Great Wolf Lodge
Reviews and Complaints

If you're looking for a family-friendly escape with plenty of activities under one roof, Great Wolf Lodge in San Francisco/Manteca could be a good fit for you. With a 95,000-square-foot indoor water park and a range of attractions, there's no shortage of fun to be had. However, some recent visitors have noted areas that could use improvement. From issues with food service to communication problems and maintenance concerns, it seems that the experience can vary. While the lodge offers a variety of suites to accommodate different family sizes, it's essential to manage your expectations and be prepared for potential hiccups. Overall, Great Wolf Lodge has the potential to be a great vacation spot, but it might be wise to do some research and set realistic expectations before booking your stay.

WE booked a stay over at Great Wolf Lodge in Poconos, PA. This was to celebrate my Grandsons Good Achievement in Home Schooling through his school. He had special accommodations/rates for staying one night along with discounts for their restaurants and gift stores. When we arrived, there are signs posted you can do your own check in by a link they send to your email account.

There was no link. My daughter who made the reservation looked in all her emails and then the reservation told us they had the wrong phone number plugged into their system. We finally got all this settled and were told that we would receive a text when our room was ready. We could go to the water park. When changing into our bathing suits with 3 kids in tow, we did this in their bathrooms. I noticed blood on the floor in the women's room. How disgusting this was. Really wanted to clean up before heading to the pool but there was only one working soap dispenser in the bathroom. So much for cleaning my feet. Heading to the pool area, we wanted to get a start with a 3-year-old, 15-year-old, and 8-year-old. They have been looking so forward to this vacation with a celebration of my Grandson's achievement. So we did some of the water park, which was ok. We received a text telling us our room was ready, so we prepared ourselves to head up to our room. Once we got to room, we had a little lunch and looked at nearby attractions to find for our dinner. We had a 25% discount, so we decided to go to the restaurant that Great Wolf provided. After making a decision during lunch we decided to head out to the water park again. We checked out the menu that was posted outside the restaurant to see if everyone was agreeable with the choices. My Grandson wanted to go out to an Asian or Japanese restaurant. But we decided to eat here since it was right at the hotel, and we could come and go to the water park at our leisure. When it was time for dinner, we ate relatively early. We wanted the kids to enjoy the waterpark as much as possible. There was hardly no one in restaurant. We ordered our meals, me an Asian salad with a bowl of clam chowder, my grandkids had chicken fingers, butter noodles and my 15-year-old grandson had the steak. Needless to say, my grandson's dinner was the only dinner that was presented good and tasted good. Salads had chicken in them that was so dry. They must of used the chicken from day before. The soup was served cold and NO CLAMS in it. Campbells chunky soup is better than what they served. The kids' dinners were not even warm, and the chicken was not moist, like it should be. My grandson asked for some dipping sauce that he could at least get a little moist, but he did not like the fact his chicken was dry, and he would not touch. My daughter had a cobb salad which the same issue with chicken was dry and the lettuce which they threw together in a bowl with vegetables which would not even snap when you broke them apart were so flimsy. Same thing with the vegetables which came out with the kids' meals. The fries were hard and the cook even served ones that were burnt on their plate. WE could not believe what we were seeing. So, my daughter asked the waitress (who was so very nice and apologized many times to talk to cook). The cook came to our table, and we showed him what he served us. He was totally unpolite and left our table saying, he really had no remorse for what he served us. My daughter then took the plates up to his station and told him she was going to report this to a manager. The manager then came and told us that the dinner was on them, but we were concerned on how to tip the waitress since everything we were purchasing was directed to the bands we were wearing on our wrists. Once we spoke to a manager, she told us that they would leave the tip for the waitress and they gave my daughter a free voucher for a pizza, apologizing for the inconvenience. We figured we would use this voucher for when we went back to the water park because the kids were still hungry. We thought this experience was all over when we went to the waterpark after dinner and my daughter was confronted by the manger and two other people who we did not get their names at the waterpark. Mind you, the kids were very curious as to why Mom was being pulled over again by these people and scared. We ordered our pizza and were waiting on it when my daughter was asked to go to have another conversation over this dinner situation. I am minding 3 kids while my daughter is talking to this manager. I then went over to where my daughter was with my 2 grandkids because I could see she was in distress. The manager told me that they asked my daughter to leave the premises because of this whole dinner situation. They told me, my daughter told the cook she was going to knock his face out, (something like that), and the restaurant had it all on their cameras. They also told me that other people in the restaurant witnessed this. There was only one other table in this restaurant that had people seated at it and when I went back to the restaurant, I did not see any cameras. I asked the manager to see the actual footage of this encounter and they could not provide this to me. Mind you, my daughter is 5'2 and does not go around making Terroristic threats. Her children are there, my grandchildren. This whole experience took away so much time from our family vacation. The children were so upset. I told my daughter to call 911 and get the police involved. The manger told me to go ahead and do this since they had other incidents in the past that they had the police involved also. When the police came they talked to both sides. The manager and us. They told police that my daughter was asked to leave within one hour because of the so-called threat to the cook. We could not manage this because we had to pack up 3 kids. I asked the police to escort us to our room because I did not want the hotel to say we damaged the room since the charges were on my credit card. We had 2 policemen who were so kind to come to our room while we packed up. During this we all took pictures of room, and the one policeman told us while we were packing up (we heard this on his walkie talkie), there was another fight going on in the lobby downstairs. Wholly Molly, what is with this hotel? When we left the room, the police looked in all the drawers to make sure we got everything packed up. They followed us down to lobby and out the door. This is 9:00 we left the hotel and went home. My daughter was so upset, she could not drive. The kids were crying and needless to say, we will follow up with this because the police gave us all the information we needed. WE are going to file and complaint. I am going to dispute my credit card for any charges (which I already did) and hire an attorney if they continue to hound us about this. if you are reading this, I highly recommend going to Kalahari Resort. They have much to offer. Their waterpark is a lot better. Many more amenities. This was the worst day of our lives and was only there for 5 hours before we got thrown out. We have pictures of everything. The restaurant, our room, food, and the whole experience. These will go in an archive for future reference.

