Great Wolf Lodge Arizona

We’ve just spent a fabulous and exhausting stay at the Great Wolf Lodge Arizona in Scottsdale. I am going to share all the fun my tween and teen had during our visit.

Great Wolf Lodge Arizona

The Great Wolf Lodge is a resort with indoor water park, dining locations and family friendly activities making it a fun staycation or vacation idea in Scottsdale near Salt River Fields. There is plenty of things to do and places to eat on site that you never have to leave.

Great Wolf Lodge Water Park in Scottsdale

The major draw of staying at a Great Wolf Lodge is the indoor water park. The waterpark features vary by location but this is what you can expect to find at the Great Wolf Lodge Scottsdale.

Talking Stick Tree House – Water playground and splash pad area perfect for younger kids. The multi-level play structure features body slides, suspension bridges, and a giant bucket that fills with water until it tips over. No minimum height

Totem Towers – Slides at Talking Stick Treehouse, no minimum height

Crooked Creek – Small lazy river near the water slide area, no minimum height

Big Foot Pass – Floating lily pad challenge with an overhead cargo net to help you cross, no minimum height

Slap Tail Pond – Wave pool with zero depth entry to five feet deep, no minimum height

Cub Paw Pool – zero entry to 18″ deep end perfect for toddlers with geysers and water canons, 52″ maximum height

Whooping Hollow – Play pool with slides for little kids, maximum 52″ height

Chinook Cove – Indoor pool featuring basketball hoops, no minimum height

River Canyon Run & Diamond Back Drop – Raft tube slides that can accommodate 4 riders together, minimum 42″ height. If you love a high-speed raft ride, don’t miss either one of these raft rides.

Alberta Falls – Four story water slide can be rode in a solo or tandem tube, 42″ minimum height.

Wolf Tail – High speed slide with 20 foot free fall, minimum 48″ height.

Raccoon Lagoon – Outdoor pool with 3′ 6″ depth featuring water slides, basketball and fountains, no minimum height

Northwood Springs – adult only hot tub located outside, no minimum height, no minimum height

You can visit the Great Wolf Lodge water park starting at 1pm on the day you check in. So if you stay for just one night, you actually can go into the water park both days. The best time to visit the water park is the next morning when it opens, typically 9 or 10 AM. The water park was not busy at all which made riding the slides much more fun.

There are towels available to check out in the water park using your wrist band room key. Just be sure to return them or they will charge you. There is also a life jackets available to borrow if needed. If you get there early, there are plenty of options but I noticed it could be slim pickings during the middle of the afternoon.

We found plenty of lounge chairs to sit in during our visit to the water park. There are a few tables scattered throughout as well. You will need to get there earlier to claim one of those. There are cabanas for rent located up behind the wave pool area.

Things to do at Great Wolf Lodge with Teens & Tweens

Besides the water park, there are a variety of fun activities that families will love in the Great Wolf Adventure Park. At the Great Wolf Lodge Scottsdale you will find MagiQuest, Rustic Ridge Rock Wall, Ten Paw Alley, Howl in One Mini Golf, Howlers Peak Ropes Course, Northern Lights Arcade, Moonstone Mine, Oliver’s Mining Co, and Build-A-Bear Workshop. All of these activities are at an additional cost but you can save a little with their activity passes.

MagiQuest is an interactive game using a wand that takes you all throughout the 1st floor of the lodge while you solve quests and challenges.

Rustic Ridge Rock Wall is a 33 foot climbing challenge that can accommodate 3 climbers at a time. Closed toe shoes are required, no height requirement.

Ten Paw Alley is a smaller version of bowling with shorter lanes and smaller balls, plus no special shoes are required. It’s great for toddlers to teens making it a great activity for the whole family.

Howl in One Mini Golf is an interactive 9-hole golf course located directly under the ropes course.

Howlers Peak Ropes Course is two level adventure course where you balance on ropes, cross suspension bridge and overcome other climbing obstacles all while wearing a safety harness. Closed toe shoes are required and guests must be 48″ tall to participate alone. Children between 45″ and 47″ tall must be accompanied by an adult.

