Great Wolf Lodge taking over and redoing Key Lime Cove has been a great improvement. One impact of this change is there is more to do for the older kids 6/7+. The rooms are updated and there are options for suites which allows for the adults to hangout after the kids fall asleep.
It's conveniently located near Chicago but relatively small and a little dirty....
Place for kids/families that want to be in bed at 9:00. Pool closes and the place shut down for fun. You will find 1 food option after 9:00 - a single line pizza and sub shop.
I don't think they clean the pool floors each night.
Bring you own adult beverages!!
I would suggest staying no more than 2 nights and never on a holiday.
Kids loved the pool.
It's a nice place. Food and drink is on the pricy side, but that's to be expected.
The kids had a lot of fun, they liked these slides better than the WI location, although the WI location felt bigger
First I have to say that Joseph Berridge of the Gurnee, IL location was awful to deal with. After expressing, in our survey, how unhappy we were about quite a few things that happened, he failed to follow up with a phone call HE SET UP three times claiming he just got too busy. Needless to say we will never go back to that location. I would drive the extra 2.5 hours away to go to a different location. Extremely poor food choices. At one point we were not aloud to go in the pool area to eat dinner because we were not swimming, only eating, so we had to go get a manager to have the 16 year old at the gate let myself and my 2 daughters in to eat dinner. I could go on and on but I will spare the rest of the details. The worst experience ever!
Good place to spend quality time with my 5years old son only bad thing I was place on the last room on the floor this is a really big place overall good run away from winter
It was great place for the kids very fun place the water park was big and they had tons of activities I would highly recommend this place
So middle age children friendly, amazing experience
We had a WONDERFUL time and would like to leave a good review and specifically recognize Ricky, the cook at the Timbers. My family and I are Vegan and we saw that there weren't any Vegan options outside of fruit. We were going to leave the lodge to go to another restaurant when the extremely friendly staff assured us that Ricky would take care of us. He quickly whipped up some AMAZING options for us and even came out to check on us and see how we liked it. The staff was so nice and friendly and for this experience alone we will be coming back again. It's so nice to know that Great Wolf is so accommodating!!!
We had a great time. Plenty of activities for the little ones. My son loved the the magiQuest game, and my daughter who is 18months loved the kiddie splash area.
Foods expensive but, to be expected.
Amazing indoor water park, full of family entertainment
My 4 kids ages 7- 10 enjoyed the water park. It was just the right size that they could run off and I felt comfortable staying in my lounge chair relaxing.
The air was hot, water warm, we never were cold.
The room was nice, food was good.
My son said the rock wall was one of the best ones ever.
I'd rather come back here than go to the Dells!
Great stay except I was accused of not returning 5 towels. They need to fix their towel system.
We have been to other GWL before and this water park is small, but the worst part is the quiet hours that start at 11pm. We have rowdy neighbors on our second night (large group, music, shouting) and the management couldn t do anything until quiet hours even after multiple complaints. For a waterpark filled with toddlers and young children, they need to adjust their quiet hours to 9pm. Most young children go to be between 7:30 - 8:30, so to let one loud group ruin the stay for many other families is unreasonable. We will never return.
Nice water park for the kids. Rooms we're recently renovated so they are modern and cclea. I went for dinner at Barnwood. Many items on the menu had run out and vegetarian options were few. The food options could be better. That's why I gave it a 4.
The rooms were okay, the only problem is when we asked for 6 pillows we only gotgot 3.
This was our first tim here at this location. We drove from grand rapids Michigan to come here and we thoroughly enjoyed our stay. The water park is big and geared towards the older kids as far as height requirements go. The rooms were clean and and everything was well organized. We will be coming back in the near future if we are ever in north chicago again.
I LOVED my experience at Great Wolf Lodge!! There was never a shortage of fun activities, my room was clean and fresh, beds were comfortable, beautiful cabin vibes everywhere. Will be coming back!
Though it's. Small one ...well maintained one.Every one can enjoy the rides
Awesome place, pricey food especially pizza and drinks. Barnwood was excellent!! Noz is our server, excellent and superb , polite , knowledgeable!! 24/7 assistant on my cellphone answers anything and everything. Every staff member was awesome except for the lazy black guy at mini golf at 9:15am April 23, 2019. A rotten apple in the bunch, nonchalant approach, making guests feel we were bothering his rest.
