Bear Track Landing is the giant indoor water park that makes Great Wolf Lodge Great Wolf Lodge. Did my two-year-old end up in the ER with a virus-related ear infection on New Year's Eve, two days after our visit? He sure did! But little kids pick up viruses everywhere, especially in winter, and going to an indoor water park in December was our decision. And for the most part, it was a good one. We went to Great Wolf Lodge for an overnight and hit Bear Track Landing two days in a row. The water park was on the basement level, accessible through a shop selling things like swim gear and emergency snacks. We got wristbands for park entry when we checked into the lodge, and kept them on for our entire stay. Entering Bear Track Landing felt kind of like walking into a giant mouth, warm and thoroughly humid. There was a very wet bathroom and apparently a locker room somewhere on the property, with lockers available for rent. We changed in the bathrooms on day one, before our room became available, and things were definitely nicer when we were able to get ready and stash our stuff in our room. We were able to claim chairs to keep our things, not that we ever sat in them. We saw parents of older children relaxing with drinks and reading material. That was not our experience. The water park was huge, with several distinct areas. My kids are two and four, and neither of them can swim, so I spent most of my time in the Cub Paw Pool. This was a shallow activity pool with big water tables and small slides, two feet deep on the deep end. Both of my boys loved this area. Leo B. (4) went on the slow, curving slide several dozen times. His brother Wade B. (2 and aptly named) mostly stuck to the shallow end, where there was a slide so small I think I could touch both ends at once. There were a lot of toddlers in the Cub Paw Pool, and plenty of signage indicating that diaper-dependent guests must wear protective swimwear. Honor system, for obvious reasons, but the water felt clean enough and was definitely hyper-chlorinated. We also checked out the wave pool, the lazy river, and Fort Mackenzie, the four-story play structure at the center of the park. Wade hated the wave pool, though to be fair, we got knocked down by the outer waves, which are apparently stronger than the ones deeper into the pool. He was freaked out by the lazy river, too, which I otherwise found enjoyable, with a swift, rather industrious current. Leo ended up liking it and going around for several laps on an inner tube, with me and my husband taking turns holding Wade on the perimeter. Wade was initially into Fort Mackenzie, but slipped and fell early and lost interest in exploring. Leo found a little slide there he liked and went on it over and over with his dad. They also spent quite a lot of time in a big kid pool, Leo clinging to Daddy and otherwise not doing much. None of us tried out the bigger slides. My husband and I spent at least half of our time at Bear Track Landing in different parts of the park, each of us attending to one of our children. There were life jackets on hand and lifeguards on duty, but this was not an environment where we could take our eyes off our kids for even a few seconds. We went with our friends and their two sons, and while we all overlapped, we were usually separated into parent-child pairs. If this sounds stressful and not that enjoyable for the grown-ups, that's because it totally was. Also, despite the initial warmth, I did get quite cold after some time inside. Despite all this, and the ER visit, I'm giving Bear Track Landing the full five stars. We knew what we were signing up for when we booked two days at an indoor water park, and our kids had an absolute blast. The place felt as safe and clean as possible, with tons of entertainment even for non-swimming children. We plan to go back, and the boys should be bigger and less helpless with every visit. One day we will be the parents sitting and reading books, inspiring envy while our children run wild. read more

This waterpark is smaller but manageable for large groups! Everything is centrally located and easy to see. Lines are long at the ens of the day subsided. We will def return! read more

Bear Track Landing - Water Parks Near Me - Garden Grove, California

I just came back from a 3 day vacation from this water park on 2/20-2/22. The second day I got really sick and just got back the urgent care and I have a virus called "adenovirus" that is caused by the water from this park not be contaminated. I do not recommend coming to this park for it to be so expensive and get a serious virus because they're not clean. read more

