Great Wolf Lodge Magiquest Game

[twoolle]

Hi everyone!

Looking for some tips and info here. I'm taking my 4 kids next month to Great Wolf in KC. Ages are 3 to 8. I am looking to save some money if possible on the Magiquest game. Here are my questions:

1) Is it possible to buy or borrow used wands from friends and then re-activate them at Great Wolf?

2) Is there way to know ahead of time if they will actually work at the Lodge? I have seen some sellers say the wands are untested.

3) Do I pay to reactivate the wands also? Any idea how much?

4) Does each child need a wand or can they tag along with their brothers/sisters and share? I know my kids well and if I tell them ahead of time they will need to share then it will be much easier. Just trying to see if it's possible. If I can get a good deal then I will get all 4 of them a wand.

5) Do you have to pay for the actual game or are you paying for the wand purchase and/or activation?

6) Am I missing anything?

Thanks all!

 

[mjkacmom]

It’s been a while, but we used ours several times, a year apart. My 5 kids shared 1 wand, as a team.

 

[QueenIsabella]

You pay for the wand/activation. You can bring in an "old" wand and have it re-activated for a slightly reduced fee. It's been a few years, I don't want to give prices. We made our two kids share. You activate for X days--they can play as long as they like during that time.

The 3yo will likely to be too young to fully appreciate it solo. Some GWLs have a younger-geared, similar game (not so scary, easier). We never tried it, my kids were older when we started going. But you need to be able to read to use the map/clues.

The game area is centered in the middle of the lodge, with some stuff going a short way down the room hallways. It covers several floors. Players aren't supposed to use the elevators, but they do. Some stuff is in the stairwells. At that young, you would probably want a parent in the vicinity. Some kids get a tad aggressive, but there are also young adult employees who hang out, keep things going smoothly, offer tips, etc. They are dressed as characters from the game.

They will try to get you to purchase add-ons--wand decorations, capes, etc.

FWIW, my kids really enjoyed doing it.

 

[kirstenb1]

Great advice from Queen Isabella!! My kids shared a wand. And we brought it back each time to pay to have it reactivated. If you can't find any to borrow, see if Ebay has them cheap. Yes, they will try to sell you toppers, deluxe wands etc. Nope and nope, here, lol!! It really is fun for the kids!!!

 

[twoolle]

Great advice from Queen Isabella!! My kids shared a wand. And we brought it back each time to pay to have it reactivated. If you can't find any to borrow, see if Ebay has them cheap. Yes, they will try to sell you toppers, deluxe wands etc. Nope and nope, here, lol!! It really is fun for the kids!!!

Thanks! The cheapest I can find so far on Ebay is $15 with shipping. A new wand is about $5 more, but I will keep stalking ebay. Maybe I can convince a friend to let us borrow!

 

[jalapeno_pretzel]

Ive been to 2 different GWL, 5 times total. If you get one from a friend, it will have their own game history and name in it, so it may treat some of the quests as completed. New wands are 15-20 and the game activation is about 15, for a 4 day period. You can't select shorter or longer. If you need less time it doesn't matter, if you need more you will pay a second time. One time when my youngest was under 5 he was given a free activation. Once we had bought the wands, we reused them each visit except we just had to replace one last trip, and will replace the other next time. I have seen in some of those city coupon books there are sometimes coupons for BOGO on wands or activation. We like having each with a separate wand, but yeah the younger ones can't really do it alone.

 

[DisneyMommyMichelle]

Best game ever! We stay at GW just about once every other month and my kids and even husband and I love the game! Answers are in red!

Hi everyone!

Looking for some tips and info here. I'm taking my 4 kids next month to Great Wolf in KC. Ages are 3 to 8. I am looking to save some money if possible on the Magiquest game. Here are my questions:

1) Is it possible to buy or borrow used wands from friends and then re-activate them at Great Wolf?
Yes, you just pay the re-activation fee as opposed to the new wand fee and they will ask if you want to play the same game or wipe the game and start over and you pick a new name too.

2) Is there way to know ahead of time if they will actually work at the Lodge? I have seen some sellers say the wands are untested.
As long as they have worked once, they should work unless broken. Untested could mean they have not been back more than once AND could mean that they were broken. My son was tripped on accident by a worker there and when he fell his wand worked for a couple of minutes and then was completely broken somewhere inside. They replaced it ASAP, as well as the topper that was on it AND let him pick out a new topper.

3) Do I pay to reactivate the wands also? Any idea how much?
Yes, you have to pay reactivation fee as opposed to new wand fees. As of 2 months ago, they were 14.99 per wand reactivation but some GWL charge 16.99 and we have even seen 19.99 for reactivation.


4) Does each child need a wand or can they tag along with their brothers/sisters and share? I know my kids well and if I tell them ahead of time they will need to share then it will be much easier. Just trying to see if it's possible. If I can get a good deal then I will get all 4 of them a wand.
Yes, they could share but at the beginning it's not as fun following someone around. My youngest didn't want a wand and just wanted to do all the slides and tubes and tunnels but once he tired of that, he did want his own and all of my kids love seeing their names on the leader board when they get there. My daughter was actually one of the top yearly players one year! LOL

5) Do you have to pay for the actual game or are you paying for the wand purchase and/or activation?
When you buy the wand, you have to pay for the game as well, when purchased new it is just under 40.00 or around there. When you bring in your own wand you pay for the actual game and depending on the location of your GWL, there are some locations that have more than 1 game available for purchase. During a long weekend my kids can handle 2 games but on just a 1 or 2 nighter, 1 game is more than enough.

6) Am I missing anything?
The toppers offer extra powers that help 100% in defeating the evil things and winning the game, these are not needed but make it so that it is possible to win the game in 1 day. IF you have multiple kids, you only need to buy 1 topper and they can put the power on ALL the wands, when we went with friends, they even allowed us to put our topper powers on theirs as well.

Thanks all!

 

[twoolle]

Best game ever! We stay at GW just about once every other month and my kids and even husband and I love the game! Answers are in red!

Thank you so much, I did not know that about the wand topper!

Now to clarify...if I buy a used wand do I pay the reactivation fee plus the game fee? Or is it just the game fee?

 

[DisneyMommyMichelle]

Thank you so much, I did not know that about the wand topper!

Now to clarify...if I buy a used wand do I pay the reactivation fee plus the game fee? Or is it just the game fee?

Just the game fee, that is the reactivation fee!

 

[twoolle]

Just the game fee, that is the reactivation fee!

Thanks! I found a wand and topper for $9.50 including shipping on ebay!