Will Manteca’s Great Wolf open on time? Coronavirus changes water park resort plans
Great Wolf Lodge, Manteca’s new water park resort, was going to open early to much fanfare this July. But then the coronavirus happened.
The massive hotel and indoor water park just off Highway 120 is still under construction, which has not stopped despite other shutdowns due to the COVID-19 outbreak. But how and when and what it will look like when the 500-room resort finally opens its doors remains in question.
Great Wolf Resorts, the parent company to the lodges, closed all of its 18 locations starting March 15 due to the coronavirus outbreak. The company will start reopening its sites June 16 across the country.
In early March, the company held its first hard-hat tour of the McKinley Avenue site for Manteca city officials and members of the media. At that time it was revealed that work on the six-story hotel and its attached family entertainment center and water park was a full month ahead of schedule. The resort, which had previously announced an Aug. 1 opening, would instead open early July 1.
Then the California stay-at-home order went into effect March 20. Construction on the project has continued apace, with the exterior being painted and signs now on the building.
But the global pandemic has complicated the resort’s hiring plans. Hiring was going to start the last week of April and go into early May with the remaining of the time set aside for training.
Great Wolf Resorts Director of Corporate Communications Jason Lasecki said hiring for resort staff positions has not started yet. The company is still recruiting for management roles, and in the process of deciding when and how general hiring will proceed. Previously they had planned off-site job fairs to fill the 600 open roles from reception desk clerks to housekeepers, lifeguards to gift shop attendants.
Still Lasecki said the July 1 opening date has not changed, for now. But, given the uncertainties of the pandemic and ongoing shutdowns, new reservations for the lodge are only being accepted from Aug. 1 onward. And then there is the question of whether the water park will open at the same time as the hotel. That has a more definitive answer.
“The water park is an essential piece of the Great Wolf Lodge experience, so it’s unlikely we would open the resort if we were unable to offer a water park experience,” Lasecki said in an email interview.
So, yes, when the Great Wolf Lodge finally does open expect its six waterslides, wave pool, lazy river and other wet attractions to open to the public as well. The company has posted about its various safety and hygiene guidelines in light of the coronavirus pandemic in a “Paw Pledge” on its website.
The site notes that its filtration and chemical systems have “long been recognized as industry leading.” It also mentions the CDC’s assertion that “proper operation and maintenance (including disinfection with chlorine and bromine) of these [pool] facilities should inactivate the virus in the water.”
Great Wolf plans safety measures and deep discounts
Lasecki said the company is still determining what other safety procedures will be enacted once the resort opens. But expect more sanitation efforts, increased availability of hand sanitizer and other hygiene enhancements. Social instancing measures should also be expected in the resort’s water park, game area, restaurants and more.
Opening at reduced capacity is also a possibility, Lasecki said, and more details about what reopening will look like should be be released in coming weeks.
In the meantime, the company has launched a new promotion offering deep room discounts plus the donation of rooms to nurses. The Nights for Nurses campaign offers a 50 percent discount for standard room rates for stays booked through the hotel’s opening until Oct. 29, 2020. With each booking a night’s stay will be donated to a registered nurse. The program will give away up to 10,000 overnight stays to nurses and their families in conjunction with the American Nurses Association.
“(It’s) our little way of saying thank you to those on the front lines of this pandemic,” Lasecki said.
For those who have already booked rooms at Great Wolf before the COVID-19 crisis upended daily life, the company has instituted a free cancellation and change program. Existing reservations can be canceled at no cost from now until June 15.
The Great Wolf Manteca site is also still offering grand opening and military family discounts of 30 percent off for stays booked through Dec. 17.
This story was originally published May 9, 2020 at 3:52 PM.
