An Honest & Unfiltered
Great Wolf Lodge Review
All the things every parent should know before planning a family trip to
Great Wolf Lodge in Mateca, California.
In this post we’ll dive into an unfiltered and honest review of our recent stay at Great Wolf Lodge.
Great Wolf Lodge (also known at Great Wolf Resorts) is a popular chain of kid-centered hotel resorts. Each Great Wolf resort features family-friendly activities like ropes courses, miniature golf course, and the star of the show: an indoor water park.
It’s an indoor play haven your kids will love and won’t want to leave.
However, the price to visit a Great Wolf Lodge resort can be pretty steep, so before you book your stay, it’s important to consider all that the resort has to offer, along with all the areas in which it lacks.
The goal is to help you plan your Great Wolf family getaway and determine whether or not the hefty cost of a Great Wolf vacation is truly worth it for your wolf pack.
Stick around to the very end for some important do’s and don’t to help you make the most of your experience at the Lodge.
Note: While all Great Wolf Lodge location offer very similar experiences, this particular guide and review is specific to the Great Wolf location in Manteca, California.
Where is Great Wolf: Manteca, California?
Great Wolf Lodge: Manteca is located 67 miles east of San Francisco in Northern California and 64 miles south of Sacramento.
The location was honestly a bit uninspired with nothing much else around besides the lodge.
However, there are some shopping centers close to the resort where you can grab food, coffee, and groceries.
Great Wolf Lodge Address:
2500 Daniels Street
Manteca, California 95337
United States
The rooms at Great Wolf
My family and I stayed in one of the Lodge’s standard Wolf Den Suites. This particular accommodation is suitable for up to 6 people, so it provided plenty of space for our family of 4.
Main living area
They main living area of the suite is decorated with wilderness themed decor. This area features a queen size bed and a sofa sleeper, providing lots of space and comfort for sleeping.
The Wolf Den Suite also comes with a mini-fridge for keeping drinks and snacks cold. Also, a flat screen television is available in the room for added entertainment.
Bathroom
Room cleanliness
The bathroom was extremely clean and well stocked with basic necessities. The shower curtain was on the wrinkly side and was clearly not pressed. This wasn’t a deal breaker for us, but if all the fine details matter to you and your family, this might be something to consider.
Other suite features
- miniature refrigerator
- hair dryer
- extra towels
- small table with two chairs
- mounted TV
Wolf Den bunks
The Wolf Den Suite is named after its fun “wolf den”.
The “wolf den” is a separate cave-themed sleeping area within the actual suite itself.
The walls of the “wolf den” are painting with a mural of an outdoor scene along with some of the Great Wolf characters like Wiley and Violet.
The main feature of the “wolf den” is its built-in bunk beds with soft bedding. What kids doesn’t dream of sleeping on a bunk bed?
While there is no full partition or doors between the “wolf den” and main living area, what’s still great about the separate sleeping area is that little cubs can have their own little play space while grown-ups can enjoy lounging in the main area all to themselves.
Area of improvement
The air conditioning unit was extremely loud regardless of how high or low we set it.
In addition, the temperature settings did not feel accurate. When we set it to a comfortable 73 degrees the room still felt frigid.
Other than this, the room was exaclty what we wanted.
The food at Great Wolf
Obviously, at some point during your stay, your wolf pack will need food. Luckily, Great Wolf Lodge offers plenty of food options for grumbling bellies.
Food options at Great Wolf
Again, all Great Wolf Lodge locations are pretty similar in their offerings. However, Great Wolf Lodge in Manteca specifically has 7 separate eateries, 1 grab-and-go market, and a walk-up bar.
The eateries offer a variety of typical theme park foods like pizza, burgers, tacos, and ice cream, along with Dunkin’ Donuts and an ice cream parlor called Woods End Creamery. It’s all basically your typical theme park food, so if you’re craving good sushi or quality lattes, you won’t find them at the resort. You’ll want to go to the shopping center down the street for more food options.
