Great Wolf Lodge | Mashantucket, CT — Hotel in Ledyard

My review is going to mirror another review here that says “room disaster” because, same!!! This review would be a single star if not for that fact that we were refunded. But, I’m pretty sure I was only refunded because I told them I was making a transparent review with the photos I showed them of the first, disgusting room they gave us. Save your time and money. Even with the refund, we won’t be back for a long time if ever.. I know they’re new. I wanted to cut the situation slack and our family usually does. But after all issues considered in with that, they’re charging a significant amount more per stay in comparison to other GWL resorts. Do better if you’re charging people more to stay! It doesn’t matter if it’s new if the service is awful!

We arrived, used the self check-in and received our room right away. We go up to it, we get in and myself, my husband, and our two boys walked in and then just stopped. All of the bedding was removed from the beds, the nightstand had a little girls sleep mask on it and what looked like spilled sugar (so there’s no confusion I have two sons, no daughters, so not ours!) the bedding that was removed was on the tv stand and the table, a used piece of hand soap was in the soap dish, and the room had a weird smell. I immediately called to the front desk and about 20 minutes later someone came up with two new bracelets for a new room. Except there were four of us… we needed 4 bracelets. She told us she would come back with the 2 other bracelets. She never did 🙃 Dirty room, and rude staff within 1 hour of our arrival. The replacement room they gave us? I requested 2 things. A room near an elevator and an accessibly designed room because my 12 year old son is special needs. This room was neither. This room was very far down the other side of the floor we were on, and almost to the end of the hallway, so no where near an elevator, and it was not accessibly designed. But we were stuck at that point. My husband turns on the TV and it said someone else’s name our entire visit. It was eerie. With the mishap of the previous room? I was worried someone was going to walk into the room. We were told someone was going to fix it. Well that didn’t happen either! So we were “Simon” for the weekend. Simon, if you see this, I hope your stay was better than ours! We stayed 1 night. I am glad that it was only 1 night. As others have said, the walls are THIN! We could hear the entire conversation and ordeals of those around us. The quiet hours are from 11pm to 7am but many people do not observe that 11pm quiet hour cutoff. In the rooms, there is a type of detector next to the beds. It blinks a bright green light nonstop. When you try to fall asleep there will be a very bright blinking green light on this detector. It is in all of the rooms. It’s a sensory sensitivity nightmare and horrible design. Next, I selected to have parking charged to our overall cost. We go to exit the lot, and our bracelets did not work. They charged us for parking but didn’t activate the parking pass. 🙄 Lastly, I purchased late checkout and we were locked out of our room early! We got back to our room from the water to change on our last day and we were wet, cold and locked out. I had to track down housekeeping to get us back in!

The lazy river had very few tubes and almost everyone was walking through the lazy river. Usually that’s not even allowed because it’s a safety issue. The family raft ride was a disaster. They were down to only TWO rafts. They said the rest deflated and that they were “literally in the process of inflating more” as they spoke to a huge line of sweaty, frustrated people like ourselves who had been waiting in line a solid hour because they didn’t have enough tubes. The conveyor broke at least twice while we were there. While in line maintenance came twice, and an individual from engineering also came through because of it. Many employees we came across were very polite. The front desk employees are RUDE and most issues derived from the front desk. Don’t go until they have their issues...

First time staying at a Great Wolf Lodge and overall had a good experience. This location opened only a few months ago, so everything is new and very nice. That might also explain the service issues other people complained about before (new and inexperienced staff). There are no microwaves in the rooms but I think there is one where the ice machine is. The main reason for only giving a 4 star review is finding out after our stay that the water park didn't have certain rides that their other locations have.

I read some reviews that claim the location in MA is bigger, but after looking into it that seems to not be true. The GWL site claims the water park at this location is nearly double the size of MA (91,000 sq ft vs 50,000 sq ft) but MA has the Wolf Tail and Howlin' Tornado rides that this location CT doesn't which is weird given the difference in size. It didn't seem like there was any unique attractions at this location either. This location has a lot more suites than MA does also.

The parking lot in front of the lodge here is not free (it is free at the MA location). It is $25/day as others have claimed. Free parking is available at the Foxwoods parking garage just beyond the premium parking lots. I opted to park in the garage and it wasn't that big of a deal. It was about a 3min walk from the lobby of the lodge to the elevator/stairs of the parking garage.

We got there at 1:30 on a Friday and check-in went fine. They say check-in is at 4pm but our room was available at 1:30 when we got there. We were lucky and just beat the rush. By 2pm there was a long line to check in. Saturday morning was even busier. They do have a bunch of kiosks to check yourself in if you want.

The water park was great on Friday, not too busy. It was packed on Saturday though. I am assuming it was because they offer day passes for people not staying at the lodge making it extra busy. It was a little less busy during lunch and dinner times.