If there were awards for the worst customer service, this place would win by a landslide. The cashier clearly couldn't be bothered to do her job rolling her eyes, acting annoyed, and moving at a snail's pace like we were interrupting her day. Newsflash: customers are the reason you even have a job. If management thinks this kind of lazy, rude attitude is acceptable, they must be just as clueless. Do yourself a favor and spend your money somewhere that actually pretends to care about people, because here you'll just get treated like trash read more

Bear Track Landing - Rude employee - Water Parks Near Me - Garden Grove, California

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This place is overpriced for the hours of entertainment and operation as well as the food selection (which was either closed or only open for a few hours).. I'd rather pay $1000 to go to Disneyland than pay one more dime to stay at this ordinary room "family suite" which was highly overpriced. The restaurants were not open.. and closed everything shut down by 10 o'clock. I can stay at Disneyland longer. The food was not up to par/disgusting for the price. Everything closes at 10 PM so by the time we got to the arcade at 9 PM, which cost me $175 for two cards that had 300+ points on them couldn't even turn in the tickets because everything was shut down. Everything closes at 10... You can't get a coffee you can barely get a dessert. This was not worth the money spent for my grandchildren.... Super disappointed. We'll never come back here again. Save your money and go to Disneyland Knotts Berry Farm or somewhere else if you're coming to Southern California. read more

This would be the main attraction at the Great Wolf Lodge. You take the elevearor down to the basement and you enter the double clear doors in front of the Tree (seating wrapped around said tree) water shopping store. You will immediately see the bar to the right, yup they know what they are doing and prepare for there to always be a line, to the left you will find the day pass dressing rooms and restrooms and straight in front of you in between the bar & changing areas is where you obtain your towels for the day, also the first aide area. There is an outdoor pool alongside the way right corner of the water park where you will find the doors to the outdoors. There are slides both large and small. A wave pool, a large water fort, regular pool, lazy river and very limited available areas to sit, there is plenty of seating but non available for most of the day. I have a lot of positives to say about the water park: they provide water vests, towels, plenty of food options in the water area and inside the hotel, of course that's just the positive, the bad are the lifeguards don't really guard, I've had to seek out for help on two occasions for assistance, one for an actual physical fight in the lazy river and secondly for my son getting purposely pushed out his water tube by large kids playing aggressive tag in the lazing river. We consider the fact we've had a lot more pros on our visits then cons and it also depends on the time of year and week you visit it does make for some great year time family fun. read more

Bear Track Landing - Celebrating our boy child - Water Parks Near Me - Garden Grove, California

When you enter, and if you have little ones they measure them to see which part of the water park they are allowed to go on. Once they get their wristbands go to the towel station and find a spot. Make sure you bring money for snacks. We had crisp cut fries (hot and fresh but bland) sweet potatoe fries and my kids loved the Mac n cheese. The food is at a reasonable price. The baby water area has 2 slides as well as a cute playground. The lifeguards are not very attentive. While I was there with my daughter I saw 3 babies fall in the water face first. Luckily the parents were close by. The older kids water area had more slides and my son loved it there. He kept going back up while I sat and watched from below. Overall, within the 3 hrs the kids loved it, I heard the adult slides were awesome. I would recommend anyone thinking of coming here. I would return to play. read more

Bear Track Landing - Main water park area - Water Parks Near Me - Garden Grove, California

