They found my lost phone and they let us go on the water slides 16 times .we also got to switch rooms to the wolf den sweet!epic night!!!!

During our family stay at Great Wolf Lodge in Gurnee, IL from June 13-15, 2025, we discovered live bed bugs in our bed on the morning of June 14. I captured one in a clear plastic cup and notified the front desk. Staff confirmed the issue but told us to dispose of the bug instead of documenting it. We were offered a smaller downgraded room, a price adjustment, two pizza vouchers, and a complimentary cabana. We were told a third-party inspection would be conducted and results would be shared within three days. No one followed up. On June 19, after no communication, I called customer service and was told no case existed. I then filed Case #02278787 and requested pest control documentation. Still no response by June 30. I called again, was transferred multiple times, and told Scott from Aquatics would call me back in 20 minutes. That call never came. On July 17, I called again and learned the case had been marked "resolved" with no notification, follow-up, or pest inspection report provided. I was told the original room downgrade and cabana pass were considered the resolution. These were given the day of the incident and unrelated to the inspection we were promised. I was forced to open a second case, #02291921. To date, I have received no formal apology, no pest control report, and no meaningful resolution. This reflects a serious lack of professionalism and guest safety protocol. read more

Great Wolf Lodge - BED BUGS! - Water Parks Near Me - Gurnee, Illinois

Bed bugs. Tower 2 like everyone else experienced. Only stayed one night and refused to stay any longer. read more

Great Wolf Lodge - Water Parks Near Me - Gurnee, Illinois

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UNSAFE - STAY AWAY I had over $300 in charges made against my card after we left the resort. Likely someone fished my wrist band out of the trash, taped it together, and walked around buying things. I would suggest not attaching a card to the band, but if you do, take the band home with you. I called the resort & after waiting on hold for over 13-minutes, they told me they would call me back in 72-hours. The person I spoke with was unable to do anything & told me there was nothing anyone else could do. For a family who has spent thousands of dollars at these resorts it was a disappointing experience. We wont be back. ***After going back and forth with them over email, 16-days later there is no response and that charges remain on my card. read more

Great place to spend our 2024 fall vacation with the family. Had all the fun they needed in the building read more

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Won't let you get into you room until 4 pm almost 5. Door key did not work. Charged us for ice cream bought there even doe we bought the food pass ( completely a scam) . Once they did get us a working wrist band they only gave us one... we bought 3. Changed us twice for parking, food pass , and late check out when we paid for these services at the front desk when we checked in , ( their way of trying to keep the room deposit after 3 weeks waiting) read more

We stayed here this past weekend and saw many improvements from our prior visit in 2021. The hotel was staffed well, clean and more efficient. Check in process was quick and easy! The waterpark did not feel over crowded and was clean, along with the rooms. We slept great, it was quiet and loved the new bar addition in swim area! The order ahead feature was amazing! read more

Well folks, I finally got my $250 credit back on my credit card. They did not respond at all to me regarding my stay and rewarding us more waterpark tickets to make this a good experience and delete my reviews, terrible business. read more

Great Wolf Lodge - Email - Water Parks Near Me - Gurnee, Illinois

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Lowkey a scam. $10 fee for amenities? What? And then $20 for parking? And $10 for a locker? Insane

I am writing to formally express my deep disappointment with the service I received at Great Wolf Lodge in Gurnee, Illinois. My recent stay was overshadowed by an experience at the front desk that was not only unprofessional but also completely unacceptable for a hospitality establishment of your caliber. I made a reservation for a one-night stay and paid $130 through Apple Pay, which your booking system accepted without issue. However, upon arrival for check-in, I was told that my reservation could not be honored because it had been paid with Apple Pay--despite the fact that your system processed the payment and provided me with a confirmed reservation. The front desk staff then refused to issue a refund for the payment, stating that it was not possible due to the payment method. This forced me to pay a second time, using my debit card, in order to check in for the room I had already paid for. If I had not had additional funds available, my daughter and I would have been left without a room, during a visit that was meant to celebrate a birthday. The lack of assistance, flexibility, or accountability offered by staff during this situation was extremely troubling. As someone who travels frequently, I have never encountered a hotel that allows a payment method online but refuses to honor it at check-in, nor one that places the financial burden of its own system errors onto the guest. The front desk staff displayed no clear understanding of policy, no effort to problem-solve, and no regard for customer experience. This experience has left me questioning the professionalism and internal communication at this location, and it has significantly damaged my trust in Great Wolf Lodge. read more

