I read these reviews but went ahead and booked a room! We decided on the Perryville, MD location because it is their newest and largest resort. The reviews of the Virginia resort mentioned ‘musty’ ‘moldy’ ‘gross’ a few many times for us ever to want to venture down there!

When I first went on their website I signed up for their mailing list. After a few weeks I received an email with a discount code. We booked a Thursday night for $214, which was a lot less than the $445 that I had seen previously. Our room slept 6, and waterpark is included, so really not a bad deal.

My son’s sports obligations and bad traffic had us checking in late, after 9:00pm. I thought it would be great, as we would miss rush hour, but we hit terrible traffic anyway. There is a lot of construction on 95 at night. Only one lane was open. Once we arrived, we pulled right up to the entrance. There are luggage trolleys behind a wall, to the left of the entry. At that hour, there was no check-in line. I let the family run to the room while I parked the car far, far away in the giant parking lot.

We stayed in the themed room with one queen bed and bunk beds in a separate sleeping area. The bunk beds are firm and were too short for my taller kid (5’-7”). The pull out sofa is also firm. But by the time we figured this all out it was very late, after 10pm, so housekeeping was closed. We had to make the bed ourselves. But the kids slept just fine. Queen bed was very comfortable. There is a fridge in the room and a table with 3 chairs.

The kids could not stand sleeping with their wristbands. I did not know they had this problem. One ripped his off. So the other kid did the same. Getting a new one in the morning meant waiting in the check-in line that we had avoided the night before. However, they also have kiosks. Many people were checking in there, so thankfully the line only took about 10 minutes.

We dressed in our swimsuits so we could go skip breakfast and go straight to the waterpark. You cannot bring in your own personal food. They search bags. But I did bring in a box of donuts and drinks from Dunkin, which is right there in the lobby. The regular coffee and donuts came out after 5 minutes. My latte took 30 minutes. There is also a restaurant inside the waterpark, the Watering Hole.

The most popular rides are at the rear left when you enter the water park. Pick up your towels right inside the entrance. Walk straight towards the Watering Hole. Then take a left and you will see the huge raft elevator. There are 2 rides that use big rafts that fit 5 people. You can ride with 2-5 people. Grab a chair (tons of empty ones back there) and hit those slides first as they will get crowded from 11am until 2pm. Then there is a lull before 4pm, when new families start checking in. As we were there on a Friday, rather than the weekend, the wait times were pretty reasonable except for those 5-seater slides. My kids are between 5’-2 and 5’-7”. They rode every single slide in the waterpark, even the tiny slides. We counted 20 slides, but we may have missed a couple. The only place that felt too crowded was the wave pool. The lazy river was crowded but fine once you were floating on the provided floaties. There is no real system, you just grab an empty one. We brought our own big beach towels because we had heard that the towel line can get really long. Also, we wanted something large enough to wrap ourselves into for our walk back to the room.

The pool water is continuously filtered and treated with chlorine. The water is 84 degrees. They have developed a very thorough filtration system that lets them use the minimum amount of chlorine which is why they pool area does not reek of chlorine. They use a type of salt to soften the water and adjust the pH levels. It is actually the pH level in pool water that will irritate your eyes. So we did not need goggles.

My 13 year old and 12 year old wanted to stay 2 nights, but I did not think they would have enough to do for 2 days, so I compromised with a late check-out. However, that was a sad decision. I thought it would work out. We would get a substantial amount of time at the waterpark, then run up and pack, then return to the waterpark after. However, while I was getting a luggage cart, my kids changed out of their swimsuits in the room. Then after check-out, they refused to put back on their cold wet swimsuits. Never mind that they had brought extra swimsuits that were perfectly dry. They were so comfortable in regular clothes they did not want to change again. No time was wasted though. There was no line at the ropes course (it was too scary for their parents) and they loved that. And we had a great time at the arcade. They wanted to do the mini-golf but it suddenly became very crowded.

After all that though, they really wished they had gone back into the waterpark. It was definitely the best thing to do at the resort.

One night was enough. However, it would have been a better value to check out in the morning before we hit the water park. They will check your bags after checkout so you don’t have to lug them back to the car. You can use the waterpark until 8pm. We ate dinner on the drive there, and we left at 6pm the second day, so we never had to purchase the big sit-down meal. That was a big savings, as we lived on room snacks and lunch from the take-away restaurants. There are lots of tables in the very long lobby that has restaurants on either side. We also ate some room snacks on those tables and no one said anything.

I didn’t want to drag around our Stanley cups so we bought their Aquafina water and then just refilled them during our stay. The soda dispensers have those water dispensers and are just out in the open next to the restaurants.

