centerparcs type holiday?

[Merlin]

Can anyone help me? Planning to go away around 5th November but Centerparcs Longleat is full for the whole month. Party consists of me, DH, DS (nearly 4), my mother, sister and boyfriend and stepson (aged 12). Is there anywhere similar with pool, lots of activities etc or even a self catering cottage on a small complex - any suggestions please???

Merlin

Have you looked at CP - Sherwood Forest, we go there every year, straight up the M1, they reckon that Sherwood Forest is the best (over heard a lady with her family booking at Easter at CP whilst we were there, she was saying that CP Oasis wasn't as good if you had children under 8 years old, CP Sherwood Forest came top with her followed by longleat, then Elvenden) and DH and I thought we were sad, going every year , it is nice though and DD loves it (which is the whole point)

most people I've seen posting on here say the elvedon one is v good. we went to sherwood, but it wasn't really our sort of thing, a bit like a m-way service station in eastern germany pre-the wall coming down (imho)
the one up in cumbria is supposed to be nicer - taken over by centerparcs.

message withdrawn

galaxy, it was lovely cycling round everywhere and i did enjoy the spa- dd1 loved the creche too, but it all felt a little plastic. and a couple of things which happened upset me - eg outside one of the themed restaurants a child fell into a small pond with all his clothes on and his parents never even noticed. even when someone pointed it out to them, they couldn't care less and laughed at him. he was about 7 or 8 but very upset and cried a lot (this was october). and it's not as if it's cheap, either.

message withdrawn

totally agree about the cost.
best value was our babysitter, a centerparcs employee - complete with id card - who was v comfortable with our girls, dd2 was only about 6 mths.

I must say we love Oasis, Penrith and go at least once a year. The villa types we stay in are getting a bit tatty now but they're upgrading them. we used to stay in a more expensive one but we're in it so little thought it a waste. DH and I found a lovely restaurant in Penrith for when the boys were in the evening club.

Hi,
Has anyone got a good experience to tell about Centerparcs at Elvedon?
We are going there next week and I am a bit worried after reading this thread!

tiggiwinkle, sorry didn't mean to upset anyone, i was just mystified how so many people were really positive about what I thought was overpriced and a bit naff.

we went there as my first trip (elveden) and loved it more than oasis and sherwood. I have mates who go regularly

p.s. the only reason we don't go now is the distance btw

Hi all.
Thanks for the alternative Cps, but I am in Bournemouth and the other parks are too far to travel just for a long weekend.

Anybody got any other suggestions?

Have you tried your tourist info? They may know of somewhere suitable?

message withdrawn

Galaxy,
Thanks for that-Im still worried though!
We have never been on this kind of holiday either-we usually rent a cottage in Pembrokeshire or the West Country as we are a big family with 2 dogs!
However my husband has his own business and can only take a week off this year; my eldest 2 sons are in their twenties and are staying home with the dogs, so I thought we would try something different with the young ones. I will let you know what we think afterwards!

Tiggiwinkle:
We had a great week at Elveden early July - I tried to post a very detailed report - you'll find it earlier in this Travel talk section if you search. I agree with Galaxy on a lot of the cost/service issues, but if you kind of do your own thing (and definitely self cater more than you might have), it's really lovely. We were in the newer three-bedroom executive villas by the country club, and that sounds like it was pretty big difference from Galaxy's experience with the two-bedroom exec villas, so maybe that's worth considering - ours was quite nice and clean. It's mostly, I think, a quuestion of expectation -it's not a 5-star experience on the accommodation/food side, but I would rate the actual setting at 5-star - it's really lovely and very well set, considering the large number of people it accommodates. By the way, I also agree with Galaxy on the "mediocre" for Sapaniere, but it was a pretty decent meal, and we had a fantastic wine - a Clare Valley Shiraz from Leasingham, that's on the wine list, and definitely lifted the whole quality of the dinner for us!

Is La Sapaniere a revolving restaurant? Or did that go with the fire? We had a lovely meal when we went but it was 8 years ago.

I don't know about you but it feels like you're in a different country when you're at Centre Parcs? The air is amazing and it's so safe.

Yup - revolving, which is kind of weird in a '70s way, but also means you don't need to worry whether you've got a good table ...

I lol but I went to the loo and couldn't find DH when I came out as he'd 'moved'

Tartegnin:
Many thanks-I have now read your comments on the other thread! We do intend to mostly self-cater, so we should be OK I think.The surroundings do sound lovely, and Im sure the kids will enjoy it too!