‘Definitely we’ll be back.’ Guests applaud Manteca Great Wolf’s delayed grand opening
The waterslides are running in Manteca again, as Great Wolf Lodge finally opened its doors to the general public Tuesday.
The new indoor water park resort debuted 17 years after the city’s eponymous waterslides closed, following a decade of on-again, off-again negotiations and an additional year of delays caused by the pandemic. But as eager crowds lined up to try the resort’s six slides and numerous other water attractions, all the waiting seemed forgiven.
“It’s good to do everything in one place — the pool, the slides, the kiddie area, all the activities outside in the lobby. It’s been really good, so far we love it,” said San Ramon resident Marisol Waller, who came with her husband Luke, their two kids, and five other members of their extended family. “Definitely, we’ll be back.”
The massive 500-room hotel, 95,000-square-foot indoor water park and 45,000-square-foot family entertainment complex sits just off Highway 120. The site, on Daniels Street next to the Costco, had been under construction since November 2018 when the company celebrated its ground breaking.
Then, after announcing it would open a full month early at the start of March 2020, work was abruptly paused as the pandemic threw the resort plans asunder.
Pandemic delays Great Wolf opening by a year
Construction work on the site was largely completed last summer, but the lodge’s parent company Great Wolf Resorts had to gauge the right time to open. Great Wolf CEO Murray Hennessy said it wasn’t until California officials announced the state reopening of June 15 that they felt confident enough to set their opening date.
“Getting to this point was very difficult given COVID,” Hennessy said on site for the grand opening. “After (Gov. Gavin Newsom’s press conference) we said let’s count on that (date) and just go for broke.”
The resort has been soft-open to very limited capacity for the past two weeks, and on Tuesday opened to the general public as it ramps up to full capacity inside by the end of July. It opened this week at about 35% capacity, with almost all of its available rooms booked.
Already, the resort is bringing in visitors from across Northern California, and some as far away as the Los Angeles area and beyond. This is Great Wolf Resort’s first lodge opening since the pandemic started, and the only site under construction throughout.
The company runs 19 indoor water park resorts in North America, and all but the one location in Canada is now open after the pandemic caused shutdowns for months.
While COVID-19 significantly delayed Great Wolf opening, Hennessy said the Manteca site could have a prolonged public honeymoon as people look for drive-able vacation destinations and all-in-one family activities.
“There’s this term ‘revenge travel,’ people have been shut in for awhile and they just want to do things and go places — but they don’t want to get on planes, yet,” he said. “Initial demand, though it’s very early days, looks like it could be extremely strong here. I think we will have a delayed and longer honeymoon here.”
Manteca resort offers one-stop shop for activities, food
Great Wolf works hard to keep its guests on site as well, with nine eateries inside ranging from an ice cream parlor to burger and taco stands and its full-service sit-down restaurant The Barnwood.
The resort also has an indoor adventure park with mini-golf, ropes obstacle course, video arcade, bowling alley and more. Plus there’s the in-house interactive scavenger hunt game with wands and wizards called MagiQuest.
The resort’s restaurants and the family entertainment center are all open to the general public without a reservation (with entrance fees for the attractions). But the water park is for hotel guests only, though resort officials said they expect to begin a day pass program for non-guests to enter after the initial open rush has subsided.
The one-stop shop aspect of the resort, as well as its secure environment, is what brought Walnut Creek resident Deb Valdez and a dozen members of her extended family to the resort.
“The availability for them to be in a safe space and have independence on their own and create their own memories...it feels very safe and family friendly,” she said. “I think people are wanting something that is more inclusive and indoors.”
The City of Manteca and Great Wolf Resorts had been in on-and-off talks about bringing the water park to the Central Valley for more than 10 years. The Manteca Waterslides park was a fixture in San Joaquin County, entertaining generations of families for 30 years until its closure in 2004.
Great Wolf Resorts was founded in 1997, and has grown to become North America’s largest water park resort chain. Manteca officials said they are pleased the resort pushed through to finish the $200 million project.
“City Hall was closed (by COVID) but things continued to move on. The community is very thankful for having been selected for this particular theme park and we look forward to that continued partnership into the future,” Manteca Mayor Benjamin Cantu said during the opening festivities. “We’re going to make big things happen in partnership with Great Wolf.”
But all the planning, politics and pandemic delays were at most a distant memory to many on opening day. Joy and Fred Aquitania from Merced came with their daughters and extended family from outside of the area to enjoy the new resort. As a first water park experience for their girls, age 9 and 10, the reviews were resoundingly positive.
“I loved it. My favorite part was when my family we all got to go on the water slide together. It was really fun. Especially (hearing) my mom because she was screaming,” said 10-year-old Deanna Aquitania, who was ready to return to the water park after lunch. “I liked it a lot.”
This story was originally published June 30, 2021 at 4:00 AM.
