Williamsburg Great Wolf Lodge Review

If you are looking for a fun family get-away (especially in the winter time), we have found it! On our travels north earlier this month we stayed three nights at Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg, Virginia, and had a fantastic time! (My sister found special homeschool rates, score!)



Want to hear about our experience? If so, keep reading.

We stayed in a Grizzly Bear Suite, which was wonderfully roomy for our family of seven. Two bedrooms, two bathrooms and a living room with a fireplace. The couch in the living room was a sleeper sofa. My sister's family stayed in a Majestic Bear Suite with a different configuration, but their suite was great, too. Check out the rooms here.

Advice: make sure to bring your own hair conditioner, as our rooms didn't have any. Or you can buy hair conditioner at the spa. You also need to ask for room service daily if you need more coffee (!) or bathroom amenities, the hotel normally restocks the rooms every two (or three?) days.

No panic though: Bear Paw Sweets and Eats sells Starbucks, and there is also Dunkin Donuts at the hotel.




There is a lot to do at Great Wolf Lodge. The indoor waterpark, of course. Which was the best one we have ever gone to. Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg also has a ton of indoor activities, like the arcade, bowling alley, various games like Shadow Quest (run around the hotel for miles solving this game!), and more (click here). Most of these activities cost extra, so we only tried the Northern Lights Arcade and Shadow Quest.

Admission to the waterpark is included in the cost of the hotel room, and that really was what we were there for, so it didn't bother us that much not to do all these extra activities.

Our teens made a friend, and talking to his family, we learned they come every year. It's their Christmas gift every year! Their tip was to bring all extra purchases at the hotel back the next visit, as you can use these items again. For example you need to buy a wand for the Shadow Quest game, but you can bring it with you for your next visit, and then you just need to pay the game activation fee.



There was NOTHING we didn't like about the waterpark. There was something for everyone. Our teens' favorites were all the crazy slides (the scariest being Howlin' Tornado - renamed Toilet Flush by our crew) and Wolf Rider Wipeout. You can see a list of the rides here, and for virtual tours, click here. Little Miss' favorites were also the Wipeout ride, and Big Foot Pass where you hop from one moving log to another.

Make sure to watch this short video of someone unnamed wiping out on Big Foot Pass. Funny!!

My favorite was the hot tub.



Fun on the Wolf Rider Wipeout! Check out this short video of Little Miss mastering the ride.



We stayed in the waterpark for hours. Littlest one even napped there some days. There was a snack shop inside the park where you could buy lunch, or you could step outside the waterpark area to pick up a pizza and bring it in.

Your pass to the waterpark is a wristband. When you check in to the hotel, you can choose to have a regular one, or one that is also your room key, and if you wish, you can use your wristband to charge items to your account. So convenient! Our teens were able to stay in the park on their own, and when they got hungry, they'd use their wrist band to order lunch. Little Miss loved being able to unlock our hotel room with her wristband. Great technology!

In addition to the coffee shops, snack shop, sweet shop, and pizza parlor, Williamsburg Great Wolf Lodge also had a wonderful restaurant The Loose Moose Bar and Grill. There was a buffet of all kinds of foods, so everyone found something (and some more!) to fill their plates and tummies. Yum.

On our last morning we also had breakfast at Loose Moose, and really enjoyed the buffet breakfast and omelettes made to order.



If you are visiting with younger guests, make sure to check out the scheduled events for the front lobby. There was storytime, character visits, singing, dance parties etc. Santa also visits the hotel every night during Christmas season. We saw some of these activities, but my teens preferred a quieter waterpark, and Little Miss is seven going on 15, so she always chose what the teens were doing.

We highly recommend a family vacation to Great Wolf Lodge. They have locations around United States, check here for a list.


Thank you, Great Wolf Lodge, for our dinner, arcade and Shadow Quest vouchers! We really enjoyed our stay, and hope to return some day!

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Virginiassa pysähdyimme kolmeksi yöksi hotelliin, jossa oli vesipuisto. Todella mahtava paikka! Suosittelemme! Toivottavasti pääsemme takaisin joskus.