To feel a bit cynical about Centre Parcs?

[ilikeyoursleeves]

We are just back from a 'five' day break at centre parcs at Whinfell. It was Ok and I am sure that many people enjoy it but it just felt like a bit of a rip off in lots of ways. Our cabin thing was really tatty, lots of wear and tear, the carpet covered in stains and the toilet seat kept falling off. The five day break was really three days as we couldn't check in til 330pm on Monday then had to leave by 10am on Friday. Yes I know we could have stayed and used the facilities on those days but realistically with two very young children and me being pregnant, who can be arsed lugging everything about and having to pay extortionate prices for lunch etc.

The swimming was like human soup with about two inches between each person, the Chinese banquet we got was double the price it would normally be and pretty bleurgh, but the main thing that annoyed me was that there was only TWO infant swings for the entire place and one tiny soft play area next to an expensive bar. I just felt that they were blatantly not putting in free activities so you had to spend more money. We ended up going out to see the lake district most days rather than doing the activities that were there as I thought they were a bit of a rip off too.

Sorry I am moaning so much but just wondered if this is just me or has anything else felt like this after staying there?

Right people keep claiming that Centerparcs can be cheap.

I don't believe this, not if you have school-aged children, at least.

School holidays 2012:

June h/t 2nd-10th
Summer July 21st - 3rd Sep

Christmas h/t 27 Oct - 4 Novemebr
Christmas 22 Dec - 6 January

Feb h/t 16-24 Feb
Easter 29 March-13 April

I checked midweeks (4 nights), for 2 + 2, at Longleat in a 2 bedroom:
June h/t sold out
July 23rd: £879-£1099
July 30th: £899-£1149
Aug 6: £949-£1159
Aug 13: £929-£1199
Aug 20: £949-£1149
Aug 27: £859-£999
Oct 29: £929-£1149
Dec 23rd-28th - £919-£1199
Feb 18 £759-£929
Apr 1 £749-£879
April 8 £709-£889

And weeknds (3 nights)
June 1 - sold out
July 20 - £579-£659
July 27, Aug 3 - £599-£679
Aug 10, 17 £619-£729
Aug 24 £659-£759
Aug 31 £579-£659
Oct 26 £619-£699
Feb 15 £539-£649
March 29 £629-£729
Apr 5 £549-£659

(Lower price for 'Comfort', higher for top 2-bed.)

The only way to stay there cheap is your kids are pre-school, or they play truant. You can stay midweek in November for £289 for 4 nights, but go in October half term and that same chalet is £929. Weekends cost more than weekends out of school holidays because they know no-one will take time off work to go there unless they've got kids.

A thousand pounds is a stupid amount of money to spend to go to Centerparcs for 4 nights. For that price you could buy a super-duper tent and equipment, and buy some old Volvo estate to put it all in with the change.

Obviously people are paying it, the question is why.

I just checked my activities booking the final time I went to Centerparcs. £201! That's on top of the accommodation cost. We paid less than £201 TOTAL to stay at Butlins.

They have toddlers or preschoolers :-) thats why we go.
Take your own food and drink it will cost ypu £200 to £300 plus petrol for 4 nights. ( its not that cheap but its as much as anyone should pay for c parcs!!,

YANBU but I love Center Parcs. I would never stay in the comfort accommodation though. Its worth the extra for the luxury apartments with brand new sparkling clean furniture & 2 ensuites, they are usually more centrally located too.

I have never been to Whinefell but been to the other 3 & love them. Its definitely the most relaxing holiday for me as dh & boys exhaust themselves cycling & swimming & I relax reading :). We have not long been to Italy which was great but a total rip off, whenever I go abroad I can't wait to come home but could happily stay longer in cp. The best bit is the weather really doesn't matter, you can be home in a few hours & pack everything you need in the car. I always make breakfast & lunch so they don't cost any more than at home & you can get eg takeaway pizza for less than pizza hut. You don't have to eat out but all of the restaurants have really good kids deals.

I guess you either love it or hate it but as they are able to charge the prices they do & are nearly always booked out I guess a lot of people love it like us :)

We tried Elvedon Forest last year.

Sometimes you read about holiday camps in the old Soviet Union where everybody got shipped off to do the same jolly activities at the same time. That's what it felt like. It was a land of identical plastic villas in a sanitised plastic forest with smiling plastic staff whose smiles would have disappeared very quickly if you'd done anything interesting like try to swim in the lake. This feeling was reinforced when we dared to cycle a few tens of yards into the forest only to come up against this massive perimeter fence complete with barbed wire on the top and warning signs. We half expected security guards to appear if we got too close.

While we could just about bear the stupidly crowded pool that closed early in the evening, the crowded restaurants where you had to pay a deposit when you booked, and the eye-watering prices for activities, there were two things that really annoyed us:

• Smoking was allowed in the central "village". This meant that you couldn't do anything there without walking through a haze of smoke. All the ponds, streams and gardens in the village had cigarette butts floating around in them too.

• Despite being advertised as "car free", the place absolutely wasn't. There were cars all over the place - some going quite fast. There's no way I'd have let our DCs (aged 8+6 but little road experience) out cycling on their own there. We were really disappointed by this as it would have been a great opportunity for them.

