Tips for Centre Parcs please

[Mumneedstea]

Not an AIBU, but posting here for traffic.

We will soon be on our first Centre Parcs holiday with a pre schooler and a 6 month old. Need some tips on what to pack, how many activities should we book, anything to avoid?

I have made dinner reservations for the first 2 days only. Is that ok or do I need to book for all 4 nights? Do I need to book more than one activity for each day?

We are getting there on a Monday and given that they only do check in at 3pm, I haven't bothered to book anything for that day as we will just settle in. Then on Tuesday I am hoping to spend most of the morning at the pool (any pool tips?) and then we have an hour's family activity booked for the evening. Other 2 days are mostly the same... spend mornings either at the pool or in the woods or the outdoor play areas and then a child friendly activity later in the day.
Does that seem ok? I don't want to overdo it with extensive pre booking, but at the same time a lot of activities are already fully booked and I may not get to book them once there.

TIA :)

We are going to elveden forest

Yes you'll need towels. We bought hamman ones as they dry quickly ready for the next day.

I didn't think the shop was too dear, but took most bits with us. We always BBQ on the first night, we just put a disposable one on the brick BBQ to save messing about.

Don't forget to pack your swim stuff separately for ease on the first day, do you can just grab your bag and go.

If hiring bikes, make sure you have rucksacks, i struggled as a novice rider with a shoulder bag!

This thread has been SO HELPFUL already. I've never been and hadn't thought about any of the things you had mentioned!! Thanks all.

Arrive at 10 or thereabouts. Go for a walk - plenty of play areas.
Have lunch then head for the pool for 2.30. It will be quiet because most people like to sit in their cars in a queue to get to their villas. At between 5 and 6 everyone else will head for the pool so if you leave the pool at that time, get your car and head for your villa you'll miss the car queue and the first night pool crush when the rapids are like salmon spawning.
The DCs will be knackered from the pool and will have an early night so you can get on with wine and the bum sex that's compulsory. Seriously. Google it.

"there are big family cubicles you can all go in together, with changing tables."
Not that big! Dh and I take a child each into different ones

If you're hiring bikes I find it best to pre book them. The year we didn't do that there was a huge cue to hire bikes but those that had prebooked could walk straight in.

Yes I'd take towels for the swimming pool. You can hire them but that just add to the cost of the already expensive 😛 holiday.

Place marking

We are going for the first time week after next with a 2 year old

I'm pre-cooking some bits like a chilli and taking pre-cooked rice packets for the first night. Probably go out a couple of nights and then ruslte something up. Will take bread and sandwich fillings for lunch. Packed tea bags, cakes, biccies etc

I've already pre-booked some activities, a swim lesson, teddy bears picnic, owl babies and some pottery painting thing. They're only an hour max at a time over the 4 days so plenty of time to mooch around.

Thanks for the washing up tip!

Oops queue obviously 🙊

Take cot bedding for your baby, as cots are provided, but not bedding.

We didn't find the shop too expensive either although we don't do a huge amount of proper cooking when we go.

The spa is amazing- definitely recommended. As a pp said, no need to pay for a treatment unless you want to. It might be worth going on the spa website (Aqua Sana) and looking at the cost of a spa day/twilight spa session booking direct with them, which is what we usually do.

I found the shop expensive and with a poor choice to be honest. I wouldn't mind if it was expensive but a nice treat, but it just seemed expensive for not very much really. We take a whole load of food for every meal. Just eat out once, and we used our freebie vouchers on a takeaway

Agree with other posters - we love the spa so much that we drive 2hrs to go for the day every year in addition to our holiday. I haven't been to any other spa that's so relaxing and has as many different things to do - there's a really hot outdoor pool (I've been in it on December 23rd), jacuzzi pool and several steam rooms and saunas, foot spas, loads of places to relax and read. So much so that we've never even booked a treatment - we just go in there to relax.

We go to Whinfell and do a click and collect from Asda from Carlisle. First time we went was with a 2yo and a 7mo and to be honest I would never have eaten out at night with them- much better to give them something and eat once they are asleep. We did packed lunches or came back to eat. Pool amazing and the wristbands make things much easier as you can get food and drink there (although you can take bits and pieces in). There are lots of nice areas to make a camp of towels and things, as we found the baby needed feeding a lot during swimming!

We made the mistake of booking too many things first time around, but there are a few things that they really loved (or have loved in the five years since!) such as the family trek horseridng. The activities in the kids club such as the messy play are overpriced in my opinion. The hawk session is ace, as is the Tots go Wild treasure hunt. The mini tree trek is fun as well, they get a cuddly squirrel at the end.

Pack a sling if you can as that makes things much easier. The Parc Market will stock what you need but can be pricey.

One last tip- they do a laundry service but it is not well advertised. We got one of the massive JoJo Maman bags of laundry done for around £7 on out last day which meant no washing when we got home.

Have a wonderful time :)

Take a bike lock for leaving your buggy at the pool. We didn't, but all of the other buggies were locked up.

Do you know where you are staying- how close to the centre? We were about 15 mins walk out and every time we trotted off to go swimming our little one would fall asleep in the buggy on the way which was a bit of a pain.