Excellent location, beautiful rooms, friendly staff, and the waterpark was tons of fun! Nice shops, restaurants, and activities for the whole family. Can't wait to go back!
I didn't stay there but walked around the lobby and it was impressive. Looked like lots of activities with for the kids.
I should start that I rarely take the time to write a review but I am making a special exception for this establishment. I wish I could give them negative stars as I have yet to check in and already will not be coming back to stay. I waited in line to check in for 30+ minutes, got to the front and kindly explained to Tony (the employee) that while I am not the person who rented the room, [my grandmother did (same last name)] I was a guest and she was running late, an hour and a half late and I wanted to know if I could check in, I would leave my I.D. and revisit the front desk with her upon her arrival to further prove my identity. I even offered to call her personally for them to chat with her although I had the confirmation number and email which I also showed him. His response was short, bitter and unaccommodating (given that we also booked one of the largest suites in the place) - I would have to rent the room myself that was already paid for or wait for her.
It was fine. A bit pricey though all around from the room to food/ drinks.
We thoroughly enjoyed our day visit at Great Wolf Lodge in Gurnee!! The boys played for 8 hours and slept well for the next two nights.
The wait at Timbers for lunch was ling but the food was worth the wait.
The staff was friendly and helpful. The lockers were handy. Bathrooms were spacious and clean (could use a few more benches/shelves/hooks for clothes and towels).
We will be back!
Fun place for family time!! Water park is decent, clean but what I love the most is the lifeguards!! They are on constant focus and alert, walk around and are super aware of their surroundings!!
The room was slightly outdated and the beds were not very comfortable but everything was clean. The chlorine in the water park was a little overwhelming.
It's pretty basic but still fun filled. My daughter was a year at the time (aug. 2014) and she loved it. She walked all over the arcade and loved the tiny water fountains in the water park. This place doesn't have much for adults or teens.. like I said it's basic. The breakfast buffet is actually phenomenal. Has about everything and a kind staff. Hotel has comfy pillows and clean rooms. No complaints about the rooms. I'd go again just for a couple of days maybe to go to six flags too this time. But for a crazy and bigger water park I'll drive the 2 hrs to the dells.
First, get their early. Pick your spot, every water activity is very accessible. My grand babies had a blast. Food was awesome. Prices great.
Lousy unreadable website. You ask to book nights at Keylime and it gives every other hotel bit what you want. The listed phone number is incorrect! We are going elsewhere!
This was a great place to take the kids for a staycation. The rooms were functional and were well maintained.
There is a large number of things to do besides swimming, from playing arcade games to MagiQuest. Our kids were not old enough to ask us for playing MagiQuest so we didn t participate in this.
The game section of Great Wolf is lively and well staffed. We did have a problem with one of the games but the manager was right on hand to credit me with the three plays I had lost when the game rebooted on me.
Our family had a pizza the first night and pizza prices are comparable to what you would pay at a local pizza place and the quality was good enough to enjoy.
I will say that the food stand within the pool area can get quite busy and quite expensive. I paid 47.00 for 3 hot dogs, a salad, cheese curds and some French Fries and during peak hours we ended up waiting for about 25 minutes for our food.
So let s talk about the pools. I enjoyed the water temperature of the pools and slides. They keep the water clean and properly chlorinated. With this becoming a Great Wolf Lodge resort they added a age appropriate wave pool and two large slides. I was here at this place before it was a Great Wolf Lodge and I can say the additions are worth it.
From an age perspective this is a good place for young families as well as families that go up to middle schoolers. High school aged kids / families and empty nesters, while they are most certainly welcomed here, the activities are geared more toward the younger crowd.
I went here just recently for a quick overnight staycation and I was not disappointed.
A great place for families.
Jeff a blast! Great room and decent water park. Still have to work out some logistics with housekeeping, but overall had fun with the whole family. Would definitely stay again.
We drove all the way from Detroit, MI to take our 3 year old and not one retreat! Very nice for kids, my son has an amazing time & so did we!! Only two things I didn't like it that at times the chlorine smell was very strong and we had to be our at 11AM from our hotel on our last day of reservation other than that things were great. It was over booked but it was on Easter weekend so I'm sure that was why.
