To wonder why on earth Butlin's

[AveAtqueVale]

...have speakers dotted around that play seagull noises? The place is riddled with real-life noisy seagulls. It's like they're trying to create a 'fake seaside' vibe despite actually being by the seaside.

I've been here a week, home tomorrow thank fuck and have been left with many questions, not least what possessed me to pay actual money to come here, but the fake seagulls are definitely top of the list.

YABU = It's a perfectly reasonable thing to do: the dulcet tones of seagulls are a quintessential part of English seaside holidays and it is simply not worth the risk the real ones might fall silent for even a minute.
YANBU = Yes, that is utterly batshit.

🏖️🏖️🏖️

What ever you do don't leave Butlins minehead and go for a drive up the god forsaken hill in Porlock! 🤣

Camp? Are you confusing Butlins with campsites? Are you not aware that Butlins has hotels as well as apartments?
We took our kids to Butlins quite a few times when they were little and they loved it. You can choose pretty decent apartments and we never self catered. “Premium”dining was a good standard of food. The kids loved the sports and activities. We saw things like falconry displays. We liked the pools with all the water slides and boats. Great fun.
You don’t have to stay on the site either! We went on day trips too.
I loved spending a few hours in the spa - a rare treat for me when the kids were tiny. Hot stone massage, facial, manicure, hot tub, steam room….. yes, we Butlins plebs really did slum it!
Don’t go if you don’t fancy it, but all the snobby sneering by people who have never been is ridiculous.

I have a 3yo and have done both a 5 star AI, and I’ve done Butlins. Butlins is the holiday I’ve booked to go again next year. The thing about holidays with small children is it really is just same shit, different surroundings. You still have to do all the same amount of parenting as you do at home, you just have less toys etc with you that make life easier. So when you’re abroad, the only entertainment the kids have is you, the parent. When you’re at Butlins, there’s so much for kids to do that generally you can sit down with a drink while the kids are busy with the entertainment. People can be snobby about it all they like, but I think it’s great for kids

FFS , I never mentioned Butlins in relation to camping and frankly I think picking on me has totally derailed the OPs thread so perhaps people should answer her question rather than just having a pop at me because my kids don’t like camping or holiday camps .

Your kids probably would. You on the other hand do not !

it took me nearly 20 years of forgetting this each year, wed set off then id remember and mutter ohhh fuck!!! worst time was in a 1.6 petrol zafira, think a rc car has more power. honestly thought we were going to die
the last few years we have gone the "lower" road, still scary as fuck but not as pant shitting

been going to butlins now since i was 8 and my eldest in now 25, just me, mum and 2 younger kids now but at 45, 77, 15 and 12 we all still love it and try to do min of 10 days at a time each year

Im sorry what a load of crap

For those posters who were looking to book Butlins if you go to you tube type in butlins you can see loads of videos real life families have posted in the various locations on how they found butlins and what it was like day to day they film everything from food ,to accommodation to shows.You will get a real idea of how it is. Hope this helps. I am going soon,I dont want to but the kid does and I got outvoted! However i will say you can go all inclusive abroad if you find a really good deal and they are out there at the same cost of going ""luxury" to Butlins!!!

@Happytap we went to Skegness on a just for tots break last year. First time in Butlins so was a bit dubious, my little boy absolutely loved it! It wasn’t my cup to tea but totally worth it as he loved it so much.

Maybe it's related to The Birds.

When I go on holiday it’s for me to relax as well as the kids and I ain’t going to do it there so it’s a no for me and you have just made it sound worse.

We went to Butlins in the 1970s, very nostalgic for those innocent days with family fun. I remember the glass sided swimming pool and the variety shows in the evenings.

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

Butlins can in fact be very relaxing if you have a handful of small children. I remember slinking into a giant beanbag with a heap of trashy mags and a takeaway coffee while my kids were entertained for hours within view. it was blissful.
I recall at the time thinking it was the first bit of peace I’d had for about five years!
I don’t remember seagull speakers but imagine as someone else said , they’re to deter the real ones.

Love how a question about gull noises has turned into a snob-fest about worldly-wise 4 year olds choosing to holiday in luxury hotels rather than slum it in a holiday park. The horror.

We did Butlins when kids were younger, they loved it. We also did 4/5* hotels abroad - they loved that too, go figure.

We went years ago when my 3 were small and they did love it. It wasn't so bad and we booked a nice room.

I was also convinced to go on a friends UK hen night there. The adult weekends.
Oh my goodness.
The things I saw... and I'm no prude.
Good music though.

Butlins is a very different place to what it was like in the 1970,s ...

Wowwwwww instant coffee is rank to be fair. Butlins is fun tho

I'm currently in a 5 star hotel, but 2 weeks ago was at butlins, my DS loves the pool there, much prefers it to center parcs and I prefer the price ! We can 'do' butlins, in gold accommodation with food in the 'posh' bit and still have change from just a basic self catering lodge at CP.

We recently went for the first time since the 90s and the kids thought it was amazing. They talk about it all the time. We don't have much cash at the moment, so this was a post-lockdown treat just for them. To make it nice for us we booked a LAKESIDE (not lakeview) chalet which we thought was absolutely amazing. Absolutely highly recommended.

When I was at school (yars ago) we went to a fish farm. They had the bodies of dead gulls strung up to keep the live gulls away from the tanks .

So I'd rather have some irritating gull noise than 30 decaying bird corpses < not envy .

My DC loved Butlins , one of the RedCoats chatted to my DS for ages about Pokemon and all their transformations , it made his holiday

IME when DC are asked what they enjoyed and remember about childhood holidays, these tend to be inversley correlated with expenditure, the archetypal 5* holidays are like tears in the rain compared to a day on the beach where a dog stole a sandwich.

At least they haven't introduced the hidden jets of a toothpaste-like substance that are aimed at your back for added realism.

Well not yet anyway.

RichardOsmansXRaySpecs

Love how a question about gull noises has turned into a snob-fest about worldly-wise 4 year olds choosing to holiday in luxury hotels rather than slum it in a holiday park. The horror.
We did Butlins when kids were younger, they loved it. We also did 4/5* hotels abroad - they loved that too, go figure”

this. Perfectly possible to appreciate each experience for its own merits.

I love seagulls and would enjoy the sound 🤷‍♀️