We asked for a high floor but next time I would rather be on the first floor, close to the action. Or at least close to the elevators. It was a long slog to get back to our room if we needed something.

On the slides they allowed goggles, water shoes, jewelry, and phones if they were in those transparent cases that hang around your neck that you bought for the beach years ago and then stuck in a box and finally just threw out right before this trip. A cabana was not worth it for us as we never sat down for long.

We brought WAY too much stuff. I brought a lot of clothes that I never wore. A tee shirt and shorts, 2 or 3 swimsuits, room snacks & beverages, beach towels, crocs, big plastic trash bags for wet stuff, and a plastic bag to bring your water bottles & stuff to the waterpark. That is all you really need. If you plan to sit while your kids are playing, you might want to bring a hoodie as it is chilly out of the water.

Understand that the waterpark is very crowded and very loud. If my son was talking 4 feet away there was no way to understand what he was saying.

Overall, the kids had a blast. They were not interested in the magic quest and they just laughed at the wolf ears due to the Furries in their middle school. We will definitely be back!

Anonymous wrote:ONE NIGHT. ANY MORE IS DOUBLE THE HELL.

I say this as someone who likes Disney during summer. GWL is just awful. Your kids will love it. You will survive. Don't do more than one night IMHO.

+1. That said, my kid was SUPER into the magic quest and spent hours doing it, but still couldn’t finish in one night. She wants to go back for her birthday, so we’ll probably stay two nights just for the da** quest. Sigh.

And bring food and/or order in. The food is terrible and expensive, and alcohol is outrageous. Even Domino’s is an upgrade for a fraction of the price.

So crowded. Try to do a weekday.

Anonymous wrote:The VA combines well with Colonial Williamsburg or Jamestown or Busch Gardens.

This is exactly our itinerary for Spring Break, along with a day pass to Great Wolf Lodge.

ONE NIGHT. ANY MORE IS DOUBLE THE HELL.

I say this as someone who likes Disney during summer. GWL is just awful. Your kids will love it. You will survive. Don't do more than one night IMHO.

There's far more stuff to do near the Virginia location (Colonial Williamsburg/Busch Gardens). I've never been to the new one in Maryland but there's not a whole lot near it (unless you like very small casinos).

And I don't know how old OP's kids are but I found that the slides themselves are much more geared toward smaller kids. Our 12yo found it pretty boring during a trip last summer (at least compared with some of the bigger indoor places like Kalahari or Aquatopia in the Poconos).

One night was enough. Ohio location. We did run into a bit of a time crunch playing the magic wand quest game on the checkout day. The quest stations were in disrepair and our younger son got frustrated and upset. Wouldn't recommend unless your children insist on trying it.

It seems like the older a Great Wolf building is, the greater the chance of mold and overall mustiness. It’s a common complaint in reviews. I guess that is to be expected with indoor waterparks? But the MD location had a pipe burst and a flooded lobby not too long ago. I’d go now before it reaches musty territory, if it hasn’t already.

I also went to Perryville a month ago for one night with a 7 and 10 year old. We only went to the water park, and spent time there both days. 10 year old went to the later evening story time. Overall, I felt like it was very loud and one night was enough. 10 year old would like to go back for more than one night and also do some of the other activities.

We did GW Lodge when kids were younger. Kids loved it, but as stated, one night, which gets you two days in water park is plenty.

We went a couple months ago to perryville with slightly older kids and had a blast. It’s so expensive to stay there I don’t think it combines particularly well with anything else. You can use the water park all day on both checkin and checkout. So we got there at like 11ish on arrival day, got a locker, changed in the locker rooms. The next day we checked out of our room, got a locker, and stayed at the water park until we were ready to leave around 4ish. We didn’t do any extras. I felt like we had paid for the water park already and it was great, so why spend more money.

The VA combines well with Colonial Williamsburg or Jamestown or Busch Gardens.

Agree one night is plenty for the MD one … there isn’t much to do around there, good BBQ at Old South Smoke House!

We went to the one in Perryville a couple of weeks ago and it was fun for the kids. Ours are 7 and 9, and we had some family meet us (slightly older cousins). We stayed one night, but got basically 2 days of water park fun in. Paid for Wolf Pass to do all the extras and also for late 2:00 pm check-out so we could get cleaned up (but there are also locker rooms for that).

Personably can’t imagine staying longer.

We tacked on an overnight in Baltimore and hit up a couple of sights there. (Had also considered Lancaster, PA.)

Looking to stay at a Great wolf lodge for a few days with the kids. Any recs between the one in Virginia vs Maryland? More interested in the MD one since it's newer but also wanted to combine it with a day or two somewhere else and I don't think there is anything else to do close to the GWL in Maryland. Also how many nights is good for two kids ages 8 & 9?