Great Wolf Lodge

Incompetent staff check you in, rooms won’t be dusted, and garbage will overflow in the water park but overall decent place for kids to have fun during the winter. This could be much better than what it is but there aren’t enough people giving attention to the consumers experience.

I spent two nights here recently and this place is not what I expected. This place used to be booked months in advance. However I see why it isn’t anymore.
After reading up on the place and how your wrist band is your room key, your pass into the water park, pretty much your all access pass to not having to carry around a room key at a pool was great! However that is not the case here. You get a small plastic wrist band, like you get at the fair, that is just for show. No one ever asked to look at it upon entering the water park. You just walk in. Finding a table to put your stuff down is near impossible because everyone has clothes, shoes, bag of some sort to hold their room key.
The water is to be at 84 year round. I found it very cold. The coldest water was in the toddler part near the splash area. Disappointing to say the least. You could find certain warm spots but what kid wants to stay in one area.
It says no food or drink in the pool area, there’s a food shack in there??? It’s called buckets. Cheeseburgers are $ 8+ fries $ 3 and a 16 oz drink is also $ 3. Bring lots of money. They also have alcoholic drinks as well. $ 10 a drink. Food is ok but not worth the price.
Rooms weren’t too bad, but Housekeeping needs a serious training course. Half eaten carrot next to the bed and the dust was thick enough to write it. Our linens were clean, beds were what you would expect for a hotel, room offers fridge, microwave, and a 4 cup coffee pot. Cups are individually wrapped and disposable! Two thumbs up!
Arcade is set up like pizza machine, dave and busters whichever. You load a card with money and use the card at each game. Get tickets for each game and cash them in. The kids spent about $ 40 and cashed in their tickets for two cheap plastic bracelets.
Magi quest is a game throughout the hotel. You must buy a wand and the game. $ 30-​$ 40 a piece.
Gift shop (2^nd floor by lobby) has build a bear type characters. $ 25 for the character $ 15 for an outfit. They do offer toiletries if you forgot something at home. Picture frames, clothes, many stuffed animals.
Their is a swim gift shop next to the entrance of the pool that offers swim suits, towels, and swim diapers for babies.
Breakfast — the hotel offers a breakfast buffet. $$$
Red potatoes, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, pancakes, French toast, biscuits and gravy, fresh fruit, yogurt, oatmeal, and cold cereal.
We decided to stay and eat rather than make a plate and go back to our room. With many many open tables, we were given a wait time and a buzz thing that would notify us when our table was ready. After sitting and waiting for the server to take our drink order we noticed with all the tables there only seemed to be the one server. Given the circumstances she was still very polite. The cold cereal is in a big dispenser but you have to ask for milk. Many people getting food to go back to their room were very upset as it doesn’t say ‘ask for milk’ or ‘find milk’ causing chaos and heartache when the five year old didn’t want to eat his fruit loops without milk.
The food was good, something for everyone.
The kids loved the cheese pizza, $ 11/​each I believe. You can order from your room but they don’t deliver, you go pick it up.
They have a sweet shop, coffee, cakes and ice creams. Was disappointed when they had no vanilla ice cream during our entire stay.
Kids run wild in the hallways and doors slam shut at all hours. Hibernation hours are 11 – 7. A little late if you ask me for younger kids considering how loud the place is.
Like previous posters stated no one to help with bags, but they do have small airport trolleys to help you move your bags to and from your room/​vehicle.
Cabelas is next door, legends mall just up the road, target and Walmart not too far either. Stock up on some snacks & drinks before going to GWL. Take advantage of the fridge and microwave.
Unsure if I would return to this GWL. I wouldn’t mind checking out some of the bigger and newer ones.