As far as adult beverages goes, the Watering Hole is the walk-up bar located in the middle of the indoor water park. This is the place parents can go to for cocktails, wine, and beer. For non-alcoholic drinkers, there area also virgin cocktails and sodas to quench their thirsts.
Food quality at Great Wolf
Sometimes the food at kid-centered resorts and theme parks are not exactly top notch. Often times french fries sit under heat lamps for hours before getting served and burger patties are rubbery by the time they reach your mouth. Paying spending hundreds on poor-quality food is just frustrating and not worth it.
However, for similar food prices as other family resorts, the food at Great Wolf Lodge in Manteca was shockingly much better than your typical theme park eats. While the food still wasn’t exactly gourmet eats, the tacos at Great Wolf were actually full of flavor. The French fries were actually fresh. And the pizzas actually had some pretty yummy crusts.
It was definitely a nice surprise especially since we were expecting to be choking down mediocre food during our stay.
Food availability at Great Wolf
While there was a fairly decent food variety at Great Wolf, not all eateries were available at all hours of the day, which was a bit frustrating. (Consider going to the shopping center down the road for more food options)
During certain times of the day, there were only a few places that were open and serving food and drinks.
All day: The Watering Hole walk-up bar
This bar, which is located inside the indoor water park, started serving drinks at 11:00am. Their straight-forward menu offered festive cocktails like mai thais and margaritas, along with some non-alcoholic counterparts. What other way to start a day at the pool that with a fruity cocktail in a cheesy souvenir cup?
Lunch: Buckets Incredible Craveableables/ Timber
Luckily these two eateries were available the entire time we were at the water park during the day. Aside from serving up some decent dishes, the best part about these two eateries was that they were easily accessible inside the water park, so there was no need to dry off in order to get lunch for the family. Buckets Incredible Craveables had a basic menu of things like burgers and fries, while Timber offered up tacos, nachos, churros, and salads.
All day: The Freshwood Market
This small market was open from 8am to 10pm. It was a great place to grab light snacks, beverages, or grab-and-go meals when short on time.
Breakfast & Lunch: Dunkin’ Donuts
Who doesn’t love a little Dunkin’ Donuts? This location inside the Great Wolf Lodge in Manteca opened up nice and early at 7am. While it was a great place to grab a quick breakfast and your favorite Dunkin’ beverages, if you are a big post-lunch coffee-drinker, you won’t be able to get your mid-afternoon latte fix here. They close at 3pm.
Breakfast: Campfire Kitchen
Aside from Dunkin’ Donut, this was the only other option for breakfast inside the resort. It’s a buffet-style restaurant with a VERY slow-moving line. Like most buffet restaurants, you should expect to pay upon entry in order to have have access the all-you-can-eat cafeteria inside. The buffet served up your usual breakfast favorites like pastries, eggs, bacon, and potatoes, but the price for this basic breakfast cost our family of four almost $80! We didn’t feel like it was worth the price.
Dinner: Barnwood
This was one of two places that were only open for dinner inside the resort. This sit-down restaurant requires reservations, so be sure you call in advance if this seems like a place you’d like to eat at. Their menu features appetizers like chicken wings and tomato bisque, while their mains includes American dishes like steak & fries, and grilled salmon.
Dinner: Hungry as a Wolf
Aside from Barnwood, the only other spot that was open for dinner within the actual resort was Hungry as a Wolf. Here you could get pizzas, fresh pastas, BBQ chicken wings, and garden salads. The family meal here, which consists of a large pizza, salad, drinks, and wings was very reasonably priced, had good quality, and was big enough to feed a family of four, and still have leftovers for the next day.
Note: This was our experience with food availability when we went in August 2022, so availability may have changed. We were a bit frustrated by the lack of food availability throughout our stay, so consider contacting your Great Wolf Lodge location for up-to-date hours of operation.
Indoor Water Park at Great Wolf Lodge
The main attraction of all Great Wolf Lodges is their indoor water parks and is where families will spend most of their time while at the resort.