We booked a stay from Monday to Thursday! The check in process was simple but was caught off guard with the additional parking per night ($20). Our room was ready pretty early so we were able to get in and settle before heading to the water rides. We were given free wolf headband ears as a family! The Place offered a daily schedule of activities ranging from yoga, arts and games, pajama dance party, character meet and greet, arcade, bowling, mini golf, and more. There is an inside waterpark with big and kiddie water slides, wave pool, lazy river, toddler splash area, and outdoor pool. We truly enjoyed ourselves with the various activities with my toddler! read more

CANNOT get a hold of a single human. All AI, and none will transfer me to the front desk. Stayed a single night, and a week later (BB bites can take up to two weeks to appear on your skin) I realized my husband and I were covered in bed bug bites. We stayed in room 1139 in tower 1, and a Dr.'s visit confirmed that is what they are. I have emailed guest relations, but I am still waiting for a response. read more

Great Wolf Lodge - one half of the amount of bites I have - Water Parks Near Me - Gurnee, Illinois

This is genuinely the most confounding customer service nightmare I've experienced in years. I booked 4 single day passes via Groupon for the Great Wolf in Gurnee, IL, having just moved to the Chicago suburbs around a week or so ago. Moving has been stressful, we have a 5 and 3 year old who love water parks, and the Mason, OH location was always great when we'd drive out there (prior to our move). The location is fine. The layout isn't as functional as Mason, but my kids had a great time. What came AFTER was a nightmare. I was first charged an amusement tax -- something I've literally never heard of, but I didn't question it because I'm new to the state. Then, I get a second authorization notification of almost $1,000 charged against my card. I'm confused and question in what universe a pre authorization of $1,000 would ever be charged against a guest's card. I triple checked Groupon -- my four single day passes total $240 and that's already been paid and posted. I call into the Gurnee Great Wolf support line and that's where the real nightmare fuel starts. I went through a phone tree, I have a support person confirm that I was charged ~960 dollars and she doesn't know why, but she'd "put in a ticket" and they'd get back to me. Fun - "no," I say, "I need to get this resolved now. It's $1,000 dollars and I don't want this to hit my billing statement." She transfers me to "billing" -- oh wait, no, she transfers me TO THE SAME PHONE TREE I STARTED ON. So I got back to a support person. He says they'll put me through to the front desk of the actual location. I got back to the phone tree. I talk to a nicer guy who checks TWO systems and sees the charge, puts me on hold several times, and tells me he'll patch me through to the billing department... Literally, back to the same phone tree. Now I'm on with someone who has a 10 second delay and asks me if I'm still there every 2-3 seconds. She guarantees she'll transfer me to a real person. I've been on "hold" now after confirming the same information a 4th time, and it's just silence in the background. This is NOT worth it. I will NOT be going back unless I have some kind of remedy or recourse here. I have lots of fun videos and photos from today - this honestly makes me not want to post them because I don't want to encourage anyone else to deal with this. How on earth does someone "accidentally" charge someone almost a thousand dollars for absolutely no reason? read more

Let's start with the only positive...The water park is very fun - but somewhat lacking in life guards. There are areas where life guards pass through instead of constant supervision. (Lazy River) The lodge is run so poorly. Rooms don't get cleaned or restocked with soap and toilet paper UNLESS you request it at the front desk. (I found that out from another guest.) Tipping is requested everywhere you eat - even at fast food restaurants that are incredibly slow, you grab your own condiments, utensils, napkins, drinks and clean up after yourself. It seems to me the Great Wolf Lodge should be paying their employees enough instead of adding a tip request with each transaction. There is unlimited bowling, but you can get two tokens per person and the store providing them closes. So really it's quite limited. (And also there's only 3 lanes.) Dance parties (BUY YOUR OWN BUBBLES OR LIGHTING! WTH?! GWL invest in a bubble machine and add your own lighting.) and story time is pathetic. It's just another way for GWL to take more money. There is NO playground. Children need a place to run and skip and jump. It just can't be done. There is nothing outside - it's like being in a casino for your entire getaway. And finally, there are day visit passes that makes it uncomfortably crowded and unsafe even. What a nightmare. read more