I stayed at the Kansas City Great Wolf Lodge for 2 nights with my family and we enjoyed our experience. We found the staff to be not overly friendly, but helpful and professional. Parking is free around the hotel.
The Hotel is located West of Downtown Kansas City, next door to Cabelas sportsman store, and just down the street from the race track.
The first thing I notice, which I found a little unsettling was a big sign by the front door which read «No Gun Policy.» I don’t understand why a business would exclude law abiding customers. What is a firearms permit holder supposed to do? Store their firearm in their car where it can be stolen? Not patronize this hotel/​business? Or disregard hotel policy, like the criminals do, and keep their permitted firearm? These «No Gun Zones» do nothing to reduce crime or keep hotel guest safe.
The resort is very large, with a lodge, camping, wilderness theme. It is very clean and well maintained. This hotel is really «all about the kids,» most of the common area is designed with children in mind. The Resort also has a gift shop, restaurant, bar, gym, sweet shop, spa, mini-​golf, and lots of other kids activities and events that take place throughout the day.
The main attraction to this hotel is the really awesome indoor waterpark, which features a splash zone, toddler pool area and slides, three 3-​story amazing water slides, a lazy river, cabanas, and lots of seating areas. You can also eat and drink in the pool area. This really is a fun attraction for both adults and children. If you are a hotel guest there is no charge.
We also upgraded our room package to include the buffet breakfast, which was a typical Marriott or Embassy Suites type breakfast, not special, but a good selection to fill you up. The buffet included; pancakes, waffles, french toast, two types of pastries, oatmeal with toppings, two types of cereal, eggs, potatoes, breakfast meats, the obligatory biscuits and gravy, fruit, milk, juice, tea and coffee. Although good, I expected more.
The room was large, with a divided bed area and couch area. It was very clean and well maintained. The room was nicely decorated with a woodsy theme, it had a table and chairs, a countertop with mini-​frig, microwave, iron/​board, medium flat screen television with lots of cable channels. The bed and pillows were very comfortable. There was free room WIFI with a medium strength signal.
The bathroom was small, clean and well maintained. The sink was outside, and the toilet and shower/​tub was separate.
Since we were also celebrating my children’s birthday, we also opted for the extra of having a costume character deliver my children cookies and milk in the evening. They were very surprised with a big friendly bear came knocking at the door and give them hot cookies and cold milk. They loved it. The cookies were very good, and it was worth the extra $ 25.
Expect for the hotel’s silly policy of disarming law abiding citizens (while the criminals can stay armed), we all enjoyed our experience at the Great Wolf Lodge.

Went here for a stay-​cation with my wife and 2 daughters (3 years old & 9 months old). My 3 year old had a blast, which is great because we came mainly for her. Your stay comes with free waterpark passes, the waterpark is warm (stays at 84 degrees Fahrenheit all year round) and has enough for a 3 year old to stay busy with for just about 3 days. We appreciated the arts & crafts corner that’s open here and there throughout the day (different hours depending on the day though I’m not sure why.) as well as the story-​times each night at 8pm with a visit from one of the Great Wolf Clubhouse characters (followed by picture time). The arcade was also decently priced with fair prizes — It’s a D&B type of system where you fill a card and swipe a card per play with different prices for each game, you win tickets and redeem them for prizes). Our daughter mostly enjoyed the room we stayed at — there are a number of different rooms themed for kids to enjoy but we knew she’s probably enjoy the whirlpool bathtub & fireplace more than bunkbeds in a tent.
We also bought a Pup Pass (second-​level combo pack) that came with a few neat things for her to do (free scoop of ice cream, an interactive adventure with your complimentary build-​a-​bear type doll, some arcade credits, and free candy) as well as a color-​your-​own pillow case to take home.
So why the 3 stars? 2 reasons (or maybe really one) — staffing & cleanliness. For calling themselves a resort, they have some depressed/​unhelpful staff (to be fair, there were some incredible employees as well) and the room was not nearly as clean as it should have been. I had to wipe down the sink myself, there was some debris in the whirlpool bath I had to remove myself, there was water in the ice bucket, the shower had soap scum stains all over it, we had to call and as for new sheets, there was garbage under the bed, the list goes on and on…
Honestly, if it weren’t for some of the staff and, particularly, the level of cleanliness, this place can easily get 5 stars — even the FOOD was fairly priced and tasted decent… in fact, we ordered pizza in one night because it was cheaper than some of the nearby places & were also pleasantly surprised with the water park snack shack (we were pleased with our burgers, chicken tenders, and fries).
Will we come again? Probably — our daughter loved it and our second will soon be old enough to enjoy it too. Hopefully we’ll even come with some more friends & family next time.
Do I hope to see more smiles and less trash? Absolutely.

