Center Parcs - Longleat (Center Parcs)

Member Name: emuk00

Product:	Center Parcs
Date:	02/06/09 (359 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Ideal short break

Disadvantages: Very hilly, expensive

We booked Center Parcs in Longleat for the 11th-15th May 2009, as I have been to the CP in Sherwood Forest when I was younger, and I wanted to try a different one out, plus I wanted to go to Longleat Safari Park.

My husband, my 14 month daughter and I (23 weeks pregnant) went.

We had a lovely time, 2 full days of sun, one day overcast, and the other two days on/off raining, but it didn't stop us from doing anything.

We managed to get the code direct from Center Parcs and it saved us over £120, so it cost us £355 for a 2 bedroom comfort plus villa staying Mon-Fri which I thought was quite reasonable and we weren't going to get a holiday abroad cheaper.

Booking/Check-in

I booked it online and paid the deposit, and paid the remaining amount a month later. I pre-registered online too, so when we arrived we just had to give in our reference number at the arrivals lodge and we were there no more than 5 minutes.
You can pre-book all your activities online, but we thought we would wait to see what the weather was like and the parc, as I heard it was quite hilly.
You can't access your villa until 3pm, and we arrived at 2pm so we parked up and headed to the plaza for a drink as it was a lovely day. People were already queuing at the barrier at 2pm; you really don't need to as you have until 10pm. You can use the facilities earlier, apart from the pool apparently, but how would they know?

The Villa

I was a little bit disappointed when we found the villa, we passed it first time as it wasn't well sign posted, and had to go back round a huge one way circle.
The villa was a little shabby and tired looking, didn't look too well looked after on the outside, but I was pleasantly surprised when we got inside. From what I remember of Sherwood Forest the accommodation was better, but I think we had a better grade of villa.

We walked in to a porch/walkway area which had a cupboard with the boiler in and cot/highchair and cleaning items. Next to that was the toilet and sink. Then we walked into an open plan living/dining and kitchen area, where to the left was a door for the twin bedroom, and past the kitchen was a door for the bathroom and then the double room.
My only disappointment was how dark it was, we had to put the lights on in the day, and I don't like to do this.

The Kitchen was pretty much fully equipped - just a few utensils missing, and it had a microwave and dishwasher too. We spent about 15 minutes cleaning all the dishes - as the previous occupants hadn't washed them properly.
The living room consisted of an L-shape sofa and a coffee table and also a TV, a HI-FI and DVD player.
The villa has full central heating too.
Outside there was a BBQ, and patio furniture, but we never used this. My daughter used to sit and wait for the ducks (3 regulars kept coming back), a regular squirrel who put its little arms to the patio door against my daughters, and rabbits, amongst many birds.

Activities

I knew the activities would be expensive, and a lot weren't suitable for either myself being pregnant or my young daughter, but we knew we wanted to just walk around, go to the little beach, go swimming (which is free), and just relax.
We didn't hire the bikes as it is so hilly in Longleat my hips wouldn't have coped. So we walked in the day, and got the Land train by night (more on this later).
The only activity we did which was free was the baby dolphins, which the pool is, open an hour before official opening for the 0-3 year olds to play with the floats (more on the pool later).
We did see people using different activities, but they weren't as busy as I expected, maybe the prices were too high? Loads of people made use of the bikes though. If you have your own bikes I would take them to reduce costs again.

On a lovely hot day we walked to the beach, which wasn't far from us and our daughter had fun playing in the sand and there was a small children's play area there.

One thing it isn't short of is children's play areas.


Swimming Pool

We went to the baby dolphins which they had cut off half of the wave pool for, and my daughter loved it, the only problem was they didn't heat the pool so we had to get out earlier than planned, and you could also see other shivering babies too.
The next day we took her to the outdoor pool and we were in there nearly 2 hours, she much preferred it, as it was warm. We even took her in the outdoor Jacuzzi as other kids and babies were in there. Apart from that we took her to the toddler pool, but it was pretty rubbish, just a small pool which was too big for babies, and the section for babies was like a round circle of very shallow water.
There was also rapids, a plunge pool, water slides, the outdoor pool, and as above, a wave machine.
I do remember the pool and rapids etc being better at Sherwood.


Eating In/Eating Out

We took our own food for breakfast and lunch, and for two meals in the evening, and ate out for 2 meals. Our daughter still has a 2 hour nap, and likes to sleep in her cots, so we would eat lunch at the villa, and eat out tea earlier than usual so we could all eat together.

The 2 restaurants we went to was Ortega and Strada.
Ortega is a Spanish tapas bar, and is in the main Plaza. The food was okay, maybe slightly over priced for what you got, but I still enjoyed it, only problem was on two occasions we found them sooo slow.
The first time we decided to have a drink there was when we arrived waiting to access our villa, then the fire alarm went off and we had to go outside, but the lady told us to come back and pay, we could have made a run for it, but we aren't like that. When the building was opened again, we waited 15 minutes for someone to come out so we could pay.
Then when we ate there, we waited a long time between courses, and waiting for our bill, which was a little annoying especially when our daughter was getting tired.

Strada is an Italian restaurant, and is very expensive, but very nice food. Again, we waited a long time for service and our bill, so one thing the restaurants need to work on is the waiting times, as the food is ready, the staff are just slow, but friendly.

Land Train

This doesn't run on check-in and check-out days, but runs every 20 mins, and is fantastic if you have a far away villa, and especially when it's raining. It's just like a jeep type thing pulling 3-4 carriages, which fit 4 people to a row of seats.
Some people were arrogant if we had been waiting first and just jumped on in front of us, or watched me struggle with a baby and being pregnant.

Visiting attractions outside the Parc

We went to Longleat Safari, as I have always wanted to go. I went and enquired at the reception and they gave us a voucher £1.50 off, so cost us £11.50 each instead of £13. We were going to get the passport, which allows you to go and visit the other attractions such as Longleat House, gardens, river, maize maze etc.
The safari Park is fab and I thoroughly recommend it. We had a rhino running towards our car, luckily he turned!!!


We said we would go back again, maybe when the children are a little older so they can do more, and we would also try one closer to home, so probalby Sherwood Forest again, as it wasn't as hilly either.
I couldn't go back year after year, but it is a nice break, and can be worth the money if you plan, budget and get a good deal :)

Summary: Worth a go, but couldn't return year after year.