Great Wolf Lodge Grand Mound, WA is a fabulous place to escape the mundane tasks of everyday life. We have been just about every year since they’ve opened. Our little guy (Isaiah)is three and autistic. We began visiting long before he was born. This is one of the few places we can all get away too and have a great time. Autism friendly places are hard to come by. We always go during the week because weekends tend to be overcrowded. We have learned by visiting so many times that early mornings are perfect for our Isaiah. The park isn’t overly crowded. He has a few hours to play and have fun. The convenience of having a suite to go back to is phenomenal.Especially if meltdowns start to happen. One time during a visit I became ill(not from our stay) I was already feeling ill before we arrived. Turns out I was dehydrated. I stayed in the room the majority of the day with Isaiah. He still enjoyed it. We watched cartoons and we had snacks and laid in front of the fireplace, pretending to be camping.

The park is set up perfectly. The Cub Paw Pool and Tadpole Pond(outside)The little one’s play areas are great! There is also an indoor food court type dining option (Buckets Incredible Craveables)that’s inside the water park. This makes it convenient when you have the refillable drink cups that we purchased upon arrival. This also made life easier with Isaiah. We would grab a drink or snack from Buckets Incredible Craveables and then tell our little guy we needed to go back to the room to consume. He wasn’t always so thrilled but it seemed to work most of the time. They have a Giant bucket dessert called the Tipping Bucket. It’s filled with soft serve ice cream, brownies, cookies, candy pieces, and topped with whipped cream and hot fudge sauce. It fed our entire family of 6 with plenty left over.

You are allowed to bring outside food and snacks into your hotel room. You have a small fridge and microwave. We usually dine at the resort. If we’ve had a really rough day we order pizza from inside the resort and my husband will go pick it up and bring it back to the room. They give you paper plates and napkins.

Isaiah really enjoys using a magic wand for magiquest. We don’t use a map or go around the entire resort. There are plenty of places he can point his wand in the lobby and hallway going to our room that light up and open. He loves it! Our older kids love running around the entire resort trying to see who can complete the map first.

They have a very autism-friendly evening story time.This takes place in the lobby by The Great Clock Tower. I always bring our kids down to the lobby in their pajamas. We grab a hot chocolate from Starbucks which is also located in the lobby and just relax and enjoy the show.

This picture from story time is actually from the Great Wolf Lodge website.