center parcs...tips?? have u enjoyed it? goods and bads>???

[lalatele]

will be going to the elveden forest one...any tips and advice?? how much are the activities? good things to do with 18 months old???

we went back in september and it was great. there are pool sessions in the morning for littles ones, with songs and inflatables etc, which was good.

One thing i would not do again was the make a memory. it was chaos , with too many families and no aproans, no help and paint everywhere!

we also did the portrait thing, which was ok, and got one nice shot, but the photographer not great at getting ds to laugh, smile, which was then difficult for us as we wnated a family shot.

the play area is good for little ones too, has a train and we spent ages there. And there is good cakes at the coffee shop by the pool!

have fun, am jealous

thanks kathryn...any prices you could give me? any free things to do? what about the food...anything u recommend (especially with an 18 months old around?)

All the childrens' menus are the same in each restaurant (mostly organic) and have been balanced properly for small ones with fesh veg etc.

Things like shepherds pie, sausages and mashed potato, spag bol, salmon and cheese sauce etc. They also give free jars of organic baby food.

Once the kids are old enough not to turn purple after being in the pool (don't mean it's cold, just that babies and toddlers get cold quickly) we found that we could spend most of the time in and around the pool dome.

We did the phot thing too - 30.oo for sitting, one free 7 X 5 photo but the rest are really expensive (but you don't have to buy any others).

You oculd play table tennis/badminton with LO in pushchair (about 6.50 pp for badminton I think)and around £4 for ttennis.

Play areas good - crazy golf, you can take LO in pushchair.

Pedallos (around a fiver I think).
You must, must , must get DH/DP to have kids whilst you have a spa treatment at the Aqua Sana. It's so tranquil and lovely.

We only live 35 mins away at the moment - shame they only do day passes for guests already staying, otherwise I'd be there every weekend!!!

We always enjoy centre parcs - have been going once or twice a year since dd1 was born 5 years ago. With dd1 we did lots of the make a memory, bear picnics, messy time etc but to be honest we soon learnt that they have as much fun (and we have more) when they are that young, just doing the free things - the pool is fab, the play areas are great, they love being on the back of the bike, watching the ducks, rabbits etc. All the eating is really child friendly which is great, but not great and not cheap but you can eat in you villa while lo sleeping. We love it .. enjoy

hi, we went to elvedene forest in december over new year. our party was made up as follows;- me and husband, 2 old crinklies, 14 year old, 11 year old and 22 month old. we had a great time together and all had a go at something differant, i.e,, fencing, baby in creche (never done that before). have been going to center parcs for years and this year decided to go self catering as we normally eat out all the time. we really enjoyed eating in as it suited us with the toddler. you have to wait about an hour in the restaurants to eat which is far too long and the food isn't great either IMO. you'll have a great time if you plan your stay or the time will fly by and everything gets booked up so quickly!

We went to Elveden in early Jan this year and had a great time with a 3 yr old and 21mth old. Swimming is easy to do whenever, though sometimes you have to wait if you all want to get a family changing cubicle together - or you can just split up and use a couple of the smaller ones. They have floatation jackets for the kids to use so no need to have to take that sort of thing with you unless you want to.

We did find that the Cafe Rouge salted all of the chips before bringing them to the table - and pointed out that we were unhappy with this, especially on our kids meals, but whether they have listened

Book up things like the creche early on as it will get full up. We didn't pre-book but did book pretty much as soon as we arrived. Likewise if you do want a babysitter book that asap as these are very limited. We used the creche for one afternoon for 3 hours and we took ourselves off to the spa for the afternoon...heaven!

Lots of bread to feed the ducks

Go with the flow and chill out!

Oh and take spare loo rolls too!