Inconsiderate of any changes families need to make to their rooms. We had 3 staying in a room that could have had 6 people. We wanted to add one more guest after our reservation was made, and they denied it after making me wait 3 days to get a response.
luv this place .... went on the fly for my kids ... they want to come back .... price was normal for all that you got to do within the hotel.... Thanks Key Lime Cove for a 2day get away....
We loved our stay here. Everything was clean and the staff was very friendly. We'll definitely be coming back
Amazing stay!! So much to do with the kids and very nice clean hotel.
Wonderful park and hotel. They work hard to make sure you are happy.
So far it's nice place for kids to play we booked two nights . Lots of restaurants in the area and nice service. My son is having so much fun he didn't wanna leave the water park
We visited on the Sunday/Monday of Presidents Day weekend so the resort was predictably full. Overall we found the experience decidedly Meh. The pool area was fine, though they were consistently out of inner tubes (unsurprising) and towels (unacceptable in our opinion). The food at the restaurant was fine and the kitchen sink Sunday was fantastic but the service was fairly slow even with the restaurant half full. The family suite was an excellent room and I would highly recommend it for those visit with two or more children. Two bathrooms, two bedrooms, comfortable beds and an excellent tub/shower in the master. Overall, KLC was middle of the road at best, though. We found ourselves wishing we had gone back to another hotel/water park.
Great for kids who love swimming....plenty of activities for those who don't.
Water park was cute but smaller than expected. There are more things to do in this location compared to dells though, with exclusion of water park. Definitely not worth the price difference between the two. Cleanliness is the room is deceiving. Upon entering room, we opened door to return cart only to end up touching a door handle covered in dried ice-cream(no clean place to put my hand).While making the pull out bed we found that the nicely folded blanket in closet had not been laundered but rather was just folded up and replaced in closet( fresh chocolate on inside after unfolded). We later found that one of the bunk bed blankets also had the same chocolate on the underside (after my son slept there). Young life guards are not enforcing rules but do adhere to injury protocols.
My kids from 31 year's old to 3 years old loved all the slides. My family had a blast!! Food was awesome and the souvenirs made them all happy. Thank you to all staff. Great service!!
It was good all in all but not a resort I could stay a whole week like I could the one in Wisconsin dells. Some improvements to be made like organizing the linear for slides so many kids cutting people just not knowing what lane was what.but my kids had fun thats what matters
I was not impressed with Great Wolf lodge for the prices they charge they should provide a lot more amenities. I mean no DVD player, no toaster, no freezer? If your not going to provide a kitchen then the rooms should be a lot roomier. The indoor park was ok but I felt like it needed more entry ways to get to everywhere. I felt like I had to walk forever to get anywhere in the waterpark.. Also the temperature in the waterpark was a little too cold. Finally I was pretty upset that there were no jacuzzis there. I mean I truly have never been to a waterpark with no jacuzzis?!
Great Wolf Lodge is such an incredible place! I'm so glad my wife decided to host our son's birthday party and sleepover there. The staff were so friendly and super helpful. The food was delicious too. The best part was the birthday package in our room. Made my son feel so special. Thank you Great Wolf Lodge!
Very pricy for so little. They charge for EVERYTHING!!!
My family chose to travel here for a weekend stay and unfortunately our car was broken into and all of our possessions were stolen. We spoke with the management they stated they have no cameras in the parking lot or the facility because they had just spent millions on renovations. We filed a police report but I'm sure that will not get our items back. We are on our way home feelings hurt because all of our things were stolen and they could not do anything for us. But enjoy your stay if you do decide to come just make sure you lock up your items. Which we did they still got into our car some way.
Not as many rides for toddlers as we expected. Only outdoor attraction is a pool. Hotel is definitely not brand new and is a refurbished old hotel. However there weren't very many people so it was kind of nice. Golf bowling mining rock climbing and ropes course all cost extra. I would suggest the Great Wolf in the Dells.
The resort is fun for an overnight stay. Though the park seemed understaffed.
Great inclusive family getaway destination. Plenty for kids of all ages to do, even in the winter months.