I’ve visited this property in the past and liked it. However, its REALLY gone down hill. The facility is showing its age and the carpets and rooms look dirty. The water park needs maintenance and they now keep the water temperature uncomfortably COLD. They even ran out of towels… in a water park!!! The food… well…sucks. The service in the restaurant is terrible… we didn’t get coffee at our breakfast until we had finished eating and they had ran out of clean silverware when we arrived. Given the HIGH price I wouldn’t recommend it.

We got here at 10 after four which we were supposed to be able to check in at four they told us our room wasn’t ready so we ended up waiting over an hour to get into our room that was very aggravating being a first-​time visitor after that things got better the rooms nice clean beds comfortable sofa pullout bed is not comfortable waterpark fun overall not a bad stay but still not happy about waiting over an hour to be able to get into our room.

My kids had an amazing time, and we stayed here for them, so that made this worth the stay. That said for a hotel of this price, And the number of cleaning staff I have seen about, I would expect the rooms to be clean. They were borderline gross and very dusty. Common areas were okay and the arcade was very clean, pool area was iffy.
The restaurant was understaffed. Lots of open tables and two servers so they wouldn’t seat us. Said it would be 15 minute wait, waited over 30 before we got angry and left. Lots of options at legends mall so went there every night. Also ordered take out from hotel. Said 15 minutes and that was 45 minutes ago! Still waiting… Guess I shouldn’t write a review hungry.
Waterpark was closed one morning because didn’t have enough guards. Feel like guards are doing a good job watching kids. Kids loved the water park!
We got the paw pass and totally worth it! Kids really enjoyed the magi quest game, and other activities and the freedom to run around. Also the dance parties and activities were fun for the kids. Feel like they are safe roaming around in pairs.
All around fun stay. Will go again.

I always wanted to check this place out. Looked like a cool place to bring the kids for a few day vacation. Well, funny enough, Im playin a gig at the KC Speedway across the street tonight, and this place happens to be the hotel they booked for us. COOL! The environments fun from the start. Kinda shabby carpet throughout but hey, it houses tons of kids running around wet. I get it. The rooms were decent. I have a 15 year old and a 4 year old so the separate bunk bed room, with tv, would accommodate my family nicely. Not sure what these rooms cost but the $ 2.50 water bottles in the room seemed a bit pricey. Anyway, breakfast was average. Buffet. The usual stuff. The yogurt was nice. Granola, fruit, etc. however, never got a chance to have any strawberries as they were never replaced during my visit. The tea selection was excellent! Honey, lemon, yea man! Came back down for lunch. Ordered a Octoberfest draft only to get a hard cider. Told my waitresses, who was great! She waited on me at breakfast as well. She poured another one, same deal. I guess the keg guy confused the lines so… No Octoberfest for me today. GIMME A CORONA! BOTTLE AND A GLASS! I ordered the Napa Valley grilled chicken salad. Grilled pears, tomatoes, blue cheese, white balsamic.. Salad showed up. Looked great. No dressing. MA’AM! CAN I GET SOME DRESSING? She was sweet as could be, disappeared only to return with two packets of… Roasted pepper dressing. Hmmm. No white balsamic dressing here for me today. I ate it. Wasnt bad. Two beers and salad $ 27.93. Almost Disney prices eh? If I do in fact bring the family here in the future. Ill bring my own food and beer. Thanks to Karen my waitress. She ran pretty hard all morning and into the late afternoon. She was the bartender as well as waitress all day