The place is nice and mostly clean (our room was dusty, the shower/tub was dirty with hair and stuck on dirt, and the room smelled like dirty feet, but they didn't have any other rooms available. So I cleaned it myself!). I called to book my stay over the phone, but in person I kept getting charges and kept having to go to customer service for adjustments. We get home, and more charges were added. I called and made a report. It's ridiculous the amount of time I spent in person and over the phone to have them adjust their mistakes. They gave us the wrong room for less people, but didn't have our room available. Was not told over the phone or in our reservation document sent to my email that parking is $20 plus tax per car per stay. If they cared about our business they would've given us something for our troubles. If I didn't check my charges they would've got away with it! My kids had fun, but why would I stay here again when I can stay somewhere else hassle free and actually enjoy my mini vacation! Also their prices for food, and add ons are too high. Everyone I met there complained. read more

When we got here there was so many people. we booked are room a day before but it took 2 hours till it was ready. The room had so many bumps on the walls and also we were right next to the ice machine. so come here if you have patience. The water park was nice. read more

The value we received from our stay is probably the biggest reason why you should stay here. We paid around $130 a night and that gave us daily access to the water park which is huge. Do the math yourself: two adults and three kids admissions for the Daily water park, plus the hotel room is probably the best deal you will ever get. The staff is amazing, and your wrist band pays for stuff on site so you can leave your wallet in the hotel room. There are several on-side places to eat, free activities, and an arcade. We are coming back for sure. read more

TL;DR: Make sure you're going to go when you buy a day pass and hope nothing happens. The customer service here is just awful. Booked day passes but then had a family emergency. They told me that day passes could not be cancelled or refunded and there was nothing they could do. They offered to extend the passes which I told them was not an option for my situation. The person on the phone said she was sorry and they were non refundable; Full stop. I told her that was terrible customer service and that I would be posting my experience on every travel review site I could. THEN she said she would transfer me to someone who could help me. Help me how?? The tickets I purchased were non-refundable. What could possibly be done? Well... I don't know, because I was done being lied to and told the phone rep to have a nice day and said goodbye. Won't be making reservations here again and will choose other options, even if it means driving a little further. I guess there's a reason this place is less than 3 stars. read more

Very fun! Me and my cousins went to this water park with a great experience the water slides are slippery that you can easily slide down to a connected mini pool. I would think if you go there, you will have a great time as well. read more

This place is the worst place to stay, I had a party of 8 and only had 4 blankets, the tables were the size of end tables, we had nowhere to put our food. Not enough seating for the amount of people we had. They charged $20 extra for parking per car. The room smelled of urine and mold, the elevator sounded like it was going to fall apart. I paid extra for the ultimate package and a total rip off. The scanning of cups gives you 20 seconds to fill your cup but if the flavor is out your time is up b4 you could find a flavor that you would like so then you have to wait 10 minutes to to take another shot at it. The Candy cups can only be filled once and the candy is 91% sour candy. Each cup cost $50 ridiculous! I paid $1200 for one night and got $152 refund! Are you kidding me!!! read more

After reaching out to Guest Relations regarding my recent stay, the team at Great Wolf Lodge promptly contacted me and handled the situation with professionalism and understanding. They took the time to listen to my concerns and worked with me to resolve the issue. I truly appreciate the level of customer service they provided and their willingness to make things right. Thank you for addressing my concerns and ensuring a positive resolution. read more

Not very clean. The room was so humid the windows were foggy. The tub drain wasn't draining. Blankets provided for the kids beds are so small. I was in the wave pool and the water was unbelievably salty. The tv in the kids room wasn't working. read more