Northern Lights Arcade is ab arcade with a variety of games for the whole family, complete with tickets to win and spend on silly trinkets. There are also claw style games, basketball and other typical arcade games.

Moonstone Mine is an interactive mirror maze

Oliver’s Mining Company allows guests to pan for gems to discover what’s hiding in your bag of dirt.

Build-A-Bear Workshop at the Great Wolf Lodge is a smaller version of a standard shop but features a couple of Great Wolf exclusive stuffed animals.

Save Money on Great Wolf Activities

Great Wolf Lodge offers a few different activity passes. They vary slightly between locations depending upon available activities but in general, the Wolf Pass is the most comprehensive, the Paw Pass is slightly cheaper and the Pup Pass is geared towards toddlers.

The information below is based on our experience at the Great Wolf Scottsdale in March 2022. Great Wolf gave my boys complimentary Wolf Passes during our stay to facilitate this article.

The Wolf Pass costs $85 and includes the following:

• One MagiQuest game
• Choice of classic/color wand, standard topper or Magi belt
• One Great Wolf Lodge Candy Shop candy cup
• One game of bowling at Ten Paw Alley
• One Paw Points game card for Northern Lights Arcade ($5)
• One climb on the Howler’s Peak Ropes Course
• One climb admission to Rustic Ridge Climbing Wall
• One admission to Moonstone Mine
• One single scoop of ice cream from Ben & Jerry’s
• One round of Howl-in-One Mini Golf

The Paw pass costs $65 and includes the following:

• One MagiQuest game
• Choice of classic/color wand, standard topper or Magi belt
• One Great Wolf Lodge Candy Shop candy cup
• One single scoop of ice cream from Ben & Jerry’s
• One Paw Points game card for Northern Lights Arcade ($5)

Things to do at Great Wolf Lodge with Kids

If you have younger kids who wouldn’t enjoy all the activities, there is a Pup Pass that includes a Build-A-Bear along with a few fun things.

The Pup Pass costs $50 and includes the following:

• One Build-A-Bear animal (outfit not included)
• One Great Wolf Lodge Candy Shop candy cup
• One single scoop of ice cream from Ben & Jerry’s
• One Paw Points game card for Northern Lights Arcade ($5)

The Great Wolf Lodge also offers story time, family yoga, character meet & greets, arts & crafts, late night dance party and The Northwoods Friends show that are geared towards younger kids and included for free during your stay.

Arizona Great Wolf Lodge Food

There are 9 dining locations at the Great Wolf Lodge in Arizona. Some locations offer mobile ordering through the app.

Buckets Incredible Craveables and Timber Tacos are located inside the water park and are open for lunch and dinner. The Water Hole serves drinks inside the water park as well.

Campfire Kitchen and Dunkin Donuts serve breakfast. Freshwoods Market sells pre-made meals to go before noon. Freshwoods also sells a refillable popcorn bucket.

Hungry As A Wolf sells pizza, salad and pasta for lunch and dinner. Barnwood is a sit down style restaurant only open for dinner.

There is also a candy shop and Ben & Jerrys available for a sweet treat.

Inside Great Wolf Lodge Rooms

The Great Wolf Lodge offers a variety of guest rooms that accommodate anywhere from 4-13 hotel guests. The standard room is the Family Suite and sleeps 4-6 people, it has two queen beds with sofa sleeper. We stayed in this room and I was pleasantly surprised by how spacious it was for a standard room.

Almost all the other suite syles include a bunk beds or twin beds in a separate sleeping area for kids. These suits are extra fun, my boys loved it when we stayed in a bigger suite with friends a couple of years ago. They can get pricey fast though, so consider how much time you will be spending in your room.

Great Wolf Lodge Locations

There are currently 19 different locations (soon to be 20 Great Wolf Lodge Resorts).