Kids had a great time here, I felt like it was almost like a stationary cruise ship with many activities for kids as well as a rotation of shows and events throughout the day. We enjoyed story time, Wolfe walks, trick or treating (they were very generous with the candy!), miniature golf and of course the water park. Speaking of the waterpark, it is awesome, truly something for every age and very well monitored with lifeguards. I also thought our meal from buckets was pretty good.
We were here a Wednesday through Friday in October and the place was only at 12% capacity when we initially arrived so we enjoyed the place to ourselves. We were also satisfied with the food, it wasn’t anything to rave about but still good.
Here is why I am giving 3 stars, great Wolfe lodge management, if you are reading this, you need a new cleaning crew. The concerns about cleanliness on here are significant. We had to switch rooms when we got here. Our first room was not vacuumed, large debris and crumbs on floor. There were small hairs, as if someone was shaving, in and around the sink and the fridge was dirty. Plus hair and crumbs on a pillow. Thankfully we were very quickly moved to another room which was better. Overall though, the place is dusty. Walking down the halls, my daughter was running her hand along a piece of timber in the wall, as she would get to the end of the timber, chunks of dust would fly on the air.
I also wish the water park opened before 10am during the week. My girls are up at 630. Staff was friendly but could definitely step it up a notch. Décor is lots of fun for the kids, they had a great time checking it out. Finally, one morning we went to the pool and came back to the room to find only one bed made… weird.
Debatable on if we would return, kids had a blast, but cleanliness is a concern

Customer service is horrible. Our ceiling was leaking in the bathroom and nothing was done for our flooded bathroom. Maintenance came to look at it but that’s as far as it got. No resolution to the problem whatsoever. For rooms as expensive as they are, you’d think they’d take care of their guests. Not at all! After everything, we also got charged for a late check out fee when we did not ask for it and checked out before the original check out time. We definitely won’t be back and will make sure none of our friends or family waste their time or money at this place!

The kids (4yr & 18mo) had fun at the water park. We were a little disappointed at how many knobs & levers were broken though. I think those are a great way for kids to learn & explore. Looks like a lot of things in the water park could use a little maintenance…

Having already visited the Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine, TX, my family had similar expectations (high/​hopeful) for the KC property. We chose the KC Great Wolf Lodge as a meeting point for our cousins and us to connect (they were coming from NE, we were coming from TX). Unfortunately, this property is nothing in comparison to the Grapevine lodge. In the spirit of fairness, let me point out the positives first:
1. The water park is one of the cleanest/​best maintained I’ve seen. That is definitely like the TX property (albeit the size of the KC water park is much smaller than Grapevine’s). One caveat: not sure why each night there were «floaters» in the kiddie pool/​splash area. Perhaps the clientele of the KC property is not familiar with a swim diaper.
2. It is a safe property and it was great to be able to let the children (ages 4 – 7) run wild knowing that they wouldn’t be able to leave without us.
3. Despite being overpriced, the food was of good quality and there were great healthy options.
4. The employees at the snack shack inside the water park were professional, attentive, kind, courteous, and all-​around great.
Now the negatives:
1. There were no bellhops/​valet/​anyone to greet us upon arrival. For the prices they charge, one would expect a bellhop at the very least. For comparison: the Grapevine property has both a valet and bellhop.
2. We booked a Premium Suite for 2 nights/​3 days and were excited it was on the same floor as the water park access… until we saw that there were three large carts filled with bed linens parked outside our door in the hallway. Okay, perhaps housekeeping wasn’t finished for the day. Nope — the carts remained there for our entire visit.
3. The suite was shabby with stained and frayed carpet and the counters were very dirty. Considering that our suite could hold 8 adults, we found it laughable that the in-​suite coffee maker was a puny 4 cup machine. Also, the idea that we would be charged for the 2 bottles of water in the room was laughable.
4. The cabana rental inside the water park was a best practice we had learned from the Grapevine stay. What was very different was that our cabana rental during our KC trip completely lacked the wait staff service that was advertised and promised. We were told that all the beverages were complimentary within our fridge, as were refills. However, not all «team members» got that memo. We had to get a manager several times to straighten things out and have servers help us. For $ 130 a day for just the cabana, I expect a bit more.
5. Aside from the very helpful, kind, conscientious employees that staffed the snack shack, almost every other team member acted like they would either rather be somewhere else (almost every life guard) or were busy socializing with other team members. We had to ask the gift shop clerks to stop talking with each other and check us out. The ice cream/​sweet treat employees were too busy with laughing with each other over some inside joke to really help us. Housekeeping staff only materializes upon request.
6. The entire property had shabby carpet in the stairwells that wasn’t cleaned/​vacuumed the entire time I was there. In fact, I NEVER saw a single housekeeping person anywhere and we were pretty regularly heading to our room due to an infant with us.
7. The story time hour was a waste of time and was preceeded by 10 min of some animitronic show. Also, the «character» that arrived was some bear-​like mascot that in no way looked like it was part of the official Lodge.
All in all, I cannot recommend Great Wolf Lodge in Kansas City. When we return to the area, we will take our dollars to Worlds of Fun and Schlitterbahn.

