What a wonderful holiday! (Center Parcs)

Member Name: f1re_cr4cker

Product:	Center Parcs
Date:	24/07/09 (324 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: perfect for families

Disadvantages: can be pricey if you want to book lots of activites!

We went to Elvden Forest this year in June for 4 nights and stayed in a New Woodland Lodge suitable for dogs (so on the perimeter). We managed to get a money off code that meant we only paid around £440 for the 4 nights.

Okay so we arrived at around 3ish which was the earliest that you could get into your accomodation and there was an abolutely mammoth queue from the entrance through the carpark then to your lodge- it also didnt help that since we were on the perimeter we had the farthest to go but heyho! Once we finally got to our lodge we were really pleased as you are literally in the wood and we could not see anyother accomodation sitting from our sofa gazing outside. The actual lodge was wonderful being very modern and it had pretty much everything we could need including a dishwasher,microwave, oven, toaster and all crockery, cutlery and glasses!
The layout was open plan and it all felt very clean and new and the same applied to the 2 bedrooms too. It was straight away a very good first impression.

We went to pick up our bicyles and trailer which we had prebooked but no worries if you dont as there are tonnes and tonnes and tonnes there. The kids loved riding in the trailer too.

As for stuffyou can do - well as little or as much as you want really! We had some money off vouchers so we did not pay for the extra activities for the kids thankfully, however my own opinion is that some of the art/craft activites are a total rip off since they are only around 40 minutes long, a parent has to stay and the cost per child I seemto recall was around £8 EACH!

The pool was the highlight though our kids loved it- the toddler/baby area is set right off from the main pool and is very safe and has two slides one open one and one inclosed- both very slow. There is also a sandpit area and various water spray things.

In the adult pool there are 2 main flumes, the rapids, a very quick short slide and a few other mini slides as well as a wave machine which goes off around once or twice an hour. The only negative I have about this is that My 3 year old daughter when down one of the flumes with my husband (we measured her against the chart and she was not too high to go with an adult) and she ended up wiyh a very nasty bump on her forehead due to getting wacked, as you kind of get swooshed up the side of the flume. Personally I think due to this children should not be allowed on the flume accompanied with adults only on their own from a certain age or height. Not to end on a bad note though the one thing that really impressed me about the pool was the way that you could use free float jackets for your kids I thought that was a really nice touch!

If you do need to stock up on any extras the supermarket there is very well stocked and only a bit more expensive than your normal supermarket.

Foodwise was great virtually all the restuarants were very well catered for children with play areas and childrens menus and you could always rest assured that it wouldn't just be your children creating havoc or having a tantrum! A lot of the places offered a child meal deal where they got a drink, main meal and dessert for £5 which we thought was very good value- it was £6 at Hucks the American diner though. The other restaurants consisted of a curry house (good food slow service), Cafe Rouge and Bella Italia. i would also recommend the Pancake House which was scrummy and there are also two Starbucks on site!

Apart from the swimming pool there was also I think 3 main play areas for the kids which my two enjoyed very much and this was also free. I think you can easily go to Center Parcs and pay loads for all the extra activites however when they are young like mine (preschool) you can get away without paying any extra.

Overall we had a fantastic holiday and have already booked to go back next March we also got an offer which meant that if we booked our next holiday within 28 days we get £25 of vouchers plus free travel and cancellation insurance which isnt bad!

I cannot recommend Elveden Forest/Center Parcs enough we had a fantastic time!

Summary: One of the best holidays we have had!