Pros: nice pool area, nice rooms. Cons: dirty, unsafe, broken bathrooms in the pool area, price gouging throughout at every level, TERRIBLE RESTAURANTS - it is IMPOSSIBLE to get anything remotely like a decent meal here. Coming here on the weekend is a mistake- it gets overcrowded and there's a lot of unsupervised children doing unsafe things - roughhousing on slippery floors and in the pool - and it's too crowded to be much fun. The food here is both EXPENSIVE and TERRIBLE. I have no problem paying for quality, but there is no quality to be found anywhere here. There's not much to do here - the arcade is small, so it's pretty much swim or nothing. read more

Friendly staff, but wow--$19 for self-parking? Scanned cups that ration your drink by the ounce? Congratulations, you're the Spirit Airlines of indoor family water parks. Just raise the room rate and stop nickel-and-diming everyone. read more

Not good at all. Around 2:00 in the morning my friend found bed bugs in the room. Called the front desk, they sent a security guard and they said that there's only two people working the night shift. Besides that, they showed us two other options, the first being the same floor with the same setup. It had Skittles in the bed. We then went down to the first floor to see zyn on the air conditioning vent! And management wasn't better. When we talked to the front desk about the situation, they said they'd give us a partial refund. We eventually got them to give us a full refund and when we asked about decontaminating our items they gave us a bug zapper like they bring it out everyday. Me and my friends looked more into this and someone had wrote a review about our same situation 2 days ago! They responded to their review, indicating they saw it and still did nothing about it. We also found a review from our same room about a month ago with the same problem. This problem has obviously not been fixed. So I'm warning you, do NOT come here. Come if you want an uncleaned room and maybe even bed bugs. The waterpark was fun though. I recommend the waterpark, not the rooms. read more

If you like bad bodies, excessive tattoos, and red solo cup tailgating at a water park then this is your spot. The kids enjoy it. And thank god for that. Because unless you fit the clientele of Carhart jackets and homemade beef jerky at a water park this is a hard one to manage. Will be back until the kids are too old. read more

Why do we have to pay for parking for $20 per day if you're already paying for your stay? Who pays for parking in the suburbs?????

We first visited GWL in September 2021, with our then 7-year-old. Several of the restaurants and attractions were closed (off season....post-pandemic, etc.) but we had a great time. Good was was good, the water park was exciting, there was still lots to do, etc. We had a great deal on the room c/o Groupon, and felt the rest of the expenses were pretty moderate. We had our second visit yesterday/today, with two middle schoolers in tow. BOY, have things changed: ~We had to pay $20 to park. What? Since when? ~Most restaurant orders were placed through a kiosk, not a person. Even at Dunkin Donuts. ~We had to scan a QR code to fill the soda cups we paid for....then had exactly 20 seconds (the machine next to the fountains informed us) to select a drink and fill the cup. Stressful for kids! My goodness. ~I paid SEVENTY DOLLARS ($70.00!!!!!) for two 7" pizzas, a small pasta, three sodas and a small order of garlic cheese bread at Hungry as a Wolf (little pizza place onsite). The pizzas had zero flavor and looked like they'd been cooked for roughly 90 seconds. Crusts were as white as the driven snow. Wonder bread. The cheese slide straight off the oily/watery "garlic bread" base and was such a mess we could hardly eat it. None of us finished our dinners because the whole thing was yucky and cumbersome. Our room was alright. Comfortable enough. But the cost of ANYTHING at GWL is monstrous and there's no customer service anymore. It feels like a really loud & expensive Chuck E. Cheese. We will not be back. read more

