To think nipping to Tesco at center parcs is no biggie?

[GreatBrickMoose]

four adults /2 cars going to center parcs in a few weeks. Original plan is for us to get their early and go swimming etc then at checkin time, one car goes to lodge with children and luggage and second car goes to Tesco to get click and collect.

my partner thinks this is a bad idea and that getting out and then back in to center parcs on day 1 will be stressful and chaotic.

my sister has tried to mitigate this by booking early checkin but he’s unconvinced.

the alternative suggestions are one car arrives later and comes straight from Tesco (so miss morning fun) or we go to Tesco very early and have food in car for a few hours (sister is worried about food spoiling with this option).

wwyd? I’ve not been to centerparcs before so not sure how chaotic day 1 is. He has but not for a long time. . is it really THAT busy outside of half term in winter?

yabu- he’s right you should rethink.
yanbu- tell him to shush.

This thread has made me book a weekend at Centerparcs

This thread has made me understand for the first time ever why it wouldn’t be my sort of place.

No way will you want to interrupt your holiday with a trip to the supermarket! You're there to have fun not do chores! Most food will be fine if in the car for a few hours. You can pick up a few bits from the on-site shop.

I’d pick it up first and leave it in the car. It won’t be that warm for it to be a problem, whereas queues are huge in check in day and I wouldn’t want to go through them twice.

we always take non fridge items with us (including fruit) and pick up milk, butter and meat from the onsite shop. We also tend to get there for 10am and genuinely cannot remember queues of more than 10 mins or so - maybe we’ve been lucky! I’m confused by the people saying OP won’t be able to move her car if they get there early, we’ve always parked up, gone swimming/had lunch/faffed about then at 3.30 one of us heads back to pick up the car and drives it to the lodge while the other one nips to the shop and walks to the lodge in time for 4pm. Unload car, drive car back and park it up.

it might be fine or if there are queues it might feel chaotic.

You take a swim bag/bags, separate to your other cases.
So you park your car from 10am onwards, leave everything packed in your car in the main car park.

Then you take your coats and swim stuff to the pool/restaurants etc, then at 4pm or 2pm if you’ve got early check in booked, you go and pick up your car (or make your DH go and pick up the car 😂), whilst you and the kiddos walk to the villa /take land train if you’re going to Longleat and villa is far away.

Once your car is outside your villa, unpack quickly then someone takes back the car and on check in day, the Parc Market is open later so car person can always pop and grab a few bits on their way back walking to villa.

Its super easy and stress-free…..as opposed to your driving back out to Tesco for a shop….which probs won’t fit in the fridge 😬

Won't half the site also be heading for Tesco's at the same time?

I wouldn't do it, personally. It's not exactly depriving a small, independent provider of income to buy stuff from a supermarket on the way, after all.

I agree with your husband. It's a bit of a faff getting checked in. The queue might be ok first or second time but it will be time consuming and annoying. I wouldn't want to draw the short straw of getting the shop.

No, because the majority of people take stuff with them, buy from the Park Market or eat out most nights (we do this).

I’d have it in the car for a few hours not go back out. Probably only bother with ice packs / cold bags if you’ve got chicken. Don’t bring milk just buy that on site.

There's a Tesco in Stepplingly and a Waitrose in Ampthill. Get there an hour early & get the shopping first, then you can drop it off at the lodge before you park your car.

Also, the point of a CP holiday is that it’s as car free as possible.

If I go somewhere like this, I’m going to try to be as considerate as possible and get my car on and off site as quickly as I can.

Im not going to try to think of ways to get around the system and see if I can get away with driving around the place twice.

This sounds like a holiday from hell, queuing for hours to get in, no accommodation until 4pm and then having to shop for your own food….don’t they have restaurants? I think I’d rather stay home, it doesn’t sound like much of a holiday to me.

Buy a foldable wagon to put all the shopping in. Best thing we bought. We take it to the beach, on holiday in the UK when the cottage isn't close to parking, etc etc. Our small kids kids love sitting in it when they get tired. They just join in and sit in or on top of all the stuff we put in it for the beach. Saves taking a buggy down to the beach too!

What we usually do is bring stuff for the first day with us and on the second day in the the morning we drive out and get a bigger shop for the holiday.

We’re getting there at 10 and can’t get into lodge until 2 or thats what we’d do.

Of course there are restaurants but we can’t afford to eat out for every meal.

Not that it really matters as we’re not doing it now but there was no sneakiness. Car would have gone my house to car park to Tesco to lodge then back to car park. No sneaky double looping twice to lodge!

I’ve been going for over 30 years and have never queued at any village to get in, for more than 20 mins and that includes check in

We always go swimming/grab lunch straight away (so pack swim bags on top of all luggage), forget about going to your lodge and spend as long as possible in the pool and enjoy the first day! We go to the Lodge when we’re ready (after the gate opens but don’t rush there) and have the car stacked full of a Tesco’s shop. Cold stuff that we need for the first morning in a cool box and you can grab any extra cool stuff from the supermarket on site. The prices really are not too bad in the supermarket (they are not much more expensive than the town we live in).

I really wouldn’t be fussing with driving to tescos on the first day - I just want to get in that pool 😁

Brexit

*joke

@GreatBrickMoose https://www.centerparcs.co.uk/discover-center-parcs/shops/parc-market.html

Think this will show you how pretty comprehensive the Park Market is

We bring a car full of food as most people do for self-catering holidays. After you’ve been out all day enjoying everything at CP, i’d say the majority of people want to relax in their lodge rather than go back out. Im shattered! I just want to sit round the fire, cook in the lodge, have a nice glass of wine and relax. We usually go out one night but thats enough. Also, you can swim into the night so swimming under the stars wins over going to a restaurant for me.

If you can afford centre parcs you can afford to shop onsite