Be aware there is no freezer only the wee box in the fridge, will not hold much more that ice cubes and a pkt of fish fingers or the like.
Shop ok for milk, bread, lovely cakes and fresh pasties etc , everything else quite exspensive. Take what you like in the way of sweets, juice, wine, beer, nibbles, tins of beans etc. Remember T/rolls, K/roll, dishwasher tablets, tin foil, cling film.
You can only use disposable BBQ's, in the shop they are £7.99 each . I got the large size in B&M for £3.99 and it was great - really hot and lasted ages, we cooked for 5 on it. Asda also sell them for £4.99.
Hope you get nice weather, enjoy!

Oh, tea towels, they only supply one.

Pancakes for lunch 😎

I wouldn't bother booking any activities, swimming and playgrounds are enough at that age.

Hire a bike with a trailer so easy to get around. Ours loved it.

Food wise we take breakfast things and snacks/fruit with us. They have little BBQ areas outside which would be great when kids are in bed. But we just tend to book meals out every night but we only go for a weekend not a week so 3 nights instead of 4.

DH and I like to buy a few new DVDs so we can watch a film whilst DC nap in the afternoons.

Also, do not let slip to small children that there's a TV in their room that shows CBbeebies! 😂

That was a rookie error this year!

I love CP but it is a remorseless money making machine.

Everything is bumped up in price, from the food in the mostly-bland restaurants, to the parcmarket and the coffee in Starbucks all the way through to the activities.

Be selective about the activities. Some of them are great, but lots truly are money for old rope, almost to the point where the people actually leading them are embarrassed about it.

Cases in point - you can book the pony trekking direct with the off-site providers at a significantly lower cost. At Whinfell most of the red squirrels have been wiped out by disease -and they know it - but they still charge for the red squirrel adventure, during which the closest you will get to them will be the cuddly toys they hand out at the end. The den building is an hour of moving sticks from a big pile up against a pre-made frame and then you barely get 5 minutes to sit in it before being instructed to tidy up after yourselves - you could literally go back to the same spot an hour later and do it for free. On the other hand things like the kiddie tree adventure and the hands-on animal sessions are good....

So, yeah. Take bikes, go to the pool when most people are having lunch or dinner to avoid the clusterfuck at other times, and enjoy!

Once you are there and unpacked etc. Drive out of Center Parcs and find a supermarket, stock up for the week. It's a lot cheaper than the on site supermarket.

Archery is soooo much fun. Recommend booking that. They do it for children as well

Also if you are going to Nottingham- book the medieval banquet. (If they still do it, not been in years)

We have our main meal at lunchtime when it's not so bust and there's usually no need to book.

Make the most of term time center parcs! I don't think we'll go again now our eldest is at school, holiday time prices are crazy!!

We went last month for the first time with DD 3 and DS 1. We all had a ball and I loved it - I am half forrin so holidays were always spent going back to see Dad's relatives, I'd never done anything like it.

We booked two activities a day for DD and ended up sacking one of them off on one of the days. With the playground, the swimming and general duck feeding / running about prebooked activities weren't as much of a necessity as we thought. She loved ballet and soccer skills though (fencing was less of a success!). We did pottery painting as a walk up thing one day and that was really fun - I'd be more tempted to keep one eye on that for next time rather than formalising most of a timetable before we go.

Agree with PP about doing a shop before you go and remembering dishwasher stuff / bin bags / tea towel etc. I forgot to bring a little bit of cooking oil which made cleaning frying pan after cooked breakfast a bit of a nightmare. Next time we go we're taking a variety pack of cereal so DCs get a choice and we're not carting boxes of stuff there and back.

We booked a few evening meals and found them a total waste - even at 5pm the kids were too knackered to settle and no one enjoyed them. Next time we'll do a couple of lunches - probably the day we arrive and leave - and a takeaway for grown ups once the kids are in bed but otherwise we're going to cook bits / have nice baguettes etc for picnics. We all loved the pancake house. The posh Indian (at Woburn) was lovely but sadly doesn't open for lunch. The American restaurant was ok (the kids buffet was expensive but meant they got their food instantaneously which was good) but we found The Shearing House was overpriced and the food was terrible. We wouldn't go back there.

One thing we did was bring a laptop and chromecast to get on the wifi and plug into the living room TV. Once the kids were in bed we had a way to binge watch Netflix with a glass of wine which was actually really lovely although probably makes us sound like antisocial bastards.

All in all we had an amazing time and can't wait to go back. Hope you do too!

And yes CP is, according to MN, all about bumsex.

Center Parcs themselves even seem to have endorsed it as an approved activity if the bags in the gift shop are anything to go by.

Take your own food. The shop is over priced.

By smokeless fire logs before your trip. Again they're at least twice the price in the ParcMarket.

Buy inflatables before as they're £££ in the pool.

We've been twice and usually done half day at the pool each day + 1 activity either morning or afternoon.

The supermarket is well stocked and personally didn't find it that expensive but would take some stuff with you if you can, you will need everything from salt and pepper to ketchup, washing up liquid etc - we took our coffee, tea, sugar etc from home so we weren't buying more just for the weekend but bought fresh stuff on site, the shop also has a deli with sarnies and chicken wings etc as well as charcoal so you can have a bbq.

as others have said, restaurants can get booked up for the more kid friendly evening meal times so would advise to book ahead.

you will have a wonderful time