At first I was a little nervous since they told me their computers were down, we got into out room at 4 which is check in time so no biggie… one of the tv controllers in room didn’t work told maintenance was going to come by to fix never came, still doesn’t work. There is no tissue in the bathroom, its 4pm and we are now getting our new linens (we never did just towels), ran out of toilet paper (finally brought us some) — WTF. Housekeeping came at 5ish told them we would be going swimming in 30 and to come back never did!!! The bill for two nights was $ 642 I dont think that My family will ever WASTE $ 642 on a place that doesn’t live up to their end if the bargain. Lets not talk about that we ordered two pizza’s got there to pick up and they only had 1 done… as I see it I got half the service the whole time I should get half my money back!!!
HUGE SPIDERS RUNNING AROUND IN ROOM!!!

This place is awesome, we drive 3 hours to come here 3 – 4 times per year. Kansas City is blessed to have such a nice facility, hopefully the town doesn’t run them off.

We took our two small kids for an overnight stay last weekend. After reading some of the reviews here before we left, my expectations were pretty low. I must say, we were pleasantly surprised.
The staff here is incredibly helpful and friendly. We booked over the telephone, and had a discount code that we weren’t sure would work for the night we reserved or not. I must say, the employee probably cheered harder than we did when it turned out our discount went through. We were greeted promptly by the front desk and the water park staff was helpful and friendly.
We stayed in the basic room with two queen beds. The room had a half-​wall dividing the beds with a little seating area with a fold-​out couch. That was enough separation to put the kids on one side at bedtime while we stayed up and watched tv at night. The room was clean and accommodations adequate. The storytime in the lobby for kids at 8pm was super cute, too!
My kids had a blast in the waterpark. There was lots to do, and the only issue was when some kid pooped in the kiddie pool and it had to be drained – leaving my toddler with less options. Clearly, not the hotel’s fault there.
All in all, we’d totally go back for a weekend getaway on another time.

Food was alright service was just horrible waited twenty minutes just to be greeted before getting seated then our waitress was terrible, food selection terrible, drink selection is beer and red or white wine I wouldn’t recommend it just go somewhere else to eat negatives not worth the convenience

Overpriced — wildlife themed lodge and indoor water park. Really a three star review, but the value isn’t really that great.
Staff are friendly and attentive. The décor is fairly cheesy with animal characters walking around and interacting with the lodge guests throughout the day. Really ideal for the young ones… not so much for tweens and teens.
The waterpark is decently sized with 5 water slides, a lazy river (small), two pools to play in (mostly for the younger ones) and a climbing area with lots of water coming down all around you. The water slides are not that exciting. Young ones will like them, but teens and adults will probably tire of the them quickly. Simply not fast and/​or steep enough. No food or drink allowed in the waterpark. There is a small restaurant to purchase food and drink (overpriced). You can also rent personal cabanas in the park that have seating, tables, and TV. There is an outdoor pool as well, but that was already closed for the season.
Overall the food and drink are at best average and the markup on product is fairly significant. Two examples — a 16 oz soft drink (no refill) will set you back 3.00. A glass of Apothic Red Wine which only costs $ 10.00 for the entire bottle at retail in the store will put you back $ 10.00 for a glass and $ 35.00 for the bottle… a markup of… what almost 300 percent. Best value in the food department is the pizza you pick up. 12.99÷13.99 for a pie. Large sized and quite tasty.
Lodge also has an arcade that the kids will enjoy, but will spend all their money earning «prize» tickets for worthless trinkets and candy. There is also a fantasy adventure game in the lodge called Magiquest. You have to buy access and of course the wand necessary to play and there are several quests the kids have to go on. Supposed to take up to 6 hours. One ticket will allow you to play throughout your stay. The kids we took thoroughly enjoyed the game.
The rooms are decent, but you can see the wear and tear. Overall the lodge was fairly clean.
If it was a bit less expensive, star value would increase, but we can find a better bargain at other places and still get the experience.