Order $300.00 worth of gift cards for Christmas gifts. My Account was charged $300.00 a total of 6 times for a total of $1800.00! So Far No Satisfaction In Solving Why This Happened. No Refund of Money! This transaction took place on 12/4/2024.Have contacted Great Wolf Lodge, no help in why, or reversing the credit card charges. Trying to work with credit card company at this point! Customer service was not good. Asked same questions over and over again and questions like where you going to use the cards. Cards are good at any location so irrelevant!

Visited the resort on the 25-27 of August. Went on the tornado ride for the second time and something happened to my back that caused me to have a hard time breathing and I wasn't able to get off the 4 person tube by myself. After getting assistance from my family the attendant of the ride noticed that something was not right asked if we needed assistance my husband said yes. The resorts medical team came and assisted amazingly but it took a turn for the worse. I was given oxygen to help also water to help assist. I was told to put my head in between my legs because it may help after that was done I did start to feel better until I didn't. I went numb I was told I felt dizzy blacked out and went unresponsive. Ambulance was called went to emergency room took an x ray and an EKG everything looked fine I was told. Left there on Tuesday before checkout due to the fact I was not feeling any better. Came home and went to emergency room and will be visiting both my cardio and back doctor this week on August 29, 2024. I can be reached at [protected] my name is Rolanda Shipp

I have took my kids to great wolf lodge for 5 years. Upon check in I went up to the counter and usually I am greeted but this time I walked up and seemed like I was interrupting the staff’s conversations as they were cussing. I had my two children ages 4 and 7 with me. My son asked me “Mommy why is that man mad”.. I has requested early check in and I know it’s a request not a promise or anything. I asked if my room was ready and I wish I knew his name

But hw didn’t have a badge on looked at me and Laughing said we are at 💯 capacity who knows. It was my kids birthday yesterday and I had never did the birthday package so I asked him if the room would be wed up and he was “ we see at capacity I doubt it”. My kids started crying it went to them laughing before they arrived to this and the disappointment kept oneszz My husband forgot my arcade cards for their birthday in the room we think the house keeper could have tossed when she Delmer’s we don’t know but he didn’t deee and I paid for their and they also siding tr to do there either z! I feel cheated out of the entire trip!

