Center Parcs - May 2016 Review

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 2^nd May 2016 for a midweek break. This was our 4^th 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.

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.

Baby Owls

Activities

We booked a number of activities for each day that we were there.

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.

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. 

Bowling

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!

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.

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.

Baby Owls

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).

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!

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!