Hi Lilly, I have just come back from butlins at bognor. I went with my husband and 2 children aged 2 and 4. We stayed at the shoreline with breakfast and dinner.
Hotel was good - just like a new travelodge type - not fancy but clean, modern and with everything you would need. room service was brill. hotel staff super helpful and friendly. we ate at the hotel for dinner and breakfast. breakfast lovely - continental buffet or cooked breakfast (which only my husband ate and he said it was 'very salty'.) we had porridge, pancakes, croissants, fruit, cereal, toast etc etc. I am the world's greatest tightwad so I made sandwiches out of the breakfast buffet and pinched yoghurts, fruit etc for our lunch. there are places to eat on site but just pub food or pizza or takeaway style stuff, which didn't appeal to us at all.
dinner was the same format every night: help yourself buffet with a curry, a chinese, a traditional english and a veggie. plus there was soup and salad. and a starter which was usually pate or similar, then puddings, or icecream for the kids. It was filling and fine, nothing super amazing at all, but certainly not poor and the staff were fab, the restuarant was clean and comfortable. we ate until food was coming out of our ears every day. drinks are extra btw. I'm pretty sure if you didn't want to eat at the hotel they give you a voucher to eat elsewhere which may be better. I also think there is the option to pay a bit extra and order nicer food, but you might want to check that.there is also a kids buffet which they claimed in the brochure was annabel karmel but when we were there was pretty much smiley faces and beans and fishfingers or lasagne, so again fine but nothing amazing.
the skyline pavilion is where everything goes on and the worst bit are the arcades which look tacky and horrid but if you can ignore them the shows are fantastic for kids, the redcoats worked harder than anyone i've ever seen and there are loads of free rides, a big soft play bit etc. my kids absolutely loved it, and i'm a snob but once I sucked that up I had a great time too.
we spent £80 in total spending money. there are lots of rides that cost a pound or two on top of the free ones, and snacks, photos with the characters etc so you could spend loads but if you're careful you could get away with nothing.
it was my first time going and we had a great time, despite my great misgivings when we booked it!
hth
x