Center Parcs closing for funeral

[ViscountessBridgerton]

Had the email to say Monday arrival delayed until Tuesday, can't get in until 4pm. 30% refund offered. From social media, it looks like people on a 7 night break are actually expected to leave at 10am on the Monday and not come back until Tuesday! People on a weekend break aren't being compensated for having to leave by 10am on the Monday.

AIBU to think wtf?!?!

i thought this was a wind up when i first heard! What a shambles…. I’d expect a 180 on this shortly or CP are in big trouble!

Absolutely awful! Knew this would be the case!

how CP expect to kick everyone off site and have all their employees at home by the time the funeral starts I don’t know.. it was never going to happen.

Just trying to make themselves look good at the expense of staff and customers.

Seriously hope a staff member is able to let the press know what CP are really like, hiding behind the real reason they are closing Monday - Tuesday.

they want people to leave for the night? and go where

its fucking ridiculous -are all hotels chucking people out then

This, with bells on.

That's my thought. I can understand them closing facilities, or allowing staff time off to watch the funeral. If their cleaners wanted to be off then they could get agency staff in if available, pay existing staff well if they wanted to work. It doesn't add up to me. I wonder if they don't have to pay staff at all if the site is closed maybe?

This has happened to me ages ago with another company and I didn't get the money back for ages too.

Their statement said they are offering partial refunds but it's absolutely insane . I feel that respect for the queen has gone bonkers. People are now being made to feel if they don't close their business it is disrespectful. I'm actually questioning if public parks are going to be chained up.

I’ve got a lot more sympathy for the B&Q approach than centre parcs. There’s something quite nice about stopping the commercial activity of selling DIY tat while still making sure your staff have the opportunity to earn money. I’m sure those that don’t want to work Monday will swap shifts anyway, or have the opportunity to. No customer is going to be seriously inconvenienced. I’d imagine less than 20% of the population are interested enough in events to actually go out of their way to watch the funeral. Sure, I’ll watch it if I don’t have a thing else on and it’s a wet day, but otherwise I, along with others, will get on with our day and pay our respects, if that’s what we want to do, in whatever way we think best.

The centre parcs thing is either cost saving gone wrong, as their on site staff will mostly be zero hour contract people, or a recognition that operationally they won’t be able to function effectivelyand so are closing under the guise of respect for the Queen.

I would refuse to leave. This is categorically the most dipshit thing I’ve read this ‘mourning’, and that’s saying something. The country has gone insane.

To have staff you need customers.............. Sounds like CP don't want their customers at all.

Utterly ridiculous. Ill advised and utterly wrong.

I would be dragging my heels about getting out for 10am - I am sure they couldn't be round inspecting. Would probably have to get eldest son out of his bed - not easy at 6ft and 15 stone

And where are they meant to go? Find a hotel that had shut its restaurant? Go and get some food from a shut supermarket?

It’s clearly a major cock-up. They’ll have to u-turn for the existing guests. At this time of year the sites will be full of babies and toddlers. Who in their right mind though it would be a good idea to kick out a load of families with under 5s and expect them to find a random hotel for the night with all the hassle of packing/unpacking. It would be bad with school age kids too but the hassle factor is just even bigger with little ones who won’t give a monkies about the funeral.

There are people in the Facebook comments who have disabled guests in their party and dreading the upheaval

my dh still has to work not cp but im sur eother hotel staff are still working this is stupid

As a recruiting sergeant for republicanism, there has been no better event in my lifetime. Well done Cente Parcs or however you spell your shitty, overpriced shoddy product.

And eco protestors will target your projects with increasing fury.

www.itv.com/news/meridian/2021-11-24/eco-campaigners-beg-dont-cut-down-ancient-woodland-for-a-center-parcs

So the staff aren’t actually being paid?

So given this Monday would have been a working day staff are expected to have a reduced salary this month?

I hope CP go out of business because of this.

I'm away over the funeral booked two years ago and been moved twice due to lockdown. We decided to go ahead and watch the funeral in the hotel.

As far as I know we are still able to to have the room the day of the funeral. It's in jersey and not center parcs

Centreparcs are being absolutely ridiculous.

Seems totally crazy, I would understand if they closed facilities whilst the funeral was on to allow staff to watch it but kicking people out for the day who have paid for accommodation seems a bit over kill 😬.

Was planning on taking my daughter to CP next birthday

Definitely won't be booking now

By trying to show 'respect' for the monarchy they're showing that they have literally no respect for their customers

If it's true that the staff aren't being paid it's a different story and I change my mind. The staff should be paid. If they can get enough people willing to work to keep the centres open with minimal facilities they should stay open. But no-one should have to work on the day of the funeral other than emergency services and other vital services. Centre Parcs is not a vital service.

Surely plenty of people are in jobs and industries where it's not possible to have bank holidays? I don't get bank holidays with my job - they just get added to my holiday entitlement as I work in the media and we have to produce the same volume of content every day regardless. In fact Monday will be the busiest day in many years for us - we have more people working than we would usually!

So I don't really get the handwringing about having to work it. Give everyone an extra day holiday to take at their leisure and you can watch the funeral on iPlayer like the many other people who have jobs that can't just stop for a day.

Even if they only work till 12 won’t they miss most of the funeral by the time they’ve got home? Because at the CP near me the cleaners are bussed in on changeover day from nearby towns but it’s not the quickest way to get home at all so they ain’t going to be home till early afternoon.

Although I am not personally affected by it, I think that boycotting their customers holiday(s) is an absalutely HORRENDOUS thing to do. Their customers' holidays could have been the only holiday they have had since 2020 covid outbreak so no wonder people are not one bit happy

Link to Centre Parks backlash BBC News

So bizarre it surely can't be true?!
I'd have thought a nice compromise would be to shut staff led activities down for 2hrs while the funeral is on, then open back up? Still allowing guests to stay onsite and watch the funeral or go for a walk etc.