I've read negative reviews complaining about how loud it was in the rooms. Be forewarned the lodge's quiet/"hibernation" hours are from 11pm to 7am. So it may be loud up to 11pm and I will say our kids were. After eating dinner at Foxwoods, we let them play up to 11pm and made sure they quieted down after that.

On the day of checkout, after checking out and leaving our luggage in our vehicle, I was walking back from the foxwoods garage to use the water park for the rest of the day and there was a guy also walking back next to me that was talking to a friend on the phone complaining about how loud kids were in another room the night before until 11pm. I didn't find the rooms to be excessively noisy but for all I know, he was complaining about us or maybe we weren't the only ones. I have no shame admitting that, we complied with the lodge's policy. For what it's worth, they did ask at check-in if we preferred a room where it would be quieter and we declined. Maybe he should have taken advantage of that. You might also have better luck getting a quiet room at Foxwoods if kids making a lot of noise until 11pm is going to be an issue for you.

We had the breakfast package. It is available 7:30-11am. The food was decent. Not the greatest but not the worst. The quality is on par with what I would expect for a hotel breakfast, but the variety exceeded expectations. They had just about everything. No cereal, waffles or grits though but they had just about anything else you could want for breakfast. We had to get creative for chocolate milk using the milk at the coffee station and the chocolate syrup that was where the food was (assuming for kids to put on pancakes?)

Just a piece of advice, take advantage of the deals! A lot of people are complaining about the cost but you could save a significant amount of money taking advantage of their deals. We had a couple family members join us on Saturday and they paid about $100 more for two half day waterpark passes than we did for our room and breakfast package which included all day passes for two days at...

My family & I just stayed for 3 nights and checked out today. I don't even know where to start. My family and I are HUGE fans of the Pennsylvania Great Wolf Lodge and were so excited when we heard one was finally being built in Connecticut. If you have ever been to the PA one, change ALL of your expectations now. First thing, it is beautifully built and looks nice. It is a great deal smaller than the PA location, but that is okay. That was expected with the location and where it was being built. Our issues all seemed to stem from "service" in places. While we were there, we heard from several people that almost a dozen employees from the hotel hospitality services quit all in one go. So getting anything you needed after check-in was like pulling teeth (pillows, blankets, towels, toilet paper, etc.). The room service that usually comes in the morning to clean up, restock and make the beds, well, that happened more around 5pm instead of 11am. Now, credit to the staff who was on duty. They sure were doing their best to do the work of 5 people even though they were one.

Now, my major issues stem from the people working the food service areas. I went and order a large cheese pizza from one location located near there swim park area. I paid, waited and and received my pizza box. Took my order and went up to my hotel room. I then opened my box, and was given NOT a large cheese pizza, but 3 small 4 to 5 inch in diameter personal pizzas; toddler size. I didn't even know what to say. It was late and they were already closed to even go back down and say something. I was pissed off to say the least.

Then the following day I took my son to get ice cream at the place near the swim park and ordered a traditional hot fudge sundae. I kid you not, I watched this girl throw vanilla ice cream into a cup for drinks (milkshakes I believe), then proceed to a hand blender, blending the ice cream in said cup, placed whipped cream on top with chocolate "syrup" ONTOP of whipcream (NOT fudge) and then put the cup cover over it and proceeded to hand me the cup. I asked her what that was, because I ordered a Sundae. She said that was their Sundae... it's just made with soft serve. I said we'll it's definitely soft serve after you blended it. Anyway, it was a milkshake (somewhat) and not a hot fudge sundae (there wasn'teven any fudge). I really didn't know if the girl was just naive and didn't know how to make one or if this is some weird place calling what they did an Ice Cream Sundae. However, once again, I was irritated.

Now here we are at "3rd times a Charm"... We went and ate at a restaurant (Fireside I believe is the name). Great service, food was great, waitress was nice. That wasn't the issue... you go to order your kids the souvenir cups, BUT.... nope, they don't have those even though they are advertised on all the tables and menus. And it's not like they were out apparently, they just don't have them. Well WHY are you advertising them? Because now you just have a bunch of upset toddlers and little kids. Makes no sense.

Also, the place is NOT handicap friendly at all. Nothing to rent or use to get around if your handicapped and have mobility issues. I went to eat at their buffet, asked for a table that was close to their food line because it's hard to walk. They take me to a table that was still closer to the back. Then my sister shows up with her two teenage daughters (none of them have handicaps), but they get seated right up front by the food line. Like if they were any closer they would be eating at the service counters with the food. I mean come on, teach your employees about hospitality and being aware of people with needs.

Then a FINALLY whammy... my sister's and I requested the LATE check-out, which you pay extra for. They canceled out my sister bracelets at the regular check out time of 11am. The bracelets are your keys to get in & out of your rooms and to get into the water park... yeah, that's 3 extra hours you paid for just taken away.

I HATE leaving bad reviews. But the service needs...