Center Parcs - May 2016 Review
Taken from my TripAdvisor Reviews |
| Lake and Beach |
We stayed at Center Parcs as
a family of 2 adults and a 4 year old boy during the week beginning
2nd May 2016 for a midweek break. This was our 4th
trip to Center Parcs (if you haven't been before please see my
previous reviews) so we had every day, activity and restaurant
planned in advance. Like last time, to make the most of the break and
to effectively have a extra two days on site we travelled up on the
Sunday, stay at Premier Inn and then arrived at Center Parcs 10am
Monday morning. Then we stayed on site for the day on the Friday and
stayed in the Premier Inn again Friday night before going Longleat
Safari park on the Saturday.
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| Lake |
Arrival
Even though you cannot
access your accommodation until 3pm you can arrive at Center Parcs
anytime from 10am on your arrival day. So like I said we planned to
arrive at 10am. Last time when we arrived at 10am there wasn't a
queue to get in but this time there were about 10 cars in front of
us. It was slow moving to begin with because they only had one
arrivals lodge open but after a while they opened up two more.
This time we decided to pay
for the early arrival. It was £35 to get access to your lodge at 2pm
instead of 3pm. However, we wont be doing this again. At just before
2pm we went to join the queue at the barrier waiting for 2pm. There
were quite a few cars in the queue. 2pm came and went and the barrier
didn't open. At about 2.15pm a cleaner, who just happened to be
passing said that for early arrival we had to enter at a completely
different part of the park which we should have been told about at
the arrivals lodge. Like I said there was a big queue of cars so a
lot of people were not told about this other entrance.
So we all then had to
struggle to turn around and go to an entrance at the other side of
the car park. When we got to the early arrival entrance there wasn't
anyone there checking that you had booked early arrival so anyone
could get in early if they know where they are going. This was a bit
annoying, first we lost out on nearly half an hour of our early
arrival and then no one even checked anyone could just drive straight
in.
Our plan was to get into our
lodge at 2pm and then go swimming at 3pm when everyone else was
getting into their lodges. So just before 3pm we took our car back to
the car park. Big mistake, the way out to the car park is the same
way that everyone else drives into the parc so if was a real struggle
to get back into the car park and fight our way through the hundreds
of cars coming in. Like I said we wont be bothering paying the extra
for early arrival again.
This was also the first time
we paid extra to chose our lodge. Before, we didn't think it was
worth paying the extra because we liked staying in different areas.
But now after being so close to the Plaza and not being as far away
as possible and having to rely on the land train we will definitely
being paying the extra next time.
Accommodation
We always stay in one of the
Woodland Lodges which are the cheapest and as usual we couldn't fault
the lodge. Well if we were on Four in a Bed and being extra picky
then we probably could have found something like one of the radiators
was broken and locking the patio door was a bit of a struggle but
nothing that bothered us.
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| Baby Owls |
Activities
We booked a number of
activities for each day that we were there.
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| Junior Pony Rides |
Bikes – We hired two adult
bikes, one which had a children's bike attached to the back of it.
The cost was £78 in total. The only thing that bothered me is when
we collected the bikes we discovered that you have to return them by
10am on departure day. We had activities booked on departure day and
without bikes it was a considerably long walk up and down some very
steep hills. Also the land train doesn't run until after 6pm on
Fridays. But now that I know that you don't get to have the bikes on
departure day, next time I wont book activities so far away.
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| Junior Pony Rides |
Bowling – We usually do
bowling on either arrival day or departure day because it is a lot
cheaper. £20 for 45 minutes on Monday or Friday (you can get it for
£18 at some times) but during the week the price can go up to £30 -
£40 depending on the time. They were building a new bar area around
the bowling area so looking forward to seeing that next time.
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| Bowling |
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| Bowling |
Field Archery – My partner
did this for the second time and said he really enjoyed it. It was
£25 for an hour and a half.
Family Photo Shoot – Our
little boy is 4 and a half and we do not have any photos of the three
of us together which is why we decided to book the family photo
shoot. It was £20 for a 30 minute session which included one free
photo with the option to purchase additional photos. Our little boy
has autism and he was extremely upset during the photo shoot because
he didn't understand what was going on, plus it was his usual dinner
time. However, the photographer was extremely patient with him and
tried a number of different things to try to make him more relaxed.
She even managed to get a few nice photos of us. So a big thank you
to her. I thought she said her name was Millie but my partner said
her name was Lily. So Millie or Lily, thank you very much!
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| Family Photo Shoot |
Quad Bikes – My partner
did quad bikes for the first time. It was £38 for one hour but he
said he really enjoyed it and that they were actually riding the quad
bikes for the entire hour.
Baby Owls – Last time we
did An Outing with Owls (which was £10 per adult and £8 per child)
but this time we decided to do Baby Owls, which is aimed at children
under 5. It cost £10 each regardless of age. On arrival we had a
letter saying that the location of the Baby Owls had been moved to
the Village Square which is a much more convenient location than the
Falconry Centre on the other side of the park. But I had allowed an
hour to get from the Falconry Centre back over to the Village Square
for pony rides. But this was the only hiccup in my extremely well
organised minute by minute itinerary. We just had an hour to kill
before we went for the pony ride.
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| Baby Owls |
The two women who do the owl
sessions are fantastic, they were the same two as when we went last
September. The talk they did in the baby owl session was exactly the
same as the talk for the outing with owls session we went to last
year. The only difference is that in the outing with owls you all get
to stand in a circle and have the owls fly to you. In the baby owls
session you stay seated and just a couple of the smaller owls fly to
you.
