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.

I'm currently at cp reading this ! 2nd visit. I love bluestones too. Both good in different ways. More to do at cp but bluestones less costly and less commercial. It only cost me £250 for the 4 days and u don't have to spend a penny here if u dont want as loads of stuff to do with the little onesfor free! Maybe not so much with older children tho. I just think it's getting back to nature and relaxing! Lots of lovely walks with pretty scenery, log fires, amazing pool that's heated outside and lots of lovely parks and wildlife around. I definitely get hyggae when here and will be coming back. Never been to butlins so can't comment but I have been on haven holidays which are nice but the clubhouse can be a bit chav!

Concentration camp? Really? I'm sure if you asked anyone who had been in a camp if it compared to a holiday camp you'd get a fucking surprise

I went for a weekend once, pre-kids. The weirdest thing was it was tiny (and also very full of people). I think I had misunderstood. Thought it was meant to be an outdoors type holiday, but went for a run round the whole entire 'lake' and it was less than a mile? And the bike paths are max a few miles (less maybe?). And a thing to do was go to a windowless spa.

A decade later, and my 6yo can cycle 20 miles on a day out. So I have no idea how all the families with primary age kids are keeping them occupied. Do they send them on laps??

. We get it.

Mrgrumpy01
Yes we have taken our ds(11) since he was a baby.
He loves it but he has been diagnosed with high functioning ASD so and masks a lot of his behaviours.

We go for Xmas every year and everything was ok however, due to him having a very wobbly tooth, he refused to eat anything from Xmas eve morning until Boxing Day night! It was all sensory based so even though we were supposed to be having an amazing time (we normally do), it was kind of ruined by the stress of DS not eating, and barely drinking.

That said, he still had an amazing time in the pool as he always does.
It depends I guess on how your child presents and whether it would be relaxed enough for him.

I think if you find it weird - you're weird!!! Where did you go? I've been to Longleat 5 plus times and those trees are real! I love Cp it's so relaxing when you have kids!

I went for the day once with my two children. My sister was staying in a lodge hence we could join them for the day. (About £16 each I think)
Ok for the day and enjoyed the swimming and lazy river/ Rapids under and outside the dome. A day was enough for me. I would do that again,

MrGrumpy01 yes I have and I do every year. DS has ASD and we love the fact that he has a timetable and that when we book something for, say, 3pm it happens on the dot.
We booked a table at The Pancake House for mid afternoon (when you could book there!) as DS will not queue. Major meltdown if you even try. Our table wasn't ready at the prescribed time and I was gearing up for fireworks. I had a quiet word with the hostess, who had a quiet word with the manager. A table was found and order restored. Well done CP Longleat....we come back year after year.

I'm a big fan and miss having young children to take there. Been to sherwood, elvedon and longleat. Swear they had trees there long before centre parcs arrived. Food was always crap in restaurants though.

I have two with aspergers and like it for the same reason as slummy. Does what it says which is important...

I am also offended by the concentration camp analogies...., can it be stopped please.

Overriding memory of Center Parcs is DH calling us to the living room because a deer and her baby had come to the patio door.
He was saying "look boys, this is special, this is really special!" Then under his breath "And we'll probably get billed for it tomorrow".
That pretty much sums up Center Parcs.

MrGrumpy01. We have a child with autism and learning difficulties. We go in term time and go to the busier places such as the pool and restaurants at quieter times. We don't do any activities because his learning difficulties are too severe but he is happy with the pool and pottering about.
The staff are all helpful and accepting of disability so we can relax.

Seems positive then.

We have been loads of times since they first opened. First when we were 20 somethings. A big group of us from all over the country would have an annual long weekend together, It was quite a cheap break when only paying for one adult, especially as in those days you could easily sneak more than 8 people into a villa.

As we started having families some of us continued to go, but that tended to drop off as the children reached school age when we did not want to take them out of school.
We have also been as a big extended family group a few time with ages ranging from 6 months to 85 years. I think its great when you have a wide age range, as there is lots for each age range to do. This has worked much better for us, than when we have rented a big house.

I get what you mean OP. We loved CP with our pre-school children, but the first time we went I had this weird sinister feeling that we'd been lured into some kind of sci-fI conspiracy therory cover up using middle class families. Like we might have been given mind control implants in our sleep....

Nope, nope, nope never again. DH and I took the 3 kids.

Went to CP in the autumn and it was all show with the fancy brochures and such. Everything was extra and overpriced.

The pool was like someone else said "human soup". I felt kind of sick just being in the dome because there were so many people!

The "forest" definitely has a lot of trees, but there are nettles everywhere and the kids kept getting stung. They were all around the cabins, next to walking paths, everywhere. It was weird that they promote walking everywhere with pictures of happy children running around (which, yes of course is good for you) but they don't do anything about the stinging nettles. Found that super odd.

The cabin itself I call "The Ikea Pod" because looked like something straight out of the store. Clean.... but I had a giant house spider IN MY FUCKING BED, UNDER THE DUVET! Couldn't sleep again after that. Also, the psycho birds that tried to walk into our cabin. I had to shoo a big dopey swan out of our living room (all while trying to remain cool, calm, and collect in front of the kids. I wanted to SCREAM!).

There's a feeling of being stuck there and slightly like something out of a sci-fi film. Everyone is so happy. Everyone is enjoying eating the same thing. Everyone is enjoying paying 4x more for the food in the shop (since you're basically discouraged from leaving). Everyone is enjoying riding the bikes (and nearly knocking little kids over). Everyone likes the pool. Everyone loves taking these super freaking expensive classes. Creepy.

We shall not be visiting that place again.

bumptittybump How do we not know each other in RL? We wrote basically the same thing at the same time. I think I love you since I felt like the only person who was thinking these cynical thoughts the whole way through!

It's a bit fake and plastic but the kids enjoy it. The only reason we go is the pool.

MrGrumpy, I have an autistic son and he is ok with Center Parcs (well as ok as he is with any holiday as he would far rather be at home with his X Box!) but he cannot cope with the pool when it is very busy so we try to go in the evenings when it is quieter.

You can start to feel institutionalised. It's not our cup of tea. We went to one in France and my son had a head injury on a water slide. Had to go in an ambulance to hospital. On leaving the sanctity of the park earlier than planned, it felt decidedly odd to go into the normal world.

Stuff reviews , I want to know what this bumsex reference is all about!

It is a little surreal. Not my favourite place to go and the only thing included in the cost of it all is the swimming pool. You pay for absolutely everything else. I actually found all the people riding around narrow paths on bikes a nightmare with a toddler in tow.

It's vastly overpriced, I kind of imagine CCTV everywhere, a bit like others have said, very Trueman Show like. Families with big painted on smiles, children impeccably behaved.
It's relaxing as you have everything in the park, so if you want everything in walking distance it's perfect.
If you are more adventurous a holiday cottage would be better.

Try the parks in the Netherlands, much cheaper and the school holidays are at different times to the UK which makes it quieter. There are lots of different parks, near the beach or wooded areas close to towns.
Each park has it's own special "thing" like a snow world or the jungledome with tree houses. Most parks are near to a local supermarket so you don't have to be dependant on the CP shop.