Mumsnet Talk

I just got excited and entered, now I have visited their website I don't want to go even if I win. It's not family friendly at all - they obviously hate children at the hotel, to the extent that they've created a separate dining room for children, where anyone under 8 has to eat. You then have to eat your own adult meal later in the evening, leaving your children alone in the hotel room with a listening service - you can't eat together.

The children get things like spaghetti, 'golden fishies', sausages, 'chicken chunks' etc. Sounds like processed shite to me, not what my children would like to eat when on holiday.

This is not family friendly - this is bloody awful. Really disappointed tbh!

sounds perfect to me. i'm not mad keen on my own children and can't abide other peoples. making them eat somewhere else is a brilliant idea.

unfortunately said competition won't let me enter anyway.

and Studland has a fabulous naturist section.

i really dislike the inference that "family friendly" means "for families who don't want to spend time together and think that their kids are a nuisance"

I'm aware of the fact some people think their kids are a pain and don't want to spend time on holiday with them, but don't call this 'family friendly'
it's 'child UNfriendly', surely?

Blimey that is bollocks - what a way not to teach kids how to behave in a socially acceptable way and eat 'normal' food when out with their parents.

DD is 6 but Ds is 10. Would she be forced to eat seperatly then?

I would very much be unhappy with that.

yes no-one under 8 in the main dining room - shitty kids food served in the children's dining room before 6 pm, adults meals served later in the main dining room

it's all on their website, i was gobsmacked to see this is what passes for family friendly

I think you can all eat together upto 8 and then its adults after that - its about choice isnt it - for most nights I would want to eat as a family but then i would like one night where we could have a night without - it isnt my children I dont mind eating with - its other peoples.

Still....look on the brightside. You might not win

ah well if thats the case - I thought it would follow the same policy as bedruthan steps...

no, there isn't a choice - they only serve children's meals in the children's dining room - if you want toeat together at lunch time adults can help themselves from a buffet - in the evening you are expected to be eating later, when the children are asleep (they provide a listening service)

What a crock of shit. This place must be run by people who've never actually had children. Or by people who have had them but not like them very much. Surely the whole point of going on holiday is to spend time together. Idiots!

LOL durham
fingers crossed eh

Isnt it because its half board?or even full board? I cant say that we manage a lovely quiet life affirming evening meal every night so that would be the one I wouldnt mind giving up.

And I took ds to a michelin starred restaurant a few weeks ago thinking he was ready (he's 7) and his behaviour was but he didnt like the food at all - mine dont like that heavy rich poshed up food at all so would be happier with spag bol and fish pie [shrugs]

It sounds fine to me. I've stayed in a hotel that had a similar set up and it seemed to work really well. I was staying child-free and TBH appreciated eating in a mainly adult dining room.

so dont enter then

yh but this is a mumsnet comp prize

id bloody LOVE to not have to eat wiht my kids
al moaning and getting up and finishing in two seconds

thast family friendly for me

and pushing a tiny tiny bit of onion around the plate as if its radioactive

yours might dine on hommous and frogs legs but shitting nora mine dont

ah fishie you are always grumpy
i entered BY MISTAKE it says that in the first post

DD would freak if I left her alone in an hotel room for an hour or more while I went to eat.

Just Read

Breakfast 8.00 to 8.45
Children and parents usually eat breakfast together in the CDR.
Fruit juices, cereals, fruit, eggs, bacon, sausages, tomatoes, mushrooms, tea, coffee and toast.

Nothing wrong with that

Lunch 12.30 to 1.15 Playroom 1.00 to 2.00

Lunch - the main meal - is prepared in the CDR kitchen from a wide variety of dishes: Soup, Roast Pork/Chicken/Turkey, Fish Pie, Fish Cakes, Lasagne, Fish in sauces. Potatoes and/or rice / pasta, two vegetables. Hot sweet, jelly, ice cream. Anything on the menu can be liquidised for babies. We keep a small stock of baby food in jars.

There is supervision in the Playroom from 1 - 2pm for children whose parents would like to lunch at leisure after feeding them. Parents who wish to lunch in the CDR with their children are welcome to choose from the extensive cold buffet and salad tables offered in the restaurant from 1pm.

A bit peeved at only having choice of a cold buffet if eat with my child at lunch but dds would enjoy playing in supervised soft play while I ate in dining room.

Tea 5.00 to 6.00

For children not having dinner in the MDR, i.e. mainly all those under eight. A variety of hot dishes; e.g. spaghetti bolognese, cheese and pasta bake, golden fishies, sausages, chicken chunks. Salads, cake, jelly and general tea-time, party snacks.

Im sure they wont stop you eating together but spagetti bolognese not too bad, neither is the bake, they have had a healthy lunch one meal of junk not too bad. But yes the tea bit urks me too.

I cant even see this months competitions!

So it doesn't say that children under 8 can't eat in the main dining room, but that is the expectation?

SardineQueen Sat 05-Mar-11 10:17:13
So it doesn't say that children under 8 can't eat in the main dining room, but that is the expectation?

Yes thats what I read it as, when you click on the other dining section it doesnt say adults only.

In practice, in a hotel (when we have done it).

Evening meal often doesn't start til 7. We put our children to bed at 7 they are small) and that feels quite late. So it's good to have something at 5 which is when we normally feed them.

I guess its up to the parents whether they eat the '"tea" earlier and stay with their children, or whether they use the listening service.

Actually I think it sounds fine

Ours are 18months and 3.5, keeping them up til 8 to eat a proper grown up meal would be a distaster, so what they are offering is an improvement on what hotels normally offer IYSWIM

Not that I don't think children should eat grown up food, before you all jump on me But I wouldn't sit down for a leisurely 3 courses with children that age. Because it wouldn't be leisurely