| Product: |
Center Parcs |
| Date: |
24/08/06 (4120 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Self contained, quiet, lots of activities
Disadvantages: Many activities cost extra, Service
This is not our normal sort of holiday. We are more likely to pack a bikini and sunscreen and take a flight to some far flung part of the world before packing up the car and heading for the hills!! But, with a 2 month old and a terrible pregnancy, we thought it best to take a nice and easy holiday to get our bearings with a child in tow. Thus, last February I booked a 3 night stay at Center Parcs Whinfell Forest.
CHOOSING A CENTER PARCS
Once we had decided that we would go to a Center Parcs , I went to www.centerparcs.co.uk to have a look at the various places on offer and to request a DVD and brochure. They arrived in only 2 days. There are 4 Center Parcs in England- Whinfell, Sherwood, Elveden and Longleat. After some debate and discussion with friends who have been, we chose Whinfell Forest. Whinfell is located in Cumbria and I have always thought this area is very scenic.
BOOKING
Once choosing the destination we had to book. We decided on the 7th of July as it was before school holidays and thought it might not be as crowded and easier to get a house where we wanted. Since it was our first stay, we decided to take my husbands parents as backup babysitters (Crèche services are available. However, they don't start until 3 months of age and our son is only 2 months old.) and to book just a basic house. The Comfort 2 bedroom Lodge was just what we wanted and after looking at the map closely, felt that Badger Wood would be our best option as it was close to almost everything.
I was able to do the entire booking online following the link on the Center Parcs website, including choosing the house we wanted. I picked #5 Badger Wood as it looked to be in a central location. I paid a small deposit using my credit card. I could have also used my debit card. The deposit is £75 or 30% of the total cost, whichever is greater. The remainder is due 10 weeks before arrival. Since I had paid by credit card, it was automatically deducted at 10 weeks prior arrival.
2 weeks before you arrive a welcome packet arrives at your home with your reservations and booklet of activities for the Parc. It is advisable to decide on the activities you would like to do and book before arriving. I did this part over the phone and paid by credit card. If you leave it until you get there, many activities may not be available. You can pre-register online as well at www.centerparcs.co.uk/prereg . This makes checking in MUCH faster!
Please note that most activities cost extra. The Tropical Pool area with slides is about the only activity that does not cost.
At this time you can also buy food packs that will be in your accommodation on arrival. They range in price from £7.25 to £38.
ARRIVAL
You may begin to arrive at Center Parcs at 10:30 am at Whinfell Forest. You cannot get access to your house until 3:30 pm. However, if you do arrive early, you can enjoy the wide variety of bars, restaurants and leisure facilities. From 2:00 pm of the day of your arrival, you can enjoy the Swimming paradise.
We did not arrive until 3:30 pm just as the gates were opened and were one of the first ones to gain access to our accommodation. Because we had pre-registered, the check in only took a few minutes to give us the car passes and maps to our house.
Be aware that the roads are very narrow and one way. There will many people walking and riding bikes as you drive to your accommodation. Please take care!
We quickly found our house and were very pleased to see that it was in a very central location.
THE HOUSE
Our house was the very basic one- Comfort 2 bedroom Wooldland Lodge. Upon arrival we found the house in a clean and tidy condition. The only complaint that my mother-in-law and I could find with the house was that the chair rails had not been dusted in a few weeks. Otherwise, the house smelled fine and was clean.
One bedroom had a double bed. In this room there was a cot that had been left for us as we had an infant with us. There are pine furnishings of 2 side tables and a wardrobe. There is a make-up shelf and mirror with a stool. There is also a hair dryer on the wall. While the curtains and duvet was clean. They did not match but were of similar colours.
Bedroom 2 was similar to the first bedroom but a little smaller with 2 single beds that could easily be pushed together. It had the same pine furnishings and hair dryer.
The kitchen looked as if it has recently been redone and had terracotta tiles on the walls, microwave, toaster (ours didn't work properly), oven and stove, fridge with a very small freezer area, basic kitchen utensils, pots and dishes, a dish cloth, scratch pad, oven glove and sachet of soap.
The living room consisted of 2- 2 seater sofas, a coffee table, a side table, an ottoman, fireplace, tv with the basic free channels plus an information channel and a badger watch channel and a radio and CD player. Speakers for this could be found in the attached kitchen. The blue and terracotta colour scheme was basic and appealing. Here you could find the sliding doors onto the back deck.
The dining room is basic with a table and 4 chairs. We also had a highchair but did not use it. There is a large window that looks out into the forest.
The bathroom was roomy but basic. The tub/shower was adequate. There was a toilet and sink as well as a large mirror. There was plenty of room for toiletries. They provide one roll of toilet paper.
The back deck was small but was able to accommodate a small plastic outdoor table and 4 chairs. A few steps down and there was a BBQ pit area. Please be aware that ONLY disposable BBQ's can be used now at the Parc. We knew this ahead of time and brought some with us. However, you can buy them at the store. They have HUGE ones that cost about £8.
WHAT TO BRING WITH YOU
The following items are things I feel you would/should bring with you for the house.
Disposable BBQ pits
Extra toilet paper
Dish detergent
Paper towels
Games in case it rains
Rain coats
Your own pillows
All the rest of the items you may require can be easily bought at the Parc Market.
ACTIVITIES
We choose to do a few activities. These had been pre-booked except for the Driving Range. My suggestion is NOT to book too many activities too close together as they may be very hard to get to. Everything looked like great fun. However, I will only comment on what I actually did do. Please remember that I had a 2 month old with me and he was no problem. We just popped him into his pram and away we went!