What’s great is that admission to the water park is included with the price of your hotel stay unlike the other attractions, which we’ll go into later.
Water park amenities
- towels
- upright patio chairs
- reclining patio chairs
- storage lockers
- men, women, and family bathrooms
- showers
- changing rooms
- cabanas (with extra charge)
- eating areas
- life vests (limited supply)
Waterslides and other water park attractions
There is no shortage of fun here. There is definitely a little something here for every person in your family.
Fort MacKenzie
First off, there is a colorful splash pad and water play structure called Fort MacKenzie that shoots out water from several different sources in several different directions. It also features four mellower water slides that are perfect for younger thrill-seeking children and a huge water bucket that dumps 1000 gallons of water on unsuspecting guests every several minutes.
Toddler Area
For energetic toddlers, there is an adorable play area reserved specifically for them. It has four gentle, perfectly-sized water slides that gently leads little cubs into a shallow pool. Sorry, grown ups. No big kids or adults are allowed on these slides.
When the little ones need a quick break from the thrilling slides, there are several play tables where the kiddos can splash, play, and continue with the fun.
Thrilling waterslides
For the older dare-devils in your wolf pack there is also a collection of bigger waterslides that range from medium to high levels of thrill.
One medium thrill-level slide, the River Canyon Run, is designed for a party of four to enjoy together. This run will take you through small dips and gentle turns in a large inner-tube which is roomie enough for parents to ride with their older kids. Our kids loved experiencing this with us. It was a great way to laugh and bond as a family.
If you want a high-thrill experience, the Wolf Tail starts you off standing on a platform that drops out from under you, has you sliding straight down for 20 feet, and then sends you speeding into big loops, twists , and turns.
Just floating
For anyone interested in just simply floating around in an inner tube, there are water park attractions for you too.
First, there is the Slap Tail Pond which is a huge wave pool where you can catch a wave that rolls in every 5 minutes. Swimmer who are 48-inches tall or shorter MUST wear a life vest at this
attraction and weaker swimmers are encouraged to do so as well.
The second is the Crooked Creek, which is Great Wolf’s lazy river. With this attractions, guests float on a winding, indoor river on inner tubes. This was actually one of our favorites since the current in some areas of the river were quite strong and hurled us forward aggressively towards each other. Perhaps it wasn’t so lazy after all.
Pros
- life vests are available for safety
- lifeguards everywhere
- plenty of seating
- variety of attractions to please every person in your family
- indoor park stays nice and warm
- no harsh sun which means no sunblock needed inside
Cons
- very crowded
- bathrooms floors were dirty
- bathrooms floors were wet and slippery
- long, slow lines for the bigger water slide
- not all water park attractions were open during our stay
Other attractions at Great Wolf Lodge
In addition to the indoor water park, there are also plenty of other activities for you and your wolf pack to enjoy during your stay.
Additional attractions included things like a bowling alley, mirror maze, mining station, ropes course, and miniature golf. The wide variety of things to do was great!
However, what is NOT so great is that in order to enjoy these other attractions, you will have to pay extra. Some activities were very reasonably prices, while others, we felt, we’re definitely not worth the heavy price tag.
During our stay, the kids were only interested in doing the miniature golf course, ropes course, and MagiQuest scavenger hunt, so let’s explore those now.
Howlers Peak Ropes Course
It’s great for the dare-devil in your family who loves taking on new challenges!
Every climber get’s to experiences the Level 1 course, which is closer to the ground and less scary. Then, once they complete that course, they have the option to either proceed to take on the much-higher Level 2 course or exit the course completely if Level 1 was thrilling enough for the day.
All climbers must be wearing flat, closed-toes shoe to climb the course, so no flip-flops, sandals, and high heels are allowed.
Howlers Peak Prices
The cost of this activity were on par with what we expected and was well worth the price for our adventurous wolves.
