on the Great Wolf Lodge for quick bites and snacks. (Some of my recs: Olive & Ivy, True Food Kitchen, Flower Child for lunch, Blanco tacos, and Butters.)<\/p>\n

Great Wolf Lodge Scottsdale is very conveniently located near a variety of attractions that make it a perfect base for family fun. Just a short drive away, you can explore the Desert Ridge Marketplace for shopping and dining, or take a look into the underwater world at the OdySea Aquarium. For those looking to enjoy some nature, Pinnacle Peak Park has plenty of stunning, scenic hiking trails with breathtaking desert views.<\/p>\n

\"Prep<\/p>\n

We checked out the brand new Scottsdale Prep & Pastry location and ordered all of our faves. The chickpea scramble is amaaaazing.<\/p>\n

\"Prep<\/p>\n

\"W<\/p>\n

\"My<\/p>\n

\"Prep\"<\/p>\n

(So proud of Kyle and their new location!)<\/p>\n

\"IMG<\/p>\n

How does Great Wolf Lodge compare to Disney?<\/h5>\n

They\u2019re completely different animals. (<\u2014 see what I did there?) Disney is such a well-oiled machine and runs smoothly and efficiently, with lots of magic touches throughout. Obviously, it’s been around for a long time, and any teething issues have been well and truly ironed out.<\/p>\n

Great Wolf Lodge isn\u2019t trying to be Disney, and what they do is super fun and they do it well. But it just isn\u2019t the same sort of experience. I mean, we still had an absolutely wonderful time, but it\u2019s not one of those places where we\u2019re like \u201cOmg I can\u2019t wait to go again.\u201d All in all though, I think it was absolutely worth it. I\u2019m sure the girls will want to go back at some point. I highly recommend it, even once. It’s still a very cool experience.<\/p>\n

At this time, it\u2019s back to the swing of things over here! I have a couple of conference calls this am, am going to get in some cardio!<\/a><\/p>\n

I hope you have a wonderful morning and I\u2019ll see ya soon.<\/p>\n

xoxo<\/p>\n

Gina<\/p>\n

The post Great Wolf Lodge Scottsdale Review<\/a> appeared first on The Fitnessista<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m excited to share a full review of the new Great Wolf Lodge in Scottsdale, Salt River, AZ.\u00a0This kid-friendly resort has lots of fun options for families. Read on for the good\u2026 and the bad. \ud83d\ude09\u00a0 Hi friends! Hope you\u2019re having a wonderful morning. \u00a0Today I\u2019m sharing\u00a0a full review of the new Great Wolf Lodge\u2026
\nThe post Great Wolf Lodge Scottsdale Review appeared first on The Fitnessista.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":123860,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":""},"categories":[20,1,21,22,19],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bestratefinders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123858"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bestratefinders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bestratefinders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bestratefinders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bestratefinders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123858"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/bestratefinders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123858\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":123875,"href":"https:\/\/bestratefinders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123858\/revisions\/123875"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bestratefinders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bestratefinders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bestratefinders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bestratefinders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}