I went to book a stay at Great Wolf Lodge for this upcoming Month. I wanted to stay from 2/19-2/21. I went in picked the dates picked out my room and my total came to be $392.36. I then checked my confirmation email and was charged $850.16 This was extremely misleading. I called the location, and they went on about how you have to book 90 days our to receive that price. They then realized that was incorrect and they said that the price shouldn't be that and that their prices fluctuate and could have fluctuated by the time I ordered to the time it checked me out. All of this made no sense to me. The fact is that it is extremely misleading. I took a screen shot because I was able to generate the price again. William, the associate at GWL, told me there was nothing he could do and that I could either cancel or book at the $850.16 price. This just really bums me out that I go book the site tells me a price then over double charges me. It doesn’t seem right to me that my check out price would be $392.36 and then switch once I booked. It doesn’t seem like something a company like Great Wolf Lodge would do because prices fluctuate. Then to have no solution after taking an hour of my time. This just is not right. Please see attachments of my screen shots.

Friday Jan 12- Sunday Jan 14. My reservation number is [protected] with a total of $1,131.22 a deposit of $283.92 was withdrawn from my account on Jan 10 and the remaining balance of $847.30 was charged upon checkin. I arrived with my three sons and checked in a few minutes after 8pm on Friday Jan 12. I went to the room to drop our bags and then we went to explore the lodge and get a bite to eat. We returned to our room 2084 around 10:30pm. At approximately, 10:40pm I heard a loud noise hitting the balcony glass door. My kids got scared so I went to check out the noise. As I opened the balcony door and said hello, I seen a caucasian man on the ground floor with ice in his hand. I pushed my son back as he was trying to see what transpired and not get hurt. The gentleman launched multiple ice towards me while yelling “get the [censored] outta here, you [censored]er. One of the ice cut my pointer finger that’s how sharp the ice was. I throw a balcony chair downstairs to stop the commotion and went back into my room. My son called the police to report the attack.

At that time, I called the front desk to report the attack that I just endured. I went down to the front desk a few minutes later to see what action will be done and to wait for the police to arrive. The police arrived at approximately 11:00pm. The gentleman who attacked me apologized and stated he was in the wrong and he will leave immediately. He packed his items and left. The security, customer service agent and also the police remained in a huddle as I waited to hear the outcome. The security guard Anthony informed me around 11:30pm that due to hotel policy and I threw the chair to stop the attack I would have to leave the resort. I informed him I just got here like 2 hours ago. He went to the front desk and spoke to an agent came back and informed me that I will get a full refund and apologized for the inconvenience. I then went to the front desk and asked for my check out papers to ensure I don’t get charged for my involuntary departure after getting attacked. The front desk manager assured me that I would not get charged I will get a full refund and they could not generate checkout paper as they will do a reversal on the checkin and it appears that I never checked in so i can get the full refund. I returned to my room with Anthony security escort and my 3 kids and packed up everything and left there in the middle of the night raining on the dangerous dark roads in the Poconos. Cameras can show I complied with the hotel request and left the hotel and did not stay the night which I was wrongfully charged for.

On Saturday Jan 13, received an email a little after 11am saying thank you for your stay I will be charged $538.28 (I have attached for reference) and a checkout on Saturday at 11am after I was told to leave the night before. I called great wolf immediately and spoke to an agent which I did not get her name but she indicated she was there when the incident occurred. She said she seen that I was charged for a full night and also the add on packages weren’t even used and I wasn’t supposed to get charged. She stated she couldn’t reverse the transaction and only the security manager Anthony Castaldo is authorized to make this change. She then put me on hold for over 15 minutes and then came back and stated Anthony is not available but she will have him give me a call later on that day. I called back again at 3pm and spoke to front desk agent Laura all I did was give her the reservation number and she put me on hold for 7 minutes to speak to a manager. Anthony the security guard answered the phone I asked are you the manager he said no I’m a regular security guard. I then stated Laura said she was transferring me to a manger. I asked to speak back to Laura and he said no I will transfer you to a manager please hold. He put me on hold for another 16 minutes. Maddie guest service manager answered the phone. Maddie said that there are two Anthony’s and apologize for being transferred to the incorrect one. Maddie stated and reassured me Anthony manager will call me tomorrow Sunday Jan 14 in regard to getting my full refund and acknowledged I was charged for 1 full night even though I was there for approximately 2 hours of stay. Maddie stated Anthony is the only one that can process full refund in the entire resort. I explained to Maddie I requested checkout documents to reflect what I was being told and they refused saying that they will take care of it and I will not be charged and I have nothing to worry about.

