Center parks - a bit tacky?

[9uygjk]

Just back from our first trip to center parks. Went to the one in Woburn and honestly I just thought it was a bit tacky. Apparently it's middle class Butlins but is it? Maybe am being particularly picky but I still thought it was a bit like Butlins. Is it just me?

😆😆

OP have you been on holiday to Butlins?

You can call CP overpriced but it's not tacky.

What it is, is a brilliantly easy holiday if you have young kids. Park up and just disappear into a bubble for a few days.

You should have popped into the Abbey, the Duke and Duchess are always glad to welcome random, but classy, holidaymakers to their lovely home. Do give it a try next time, they'll be thrilled. No need to slum it OP.

My sibling and spouse are both doctors and whenever we go to Center Parcs I cannot tell you how many other doctors they run into - people from uni, people from foundation training, people who work in their hospitals now. From that, I'd say it's pretty middle class! (Agree the food is rubbish but like most people with kids, we go for the pool and because it's within easier travelling distance for a weekend than Europe.)

We went for a long weekend to one to join some friends for a 40th birthday and I was massively underwhelmed
I wouldn’t say it was tacky but it was incredibly overpriced for what it was I absolutely wouldn’t be in a rush to go back there not a chance.
we’ve also done Butlins, haven, park Dean and I think they’re all much of a muchness with centre parks trying to be the posh relative over charging. Also I don’t think there is enough to do - the other resorts have a lot more activities/ and entertainment on offer and food packages at Butlins are much better

Also a doctor and husband an accountant, and it’s v popular with lots of work colleagues/ friends for both of us. So agree probably fairly stereotypically middle class

It’s always what I think of now when anyone mentions Centre Parks.

Well, it is what it is. The cabins and their settings are fine. The main areas feel very much like a holiday camp, which it is. I found everyone walking in together on changeover day like a scene from Hi-di-Hi. I found the clientele to be a mixed bag. Aside from the prices it's not particularly upmarket. It's the sort of thing that you enjoy when the kids are young as you get your enjoyment from watching them have a great time. Once they start to outgrow it, you look back and see it for what it is. In essence, if you didn't have young kids to entertain in usually rainy holidays, you probably wouldn't holiday there.

Sasssh- don't tell anyone but CP is basically the same as the smaller Haven sites, only far more expensive. And with more trees. My kids love both.

It's not my first choice of holiday but we sometimes go to both CP and Haven because they're easy and because the kids love them.

Haven clientele tend to be friendlier, it's quieter (probably because I've never been to their big sites) and it's significantly cheaper. CP swimming pools are nicer. Food is crap at both but the kids like it. I take "naice" bread and coffee with me if I want it.

Essentially both CP and Haven are like having a holiday in the Trafford centre. There might be fountains, statues and pillars but it's not Rome. If you go expecting it to be naice you'll be disappointed, but if you unclench and let the kids enjoy themselves you might find it's fun.

It was no middle class oasis. We went to the one in Suffolk and the restaurants in particular were so tacky. So were certain rules treating customers like cattle.

Our lodge was nice I’ll give them that but we’re used to genuinely middle class places with better service

I thought CP was shit as well when we went - especially for how much it cost. The premium cabin was really basic and old, the options for eating out were dire (and really expensive), the onsite shop was crap, the pool was nice but the changing rooms were dirty and all the activities were ridiculously expensive when we'd already paid a small fortune to be there.

I went to St Ives last week.
Definitely didn't feel middle class! It was tourist hell.

It's the chavs with money that love this place, the actual middle classes have moved on to something like potters, much nicer imo
PP nailed it with the nevaeh and Jaxxon, my chav relatives love it, the only complaint is that they can't drive their massive white range rover up to the cabin. They also love Disney 😂

The above post has to be satire, surely.

MN obsession with class has peaked in this thread.

Never really been interested in class or tackiness. So my opinion might not be worth much but we love a CP for an easy kid friendly holiday. We used to love the winter wonderland at Elverdon first week of December. Magical.

Now tend to go for European ones. Fresh bread and pastries for breakfast. Brilliant cycling inside and outside the park. Excellent pool. Activities for all ages, both free and paid for. Trips out from the park to the local area. Yes the food is awful and expensive. But we tend to eat out now, a quick trip advisor helps.

I absolutely couldn’t agree more

the parking miles away too with all my stuff really annoyed me too - we don’t have a white Range Rover 😂

In fairness, I'm a doctor too and I think it's fair to say that a lot of doctors are aspirational lower middle class. There's lots of conspicuous consumption amongst my peers, and many of them spend an awful lot of money just to go on the same holidays, buy the same gadgets, and own the same cars as other doctors in an attempt to fit in.

Only Mumsnet would call it tacky, we used to love a holiday there, but have long since been priced out. Although it used to have an interesting reputation for extra curricular activities on MN 🤣

There's lots of conspicuous consumption amongst my peers, and many of them spend an awful lot of money just to go on the same holidays, buy the same gadgets, and own the same cars as other doctors in an attempt to fit in.

Doesn't this just sum up the middle classes? 😆

We’ve been 4 times from when DC were small (3and 5) to when they were around 14 & 16.
Once we went with friends and once w PILs. Been in summer hols, pre-Xmas and when dc school had holidays different to rest of country.
It was def better in the 2000-2010s, last time was about 7 years ago so idk what it’s like now We actually went to Woburn then and it hadn’t been open long - def the smallest one for sure. Think we only went to the pool once over the long weekend. I preferred Sherwood but we’ve done elvedon too.
its a good place for a multigenerational holiday and a mixed group holiday.
Dd and I used the spa in Woburn and it was lovely.

I go in January, mon - fri, it’s about £300/400. I’m hardly going for the kudos of going to centre parcs lol… I don’t know anyone who thinks centre parc is a status symbol

Well it is compared to Butlins I guess.

They are all massively overpriced, luckily my parents pay as the kids absolutely love it.
in terms of holiday villages I haven’t found better - accommodation is always clean, the woodland aspect is lovely as is it being mostly car free. My kids love the pool and we spend most of the day in there as you can buy food and drinks.
I wouldn’t describe any aspect as tacky.
yes the restaurants are chain restaurants but we’ve always had nice experiences, they have a Starbucks and the park market bakes fresh bread and lovely cakes so not sure what you mean by you can’t get bread or coffee.
admittedly I have not been to the Woburn one. We are up north so its Sherwood or Whinfell for us - I do like that at Sherwood the village square is all outside which is nicer than it all being under the dome

Even compared to Butlins, no one is impressed by a CP holiday,

I have never met anyone who would be anything other than indifferent about where I go on my UK holiday.