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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU or is Center Parcs SUPER expensive?!

162 replies

Crisscrosscranky · 28/12/2016 15:11

This week it appears all of my friends on FB have gone to center parcs- it looks lovely.

DH and I usually use our Xmas money to book a European city break in the late spring but I will be 7 months pregnant this year so we're looking a little closer to home... just priced up a weekend at our nearest center parcs and OMG Shock - 3 days in the cheapest lodge Suffolk would cost us the same as 3 night staying in a 5 star hotel in most of the European cities... and have I got it right that you have to pay extra for teabags and toilet paper (they are coming up on recommended extras!?)

Am I missing a trick or do I have some secretly wealthy mates?! off to google the latest dates I can fly

OP posts:
middlings · 29/12/2016 00:04

Ludicrously overpriced here although I understand if you go a lot you get good discounts.

We're going to one in France at half term for less than half the cost of one of the ones here. And we're not going for the most basic accommodation.

I can't justify over £900 for four days in a holiday park. We'd love to holiday in England but with much better value available on the continent and even in Ireland, we can't justify it.

Confusednotcom · 29/12/2016 00:08

I love CP, but milkandtwosugars has it right, don't go without kids (who on earth would do this?!?). I've been to equally pricey hotels which haven't had much going on - there is stacks to do at CP or you can just laze about. The beds are v comfy and the lodges, even basic, are a joy to stay in,

BusyBeez99 · 29/12/2016 00:19

Yup can afford holidays - work hard. As others have said previously and which I've now taken on board, it's not a race to the bottom

Confusednotcom · 29/12/2016 00:20

Busybee you spent only £400 eating out for all meals for 3 people for 7 nights..... how?

The maths comes out at £6.30 per head per meal (3 x 3 a day for 7 days). I'm pretty familiar with CP food options and I don't see how this is possible... it's average cafe rouge etc prices and soon adds up.

BusyBeez99 · 29/12/2016 00:23

Dutch one was great. French one grubby and damp and whole place needed a re-fit ... was the oldest original French site I believe. The new French one I've heard is really good. Site itself was cheaper but have to add on the costs of getting there plus a whole day traveling each end and so wasn't as idyllic overall as we thought it would be. We've tried Bluestone in Wales and whilst nice it just was missing the slickness of center parcs.

BusyBeez99 · 29/12/2016 00:30

That's what we put on the card whilst there so it's right. Dinner was c£25 for the three of us (we only do mains); breakfast sometimes just the bread/croissants and sometimes needed juice and milk; lunch baguettes and crisps from the shop. The activities money included £15 deposit per night for the meals so it would have been £40 for the meal without that. We don't have 3 course meals and expensive drinks. So shattered after swimming and fresh air that if had a drink I would be asleep before 8. DS did activities every day, some of them one of us did with him but mostly he did alone and made new friends.

Threesoundslikealot · 29/12/2016 00:31

We went to CP for a weekend off season and it was pretty dire. The restaurants options were poor and expensive - in one place, one of the starters arrived still frozen for example. Lots of the advertised activities weren't running because it was off-season, and those that were weren't cheap. It felt like being ripped off at every turn, eg you weren't supposed to use the lodge towels at the pool, and they charged extra for loan towels. (Obviously we just used the lodge towels as I suspect most do.) It was an almighty non-stop exercise in extracting cash.

Out of interest, I looked up the summer holiday prices. For the cost of 5 days in a lodge (to be fair, I can't remember what standard lodge I looked at, but possible the Executive, as the weekend in a basic lodge without Wifi, a phone or phone signal was trying), we could have 7 days at a Kinderhotel including all food, all kids activities and kids club, bloody Wifi, and petrol costs to drive there and back.

BusyBeez99 · 29/12/2016 00:32

whats anyone's bum got to do with a post about holidays??

myusernamewastaken · 29/12/2016 05:47

I used to work in Elvedon Cp when i was a teenager....having seen what goes on behind the scenes...i would never go on holiday at any of them.

noenergy · 29/12/2016 07:09

£1800 can get u a holiday abroad. I couldn't bring myself to pay that for CP. Fair enough if you are scared of flying or kids have SN but otherwise can't understand who would pay that.

We went to Dubai in may, 2 adults and 3 DC. Flights £1100 accommodation about £700/800 for a week. Dubai or CP?

Currently pricing Antalya for July, tickets currently only £300 for 5 of us, the biggest expense will be hotel at most will be about £1200 but that's all inclusive and hotel has water park, funfair, cinema, kids club and bowling etc all for free.

I just could not spend that on a holiday here in the U.K.