A great addition to the area. The remodel was worthwhile, a must-see.
Great place for kids!! I took a 2.5 year old and an 8 year old and they both enjoyed the water park, arcade and activities the resort had to offer. I wish the water park's water was a little warmer. My 2.5 year old got pretty cold at one point. The food here is just ok nothing too amazing but if you don't mind leaving the resort there are plenty of options. I would come here again.
tl;dr: do not recommend just yet - they need to work out a lot of issues.
Pros:
- Alonzo and the arcade crew were so lovely.
- The kids running the attraction tickets, climbing and ropes were also lovely.
- The bowling girl was also lovely
- The towel booth kids were excellent
- Bowling was really fun
- Rock Climbing was fun for all ages and has an easy/med/hard course (10, 18, 21 all tried it and we saw some very small kids try it - it was adorable)
- Restaurants all delivered yummy food - the quality of food was great, though the variety left something to be desired
- Housekeeping staff are A+++, seriously, the room was impeccable every day.
- It's nice to be able to use your wristband to open your room+make purchases
- Proximity to Chicago is great (45ish minutes off-peak traffic)
Cons:
- The AC in the room would turn off at night, this happened for 3 nights in a row in room 4130, which was a 3 room suite.
- The website advertises things that are not offered - this is false advertising. Laundry was one of those things - huge disappointment
- The flip flops station (also listed on the site) isn't open.
- The wave pool wasn't working - it would run for 2 minutes and off for 15-20 minutes.
- Buckets - one of the restaurants in the Waterpark, was constantly on a wait. It took 30 minutes to receive 1 order of a burger+fries.
- Breakfast buffet is one time pass through....that's not a buffet, more like a small cafeteria where you paid for 1 plate of food.
- The entire trip, employees were surprised in a negative way that we were here for 3 nights. It felt odd, like there was something they knew that we didn't.
- Above all the attitude of the staff was the reason for this review. We felt like a burden, like we should be lucky to be there. It's supposed to be a family/kids resort, but the odd rules/attitudes around everything made it feel like we weren't welcome.
- Only 1 set of elevators per "tower", and they were very slow.
- Housekeeping forgot to leave soap/shampoo, which is totally ok, it happens, so I called and asked for some to be put in our room. The person on the phone seemed to behave like I somehow was lying...which is such a weird burden to impart on hotel guests - toiletries are cheap, but that feeling you give guarantees you lose any of my money in the future.
- only 4 balls in the basketball pool, but 5 hoops. We asked the gift-shop if we could buy a ball to use in the pool - they said yes. We get to the pool and promptly get told to remove our ball. When we ask them to bring out a 5th ball for the 5th hoop, they say they don't have one.
- Check-in line took 40 minutes to get through
- The waterpark is smaller than the one in Niagra
- No spa - the Niagra location had a lovely spa
- Volume didn't work in the bedroom TV's
- Barnwood is the "premier" restaurant. The prices were high end fine dining prices, which felt incredibly out of place. The service wasn't worth the price - though the food was pretty good, just not "fine dining" good. They had the entrees separate from the sides and the entrees ranged from $19-30/each, sides $7-10 each. Even the risotto dish, which was meatless, ran $18. The server actively discouraged some items on the already very small menu (1 page, large font) because they've gotten complaints on them. So we basically ended up ordering what she told us to order - felt weird.
I would give this place a 3.5
The check in took 3+ hours.
My family and I basically wasted a whole day just trying to check in.
My daughter had fun, but I wished we could've spent more time doing activities rather than sitting around waiting for our room. We were told we could go in the water. Ummm, hello? What about all our bags/luggage? I was definitely not going to pay for a locker to store all of our stuff.
It's a cute place, but my time was definitely wasted.
Oh! And we went to Gurnee Mills to kill time. The lady at the front desk told us she would call us when the system was back up. She never did. I had to call the hotel and ask if everything was okay and was told "it's been up and running for 30 min"
Never got a call.
Highly disappointed. I expected better.
Room condition was great but it was a little too hot inside
Great place for family enjoyment and relaxation. Fun for children and parents.