• Great Wolf Lodge Locations in the West: Anaheim, CA; Colorado Springs, CO; Grand Mound, WA; San Francisco/Manteca, CA; Scottsdale/Salt River, AZ
• Great Wolf Lodge Locations in the South: Atlanta/LaGrange, GA; Charlotte/Concord, NC; Grapevine, TX; Williamsburg, VA
• Great Wolf Lodge Locations in the Midwest: Chicago/Gurnee, IL; Cincinnati/Mason, OH; Kansas City, KS; Minneapolis/Bloomington, MN; Sandusky, OH; Traverse City, MI; Wisconsin Dells, WI
• Great Wolf Lodge Locations in the Northeast: Boston/Fitchburg, MA; Pocono Mountains, PA; Baltimore/Perryville, MD (coming soon)
• Great Wolf Lodge Locations in Canada: Niagara Falls, Ontario

Great Wolf Lodge Coupons

What are Great Wolf Lodge prices like? Well to be honest they are pretty high. Keep in mind there is taxes and a resort fee that covers the complimentary wireless internet access, self-parking, fitness center and some free activities (mostly for little kids). This adds about $100 extra on top of the room rate. Once you accept that, it’s much easier to understand the Great Wolf pricing.

Everyone is always looking for Great Wolf Lodge deals. I don’t think it’s really possible to stay at the Great Wolf Lodge on a dime unless you have amazing availability, will avoid extra activities and bring food to eat in your room the entire time.

However, you can save quite a bit of money using a Great Wolf Lodge promo code, having some flexibility with dates and packing some food to take with you. There is usually a few different Great Lodge coupons floating around online at any given time. The easiest way to find them is to check out the deals section of their website.

I’ve found quite a few Facebook groups dedicated to Great Wolf Lodge trips and tricks that also share codes. It’s also a great place to see recent reviews of the various Great Wolf Location or ask questions. Great Wolf Lodge super fans hang out there and love chatting about their stays.

Great Wolf Lodge Groupon

Another way to say money at Great Wolf Lodge is by watching Groupon. They often offer really great rates for mid-week stays. Availability and pricing varies by location and day. I’ve also heard that Great Wolf Lodge will honor Groupon pricing if you talk to the front desk but I’ve never done that so I’m 100% sure about that.

Great Wolf Lodge Day Pass

Great Wolf Lodge does offer day passes on some days at some location. I think it really depends upon how busy they are. I don’t think many (if any) promo codes will work for a day pass, so this is not a great way to go in my opinion. The rates I saw were $120 per person for a full day, now it likely varies but just know it’s not going to be cheap option either.

Great Wolf Lodge Tips

• We found a one-night stay sufficient because you can check in early and enter the water park starting at 1pm. Your room may not be ready so bring your swim stuff in a separate bag and change in the restrooms. The check out time is 11am but you can stay and play all day.
• The water park was almost empty when it opens in the morning, remember only overnight guests can enter then. New guests don’t enter until 1pm.
• The water park closed at 8pm and found the indoor activities to be very busy during the evening.
• If you buy an activity pass but your child doesn’t want to do something on there, then it doesn’t hurt to ask if they can substitute another activity. For example, the miniature golf was very small (although well done) in Scottsdale and my boys had no interest in doing it. The employee allowed them to do the ropes course a 2nd time instead of mini golf. I don’t think this is an official policy but it doesn’t hurt to politely ask.
• They offer some deals for unlimited rock climbing or unlimited ropes courses. If you only want to do one activity, consider checking out those pricing options instead. Additionally if you kids have a Wolf Pass but LOVE one activity, you can actually upgrade to an unlimited version of a few activities. For example unlimited ropes course with the Wolf Pass is only $11.11 more. Adding unlimited rock climbing to a Wolf Pass is $13.35 and unlimited mini golf is $7.77.

More Things To Do In Scottsdale

The Great Wolf Lodge Arizona is located near many additional entertainment venues if you want to explore more. We highly recommend both Medieval Times and The Odysea Aquarium are just a few minutes away. If you have younger children then head to South Scottsdale and visit McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park. Also consider Butterfly Wonderland, Pangea Land of the Dinosaurs, and Cactus League spring training games throughout the valley.