Center Parcs-are the more expensive lodges worth it?

[AutisticLegoLover]

£400 difference between the basic lodge less central and a fancy en-suite for all with sauna and whatnot one opposite the adventure playground and 5 minutes from the village centre. I've stayed in both but I'm not flush so the extra £400 is a lot to me. This is a half term break for 4 nights. We've stayed in the basic ones, the slightly fancier ones, the ones that had daily housekeeping, and the one with the sauna. The location of the fanciest is the big pull plus the sauna was lovely along with the general layout.
What's your experience and what would you go for?

Who are you going with? If just our family, we don’t pay the extra - DH and I rarely use the sauna, we don’t need en suite bathrooms and whole family cycles so everywhere is easy to get to. They never reinstated housekeeping post Covid so made 2/3 bed luxury ones not such great value imo

If going with another family (esp if needing 4 bedrooms) then the nicer ones are a lovely luxury and we tend to upgrade - get a games room in addition to sauna and all rooms being en suite is one of my essentials when going with others. Also location convenience is good in a group as takes longer to get anywhere!

I am not interested in a sauna or hot tub but we pay extra for a central location - or in our case a location near to the car park

Just me and 2 dc, one a teen one under 10. We loved the fancy lodge and location but the price is eye watering when we used to go in January or February before school was an issue for £250. Those weeks the days.

*were

You can pay to pick your location and keep same level of accommodation - will cost far less than £400 for that. Unless you’re crazy about sauna, there’s nothing extra worth having in the luxury one

We go to new style executive lodges now, as we like having two bathrooms and a coffee maker. We wouldn’t use a sauna or hot tub and wouldn’t get good value out of a games room.

But even when we went for a basic two bed, we’d always pay for the central location, as that makes a bigger difference to us over anything else.

We usually stay in a larger one and pay extra for a central location (especially if my DM is coming as she has mobility issues) but one time we decided to do a last minute weekend, just the 3 of us, and could only get a 2 bed basic further out and we really enjoyed getting bikes and having to ride in and out.

They're not awful in the slightest, just less bathrooms and perks (the daily clean, games room, sauna or hot tub etc).

I'd defo stay in one again.

The housekeeping has stopped?! I've just booked an exec and just assumed it would be as per.

Oh well.

I think the fancy one was far more spacious than the basic one. Looking at the new style executive that used to have the housekeeping service, that's only £200 less and not quite as close. The two bathrooms are a must with a teenager! Although with the Davies one there's 3 bathrooms as each room is en suite. Ds shared a room with me but next time he might want his own room. If there's always a chance my other dc might deign to come with us so we'd need 3 rooms. Tbe better equipped and spacious kitchen is a plus because I'd cook 2 nights out of the 4. The sauna I'm not all that bothered about but it was nice. We've just come back from there and it was very stressful for reasons I won't bore you with so it wasn't much of a holiday. Next time I want it to be as near perfect as it can be. Ds loved being able to see the adventure playground from the lodge and it was so close to the village centre. It's just a lot of money. If I hadn't had the fancy one it wouldn't even be a question 😩

We stayed in the three bed new style executive Lodge, all three ensuits and a sauna ( never used) 10min walk from the central location. It was £1,679 (that was just for the lodge) I loved it so much, I didn't want to go home.
However, next time, I will take the kids out of school. Cos over £2k (that was including eating out & all the activities we did - which were a good few) was pricey for 4 nights.

That was back in Feb half term of this year

We got the one with the sauna and didn't use the sauna once. I quite like to be farther out, it's quieter and you see more wildlife (the wildlife in my nearest CP are quite shy, I've heard of others where they will practically come into the lodge with you lol)

I'm still torn over lodge style because Dd has said she prefers the smaller cosier lodges.

I am going to go against my usual moral code though and take them out of school. The difference is £600 and that's ridiculous. If school fine me then it still won't be as much as the difference.

We want to try some of the new activities on offer but will mainly be in the pool twice a day. I like the idea of further out equalling more wildlife as we didn't see much this last time compared to previous visits.