For years, visitors to the Disneyland Resort have asked for a water park. If you believe the ambitious estimate by the City of Garden Grove, the water park might become a reality as soon as June 2015, just in time for the crowds that will arrive in Orange County for Disneyland’s 60th anniversary.
Of course, this is likely ambitious thinking from a city eager to see this project materialize. When Great Wolf Lodge built the location in Washington state, they broke ground in 2006 and had the grand opening in 2008. Great Wolf Resorts has said the $300 million project in Garden Grove, CA will be the company’s largest indoor-outdoor water park in the United States. Based on this, is a fair guess that Great Wolf Lodge Southern California will take about two years to build.
Great Wolf Lodge Southern California will be a 10.3-acre, 600 room resort, with an attached water park located about a mile away from Disneyland. The water park will fill a much needed void in Anaheim-area attractions for families. The Disney company has several water parks in Florida, but has never built a water park in California. There are six other water parks in southern California, with two of these in Orange County, but they are only open seasonally. Great Wolf Resorts will be the first to offer a water park that is open year-round and within walking distance of the Anaheim Resort hotels.
For families visiting the Anaheim Resort, staying at Great Wolf Lodge Southern California will make a lot of sense. The hotel offers family friendly hotel rooms that can easily accommodate large groups. Water park admission is included with the cost of your room, which is a great value compared with the constant upselling at the mouse house. Great Wolf offers a variety of experiences for families to enjoy like the Magi Quest game, arcades, and other activities. Great Wolf Lodge also has plenty of shops and restaurants inside, which will give visitors even more reasons to stay at the resort instead of traveling to Downtown Disney in the evenings.
Update: At a State of the City luncheon, Garden Grove Mayor Bruce A. Broadwater gave an update on the anticipated groundbreaking for Great Wolf Lodge. The Mayor announced that Great Wolf Lodge is expected to break ground this spring.
Update 2: Great Wolf Lodge announced plans to officially break ground in May 2014. They have not announced an anticipated grand opening date.
Update 3: As part of the ground breaking ceremony, Great Wolf announced the Garden Grove water park will open in “early 2016.”
Read More: Want a sneak peek? Take a look inside Great Wolf Lodge Southern California (concept art)
My daughter is 7 years old and is excited to attend the water park. We are looking forward to the grand opening.
This is great! Our family goes every year. And we are moving there this summer. We’re so happy!
I posted a question about the opening date on their official Facebook page and the response I got was it could be delayed due to the current drought in California – maybe a couple years or more.
Which page was that? I can’t find it.
I looked at the GWL Facebook page and couldn’t find the comment you mentioned. But I did hear that construction is moving forward. It does not appear that California’s water issues will delay things.
My wife and I can see the proposed site for the Lodge from our balcony. As of today, heavy construction has not commenced, but there has been more activity through the month of March. Looks like construction is about to begin in earnest in the following months.
How is the Lodge construction going on?
Keep us updated.
Great Wolf Resorts announced plans to officially break ground in May 2014. There should be a lot of construction activity happening soon.
Our Family Just can’t wait till this water park opens were all excited