Centre Parcs is a very weird place.

[MOIST]

Fake forest. Plastic stuff. Signposts and advertising everywhere. Like Ikea in a fake forest with one-way system and bad feng.

Most peculiar.

Our last holiday was in a National Trust cottage. Our next is at CP ( Whinfell). We've been to CP twice before and it's OK. The main attraction is the pool. I'm not hugely impressed with the activities and the food is stupidly expensive. We'll be calling at Booths on the way there to stock up on food.

I have looked on this thread for valid opinions and most of them are sneery, sweeping judgements about the people who use them being dull, unadventurous and unable to plan independently.

I am not a huge fan of CP but I can see why people felt annoyed at the comments that were little more than character assassinations.

That was about the people who use them, completely different to a measured critique of its facilities

I don't quite get why it's perceived as so much easier than just booking a self catering cottage though.

Because we like it that there is a massive pool within 10 minutes walk. Our kids are big enough to go round and round on the slides etc while we swim and sit in the spa. There is enough space in the house for everyone. We can book courts etc easily, online, when we fancy it.

Sometimes we book a holiday home in Aviemore instead of going to Whinfell. We can do the same sorts of things but with a fair bit more effort. It has never been cheaper for school holidays than the same size of house at CP.

Because there is a pool for young kids, and activities young teenagers can do themselves. If you book a cottage you have to try and organise activities that will suit everyone. That is much more work.

YY Wily.

As people have repeated;y said - horses for courses. It suits some at some stages of their life as they are living it at any particular moment.

I think it's amusing that I and others are being classed as unadventurous and unimaginative for having a break at CP they enjoyed, all for perfectly valid reasons many of us have expressed! In my younger days I bailed out of the rat race and worked my way around Sth East Asia /Israel/ Japan for nigh on a decade. I think there are loads of people on this thread who have done amazing 'adventurous' things. Personally I think it is more unimaginative to be incapable of understanding other perspectives / and choices that people make for whatever reason they make them.

Couldn't agree more wily.

I'm off there in about two hours actually. I will let you all know my thoughts on my return 😊

And actually this thread is making me want to go back to CP Longleat this term break- but our holiday budget is already spoken for - a cruise around the Med. Also desperately unimaginative I guess but none of us have been on a cruise before!

I like centre Parcs and have been several times. but for the money I'd rather have a weekend on a cruise, nice hotel for a week, any other holiday park for a month. I just don't get why people are happy to spend so much money there when there is nothing special or wow about it!

The first time we went was with a 5 year old and a 1 year old in term time. It was really quiet and it was cheap to stay there in the luxury cabin the kids were happy to swim and cycle. It was enjoyable.
The second time we went to a different location kids were older and it was school holidays so the accomadation was basic and expensive. It was busy, lots of parents ignoring indulged kids.
The children wanted to do activities but these were ridiculously overpriced, pottery painting for 4 was about £100. Often we had to pay to supervise the children.
Have been to Haven too and that was exactly the same with regard to cost of activities and shockingly expensive but poor quality 'eateries'. Busy with lots of indulged kids again ignored by parents however in Haven it was more parents totally absent rather than just onlooking with a simpering expression while their little darling pushed the other kids over etc but the overall effect was the same.
Have was probably better as it cheaper to stay there and we could escape to the beach or nearest town.

Actually I think on mn time needed for "booking holidays" is something that is often used to justify why you can't work full time with children. I work full time therefore we go to centre parks - someone else books it for me, I make a 30 second phone call to pay.

Something that hasn't I don't think been said in its favour is that once you've unpacked your car etc part of the appeal is that you don't need the car the whole duration of your stay.
I challenge anyone to find a woodland retreat where you could stay for a week and do lots of activities without getting into a petrol guzzling vehicle. Definitely part of the appeal for us.

Stealth I rather shamefully need you to repeat/rephrase because not sure I understood you!

(You don't have to if you don't want to... I might be getting a migraine, I am misunderstanding lots today, and that happens to me when I am about to get one).

People often list the things they have to do meaning they can't work full time with children. Booking holidays is usually on the list and I always find it a bit odd as it's not that often and doesn't take that long.
But on here people are saying cp is easy to book and you don't need to make a lot of the arrangements yourself. So fair enough.
just a slight dig and I'm not even sure who it's at, sorry. I have no problem with people who don't work ft, I've never agreed there's loads of time while your dc are at school (6 hours at best) but I don't think booking holidays is really that onerous a task. But what do I know - I go to cp!