I don't think we'll be going again :)

LateB I've not been to Elvedon as we've avoided it as have heard it's next to a USAF base with all the noise that that entails. I just wonder if that might explain the barbed wire!

Definitely not nouveau riche, so I guess that must make me a wannabe!

vicky there a few fast jets going over every now and then however, I live on a very active airbase with helicopters flying over my house daily and the fast jets are not as noisy/constant as that.

poulay If you take your children out of school and pick a 4 night, which is usually cheaper than a weekend break, it is extremely cheap. We're talking £199 or £249 at Elvedon.

As we don't do do it often and because we are a forces fmaily, we are able to take the children out of school now and then because my partner's job doesn't always allow us to go in holiday time.

But yes, if you are constrained to holidays, then it is more expensive.

Not everyone wants a sun holiday lying on a beach all day. We don't - we have tried them pre and post kids and just don't like it. We enjoy SC - and have done various forms of it a lot over the years.

CP suits us, intermittantly, as it has everything on site that we need, it is forest with lots of animals which we all love, we actually do enjoy the cycling part and do lots of swimming, and the accomodation was a lot nicer than some SC we've tried.

Yes, it is expensive for what it is, but our 1 holiday per year is about ensuring we all enjoy it and all relax!! So we don't mind paying a little extra to be reasonably sure of that. We don't find the on-site restaurants etc terribly expensive comparatively, as in Dublin, they are as expensive. And we don't have to eat there - the kitchens are clean and quite well equipped to do NICE meals not just throw things together meals. We can find plenty of things to entertain ourselves most of the time that are not additional paid activities, but going canoeing one afternoon or bowling one evening is nice to have as a family activity. Not filling up your days with a pre-paid, pre-organised schedule, just enjoying the quiet time.

I don't think I would like to do it every year - although I can well understand families for whom it is about the same thing always. But having done different things for a couple of years since we went last, I am really looking forward to going again this year.

We've been a couple of times and loved it...each time to Elvedon. The accomodation was great. It can be very expensive, but equally if you enjoy cycling, running, walking in the woods, swimming and the adventure playgrounds it can be alot cheaper.

My brother took his 4 kids including 2 teenage boys and they wanted to do all the very expensive activities so he was not impressed at all.

Agree that the restaurants are not that great. We tend to do our own cooking.

I enjoy the outdoorsyness of it, the fact that we can cycle and and run without worrying about cars and the swimming pool. Lots of my friends also like the spa.

The on-site restaurants at Centerparcs are not so much expensive as they are AWFUL. Butlins has better food.

We enjoyed the restaurants. Had good meals in Huck's (no more expensive than TGI's) and Cafe Rouge (no more expensive than CR anywhere). Biggest bonus was the well equipped play areas inside both. We didn't eat out every night though.

Center parcs is a great winter holiday, as there is so much to do indoors, and not too expensive if you go off season and add a school inset day.

However, I think they are economising on their housekeeping as last time we went we stayed in a woodland lodge and it looked great at first but once you looked more closely it was filthy. Bath plug was blocked up with hair, the extractor above the hob was dripping in grease, and we moved a sofa to look for a dropped toy and it was filthy underneath with bits of food.

The cleaners are obviously paid minimum wage and maybe their cleaning is not checked enough. But for the price I did expect it to be cleaner.

Yes the thing that will most bother me is if it's dirty. I have looked at some of the photos on TA and some people were certainly unlucky and did have very dirty lodges. That's what put me off booking for so long tbh - OTOH that doesn't seem to be the experience of everyone I know so perhaps it's the luck of the draw?

Did you not complain frankie4? For the money you should be able to expect clean as a given tbh!

And another thing....the little supermarket is unbelievably expensive.The only good things was that they had mini trollies for the children to push.

those little trollies are SHITE if you have 8yo twins who like to push at speed with scant regard for their fellow shoppers

rrrrrrrr

we had a mouse once

[shack]

mind you it was a comfort lodge and not a new style woodland lodge

har har @ [shack]

that's what you might call a Freudian Slip

never go in a basic lodge yuk. we like the woodland lodge. you buy bits from sainsburys thats not far from Elvedon, who seriously uses the parc shop for everything.?

Recently back from cp in holland. Same tired villas, but half the price!

find that Landals in NL has much nicer villas than CP in NL, but the pools etc are better in CP

Landals slightly cheaper too, ime

I always recommend Landal on CP threads! Never done the UK ones but Landal much better than CP Belgium! And cheaper, and better accommodation....

WOW what a shame you guys are all complaionign about a place that could be enjoyed so much stop looking at what is wrong with the place and just enjoy the outdoors and company of your children!

centre parcs is what you make it! and the company!

i went every year for about 10 years from being born to 10 years and it was such a magical place for me that i have so many good memories from! and im about to go on my first trip with my 14 month old and im sure he will enjoy it as much as i did!

We now go to hoseasons and not centreparcs. For the very reasons you describe.
We also got sick of activities that we were charged a fortune for and they last all of 10 minutes.