Rising Damp Rigsby would be proud of... (Center Parcs)

Member Name: kirkknowles

Product:	Center Parcs
Date:	05/09/05 (1921 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: The kids love it, plenty to do, great setting

Disadvantages: Poor accomodation really let it down

This was our first Centre Parc experience, and after hearing several positive reviews from friends we were well up for it. We opted for the Elveden Complex which is a comfortable two hour drive from where we live. There was eight in our party, four of which being children whose ages ranged from 9 months to 13 years. We went for a weekend breaks (Fri/Mon), and opted for the Comfort Villa (4 beds) which is the "standard" accommodation level within the park. As we had paid around £600 for the trip we had no prior concerns with quality, after all, C.P is supposed to be a slightly more discerning option...or at least thats what we thought!

The complex itself is very modern, well laid out and has everything you need Shops, Bar, Restaurants etc (albeit for a slightly higher than high street price) on arrival you are greeted by beautifully manicured "man made" surroundings which is complemented by acres of rugged natural woodland. Its looks great...until you enter your Villa. Our accommodation resembled a tied over-used pre-fab which would not have looked out of place in a Soviet holiday camp from the Iron Curtain era. The walls were grubby yellow complete with cracks and marks. The furnishings were tied and there was a damp, musty smell that would be akin to a caravan in February, not a hot weekend in September. On top of this our patio area was littered with fag butts and the place hummed like it had just held a chain smokers convention. Being an ex-smoker myself I found this particularly unpleasant. After two days we had to abandon the bunker and come home early as the carpets had become "wet" and according to the House keeper, this was “damp” which was starting to react to glue used to attach the carpets to the concrete flooring! As we had not seen a drop of rain for nearly two weeks I am still suspicious as to where this “damp” had emanated from. The smell also was pretty grim by this stage.

To fair to the Centre Parcs Management, they accepted that our accommodation was sub-standard, and assured us that it would be closed off with immediate effect (condemned I hope) they have also offered compensation. Oh, and by the way on the issue of the smokers smell, It is apparently "corporate" policy NOT to offer non-smoking villas...you pays your money and you takes your chance. The excuse/reason given is that it's too hard to police!!! It amazes me that an apparently forward thinking health promoting business like C.P takes such a draconian view on something of this nature.

On the positive side of things, there’s loads of options to keep the guests happy, my wife and 13 year old daughter had great fun on the Archery Range, whilst my 3 year old son and his friend had hours of fun in the subtropical paradise (swimming pool). We only had one "restaurant" meal which was in the Italian and it was superb...so I hope you can see were I am coming from on this. All in all it's a great experience which is badly let down by some very poor accommodation and this is a great shame. We will give it another go, maybe early next year as hopefully this was just a one off.

Summary: Just a one off...we hope. Will give it one more go.