And I hope you're not getting one

Thanks, I understand you now. It was kind to explain. :)

Thanks also re migraine. :)

stealth I once added 'present wrapping' as a reason why I couldn't work.

Tbh I'd rather plan a holiday than wrap a present. I can never find the bloody sellotape

It is an odd place and reminded me of The Truman Show.

Everyone was dressed in expensive outdoors wear as though they were embarking on an epic adventure but in reality they cycled a few hundred meters and then swam in a public pool basically like your local leisure centre.

PIL paid for the two youngest grandchildren to have a balance bike session. £30 to ride a balance bike around a sports hall.

Accommodation was fine, just a basic holiday cottage. But next to lots of other identical cottages. Like an estate. An estate with a Bella pasta rather than a chippy.

I'm not a travel snob. We have done a massive amount of travelling with our kids staying in a wide variety of accommodation types. Centre Parks is definitely the worst place I have ever spent a 'holiday' (and we've been to Butlins!)

Never been to CP and none of the threads on MN have yet made me want to.

It sounds for country people who want to experience urban life without the city, and for city people who want to experience rural life without the countryside.

I don't like bumsex either.

Middle class Butlins.

Also a bit at everyone who moans about CP only being for unimaginative people.
Yes you might see other villas on your way round and other people, but it's not all exposed like it is at Butlins. It's designed so that you're not just gawping into the living area of those opposite if you look out of the window. And CP has a lot more activities than Butlins does.
We do go to cottages in the countryside as well, but the thing is, if the weather is shit there is bugger all to do. The worst holiday I've been on was to the Lake District nine years ago. Pissed it down the entire week, and Dad was ill, he would spend most time asleep (he's allergic to cat hair so we assumed it was something to do with that) so we stayed indoors the whole time.

Yy to holiday planning over present wrapping. My present wrapping skills are shit.

Absolutely, wily . If someone has been there and has some negative comments, fair enough, but to post quite authoritatively that it's crap is ridiculous. It's the same as Disneyworld. So many sweeping statements about what it's like - fast food, thrill rides, for small kids only, "not our type of thing" yada yada - by people who have no notion of what's there.

At the moment it's my complete bugbear that people feel duty bound to have an opinion on things about which they know absolutely nothing. Grrrr.

Went once 15 years ago and hated it. Agree about the creepy Truman Show/Prisoner vibe. Ridiculously expensive for quite basic accommodation and the price of everything else was inflated to airport lounge levels. That said they're clearly doing something right because they have virtually 100% occupancy so I doubt they give two hoots what I think 😊

Clearly there is a market for it and lots of people love it and it's hit on a formula that works. Great for those people who want what it provides and are prepared to pay the prices charged. Doesn't really matter if it's not everyone's kind of holiday and the packaged, easy nature of it doesn't appeal to all.

Regardless of whether it's your kind of thing or not, most people seem to agree that the prices in school hols are a bit ridiculous. Everyone seems keen to point out that no one has to take part in the expensive activities and whilst that is true, one of the key points and draws of the place IS all the actitivities that are available. To go and then not do any actitivities due to cost is rather to miss out isn't it......like going to Paris and not being able to afford to go up the Eifel Tower, or going to Venice and not being able to afford a water bus ride. Bit of a shame to have gone all that way and not been able to access a key part of the experience. With CP, if al of the convenient restaurants and convenient activities are inaccessible due to cost, what are people left with apart from some accommodation in the trees and a swimming pool? I get that they really enjoy those, but isn't the whole point that there is lots more.

What strikes me from the trip advisor comments on it, is how ripped off people feel. Yes, they enjoy it, but they don't like feeling they have been fleeced. Clearly enou people are still willing to pay and CP is pretty booked up, so perhaps they don't care and will keep pushing it further and further until people vote with their fee and stop coming. We all know it's a money making venture, but like a lot of these things, when it feels like they just want to take your cash at every single opportunity, people don't like it. And I guess this is one of those ways in which this kind of Hol differs to having a cottage etc. At CP the activities and chargeable extras are everywhere around you......so people know what is available and what they are missing out on and kids can pester and parents spend more than they want to really, whereas in a cottage in a village or holiday area, all the options are not so in your face and it's easier to tailor to your budget without feeling you are missing out.

No one wants to feel like they've gone to an all inclusive resort, but are there on a room only basis.

If you are not happy to spend most of the day in the pool or the parks, then yes, you might be bored if not paying for the activities. But IMO the pool is the whole point. We might book tennis one day, badminton another, the clip and climb, and bowling. That's maybe another £100 tops (2 kids) and is a paid activity per day(ish).