- Single climb: $14.99
- Unlimited climb: $24.99
- Family climb for up to 6 people: $44.99
Howl in One Mini Golf
Howl in One is a cute outdoor-themed miniature golf course located at Great Wolf Lodge in Manteca, California. Accessing all 9 holes of the golf course is possible for all guests with an extra fee.
The course is set up directly under the Howlers Peak Ropes Course, so as you’re putting your way through each hole, you can also watch all the climbers above and cheer them on.
This miniature golf course was fun. It was challenging enough for my golfer husband to enjoy, but also easy enough for our youngest to finish without getting too discouraged.
From start to finish it took us roughly 20 minutes to complete, so it was long enough to entertain us for a good amount of time, but not so long that it ate up our entire day.
Howl in One Prices
Prices were reasonable and were about what we were expecting to pay for a 9-hole round of mini golf.
- Individual play: $7.99
- Unlimited play: $14.99
- Family game for up to 6 people: $24.99
MagiQuest
MagiQuest is an interactive, scavenger hunt game that takes kids on a journey to explore the resort. On this journey through the resort, kids carry magic wands that allows them to go on quests, make things light up, move, and make sounds.
Wands vary in prices from $14.99 to $23.99 depending on the design of the wand. What’s nice is that you can use the wands again on your next stay at Great Wolf Lodge.
Kids can use their wand 1 of 2 ways.
Magi Master
The first way is to complete quests (basically video games where guests use their wands to control wants going on on the screens) throughout the property in order to become a “Magi Master”. To play with this option, there is an additional fee of $13.99 per player per game. The game itself can take anywhere between 15 to 20 minutes to complete, but whats nice is that each player’s progress is saved on the wand. This means that kids can take their time, stop half-way through the quest, and then pick up where they left of later on during your stay.
Mini Magi Mode
The second way to use a MagiQuest wand is by playing with it in “Mini Magi Mode”. Basically, with this option, players won’t be able to participate in the quests, but they will still be able to make hidden objects around the resort move. With a quick wave of their wands, they’ll be able to do things like illuminate crystals, wake sleeping dragons, and make butterflies move. It’s very similar to the experience you get with the wands at Universal Studios’ Wizarding World of Harry Potter.
Mini Magi Mode
“Mini Magi Mode” is apparently designed for guests 5-years-old or younger, but both my 8-year-old and 12-year-old really enjoyed this options since neither were very interested in going on “quests”. Overall, this was an enjoyable experience for our cubs.
Wand Quality
As for wand quality, the wands themselves seemed cheap. One of our wands made a rattling sound on the inside that sounded like something had broken off. Regardless it did it’s job and nothing interfere with the play.
Wand Upgrade
Also, for anyone who wanted to upgrade their MagiQuest wands in order to have “special powers” during their interactive quests, you had the option to do so with yet another additional charge.
Upgrading to a “Brilliant Wand” was an additional $2.00 per wand, while upgrading to a “Dragon Wand” was an additional $6.00 per wand.
How is the customer service at Great Wolf?
Customer services should be a priority for all businesses and is surely something grown-ups value when researching options for their next family vacations. Sadly, customer service at Great Wolf Lodge in Manteca, California was lacking.
Front Desk Service
While the front desk staff we encountered upon check-in was very friendly, the process of checking us in was longer than other hotels we’ve stayed it. I’m not sure exactly what their check-in process entailed, but for us, it took roughly 15 minutes to finally get checked in.
We arrived a little early to take advantage of the the waterpark before going up to our room, so our room wasn’t quite ready when we got there, which was what we expected.
The friendly front-desk clerk told kindly us we’d receive a text message when our room was ready.
However, we never got a text message, so I went back to the front dest a few hours after our arrival to follow up, and found out then that we were able to go up to our room
Attractions Customer Service
For a “family-friendly” resort, the staff who ran the attractions weren’t very friendly.
