We had a 4 hour drive which wasn't too bad, thank goodness for our portable potty! Seriously, best investment I've ever made and it's not even that pricey, about $23. Purchased from Amazon. Wish I bought it sooner. A million times better than using those germ infested public restrooms. Yuck!
Great Wolf Lodge Deals
We traveled on October 7 - 9, there was a 20% off deal. I noticed they also had Halloween festivities going on which started on October 10 which I thought would be more fun for the kids, but I compared the prices and during their Halloween deals room prices went up. For 2 nights, we paid about $400.
What to pack - for a 2 night trip
- Plenty of snacks and drinks for the road trip - keep in mind the lodge has a refrigerator and microwave
- Portable potty
- Plastic bags for trash
- 2 bathing suits
- Puddle Jumper floats - the lodge has floats for the older kiddos, but if you have toddlers and you have puddle jumpers definitely bring those
- Swim cover-ups - their websites state that you must wear a cover-up when you enter the hotel but you will see people who don't listen to their policy. I recommend you wear a cover-up because when you enter the hotel after coming out of the waterpark, it's pretty chilly
- 2 cute pajamas - storytime is in the lobby at 8pm.
- Dress up and/or casual wear for dining outside the hotel and exploring Dallas.
- We didn't spend all day at the waterapark even though it's open from 9am-9pm, we probably spent less than 4 hours a day and we only visited it once. The waterpark is smaller than we anticipated as well.
- We only had dinner once in the hotel, we ordered a box of pizza and ate in the hotel room. We didn't get to try the restaurants in the hotel. There are so many restaurants to eat nearby and/or if you don't mind driving 10-15 minutes into Dallas there are a wide array of options
- Grapevine Mall is nearby, it's more of an outlet mall which is awesome. LegoLand is located here. We didn't check it out because it seemed overpriced and small.
- However, I couldn't resist shopping at H&M with their buy 1 get 1 free sweater sale. The H&M near us is always crowded so it was nice to shop without chaos
GWL Review
- As we arrived to Great Wolf Lodge, we were able to check-in early at 3pm, check-in is at 4pm and they even upgraded our room. We originally requested two queens, but were surprised to walk-in to a KidCabin. A KidCabin includes a full size bed with a separate area with a bunk bed and a twin size bed. More room than we needed for the four of us, but the girls loved climbing on the bunk beds.
- Indoor waterpark wasn't as big as I thought it would be so there wasn't much to do to be there ALL DAY, I wouldn't want my children soaking in chlorine for that long anyhow
- My girls 3 and 4.5 years old were not tall enough to ride the big slides, big negative for us. At Schlitterbahn we were able to get double tubes and ride with the girls.
- The water was a little colder than we expected
- Would have been nice to have tubes for smaller children for the lazy river and wave pool
- We traveled in October and the outdoor water park was not open
- Before storytime begins at 8pm and the robotic characters tell a story and sing songs. You can barely hear what they are saying, the sound system is just not great. A squirrel came out with a staff member afterwards and read a story. The children were more excited to see the squirrel.
- The buffet was not open
- The Arcade and Cub Club are really small and of course all you do is end up spending more money
- We didn't even bother looking into the MagiQuest game, appeared pointless and a waste of money
- The rooms were nice and clean. No complaints about housekeeping.
State Fair of Texas
We have never been to the state fair so we definitely took advantage of our trip which coincidentally fell during this time, wahoo!
I was a little disappointed. There is all this hype about the State Fair, but sorry I wouldn't drive 4 hours for it, maybe if I didn't have kids?
- Parking was $15. When we left, we saw $5 parking which was the same distance probably closer
- We went on a Tuesday, which offered a $5 admission with an empty Dr. Pepper can. We stopped by a gas station to buy the cans and emptied them out.
- Regular priced tickets are pretty steep!
- General admission: $17
- Child (under 48" in height) $13
- Child under age 3 admitted FREE
- Seniors (ages 60 and over) $13
- Seniors FREE every Thursday
- We visited the aquarium, which was small but worth looking at if you want to get out of the heat, but requires admission
- The Chinese Lantern Festival looked really interesting, but we didn't want to spend more money - Adults $14, Children $9 (ages 4-12)
- We spent a lot on food, carnival rides and games
- The place is huge and we were too exhausted and didn't even make it to Big Tex :(
We had a great memorable trip and very much enjoyed our visit to Dallas!
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