Sunday Jan 14, I waited for a phone call and did not receive one from manager Anthony. At 1:45pm I called front desk and Diana answered the phone. I was on hold for 19 minutes then was transferred to his voicemail. I left a voicemail and did not receive a call from manager Anthony on Sunday.

Monday Jan 15, I called at 11am Diana answered the phone and stated Anthony said he called yesterday. I stated we did not receive a missed call and asked her for the time of call which she could not provide. She stated he will call again today. I recieved a missed call from lodge at approximately 2:40pm and a voicemail from Anthony. I called back immediately at 2:44pm but got his voicemail. I left my wife’s phone number on his voicemail aswell so he can contact her just in case he does not get me as this is a very important matter. My wife Avril also called in and left her number numerous times of his voicemail to call which she never received a call. I did not get a call back that day as well that day from Anthony.

I called the customer service line and I explained my issue. They apologized for my inconvenience and gave me this email address to make a formal complaint and also someone can help me get my refund.

Tuesday Jan 16. My wife and I called 3x to no avail (just leaving voicemails).

Wednesday Jan 17. I received another email with a break down charges totaling $538.28 and a refund of -$592.94. This is still not correct and Great wolf is stealing my money of $538.28. I called again at the front desk and spoke to Michael who was the most helpful agent since I’ve been calling. He apologized and made notes on the account and opened at case to guest services and said someone will call me within 24-48hrs to resolve this and I DO NOT have to ONLY speak to security manager Anthony Castaldo. The case number he gave me is [protected]. I also updated my number on file to [protected] to be contacted for all and any issues in this matter. I asked why hasn’t no one else opened a case since I have been calling everyday with no resolution. He said he doesn’t know but he opened the case to resolve this issue.

I am trying to resolve this at the lowest level after seeking legal advice. The service was not rendered and a business cannot lawfully charge someone and alter their reservations just to make money. I have all my documents to support my refund. I do not believe this is the way to treat customer especially ones that was attacked and injured at your hotel.

I sent the email to guest relations only for them to send an automated message from two different stating someone will get back to me and NO ONE DID to this day Jan 29,2024

Good afternoon,

We thank you for reaching out to Great Wolf Resort and we're truly sorry to hear you had this experience during your stay with us. We greatly appreciate you bringing this to our attention, as our aim is to always provide the highest quality customer service and guest experience, and your feedback is an invaluable part of that process. In an effort to rectify this situation, we have forwarded this information to our guest relations team at the lodge for additional assistance. Someone will be contacting you regarding this. Thank you for your patience in this matter.

Regards,

Britany

Britany Gentle

Guest Communications | Great Wolf Resorts

Good morning, Avril.

Thank you for reaching out to the Great Wolf Lodge. We're sorry to hear you had this experience while staying with us. We greatly appreciate you bringing this to our attention, as our aim is to always provide the highest quality customer service and guest experience, and your feedback is an invaluable part of that process. In order to address the situation, we've escalated the matter to our management team at the lodge in Pocono Mountains, PA. Someone will be contacting you regarding this soon. We appreciate your patience in this matter.

Warm Regards,

Teoni

Teoni Harris

Guest Communications | Great Wolf Resorts

No one has contacted me.

We stayed two weeks ago and with checking out I found out there were charges in our room number that weren’t ours. Two times at Cafetaria 3 (ice cream shop), it was charged at the moment we just checked in so I guess it was the previous room occupants.

I had to pay for it and they would look into it but never heard back. Emailed 3 times and still no response.