The Disney of the Midwest. We stayed for 2 nights- water park was well maintained, staff was friendly. That being said, this is a resort and most (if not all) of the activities/amenities are profit oriented. *Not worth it- -The standard double queen room looked attractive but was definitely not designed for comfort as the walls were thin and did not muffle any of the noise from our neighboring rooms. -The bathroom area (toilet and shower) were about the size of a small walk in closet and made changing into clothes quite cumbersome. There was no conditioner as an included amenity -The hallways consistently wreaked of weed both nights we were there. The breakfast buffet consisted of typical continental breakfast items with some additional toppings for pancakes, a few extra bakery items such as croissants and munchkins and an omelette station. The total for two kids plus 2 adults was $75. -watch your receipt they tried to charge us for milk when it was literally included in the buffet line (the original price was $80 until we asked them to remove the extra milk fee) *Depends on your budget if it's worth it: The adventure pass consisted of ropes, rock wall, mini golf and bowling. -The ropes were perfect for my teenager, -the rock wall was perfect for my 8 year old. -The mini golf was about 50ft by 50ft - great for toddlers but lacking for anything above preschool age. -"Mini" Bowling was literally the size of a dollar store bowling set with a ball return and pin setter and we avoided it completely when we saw it- (it's also adjacent to the breakfast buffet and arcade) so could be good while waiting to be seated for food but leaves your kids begging to go to the arcade. *Worth it- Pup pass came with a build a bear, ice cream, and a mom friendly size of candy from the gift shop plus 25% off some additional items Final verdict you get more included with your pass at the Wisconsin Dells location and a larger water park so if you don't mind driving an extra 1.5 hrs that's the route to go. If you want a close trip from Chicago and don't mind the extra fees and being mildly uncomfortable during your stay (noise, smell, and space) then Gurnee is the way to go. read more

Great Wolf Lodge - Water Parks Near Me - Gurnee, Illinois

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They need to stop charging us for the parking spaces! I found out when we checked the website. They charge people for parking spaces to stay there! read more

Horrible experience with my room!! Smelled like smoke. Strong enough to keep me up all night. Wasn't noticeable until I settled in for the night. Found blood stain near the toilet. Extremely disappointed. Kiosk near the pool didn't work. read more

Of course the prices are high. Would I have like to see it more reasonable? Of course. I originally reserved 5 days at another hotel for almost $600. Slightly less than $200 more I got 5 days at a comfortable hotel and 5 days of a water park for 5 people. Come in from Vegas for my daughters boot camp graduation and to celebrate her 18th birthday. We had a great time. Gurnee is a beautiful city that I fell in love with. The hotel/indoor water was great. We all had a blast including my 2 year old. Wish the pool was open later than 8 or 9 depending on the days. Wish it would stay open till about 10-11. That would have made it even better as we were our and about most days and came back to late on some days to enjoy it like we wanted to. Only other complaint is I really wish we were given a list of events that were going on daily. The only way I knew about the dance party/trick or treat/story time/bingo etc was by walking thru the lobby either coming or going. Someone complained about having to check out and check back in the towel in the water park area. It was only a pain because walking back to our room freezing wasn't the best. A towel to go up would have been nice. After the 3rd day I just brought a room towel and solved that problem. I love that there are carts to get your luggage to and from the room with ease Cleaning crew please don't put sheets with holes in them the beds. Our pull out sheet we're full of holes. That's really the only complaint I have. Actually one more. The arcade was super fun but man that part was expensive. My 2 year old went thru $25 in no time. Each game is roughly $2-$3. Crazy prices. That's high for a 1 minute or less game read more

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Way out in the burbs but they still tack on another $15 per night for parking. The pool was nice, the room average but the overall experience was not worth the nearly $1000 we spent for 2 nights before food and activities. I know that measly $15 per night shouldn't mean much, but I'm sure it adds up to thousands per night per property so I see it for the blatant greedy money grab it is. I've stopped staying at other hotels over a parking fee, I won't be returning to this one as well. EDIT: My original post was written midway through our stay in response to a customer service bot asking if it could do anything to improve my stay, then refusing the one thing I asked (removing the parking fee). After checking out today I learned about the $36 per day "resort fee". That's $50 per day in unavoidable fees added to the nightly rate! read more

Facility cleanliness: 5/5 Activities for kids: 5/5 Check-in process/staff being informative: 3/5 (I would love to have a bit more explanation as far as where things are throughout the resort at check in, when asking the staff they're not giving any helpful information.) read more

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Had a kid's birthday party here. East to book, well organized, pretty good customer service. Kids had a lot of fun

