Center Parcs Winter Wonderland - advice on activities and bookings please

[Tigerlilyxx]

Hi,

We're booked to go to center parcs Sherwood Forest this December with our two year old and the ILs. Bookings for activities opens tomorrow. It's the first time any of us have been.

Can anyone advise if all activities need to be prebooked? Even the swimming etc.

I'm planning on booking a Santa visit and maybe the breakfast with Santa too. Are both worth it or stick to one?

Any other toddler friendly activities people would recommend? Unfortunately, a lot of the activities seem to be 3+.

Do the restaurants also need to be booked far in advance?

Thank you

You don’t need to/can’t book swimming any more just turn up when you like as often as you like for as long as you like. Including day of arrival and departure.

absolutely have to book Santa as soon as you can - it sells out and books up fast - like 8am the day the activities are released (if you’re going for a weekend or out of term time).

I’d just do one Santa activity.

i honestly wouldn’t book activities for your 2 year old - swimming, parks, playing on the beach and the soft plays were enough for ours. Hire bikes with a seat or a trailer and go exploring, or just explore the woods.

if you’re going with the in-laws I HIGHLY reccomend you and your partner bank some baby sitting and go to the spa!

Also ditto restaurants if wanting popular times ie 12-2 or 5-8pm, unless you’re happy to risk not being available for walk ins. We often get takeaway or take a gusto box etc

We normally take something like a pre-made lasagne for one night, the food on site is expensive, and the shop is very pricey. The Christmas carols are nice, but maybe a bit much for little ones. It's nice walking through the winter wonderland bit. We take dishwasher tabs and breakfast and lunch stuff. Spa is lovely, I don't bother booking treatments as you have to pay for the spa on top and that irks me as the treatments are pricy.

You need to book the under 3s swim sessions. I didn't realise this and it meant we didn't get to take advantage of that quieter time, my youngest still enjoyed it though. The toddler activities get booked up really quickly too.

Thanks, any other toddler activities you'd recommend?

They were all fully booked so we didn't get to try any, but to be honest she was just so happy pottering around the kids pool and playing with the fountains that it didn't matter :) also the main bars have a small soft play.

The best activity for that age is the little climbing thing. Mini trek or something like that?! It’s only a couple of feet off the floor. Our kids loved it at that age!
No need to book swimming. For that age breakfast with Santa you’d get the benefit of more because of the food. We did meeting Santa too but my kids are older.