Center parks - a bit tacky?

@KindLemur ha yes, I remember a holiday exactly like this in Carnac -

Never been to Woburn

Yes. That’s why it’s what OP imagines, not the reality.

There’s nowhere, anywhere that most people don’t own cars but ride bikes.. Apart from a Carmelite nunnery perhaps, or a hippy commune in Wales.

I absolutely LOVED it!! We did the winter lights (it was in February) and the boat ride plus pottery painting, archery, bowling and I had 3 hours in the spa. Best holiday ever. Beautiful massive lodge for us plus grandparents and SIL.

This one has a brilliant pool in comparison to Woburn

i can’t believe they made the Woburn pool quite so small and shit

Woburn sadly isn’t a big pool, despite being the newest in England

it’s a small shit wave pool filled with the smell of piss
the lazy river smells and looks like piss
the rapids are too dangerous for me, and the only outdoor pool is by the rapids queue, is tiny, and also smells of piss.

basically you pay to sit in piss all the time unless you pay for the spa, and their outside pool is relatively piss free but an extra £125+ per 5-8 hours

No cars just lots of swimming clubs.

Don’t most people in Richmond have cars though ??

I think you’ve used the wrong term. What do you mean by tacky?

So we’ve established you are a middle class family, living in a part of London, where no one needs so drive. You are used to esquite coffee, fresh bread and more upmarket activities.

You’ve had multiple holidays, your DC will have survived the ordeal I’m sure!

Richmond. Must be.

ETA

Richmond isn’t actually like the OP describes. It’s what the people who live there like to imagine it to be.

I don’t get the French holiday snob factor these days, we did eurocamp yearly as kids as it was a cheaper option and my parents could let us be feral or forget us for a bit at kids club, drink boxes and boxes of wine, smoke cheap fags outside the caravan and tell us to go to bed so they could play cards with the neighbouring family’s mum and dad at night ! We were from a very much not posh suburb of Manchester. We did used to go out and look round cathedrals and stuff - drive into a town or city, and my dad would sit in a square with a pint and chill while my mum tried to imbue some culture into us. My teen sister and brother once had a full on fight and he told her to fuck off and stormed off in the centre of Nantes, magical memories 😬🤪 we are all doing very well now and my brother who once got so pissed at the camp’s on site euro disco place he had to be escorted home by a member of staff earns 100k plus as a solicitor 😂

From a part of London which has such good bread and coffee and public transport links that you couldn’t even imagine.

but also is 90% woodland and has roads so quiet her kids can cycle freely

well it depends on 'for what it is' means

If you paid for all the different elements separately, so a semi decent hotel (premier inn at minimum) PLUS 7 days entry to a big waterpark PLUS go ape PLUS paddleboarding PLUS bowling (just examples, insert alternative activities here) PLUS 7days worth of restaurants and takeaways twice a day, for a different UK holiday, I can't believe that would be significantly less than CP.

If you ate out every single day at home it would be expensive too.

I really don't get why stopping at a big supermarket once before you get to CP (you could even do a click and collect) is somehow SO MUCH MORE ONEROUS AND HOLIDAY RUINING than going to the small supermarket several times once you are in CP, but okay.

Fuck sakes OP, its not the tour de france. Its a forest with roads so accessible to all.

and swimming club? Of course, but its not training for the olympics us ut. Its a holiday camp where kids splash, love the rapids and love the waves.

”my child is in a swimming club”…. 😂

im gonna say fuck off to anyone who disses CP.

Especially as they have fresh baked goods in parc market and a Starbucks!

love a CP thread!!

Gosh, remind me where you are from again, op? 🤔

You sound a bit like you have a sour grapes attitude about it all, no idea why? We’ve been at least 10 times over the years and never had reason to criticise. Oh well you can’t please everybody

That's hilarious. Florence is one of my favourite cities in the world (and no, I haven't encouraged my 11-YO kid to read Dante). Our US holidays have been among my absolute favouites. NYC and Boston are full of culture - just a different culture. I love ME for its wildlife and beautiful scenery and intend to go to Yellowstone hopefully next year.

We've only been to Center Parcs twice - Whinfell both times purely for its proximity to red squirrels which you can spot there more easily than just about anywhere else, including Brownsea Island. We'd have paid for that privilege alone. As far as CP is concerned we now feel we've been there, done that and are not in a hurry to go back. But the snobbery is ridiculous.

Is this satire?

Why are you so obsessed with class? And what the fuck do you think middle class means?

Not parking outside the lodges are a key part of the stay. Not sure how you missed that.

I’m a working class woman who sadly could not have DC so basically wrong demographic for CP, you would say OP lol.

All I have to say is I can not stand dirty pools as described by pp they make me feel sick.
I struggle to go in the pool at the leisure centre / on holiday. Pools have to be very clean. We had a nice regularly cleaned pool at a small villa I stayed in Lanzarote and I was happy.

I like fresh coffee it’s nice. And fresh bread. Starbucks is ok but Caffè Nero is better. What’s Gail’s?

I would probably enjoy a 90s weekend at Butlins, and I like St.Ives as it’s pretty.

If I went to France I would stay in an apartment or a gite not a campsite.

I expect the places I pay to stay in to be immaculately clean to my standards. As part of my job i actually clean hospital rooms. So I know what I am talking about.

I don’t mind children being around if they are well behaved. One of my friends (also working class) - basically you can take her daughter anywhere. Another friend - upper middle class - her children are wild, you cannot even sit in a coffee shop with them for 10 minutes. But they are nice kids at heart just very naughty. It’s a shame.

I think it’s ridiculous saying places are for this class or that class. If you can afford it, you can go there.

It is literally bonkers that people will vehemently argue centre parcs in the uk isn’t expensive for what it is. It is, it really is. I spent the money and it was overpriced. I can’t go outside of term time I have school age dc. I don’t want to bring my slow cooker and self cater every meal in a place with about ten restaurants, I am on holiday. I don’t want to spend £50 per person on a small rope course you are allowed to do once - it was £35 in Centre parcs in France, in an actual wood and you got 2.5 hours. The whole point is with the amount you are paying you are meant to be able to be there are not need to schelp out in the car to find an Aldi or bring everything with you. What is the point of it otherwise?

Honestly maybe I went to centre parcs in a parallel universe or something as the one I went to last year was crap and overpriced and a massive disappointment. Maybe if I’d not been to the much better one in France a couple of years earlier then I wouldn’t have seen it for the shite it is. I assumed (wrongly I suppose) that it’s a chain where I guess it’s really a franchise and is totally different in different countries.

Anyway I prefer Butlins in the uk so I will leave you all to your centre parcs and at least we won’t meet choking down the worst vanilla slices on planet earth with a £5 post mix Diet Coke 😁

All those educational opportunities the DGC could have had, and missed! I don’t think it’s impacted them too much. Oldest DGD can visit the mediaeval cathedral in Durham at her leisure later this year when she starts at uni there.