Great Wolf Lodge Bloomington

For spending almost 980$ on my birthday to stay at this place I was very disappointed. From the beginning to the trip to the end, I was VERY disappointed. First when we got there the line for checking in was horrible... we waited 20 mins in line while they only had 3 staff checking people in. The person who checked us in was great and very informative but she was one out of the many staff out of the trip that was actually nice. I only encountered 4 staff from my whole stay that was actually nice and not rude. Another thing is they dont have much parking and you have to pay 20$ to park in their parking lot if you could find a spot. When we finished parking we tried to go in one door but it didnt work so we had to go in the door where the stairs led to the 2nd floor. As someone with asthma it was really difficult to climb those stairs. When we finally got to our rooms I was having an asthma attack... I started hand out passes and realized that 2 bands were missing. (Yes that was my fault) but when we went down to get new ones they wanted me to pay 50$ for one band. So in totally another 100$ added on to the 980$ I spent on the room and extras. I started getting upset cause the woman who was helping us was being really rude. She then said that she would give us a "friends and family discont in the 2 bands and all togther it still would have been 33$ more" at this point in am crying cause I only had 27$ left after spending so much to make my birthday great and she was wanting me to spend for money otherwise my son and best friend couldnt go into the waterpark. So as I said that we couldnt afford it and was bawling my eyes out she got mad and said "fine ill give you them! But if you lose them again you will be paying the 49.99$ to get a new one." After we got all that straighten out. Me and my husband went to get the free towels, wands and soda sippers we got with our package. We went to the wand place first... wow I mean wow.. the place was so much of a tourist trap. The wands were free but that was just the "basic" model. If you wanted an updated wand... which kids are obviously going to want the upgraded wands.... but then to upgrade the wand is 20$ and then the statue if you wanted one was another 20$... just insane. And the guy who "helped" us get the wand was very rude. He seemed annoyed with every question and the woman who was working there next to him kept yelling at the kids not to put the staues in the wands which kids are going to do that sign or no sign about not putting the statues In the wands but there was no sign saying to not to so even me and my husband wanted to put the status on the wands and we were just looking at the upgrade.... after we did that and got the vauge explanation on how to play the magic quest game we went and got our towels which was right next to the wand store AND the same guy was selling the towels. So he was going from one store to the next. I felt bad for him. Even if he was rude. After we got our towels we went and got our soda sippers. The women was really nice and explained everything. She told us that there was one soda station on the 2nd level that was always open even after the park closed. The 2 soda stations we found was one that was in the waterpark in one of the restaurants and the other one was on the 2nd floor but was also in one of the restaurants. Neither of them were open all night long. And I can tell you roght now that if you ask any of the staff something about another part of the hotel that they dont work in they will not know the answer. We asked multiple staff about where to find the open soda station and I got multiple different answers.. none of them right. It was the same with every question we asked. Now let's get into the waterpark and attractions part if this review... there is only one entrance to get into the water park. You have to go through the arcade to get there its a very long walk, kids running everywhere not looking where they are going. Now this IS a kids place and I love kids. I was not annoyed with the kids. I knew when I booked the place that it was aimed toward kids and there were going to be a lot of families there that has kids and I knew it was going to be packed. I was not bothered by that. I was annoyed at how staff were handling everything in the waterpark. When we got in there it was hard to find someone to put our stuff. You can rent a place but that was going for a lot of money and you can get a small locker in the locker room but that also cost money. When we finally found a place for our stuff, we put our stuff on chairs and then went to go look around. Now one if the first things you see when you go to the website is the wadeboarding pool. That was completely closed off and nonfuctional... like it hadn't opened yet. Another thing... they do not have a hot tub. They have 3-4 bars but no hot tub. The lazy river should have been called the rushing rapids.you are lucky if you can find a tube and if you did good luck keeping it. We had multiple people. Adults and kids steal them from right out of our hands. Then when you are typing to be lazy on the river you have kids running through the lazy river, kids pushing people on the tubes into the wall, kids stepping on your feet. Kids dunking other kids heads under the water and kids KNEELING on the tubes jumping up and down on them. The lifeguards did nothing about this. Again I get this is a kids targeted place but the fact that the kids were doing such dangerous things and not getting in trouble about it was crazy to me especially with how many lifeguards they had. And also one lifeguard blew a whistle at me and my husband because we were in the wave pool and he held my tube for me for a second and stacked 2 tubes on top of the other for a second and they yelled at us to stop. They also blew the whistle at a kid who used the emergency stairs out of the wave pool because he couldnt breath so he climb up and took some breaths and the lifeguard blew the whistle at the kid and the kid ended up running away and crying. I did not try any if the other places because they were super crowded and honestly not worth it. As for the bowling and ropes course. We did neither of them. The bowling we found out when we got there was peewee bowling. It said on the sight it was fun for all. Ans the ropes course looked awesome but we did not go on it cause it was always back and most of my back was afraid of heights. Now when it does to dining and drinks. Bars and restaurants. They had a lot of options but they were only open for certain times. We decided we were going to order pizza at one of their places. The pizza was good but not worth the price. But we had trouble with our credits we gor with the package. When we tried to order the food they said we couldnt use our credits... we didn't know why and my friend ended up paying for the pizza. For 2 pizzas, 1 cheese bread, a small salad, wings and a 2 liter of pop it was 90$ it was ridiculous! After we went back to the pool for a little bit and then we went back to the room and we decided to get drinks. For 2 non alcoholic drinks and 2 alcoholic drinks it was 80$ as well! AND we had trouble with our dining credits again! Luckily the bartender (who was nice but got distracted easily) told me that I just had to go to the front desk and tell them that the credits werent working and they fixed it. We then decided to stay in our room the rest of the night. When we woke up in the morning we had to figure out how to spend the $100 incidental charge that they make you pay and the 20$ left of the dining credits or you lose them. We ended up getting dunkin donuts and spending the incidental money in the gift shop. In the gift shop is where we met 4th nice staff nice staff. With the giftshop things were very pricey (which is common for giftshop) but for one of the sweatshirts it was 74$ and they only went up to large. I did find a sweatshirt that was 3xl and cheaper. But a lot of the stuff was very expensive. We then checked out. One thing I really did like was that the day you come you can come early and use the pool and attractions and the day you check out you can use the attractions till close. That was nice. All in all it was and okay trip . It was nothing exciting and I was stressed a lot of the times. But I can see why kids would like it.