Hi- I cancelled a reservation in July (Cancelation number [protected]). I am to receive a full refund but the credit card i used to book the stay with expired that same month and the Perryville MD location said they would have to issue me a check instead and it would take 6-12 weeks. I was patient as i understood this unique situation but I have called at least twice a month since September. The lodge has opened at least 2-3 separate tickets with the billing department. They've put me on hold several times for at least 10 minutes to tell me that nobody is answering and they'd have to just start a new ticket. I want my refund! I can't believe that I'm still having to fight for my money back going into 2024. I am fully prepared to move forward with getting my refund another way and will certainly share with community the difficult time i have had with this company. I really was excited for Great Wolfe Lodge to come to Maryland to bring my kids but I never even got to go and it is already a disappointment! Please help me to resolve this.

Booked a reservation through Groupon which I will never do again. Inadvertently booked the wrong date and was planning on using the room the same day as reserved. Long story, but father was in the hospital for a pacemaker and the room was going to be a place for the grandkids to stay and play while we were dealing with him in the hospital. Immediately contacted groupon who indicated they were unable to cancel the reservation because it was for the next weekend. They indicated that they were unable to do anything without an email indicating that the room was not used. It is impossible to get a hold of someone at Great Wolf Lodge that can actually answer questions. Great Wolf lodge is of no help if the reservation was made through Groupon. With Groupon you cannot talk to a customer representative, but only on a chat function where they do not respond. Great Wolf Lodge puts you in the phone system and you get transferred without anyone picking up the phone. The lady I talked to today indicated they will not give an email or anything that the room was not utilized.

Prior to our stay we reached out to great wolf lodge chat to see if snow land was happening during our stay. We assured that it was but when we got there with our three kids no decorations were up and it wasn’t snow land. I spoke to the manager Jared and he was kind enough to discount us the “all in one package” for the inconvenience but needed to speak to the other manager Leanne to see if he could do anything further. Once talking to Leanne she agreed to help with the reservation and misunderstanding if I could prove the chat representative said that the Christmas event was taking place. After printing out the conversations I was able to prove that I was told the Christmas event was happening during my stay but when showing Leanne she said “they just have missed this question and was answering another question”. After waiting over an hour for her to decide what she would want to do she agreed to take off the three meal plan for the day sense we didn’t use it. So Jared took off $250 for the all in one deal and Leanne took off $170 for the day meal plan that we didn’t use. Now that I’m home my total stay has been posted and I was not discounted for either one. When I called and spoke to Jared he said that the discount he gave me for $250 was removed from the system by another manager. (Which would be Leanne) I was also not refunded for the meal plan for the day. I just don’t understand why it’s such a huge deal to take responsibility for one of the great wolf lodge representatives making a mistake and take care of a repetitive guest and the family. This has been a huge headache. I was told if I could prove what was said I could potentially be comped For my stay sense the event that I was told was going on wasn’t. But when providing proof I was given several reason why it wasn’t accurate and argued with for over an hour.

Customer service at this place is atrocious. I emailed to ask for their HST number which is public information and as a matter of fact should be displayed in the business... the person I spoke to (via email) Nicholas M, would not tell me the hst number. I informed them that the information is public and I do not need a receipt I simply need the hst number for my taxes. They continue to refuse to supply the information requested and were completely rude even adding an exclamation mark after telling me it's on my receipt. This is not the first issue I've had with their customer service

I became ill and had to return home to Indiana. We drove all night to get there.
Our reservation at GWL in Wisconsin was for Sunday, October 15th.
I called to cancel our reservation early October 12th.
They still charged me $100!
We are Marriott Hotel customers and MH would never charge you because you got sick.
Very disappointed. This is not a class act.

Sorry to send this to 100% the wrong place but I don’t know what else to do because I can’t find the correct email for great wolf in general not just the hotel we stayed at. So I’m sorry to send this to you but if you could please find the time to forward it to the big guys my family would greatly appreciate it.