The staff member who checked us into the miniature golf course looked annoyed that we wanted to play and the person who helped us put on the harnesses for the ropes course lacked any enthusiasm, which wasn’t helpful in calming any unsteady nerves his customers might’ve had going into the high-flying attraction
In contrast, however, the the customer service rep who helped us with MagiQuest was super friendly and knowledgable. He also remained very patient with us as we asked him a million questions about the different wands and play options.
Restaurant Customer Service
The service at most of the restaurants at Great Wolf Lodge were not even close to what we were expecting at a family resort.
At Timbers, the slow-moving clerk at the cash register was cold and impolite. Neither of the words “please” or “thank you “were uttered from her mouth.
To top it off, our order of tacos, a cheese quesadilla, and a salad took 45 minutes to finally get into our hands! That’s not an exaggeration. I was watching the time on my phone.
Needless to say, there was a line of very annoyed customers waiting just as long for their orders.
The line at The Watering Hole was just as bad. Since there was only ONE bartender serving the hundreds of guests in the water park, we had to stand in line for 30 minutes to get our first round drinks! After my first experience standing in this line, I learned to bring a book with me to keep myself entertained while I waited.
Final thoughts:
Is Great Wolf
worth it?
Although our kids said they had a great time, we don’t think we’ll return to a Great Wolf Lodge again.
The waterslides, ropes course, and miniature golf were a blast, however they also weren’t things we couldn’t also do elsewhere and closer to home in San Francisco.
Furthermore, the poor customer service really put a damper on all the fun. Quality customer service, I feel, is so important, especially at a place that not only costs a lot, but also caters primarily to children who are there to have a magical time.
9/10
Room rating
7/10
Attraction rating
6/10
Food rating
5/10
Service rating
Planning Your Great Wolf Lodge Vacation
Keep in mind that this is our own experience, which means other families may have had a different experience at Great Wolf: Manteca, California. This review was simply to share our experience in hopes that it will help you plan and make the best decisions for your next family vacation.
Here are some thing to ask yourself when planning your Great Wolf Getaway. It can help you decide on what type of room to get and whether or not an attraction pass or dining deal add-on is worth it for your wolf pack.
- Which attractions would my kids actually enjoy? There are videos on YouTube and pictures online that can give them an idea of what the attractions look like.
- Which attraction can my child participate in considering hight, weight, and age restrictions? You can find this information on the Great Wolf Lodge website.
- Do my kids genuinely like sleeping on bunk beds? Some kids actually enjoy sleeping on bunk beds while other might actually be afraid of the top bunk.
- How many days am I planning on staying at the Lodge? In talking to friends who have been to Great Wolf Lodges, it seems that most families are able to get through all the attractions without rushing in 2 full days.
- What other food options outside the resort might my family enjoy? For the Great Wolf Lodge in Manteca, there is a shopping center down the road on Daniel Street that has many other food options.
The Do's and Don't of Great Wolf Lodge
Here are a handful of handy tips to help you make the most out of your Great Wolf getaway.
DO
DO bring a cover up to put on after you leave the water park.
DO research better food options outside the resort.
DO bring small snacks to eat in your room.
DO bring your own refillable water bottle. Drinks can be pricey and sugary.
DO wake up early to grab breakfast before the crowds.
DO arrive early. Check-in isn’t until 4pm, but you can still access the attractions before then.
DO consider attraction passes if you’ll be at the resort for more than 1 night.
(note: It seems like most families can get through all attractions in 2 days)
DO check restaurant hours of operation ahead of time.
DO try to book your stay mid-week for cheaper rates.
DO bring floatation vests for less experiences swimmers.
DO check weight, age, and height requirements for all attractions.
DON’T
DON’T bring coolers and outside food into the water park. They’re not allowed.
DON’T expect this to be a budget vacation. Prices of rooms, attractions, and food add up!
And there you have it!
An honest and unfiltered review of the Great Wolf Lodge in Manteca. I truly hope it helps you make the most out of your next family vacation.
For more awesome California vacation ideas, have fun
checking out some of my other family travel posts!