Fun Lodge water park for Family. Expanded water park. (Checking in and out very convenient). They did a great job. Added Wave pool, more water slides and outdoor pool. Would like to see clocks in water park. Also, don't understand why you don't have exhaust fan in bedroom bathroom. This can cause mold quickly. Walls had extremely moisture after showering.
Check-In was a nightmare. Unprepared for crowds. Way to long to get room. Waited over an hour in lines to get keys.
Went in Sept after the renovation and the changes were impressive. Everything looks fresh and new with an expansion to the main water park and completely revamped marketplace and lobby. Only the bones and general layout remain the same. Rides were nice and we appreciated the outdoor pool for a bit of a change.
Kid loved the indoor water park, good rooms but no bathroom fan
Loved it all! I thought the only downside was the price of the food, but that can be avoided by bringing your own.
Great place to go for a quick kids getaway! The birthday cake provided in the kids birthday package was surprisingly good! And that's a direct quote from the family's professional baker!
Location was great, rooms were not as nice as pictured
The valet, engineering staff and security staff need to give the front office staff customer service training. Albert Jaylen and Tommy were lovely human beings who made my life easier during my stay. Tifany Alexa and Dea should be fired immediately for being immature and unnecessarily escalating a situation in which a guest just wanted keys to the room, after checking in online. This should have take. Less than five minutes, but these three poorly trained individuals made the ordeal take almost an hour
I work with front office staff all over the country all week long and I have never met so many defensive self important entitled milenials all working at the same front desk at one time! The front office staff need training on how to make people feel relaxed and taken care of during their vacation rather than taking out their own insecurities and power issues on unsuspecting guests. Let me explain:
(1) the pre-check in line moved more slowly than the regular check in line and when I got to the front of the check in line for people who did the precheck in and walked up to the desk, Tifany told me that I had to wait because the man behind me was first. I was so confused I looked at her and him and he said no, she waited in line she s next.
(2) while holding my 20 month old and giving her my credit card, it turned out that i had forgotten my picture I d in the car. Tifany would not work with me to figure out another way to confirm my identity. She was indignant. Apparently, the confirmation number, my contact information, and my credit card was not enough for her so i had to go back out to my car and wait in the line again. Later, the manager of the hotel confirmed. THERE ARE WAYS SHE COULD HAVE CONFIRMED MY IDENTITY BUT CHOSE NOT TO
(3) when I walked to and from my card to get my license and made my way to the front of the pre-check line again, holding my 30 pound 20 month old, i dropped my credit card and license on the counter in front of Tifany so i could now finally check in. Dea thought she had to protect her fellow front desk worker so interrupted to fang from signing me in to give me back my credit card and license to say don t throw those at her she is not a dog you don t throw things at her . I dropped them on the counter because i was carrying a diaper bag three coats a baby and a blanket.
(4) when i asked to speak to a manager, Alexa, another poorly trained front staff worker came out and instead of saying how can i help and giving me my room keys, she was already distant and defensive instead of willing to just check me in!!! I took their picture so i could have their names for writing this review, when she told me i had to delete the picture because she does not give me permission to take her picture. NEWSFLASH, Alexa, I do not need permission to take your picture when you are working In a public place. She actually threatened to call the police on me because i took her picture ! Well if you didn t do anything wrong then you have nothing to worry about Alexa.
(5). Then they gave me poor directions to my room and when i ended up in the wrong tower said it was my fault for misunderstanding their directions s. How is a new guest supposed to know the difference between the first tower and the second tower? I was told to go down the hallway to the left and take the elevator in tower 1 . I walked down the hallway on the left and took the first elevators and saw while walking down the hallway, which to a new guest seems to be the first tower.
(6) Now i have found my room and My wrist band does not work to open the door it flickers red. The front office staff told me i would have to walk back down stairs to get new wristbands. Seriously?!?? For a $500/night room you are not going to send someone up here to let me in and bring me new wristbands?
Luckily, this was the last i had to deal with the front office staff because Albert from engineering has made arrangements for security to bring wristbands to me. 2 minutes later Jalen and tommy have excellent customer service skills
We had a great time! The room was very clean and cutely decorated. The water park was clean and had plenty to keep us entertained for our entire stay! The staff was very friendly and helpful. We re already planning our next trip!!
Had a great time with my sister and our kids. Staff were friendly and energetic.
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