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| Baby Owls |
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| Baby Owls |
They were both fantastic
with our son. They were aware that he had autism and were really
patient with him when they were including him. At the end of the
session they even gave him a big feather from one of the owls which
some of the other children got upset about (sorry mums and dads) but
a big thank you to Karen and the other lady (so sorry I have
forgotten your name).
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| Baby Owls |
Junior Pony Rides – They
were for children aged 2 – 7 years and cost £18 for 15 minutes. My
son had never seen a pony before so we had no idea how he was going
to react but he loved it. The people running it were fantastic and
made sure that my son had the pony that was used to children with
special needs. Again a big thank you to these people!
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| Junior Pony Rides |
Cabana – For departure day
(which was my partner's birthday) I decided to treat us to a private
cabana in the swimming paradise. It was £55 for 3 hours, which is
the only activity that I thought was a bit steep in price but it was
a special occasion and I am really glad with did book one. On the
Center Parcs website and also when you arrive at the arrivals lodge
you are told that on arrival day you are not allowed to use the pool
until after 2pm however, on our departure day we soon realised this
rule is not enforced. The pool was so busy you literally couldn't
move, there was only enough space for people to stand in the pool but
not actually move around. So we were definitely glad that we had our
cabana and by late morning the mass of people had emptied out and the
pool was practically empty for the last hour and a half. In the
cabana there is a 60 inch TV, towels and a fridge with 3 bottles of
water and 3 bottles of fizzy drinks. It would have been nice to have
had a non fizzy drink but we will know for next time. The major
disappointment with the cabana were the chairs. On the website they
are advertised as 'comfortable chairs' and they have photos of chairs
with padding. However, the chairs in the cabana were extremely
uncomfortable wicker ones that left red marks and scratches all over
you. So £55 for really uncomfortable chairs was a bit steep.
Electric Boats - £19 for 30
minutes. They didn't go very fast but it was nice not having to row.
30 minutes was plenty of time, we went around the lake a number of
times and in different directions. Since the lake isn't very big I
wouldn't have wanted to spend longer than 30 minutes on the boat. We
have now done the electric boats twice and I think that is enough, I
don't have any need to do them again.
Restaurants
The Pancake House
You can now book the Pancake
House in advance! Yey, very helpful. It used to be one of the only
places you could turn up to without booking so it was always hit and
miss and to whether or not you got a table. When I first booked this
holiday you couldn't book the Pancake House in advance however, just
by pure chance, the week before our trip I noticed that you could now
book in advance for some times (not all). So glad of this because we
saw a number of families being turned away on both of our visits.
We love eating at the
Pancake House. Each time we go in there with the aim of having a
savoury item and a pudding but it never happens because one course is
so filling. So now we always go in there twice. Definitely my
favourite place to eat, I can't fault it. Just take note of the
opening times because it isn't open every evening.
Rajinda Pradesh
The food here was really
nice, I couldn't fault it. Our waitress Mischa was extremely
understanding of our autistic son so thank you very much!
The Grand Cafe
We went for the Wednesday
night carvery and as always it was extremely nice. Last time they had
a separate children's menu (even though not all of the items are
available on carvery nights). This time we asked if our son could
have something from the children's menu (we wanted to ensure to give
him something he would definitely eat without causing a fuss) and we
were told that children can only have carvery on a Wednesday. We
explained our situation and pointed out that it even said on the menu
that there was a separate children's menu available. The waiter than
said he would see if the chief could make a 'special exception'.
Considering he then came back out of the kitchen with a bowl of pasta
in less than 2 minutes it couldn't have been that much of an
exception, they must have already had some prepared. He was just
being difficult. But that didn't spoil our meal, the carvery was
lovely and our little boy quietly ate his pasta without bothering
anyone else.
Hucks
I think the only problem
with Hucks is that the menu is too big! (Over 30 pages online). There
were lots of different things I wanted to try. On the Hucks menu they
advertise a children's buffet which says that children can eat as
soon as you sit down. We thought that this was a brilliant idea but
we learnt last time that it isn't actually the case. Last time we had
to wait 20 minutes the waitress to take our order and provide a plate
for the children's buffet and this time we had to wait almost that
long again because it wasn't ready. We have eaten in Hucks 4 times
and each time I have ordered the same thing and each time the portion
has got bigger and bigger! This time I couldn't finish it so I think
that's finally the excuse I need to look through that great big menu
again and to try something else next time.
Hawtons
We like eating here for
lunch, it is really filling and half the price of the dinner menu.
Again our waiter was really nice. I think I read on the Center Parcs
news page that they are replacing this restaurant with a different
one so that is disappointing, especially since this restaurant is
relatively new anyway.
Canopy Cafe
The Canopy Cafe is the cafe
in the Swimming Paradise. We ate here for lunch on the day that we
booked our private cabana. You order you food at the counter but then
once it is ready a waitress brings it to your cabana for you very
helpful! We had pizza and chips and the portion size was a lot bigger
than expected and again it was very nice.
We love Center Parcs and
even though some times we find things to complain about they aren't
actually major complaints just little 'niggles' if we are being extra
picking.
Like most people, we spent a
lot of money over the 5 days. However, this didn't come as a shock.
The prices for all of the activities are on the website and all of
the menus for all of the restaurants are also on the website so we
knew how much spending money we would need. We were hoping to go
again in September (Cornwall Council lost our school application for
our son so we thought an up side of him not going to school was that
we could go to Center Parcs again). However, we have recently found
out that our son has now got a school place for September so we are
now extremely disappointed that we wont be able to go to Center Parcs
again. While we are happy to pay term time prices, do activities
every day and eat out every meal there is no way we can pay school
holiday prices and still have such a good time.
Sorry I have gone on so
much! Hopefully some people will find this helpful and if not this
will probably be my last review of Center Parcs unless we win the
lottery!