What a great trip to GWL. From our booking to our lodging everything definitely went superb. My son had a week off school so I decided to give him a surprise trip to GWL because we both haven't been before. We took the train to and from GWL, Illinois. That was another great experience as well. We got to the lodge around noon but checkin wasn't until 4pm; I called before hand and they told us when we get there to see from desk staff and they may be able to accommodate us. Annndd they did!!! There was a room that was ready and that saved us from waiting around or trying to find somewhere to go for four hours. This Lodge is huge and there was so much to do for everyone; definitely adults can have fun here too. From the water park, to the arcade, gift shop, restaurants, obstacle course , bowling, golf, daily staff picked events ... OMG we had a blast!!! Only thing is there wasn't enough food vendors with different options. Also breakfast could've been free but we had to pay for that too; though it's a buffet style and there's much to choose from; you can't do take out so that was a bummer. The greatest PLUS was that they had an APP so you are able to easily see and do things right from there. And the virtual assistant that constantly texted us with updates; as well as answered our questions promptly. So I recommend this for a family trip for sure! Just be sure to be ready to spend because everything is pricey and they do have plans to pick from when booking the reservation. Though going out of the resort would be good too to get cheaper food and just to tour the city. We went out to the nearby mall, Mexican restaurant, Walgreens and also made it to The Bean... read more

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Friendly staff and clean facilities. We went for a day trip over Spring break. Everyone had a wonderful time at the indoor waterpark and other available activities. Some of the shop areas only had one employee working and that made the wait times longer. read more

*BEWARE* Very Questionable Business Practices Preparing for our family yearly trip to GWL. Last year we went and they removed the sitting area near the lazy River and replaced with cabanas that can be rented for your stay. I want my family and I to be comfortable so I went on and booked the indoor premier cabana. I was quoted $450 ( which is ridiculous btw), but for comfort and a designated seating area for my family I said OK. The issue that I have is that online the exact same cabana is priced at $250. Matter of fact their deluxe cabana that comes with amenities such as towels, tumblers, and a food package is $400 ( which is less than what I booked) So, I am trying to understand why this company would charge more for a something only to give less? It doesn't make sense. When I posed this question to a representative, she couldn't even answer. Needless to say I canceled the cabana. I truly can't wait till my daughter is over this place cause if is truly a rip off! I do not recommend! read more

Great Wolf Lodge - They are ridiculous! - Water Parks Near Me - Gurnee, Illinois

Watch out for the rides... you get hurt, Great Wolf Lodge ignores you!!!I I took my granddaughter for her birthday and on my first ride, the Tornado, shot us out of the funnel backwards and hit the back of my head directly into a concrete wall. I told a life guard at the time and as not to make a big ordeal on my granddaughter's birthday, continued to go on rides. However, as the day progressed, I got a terrible headache and have had one every day since August 26 and I rarely get headaches I also reported it to the Heath and safety manager who took notes with a promise someone would get back to me in 24-48 hours. I did not get a call and I called back 5 days later to an AI agent that viciously recycled my call to reservations. I finally lied and said I wanted to rent a cabana to get a person on the phone. That worked. Finally was given a name and number to call with extension to call, but when I called, I was directed to the same number with NO option to punch in an extension. I have emailed a dozen times, called at least a half dozen to get a response that someone will contact me in 24 -48 hours, then no response. I emailed and called again to get an email that it would be 72 hours. Then no response. Emailed and called again and was told they escalated my case with no time frame. It has been almost a month and just emailed again and the number they provided sent me to a voicemail that I finally figured out how to contact, stated that is full and not accepting calls. At the time of my accident, I should have made a big scene, threaten to sue but that is not the person I am. However, I am not one to be ignored. I have medical bills for this and just want to be compensated in some way to cover those bills and perhaps reimburse me for our one night stay. I don't think that is asking too much. They really should have a safety and customer service section because they would get ZERO stars. Trip typeVacation · Family Rooms3.0Service1.0Location3.0 Hotel highlightsKid-friendly SafetyNot safe and don't take care of you if you do get hurt! Food & drinksToo expensive! read more

While we were there this past weekend the hotel staff didn't adequately give my crew the necessary pass or wrist band for the gate and also charged my crew an additional fee stating that we had more people then the room was intended for yet when we booked it was the room that fit 12 people. On top of that we were being harassed in the water park and while the staff did assist and gave us a cabana our children didn't feel safe in a place that should be fun... while the overall experience was awful and we don't plan on going there anymore the staff that did assist was respectful and nice. read more