Pool was clean, hotel was clean, staff was all so helpful and kind. I feel like we actually got our money’s worth and we didn’t even do all that we came to do!!

My family and I were in line to grab refills for my kids GWL cups and it was not specified how to make a line.. I stood beside a lady against the bar and she was attended normally, when it was our turn some girls cut in line and I told “Ray” (that was the attendants name) that we were in line way before they were and all of a sudden the line was supposed to be made other way and he rudely told us that. He let the girls cut in front of us when we waited about 5 minutes just to get refills and I thought that was super disrespectful to us, when he took the order of the lady before us with no problem at all.

We enjoyed a long weekend with our two children (ages 2 and 4). We arrived on a Thursday and left on Sunday. Thursday and Friday morning/early afternoon were lovely: not too busy, easy to utilize every attraction. Friday-Saturday however were too busy: not enough elevators and had to wait lengthy times to get up and down, almost no parking. However, I will say the staff was helpful and perhaps more importantly there was sufficient quantity staff. If there were more elevators (and/or if it were easier to find a staircase - I looked but never could find it) and if there was a better system for parking (e.g. designated parking for hotel guests - not pleasant to return after a day out and barely find a parking spot, which we’d paid $20/ night for) then this would have been a 5 star review.

Gustavo in Dunkin was super awesome also Pam on the gift shop helped me pick the purrrfect wolf ears for me!

These amazing ladies went above and beyond, making my children's and my build a bear experience to celebrate what would have been my Mama's 74th birthday, a truly memorable and cherished experience. We all added my Mama's ashes inside of our new friends so her heart can carry on with us. Thank you, ladies, from the bottom of my heart. God Bless you for the memory you gave me and my babies today. I will be forever grateful.

Our stay had some enjoyable moments, but overall the experience fell short of expectations—especially considering the cost. When we arrived, the self-check-in kiosk wasn’t working, and there were no staff members nearby to assist. The front desk line was quite long, so the check-in process was not smooth or welcoming. After a long car ride with several small children, we were really hoping to get settled quickly. Unfortunately, our room wasn’t ready when we finished checking in, and we didn’t receive notification that it was ready until after 4:00 PM—the stated check-in time. It was disappointing not to have access to the room right away, and there was no compensation or acknowledgment of the delay. We also had issues in the bowling area. The room was uncomfortably hot, and our game stopped working twice. There was no staff available upstairs to help, and another guest had to use an unattended radio to call for assistance on our behalf. While someone eventually came and got the game working again, it stopped a second time by the third frame, and we decided to leave. While the staff we did encounter were friendly, they were often difficult to find. It didn’t seem like the resort was overly crowded, so it was surprising that service felt so limited. Overall, it was a disappointing experience, especially given the cost families pay to stay here.

Wonderful place for families. Just wish they had a scan to exit the pool for safety of the kids.

We had an amazing fun filled 3 days! There was so much to do, the food was great, and the staff was wonderful. Our kid had the time of his life. Only complaint is that our bed wasn't great.

Our family vacation was for 2 nights and we had a great time! Friendly staff from check-in, to dining, and buying magi-quest games! Our room was clean and felt so comfortable. It was fun and we will be back. Lovie was awesome at the Front Desk! Will was friendly when picking out prizes and tallying out tickets!