I’m so tired of retyping our entire story so here is what I originally went to Groupon with because as I understood it, telling the hotel wouldn’t matter. Since I purchased through Groupon. Here it all is-

We’re in the middle of organizing a funeral and figuring out a will. That’s why we were in Ohio…we wrote this one on our second or 3 rd day to Groupon…

our room has lots of issues right now our floor is vibrating from the construction underneath us. the kids can’t use the water park bc when I called to ask about when the water park closed before we booked our room, the girl I spoke to said it closes at 10 - NO it doesn’t ! it closes at 8 . That’s so early for a 15 and 17 yr old. We’re gone dealing with working out a will and dealing with attorneys and planning this funeral and this was supposed to be my kids happy time ya know? To come back to our little space of happy and fun. The woman I spoke to also said certain meals for breakfast were available with just the room. No package necessary….And there is no hot breakfast unless u pay! We called to make sure this place was good for the kids bc we’re here for a not good reason…this was supposed to be the fun part for the kids. So we’re literally staying here for nothing bc when we get home every night the water park is closed. even a regular hotel would’ve been better bc of the pool being open till 10 or 11 and having a hot breakfast - I don’t know what to do we have never used Groupon and this has been a terrible experience- everything has been terrible. Before I booked our reservation I called great wolf to MAKE SURE OF EVERYTHING the free hot breakfast and if it was a good place for a 15 and 17 yr old. I was told there’s a huge pool and a lazy river and apparently the huge pool is closed and the lazy river is a tiny person lazy river…nothing at this hotel was what is was supposed to be. There was no hot breakfast at all. My kids swam on night one, for 30 minutes as you can see by our swiping to get in…

Our entire stay was to be the happy outlet for my kids and things just kept getting worse and worse

Our balcony light was burnt out, when I’d try to sneak out at 9am ish either the construction RIGHT OUTSIDE OUR BACK DOOR or the CRAZY squeaky door woke everyone up instantly. I have pictures and videos of everything the door was insane with how loud it is. Since the pool doesn’t close at 10 like we were told, my kids had absolutely nothing to do when we got back to the hotel at night. They are way to big for activities and the SUPER LOUD BASS in the music that goes on u till 11 pm every night. I believe our room was right next to the speakers or something bc u had to listen to bass from the little show that goes on until 11 and it’s not me not picking it’s crazy loud like the door.

We didn’t have fitted sheets on our beds? We only had a sheet , which would slip off every night and be us on the mattress when we woke up…(no one wants to be directly on a hotel mattress) …one night my husband was trying to entertain my son and so for the first time ever they shaved! But they couldn’t bc the water wouldn’t get hot and even after that realized it wouldn’t matter anyway bc there was no water pressure to clean off the razor. There was gunk all over the couch, and up against the tv. The blankets both had stains all over them and I worked at a hotel for years and I know that blanket doesn’t get washed in between room cleanings - it just gets represented by the sheets ontop and underneath it. Which is fine - until they’re stained up. The construction under our room vibrated the floor like crazy with whatever it was they were doing when it would happen, the guy outside cutting wood would do it at 845-9am-ish every morning right outside our room. The mirror hadn’t been cleaned from the last people that were there and other stupid little things.

I want you to know this stay would’ve been fine had my kids been able to do what I was told would be available. Maybe the girl I spoke with was new …but everything she said to me , was why we stayed with you guys. A water park open till 10 and free hot breakfast every morning.

Something we can all do together and make the happy part of this sad trip.

We make our Ohio trip about once every 3 to 5 years. It’s always been about fun and family. This trip was not going to be good for either of those things so I wanted to give the kids the best to come home to and unfortunately it was heartbreaking to find out everything I based our stay on was incorrect and there was nothing I could do about it. Groupon made me believe I had to go through them which apparently I should’ve talked to the hotel more about it also.

I have videos and pictures, I’m not trying to be a jerk it just all piled up after finding out the water park did not have the big lazy river I was told it had, the water park was not open until 10pm and there was absolutely nothing included with just having booked a room for breakfast, not any kind of breakfast. Then I started trying to sneak out for breakfast and couldn’t , then all of the construction started and the loud music goes on for these tiny kids till 11 … and the outside balcony light was burnt out….then all of the stuff in the room.

I just wanted my kids and husband to be able to play together at night in a pool and wake up to being able to go down and get my family a hot breakfast to wake them up with in the mornings and I couldn’t do any of it. I will attach the video of the door but I have a lot of pictures and a video of the non existent water pressure ….we don’t go on trips so I wanted this to be halfway fun for my babies and it wasn’t even a possibility.