Flat Green Bowling- Cost £5.50 per rink for 1 hour- included bowls
We enjoyed this activity. It is outdoors and located at the activity center. The rink is in good shape. However, I did have two complaints. There are suppose to be able to allow 4 games to be occurring at one time. The markings are not very clear and at one point there was some confusion to where we all were suppose to be. The other complaint is the bowls themselves. They are all black with different pictures on them to tell them apart. This made it difficult to tell whose bowl was whose when we were playing. There were 4 of us playing. By the way- girls won!!
Ten Pin Bowling- Cost £15 (there is an early bird special of £10 for 45 minutes for max. of 4 people) Shoes are included in the cost of the bowling. This is located in the Village Center near the Swimming Paradise. They keep the place dark. Not entirely sure except that the balls glowed. The only complaint we had with this experience was that the pins were attached to strings and at times a pin that would have fallen in proper bowling would have fallen, on here it didn't. The boys won this one!
Table Tennis- This cost £4 per table for 30 minutes. The paddles and ball were included in the price (However, I thought they weren't.) We were on table 5 which was located in a squash room. There was one other table and were happy to have the enclosed area for the wild flying balls we had. However, this room seems to be forgotten by the cleaning staff and the floors were filthy!! The dust was terrible under these tables! It was a draw between the girls and boys on this one!
Badminton- This cost £6.50 per court for 45 minutes. We had to pay an extra 50p per racket and 50p for the shuttle cock. The courts were well maintained. We were lucky enough to be near the doors as we played and got a nice breeze as we were having a very heated game and it got very hot very fast. The boys won this one!
There are NUMEROUS activities to choose from for young and old alike! There were many children's activities that I would have been very happy for my child to do if he had been older.
AQUA SPA
We decided to treat ourselves to a few treatments at the spa and were happy with them.
Ultimate Pedicure- Cost £36 for 55 minutes You sit in a massage chair which you control. I found it very nice except that the control buttons were very bad off, like some one decided to punch through the hard plastic on each button. It still worked without any problem. However, it didn't look very nice. The foot bath was lovely and the leg and foot massage was fantastic. The pedicure itself was very nice. You choose your nail colour and afterwards, you are given the bottle afterwards.
Deluxe Manicure- Cost £33 for 55 minutes Very relaxing hand and arm massage followed by cuticle care and colour. Again, the nail polish bottle was given to you for your own use. The manicurist was a lovely girl with nice conversational skills.
Men's Neck, shoulder and back massage- Cost £29 for 25 minutes. My husband really enjoyed this. He had it done on the last day and he wished he had done it every day. He actually fell asleep during the massage and had to awoken!!
There are MANY other treatments and I wished I had time to try them all! The facility was very nice and clean and very inviting.
Some of the treatments you can book ahead, like the pedicure and manicure. Others have to be booked the day you leave for the parc. The Men's massage was booked on the morning of the day we left.
PARCMARKET
This is the supermarket for all of your shopping needs when you arrive. We had brought with us many of the things we needed for the long weekend. However, there were a few things I wanted and we popped into the shop. I found that it had a very wide selection of food items, including their own bakery. I found the prices to be only a few pence higher than the ASDA I shop in. So, I felt that it was reasonable considering the trek one would have to make to the nearest shop outside the parc.
RESTURANTS
We only ate at two places, the Lakeside Inn and Yang.
Lakeside Inn- We went for lunch here on the Saturday. It was like any other pub where you make the order at the bar. Three of us ordered various sandwiches and one ordered fish and chips. We also ordered a few side orders of chips, onion rings and mushrooms. We found the service quick and the food to be very tasty. None of us had any complaints about it. The bill with drinks came to £36.
Yang- This is the Chinese restaurant and on the last night my husband and I decided to go for a nice quiet meal alone. Yang does have an Early Dining Family Feast for $14.95/adult and £5.95/child. This has to be pre-booked. We hadn't pre-booked so we ordered from the menu. We found the food very good. Our one complaint was the length of time between starters and main. We were in no hurry. However, it took a very long time and we nearly drank an entire bottle of wine waiting! The meal that included 2 starters, 2 mains, fried rice, spicy noodles, bottle of wine, sparkling water and 2 beers came to £54.
SERVICE
I found that this is where it fell down! I did have some good service, such as at the spa and upon check-in. However, each time we went to an activity and we had to get equipment, we were left waiting for a long time while people who arrived after us were served. On a few occasions, the staff seemed to argue over WHO was going to serve us and didn't really know what they were talking about when it came to the activities and equipment. Then at Refresh in the Village Center, I found the staff out and out RUDE. The service was sporadic to say the least and people skills need to be worked on with many of the staff.
CHECK-OUT
You must be checked out by 10 AM on the day you leave. We had heard that at 10 it becomes chaos. So, we aimed for 9 am to leave and were happy we did. There was no problem getting out except that there were many people on bikes returning them. Otherwise it was easy.
OVERALL OPINION
Overall, this is a place I am likely to come back to for a long weekend when our son is older and he can enjoy the activities. However, be aware that this can cost a bit for all the extras.
We were happy with our house that cost us $419 for a 2 bedroom house that we split the cost with my in-laws. So, for a little over £200 for 3 nights we were happy with. Prices vary from £280-£550 for a 3 night stay in the basic house.
The thing that brought down my overall opinion of the place is the service at the resort. It could have been much better and have enhanced the stay.
I am a true believer in you make a holiday what it is. We enjoyed ourselves and didn't let the little things mess it up. We were glad we did!
Summary: A great place to get away for a while and relax.
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Last comment:
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hannahm223 - 24/08/06 Brilliant review! This has so much information and is really well written! |
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