My 8 year-​old loves this place, calling it the greatest hotel in which he’s ever stayed. Lest you get too enthused by that glowing review, he also finds Wendy’s to be haute cuisine and «Space Jam» to be cinematic treasure.
This place is overpriced beyond reason. The rooms are ordinary at best, and quite unclean. High-​end hotels sprinkle rose petals as a romantic touch; Great Wolf had a drizzling of paint chips and food crumbs outside our door. Coincidentally, our room door didn’t open without an immense amount of force. Here’s to hoping a vice squad never needs to execute a search warrant on my room; they’ll need more than a battering ram. The water park, which I understood to be the property’s showpiece, was a bit of a letdown. Expect long waits for the three large water slides as at least one minute elapses between each raft going down. And the lazy river is truly lazy: there really isn’t any propulsion to it, so you must walk to move. The four or five halfway inflated rafts they make available for guests require guests to swim or walk them.
All that said, my son had a great experience and I suppose that’s what counts. But as an experienced, 44 year-​old traveler, I expect a lot more from a place charging $ 300/​night. I don’t mind spending that kind of money, particularly for a lot of amenities. But when the amenities don’t work properly, I will have an issue. I’ll avoid Great Wolf properties in the future. I’ll take my kids to a Holiday Inn Express next time. They have a pool, nicer rooms, and free breakfast.

The lazy river and blue slide was closed the first day which was a HUGE disappointment. We waited in line to use the yellow slide for an hour and gave up. It was agonizingly slow! The balcony is filthy, drain in tub doesn’t work, the sink drain is clogged, shower water pressure is inadequate and the bedside lamp doesn’t work. However, the staff is very friendly, there are plenty of things for the kids to do but the prices are very high for everything. This is our second visit because our kids enjoy it but not the best place for adults. My wife and daughter loved the mommy and daughter pedicure!
Update: All issues with the room were promptly fixed upon request.

I stayed at Great Wolf Lodge with a LARGE group (375ish) and they handled us very well! We went through a tour group so I didn’t have direct dealings booking with them. There are 3 floors of rooms here, each with 2 different wings, and we had a few wings just to ourselves, which helped in not disturbing other guests. We were the majority of the crowd for sure.
The location is good, close to the highway, shopping and dining. They had out room keys with names all set up. There are many types of rooms here and I saw several of them. Some have the standard 2 queens, but several have a combination of queens and singles or bunk beds. Some have fireplaces. All have balconies/​porches (I think — all that I saw). I stayed in some type of suite, which had an eating area/​bar with microwave and fridge, sitting area, 2 queens, and a whole separate room with a king. For 3 adults, there was more than enough room. The bathroom was mid-​sized. Everything was nice, clean and the beds very comfy!
There are a variety of activities here. Obviously the water park, which is huge. There is a very large arcade with tons of games. There is also story time and a few other things I didn’t experience.
There is a small restaurant and a little coffee shop for eating within the lodge. We had pizzas, which were quite good. We also had breakfast catered for our group, which was also very good.
Staff we encountered, especially lifeguards, arcade workers, and security, were friendly and helpful.
I don’t have kids but when I do, I definitely want to bring them to Great Wolf and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it!