WhooooAmI24601 · 29/12/2016 07:21

We've done CP when the DCs were smaller, not wanting to fly off on regular city breaks with them. It's one of those cleverly-designed places which caters for pretty much your whole family; nobody can claim they've nothing to do, you feel safe enough to let older DCs have a little independence and you chuck money away like there's no tomorrow. Every time we went it was full, so people on the whole must enjoy it. I did at the time, and it suited us perfectly.

Our DCs are 11 and 5 now so travel long and short-haul with us on breaks, but for younger DCs it is brilliant.

Heatherbell1978 · 29/12/2016 07:22

CP has its place and offers a good family holiday in the UK. I'm adventurous (loads of travelling when younger and DS1 has flown to a couple of long haul destinations- he's 2) but I enjoy a CP holiday. For us it's a great way to have a holiday with family who live at the other end of the country (we meet half way) with loads to keep the kids busy regardless of the weather, which is quite a big consideration in the UK. We've been twice with DS1 and will be going again in 2017 with family and my DD1 due soon. I'm looking forward to walking DD in the buggy (or sitting in Starbucks while she sleeps...) while DH keeps DS and the nieces busy in the pool.
Not sure I would go without kids although the spa is amazing.

Sierra259 · 29/12/2016 07:30

We've been twice with preschool DC. We found it a quite reasonable way to stay somwhere with 3 bedrooms (DC2 was very little). We went midweek, off peak and didn't eat out more than once. We did one activity (bowling) the second time we went, but otherwise just used the pool and play areas/beach for entertainment. DC1 starts school this year and as the prices pretty much double in school holidays, we won't be going back. Nice as it is, it's definitely not worth those inflated prices.

Laquila · 29/12/2016 07:34

We paid £300 last january for a 4-bed woodland lodge (by no means poshest but a lot nicer than basic) at Whinfell, for 4 nights.

At £150 per family (of 3/4), I thought that was pretty good value, considering we spent so much time in the pool. We're going again this January - slightly more expensive this time but with 2 babies and 2 preschoolers between us it's so convenient, especially when we only live 1.5hrs away.

Laquila · 29/12/2016 07:38

Actually, can anyone tell me about the spa? It looks as though they havare AM/PM pacakages for time on the spa, but treatments are on top of that, is that right? If you book a massage instead, for example, does that include time in the spa?

monkeymamma · 29/12/2016 07:56

No Laquila, the treatments don't allow you to spend time in the spa except for a few minutes in the relax lounge with magazine and water. You have to book am or pm time 🙁

Threesoundslikealot · 29/12/2016 08:32

Some of these overseas holidays sound the the MN chicken of trips by the way. How on earth do you get flights for 5 to Dubai for £1100?!

ItMustBeBedtimeSurely · 29/12/2016 08:40

Not only is it outrageously expensive, it is also crap. Lodges feel cheap, even the pricey ones, and cp never miss am opportunity to extract more money from you. They're totally shameless about it, right down to having no fastenings on the duvet covers so they can get the next lot of cash cows customers in as quickly as possible.

Basicbrown · 29/12/2016 08:46

Some of these overseas holidays sound the the MN chicken of trips by the way. How on earth do you get flights for 5 to Dubai for £1100?!

Yes, there is a lot of comparing CP school holiday prices against foreign holidays in term time I think.

Yanbu though OP but for me the true rip off is the price of the activities and crap restaurants (tbh I refuse to pay to eat there and just cook my own).

We've been a few times, it's OK, you just need to go when you have a random Monday Inset day for the weekend or odd school holidays for some reason, round here we often have a different Easter holiday.

But it is not relaxing at all 😂😂

Threesoundslikealot · 29/12/2016 08:55

Well, my comparison was week for week in the middle of the summer holidays. But neither was cheap!

PeppaIsMyHero · 29/12/2016 08:59

VERY expensive for what it is.

Have you looked at AirBnB? Loads of gorgeous places at very reasonable prices.

noenergy · 29/12/2016 09:18

I know it sounds too good to be true but got them when BA had a sale. And it was term time otherwise would have been impossible to afford.

I just couldn't bring myself to pay for expensive activities. I did look up prices last summer as DD friend went and really enjoyed it. But ludicrous food and activity prices and to stay in a wooden lodge. So would prefer a holiday abroad even though airports with young kids is so stressful.

Threesoundslikealot · 29/12/2016 09:19

Ah, term time.

noenergy · 29/12/2016 09:20

Really needed the break and knew we wouldn't be able to afford it in summer and it would have been too hot.

MerylPeril · 29/12/2016 09:22

Someone said their is something for everyone - no there isn't!
I went with an 18 month old, we went to the pool. It rained all the time.

There were no activities I was interested in at all, esp. the spa.
The woodland was not a woodland - I live on the edge of the countryside and this was some crappy planting of trees.

DH said it looked like a prison camp. I couldn't wait to leave.

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