Manteca’s Great Wolf Lodge water park resort pushes back opening, starts hiring soon
Great Wolf Lodge, Manteca’s long-anticipated new water park resort, has pushed back its opening two months to the start of September due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Last month, the company announced revised plans and new safety measures for its then-scheduled July 1 opening because of the COVID-19 outbreak and its ensuing shutdowns. While construction on the massive 500-room resort and its water slides have continued during California’s shelter-in-place order, hiring was delayed and now the site will have its grand opening Sept. 1.
Great Wolf spokeswoman Jillian Thayer said the resort’s debut was changed to further comply with the state’s phased reopening plans — which has been lifting shutdowns of industries in stages — and give it time to hire and train the some 500 employees it will need to staff the site.
Deep discounts on reservations were also announced to coincide with the opening celebration. The water park will debut at the same time as the hotel, with new social distancing and other safety measures in place.
“(T)he water park is a key element of the Great Wolf Lodge experience, therefore, we decided we will only open if the water park is available for our guests,” Thayer said.
Great Wolf Resorts, the parent company to the lodges, closed all of its 18 locations starting March 15 due to the global pandemic. The company will start reopening its sites June 16 across the country.
Work on the new Manteca location — which includes a six-story hotel, attached 95,000-square-foot indoor water park and 45,000-square-foot family entertainment center — was ahead of schedule before the virus upended daily life and work across the country in March.
At the start of that month, the company hosted a hard-hat tour inside the resort located just off Highway 120 for local dignitaries and press, while announcing they had moved up the opening date from Aug. 1 to July 1.
But then the statewide shelter-in-place order was issued March 20. While construction is still on track, with the last work expected to finish in about two weeks, hiring lags. Originally, applications were expected to start in late April, and be held in public off-site job fairs. The resort hopes to fill some 500 positions from reception clerks to lifeguards, gift shop attendants to prep cooks.
Hiring will now start in late June and continue into July. Open positions in Manteca have already been listed online through the Great Wolf job site at https://jobs.greatwolf.com. Pay appears to start between $14 to $15 an hour. The company plans to hold virtual hiring events, as well as possibly hosting an in-person job fair in the future.
Great Wolf offers new safety policies, discounts
In response to the continued health threat from coronavirus, the company has updated its “Paws Pledge,” the resort’s enhanced safety and hygiene guidelines. The day pass program, which allows people who have not booked a room at the resort to enjoy the water park, has been suspended because of the pandemic. Thayer said each site will have reduced capacity to allow for social distancing, and the Manteca site will open without the day pass program.
Great Wolf has expanded its free cancellation policy through July 31 for rooms already booked. The no-charge refunds has been slated to end June 15.
The lodge is also offering a 40% discount for reservations booked by June 19 on stays taken by Feb. 28, 2021. To receive the discount, use the promo code “OPENING” when booking a room online. Standard room rates at the new Manteca site will begin around $199 a night and include access to the water park, family entertainment center and the hotel’s numerous restaurants.
People who booked rooms between its previously announced open date of July 1 and its new open date can also cancel or reschedule their reservations and receive the 40% discount, Thayer said.
For more on Great Wolf Lodge in Manteca, visit its website at www.greatwolf.com/northern-california.
This story was originally published June 4, 2020 at 2:14 PM.
