Another Centerparcs question. How much should we budget?

[Beatie]

I'm thinking of going to Centerparcs for a week with my DH and my dd who will be 2.6 years. How much do we need to budget for extra expenses?

Are the restaurants and drinks expensive? Can someone give me an example of how much a meal might cost. We're not really a fast food type family so we'd either cook for ourselves in the accommodation and hope to enjoy a few meals out.

Any hints, tips, advice would be great. Thanks!

Can only speak for Oasis, but if you get to some of the restaurants (def the rock cafe) before 5.30/6pm I think?? kids meal with ice cream and a drink is about £3. We took advantage of that most nights!!
Check the time on the menus to be sure

I would certainly take your own food and it can be costly, well it is when the food is not that fantastic. We will avoid Hucks diner and platform whatever it is next time.
The indian is good though and they do a takeaway service too.
The supermarket is well stocked and just a bit more expensive than the standard supermarket.
So doing self catering is a good idea.

We went at xmas and found the food really good wherever we went. We ate out most of the time. The restaurants vary, pretty average prices though. Usually cost us £10-£15 each for 2 courses and drinks. The takeaways are a bit of a rip off though as it costs the same to take away as to eat in (ie £8 minimum a dish from the indian plus rice etc on top!)

Free babyfood in every restaurant (dont know if this applies!) Drinks are a bit expensive but not ridiculous.

Supermarket is a bit more expensive so definitely recommend taking all the basics with you.

Use the family deals if you can where if you eat early you get a cheap kids meal. Or self cater. Usually with CP you go for a 3 day weekend or a 4 night week, therefore you don't have a whole week to cover.

Last time DH and I and 2 kids ate at the pool for lunch (about £3 ahead) and ate in at night. I would do an evening out using the babysitting service if you want to take advantage of it (about £4 - £5 an hour)

Although the supermarket is little more expensive I tended to use it, otherwise I end up with boxes and boxes of food.

Is a week too long then? This may be our only holiday this year.

we always go for a week

as we find the shorter breaks too short

DS loves the time out club and we spend rest of time cyling and swimming both free.

We do other stuff as well but we do like the fact that we do not have to be somewhere by a strict time and so time does not matter

What I mean is, that if you have lots of sports fixed up you have to keep an eye on time to go here or there. IYSWIM.

The villas do not have clocks apart from in kitchen area.

So we like time not to exist IYKWIM

Beatie:

A week will not be too long - it will fly by. We went for a week and could have stayed another one. It's a great concept and perfect with little ones. There are a lot of things though that cost money, so be forewarned. Food is just the beginning, and I agree with most of the other posters, that self-catering is the way to go for the most part, both to save money and improve quality. With limited exceptions, we were pretty disappointed with the restaurant food quality and service. We treated outselves to loads of M&S and other goodies to self cater and had better meals and still saved money. Kids activities, bicycle rental, sports, spa and other things all cost, though, so you'd have to budget for that. You'll get a complete list of available activities before you go, together with prices, so that would help. We had 4 adults and one child and probably spent about 100 pounds a day, in addition to self cater costs ...

Bought Good Housekeeping today (january issue) and there is a 15% offer for Centerparcs for certain weeks. Let me know if you want more details.

I know mumsnet offer 25% off certain weeks too but they might be different weeks.

We've done CP many times and I find the less I pre book and the less I do the more I enjoy it. The first time we had so many activities booked and things to do we never relaxed!!! This was our 5th time at Xmas to go and we only booked the babysitter ( a must every time!!) and Father Xmas pony ride. That was it and it was fab! We did walks and swimming a all the free stuff and really wnjoyed it. I usuually book a load of treatments too but didn;t and it was great. La Sapiniere is one the best restaurants I've ever been to (not at Oasis, they don;t have one)> Indian good althog takeaway exp. Supermarket good and I didn;t think was any different really to home. The italian is very good. Kids always get a meal deal as already said so makes it v cheap. I like the sports plaza as they can play in the ballls/ slides and eat.