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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Centre Parcs 2022

33 replies

Mybestyear · 18/09/2022 10:39

We are at centre parcs this weekend (not a thread about the closing on funeral day fiasco). All adults. Been here maybe half a dozen times in the past with DC and loved it. Used to joke that the price meant the neds/chavs were priced out and we were the scummy family - this is for context - I am not a snob at all and am fairly low maintenance.

this weekend I feel it’s really gone downhill. Here’s the evidence;

  • swimming pool quite dirty with litter abandoned all over the tables etc
  • showers in pool quite cold as were the pools themselves
  • communal areas quite shabby and unclean - ditto outside areas
  • Tables in bars/restaurants not cleared for ages - in sports bar lounge and there were lots of empty tables but were totally cluttered with previous occupants dirty dishes
  • really restricted menus in restaurants- one “restaurant” was 99% burgers - not one pasta dish for example and only fish offering was traditional fish and chips - which I like but felt more like being in a seaside cafe
  • Really long waits to get served with staff chatting amongst themselves rather than serving
  • coffee shops not open until 9am despite families being up with kids from crack of dawn
  • lodge we are in is pretty shabby - dents on walls, toilet doors with broken locks, mismatched patio furniture, only 2 sets of cutlery in 3 bed villa
  • lots of children running around completely ignored by parents - a girl of about age 10 ran across the top of the sofa I was sitting on shrieking, made me spill my coffee and when I said “careful, you shouldn’t be running on furniture” just laughed and continued on her merry way
  • quite a lot of drunkenness - I may BU here as I am a recovering alcohol abuser (although I rarely drank outside the house) so maybe noticing it more now
I know this sounds very first world problems and I am grateful to be able to afford a weekend away, but AIBU in being disappointed that centre parcs no longer has the luxury feel about it?
OP posts:
BeyondMyWits · 18/09/2022 11:03

Went before the school holidays, to Longleat it was lovely. Clean, no screaming kids, showers and pool warm, lodge just fine... plenty of staff about. But have always found that... even pre covid.

School summer holidays wreck the place for a bit. Give it a couple of weeks and it'll be fine.

Suedomin · 18/09/2022 10:59

I have loved visiting CP but see it as a place to go with children I wouldn't go for an adult holiday.

SlipperyLizard · 18/09/2022 10:56

I expect a lot of that is lack of staff, esp cleaning tables etc - although I’ve always thought the villas were a bit shabby if you looked too closely.

The other guests are just luck of the draw, unfortunately.

roxisolerenshaw · 18/09/2022 10:51

I went recently and the jacuzzi was not as warm as it used to be nor the swimming pool.

Testina · 18/09/2022 10:47

For example: the sports bar bit are Sherwood. You might as well be in ‘Spoons for the screaming kids and drunken adults!

WeAreAllLionesses · 18/09/2022 10:47

I have to say, I don't think I have ever seen 'centre parcs' and 'luxury' in the same sentence before...

Testina · 18/09/2022 10:45

“Used to joke that the price meant the neds/chavs were priced out and we were the scummy family”

I love CP, and 2 visits this year to different ones this year I definitely found that menus were reduced, rubbish was everywhere, service was slow - but all very much a “can’t get staff post Covid” way, so acceptable to be. Everything was fundamentally clean, just lots of surface mess - the uncleared tables you mentioned.

However, on your “Ned/chav” comment, every time for 10 years that I’ve been going, I’ve quietly noted that “class” and money aren’t the same thing. Like all my caravan park trips too - full of people that I expect you would call “Ned/chav” - by which I think you mean the type to ignore their kids knocking things over whilst they have Wkd at 10:00am? 🤣 - but then they own £50K caravans whilst I’m renting one for the week.

Centerparcs has always had a very mixed non “middle class” vibe to me.

Everylittlethingsgonnabealright · 18/09/2022 10:43

Which one did you go to? (Want to know which one to avoid!!)

I usually go to Woburn even though Elveden is closer - Woburn is always cleaner and much better kept than Elveden.