Although this place is swarming with kids, believe it or not it's also pretty fun for adults (adults who are a kid at heart)... Anyway, this place is great for kids of all ages! As you walk into the water park through the store you are checked for wristbands and they will check your bags for outside food items but snacks seem to be fine to bring. The little ones will need to check their height where they are then given a colored wristband that will distinguish which rides they are allowed to go on. As you begin to enter you will feel the warm breeze (no matter how cold it is outside) which will make you want to get in the water right away. You can try to find empty seats but it can be difficult to find a group seating area if you go later in the day. Once we found seats we will put our towel and slippers so it won't get taken when you're off having fun. I would leave valuable items in the room unless you want to spend at least $15 on a locker. There is plenty of fun things to do for a few hours for kids and adults. Whooping Hollow: A little calmer pool area for the little ones who want to be in a calm area with mini slides Fort Mackenzie: Great for kids who can run off on their own to play with all the different water toys and slides. This is the area where they have the giant bucket that pours the water down after the sound of the bells. Crooked Creek: this is their lazy pool fun for those who are able to grab a floaty but it's almost impossible to get your hands on one and the workers won't allow you to bring in other ones from outside. Mountain Edge Raceway: Lets you grab onto your racing mat and going down head first (once the light turns green) to see who will win the race. Howlin Tornado: This is another fun one you can go with up to 4 people and slide from wall to wall. Coyote Cannon: You can ride in a single tube or a double and go down a 40 foot drop before going into the center bowl that you go round and round and round... Wolftail: One of my personal favorites and one of the shortest lines. You enter the launch pod, cross your legs and arms, listen to the sound of the heartbeat, and the floor beneath you disappears. You drop into a 20 feet freefall, so fast into the slide you can barely open your eyes. And you are not allowed to have any loose items for this ride. Other fun rides include: Wolf Rider Wipeout, Alberta Falls, River Canyon Run, Wave Pool, etc. There is also an outdoor area with a small kid's pool. Overall this is a fun place for all ages. And it seems pretty safe as they have lots of staff and life guards on the watch. And if you get hungry they have a couple of snack spots: Buckets, which serves burgers, hot dogs, fries, etc., and Grizzly Jack's Bar and Grill that offers salads, sandwiches, and other snacks. You can pay with your wristband that is chipped where you also use as your room key. Also, there is a bar right in the middle of the water park for all the parents and adults (just remember to bring your ID). There are also showers in the restrooms which can be very convenient especially if you want to play one last time on the day you check out. I recommend bringing sandals only because it seems a bit dirty to go into the wet restrooms without any shoes (but that's just me). Other than walking from your hotel room to the water park you won't really need them. If you have additional guests, more wristbands should be available for purchase at the front desk. read more

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So this is the main attraction at the Lodge. You enter at the basement level and walk through a small store that sells anything you would need for the pool area. There is an outdoor and indoor area but we never walked out to the outdoor area. There are slides both large and small. A wave pool, a large water fort, regular pool, lazy river, faux surfing pools, etc. There is a lot of seating around the area with table/chairs and chaise lounges. We showed up at 9 am when it opened so we had no problem finding seats. We went on some slides of which there are 10-12 all for tiny children to older kids. I think the slides are a lot of fun and probably the best part of the place. My daughter likes the wave pool the most. Like any place it can get crowded and the lines for the cooler slides get long. On some you have to retrieve a float and carry it up the 3-4 story walk to the entry point. On the larger family raft rides they are up there for you. There is somewhat of a confusing process as to where the line starts for certain slides as they tend to "stage" the process but once you ask someone and go up a few times you figure it out. We had a really good morning up until a point. My daughter loves the wave pool and we hit that right away at 9 am and I think she would have stayed all day. But after a 11 am (or close to it) shift change the new guard almost immediately told me my daughter needed a life jacket. I was surprised but did not ask questions because he was on duty. So I went and asked an off duty lifeguard. We were standing in 3 ft of water (my daughter is 3 ft 10" and had been playing fine for 2 hours. I did not get it and unfortunately my daughter was going to choose to go elsewhere in lieu of wearing one. The lifeguard back the other one up and it was done. Just seemed so arbitrary. So I got her to play on the Fort for awhile and rides some rides but she was out of sorts. She felt like she was in trouble which was not the case but oh well. We had lunch and then she wanted to go somewhere else so we were out of there by 1 pm. This was the main part of our visit so I can't say this part went well. I know the lifeguards are charged with safety and they mean't well but I just thought I could have a reasonable conversation but nobody was really interested. It can be a really fun place and I think on another day with another lifeguard it would have been better for us but in the end our day was not great so I can't really give it a great review. read more

Bear Track Landing - Water Parks Near Me - Garden Grove, California