Why I won't be going back to Skegness (Skegness in General)

Member Name: NutNutNut

Product:	Skegness in General
Date:	21/03/09 (68 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap

Disadvantages: Everything else

I don't know how I found myself "on holiday" in a caravan in Skegness, but I did. Now I will say from the outset that this is not an attack on the residents of Skegness or those that enjoy spending time there, this is my personal experience, and it wasn't a pleasant one.

I was booked into a caravan on the Millfields caravan site just outside Butlins. The rental of this particular caravan was £200 for one week at the end of June plus a £50 deposit. Now as this caravan was privately owned I cannot say that everyone on the Millfields site would have the same experience I did. First of all I arrived at the site and after a long walk round found the caravan I was supposed to be staying in. There hadn't been a reception at the gate so I asked somebody walking around where to pick the keys up from. He directed me to a small "office" but informed me it was shut and had shut at 2pm. I thought he must have been mistaken as I had not been told about this when I booked the caravan and the person who owned the caravan was fully aware that I was coming a very long way AND by public transport (aren't I brave?) and it would have been impossible (unless I had left at 7am when the tickets are more expensive and the trains are less frequent) to have been there by 2pm. When I got to the office there were four other customers there, most of them seemed angry and confused. There was a sign on the door that said the office shut at 4pm. As it was after 4pm I could not be sure whether the man who said it had shut at 2pm was right or whether he had been mistaken and I'm not about to start slandering Millfields over something that I don't know is true or not. Either way, the keys were inside the office and we were all outside the office. Everybody said the same thing, nobody had been told of an office that shut after a certain time. I had the number of the caravan owner so I rang him to find out what was going on. He was really dismissive of me, he said he had told me to pick the keys up from him at 2.30pm. When I tried to point out he was mistaken and that I wouldn't have agreed to that being that I had come from such a distance he just said there was nothing he could do now as there were only two sets of keys, one in the office and one at his house. I asked if he could possibly come down and let me in as it was getting late, dark and was raining and I had a very small child with me (18 months). And he just said "Nah, sorry I'm about to go to Sheffield". When I asked if he could drop them in before he left, he kind of stammered a bit and then claimed he was already halfway there. When I asked what I should do he said I could try and find a hotel to stay in until the morning. When I pointed out I didn't know the area, it was late and I didn't fancy walking around in the rain with a baby at this time of night as I didn't have a car he just said there was nothing he could do, and maybe I could try calling security as they had access to the office, but I would have to walk around the site and find the number myself as he didn't have the number handy. he then hung up. How rude! Well anyway somebody had already driven all around the site looking for the number having been told a similar thing and gave everybody waiting (only me and one other person by this point as all the others had cars and had most likely driven to the homes of the caravan owners to collect the keys themselves.) So I called the number for security and explained the situation. "We'll be with you in a minute mate" I was told. Well half an hour went by and my new "mate" still hadn't arrived. So i called again. "Yeah don't worry mate. We're on our way mate. Just stay where you are mate" was the response. Half an hour after that they finally arrived, opened the office and gave out the keys with a "cheers mate". I was never sure why they considered I wanted to be their mate especially as I was a female in my early 20's and they were both males in their late 40's but there you go. So onto the caravan itself!

When I unlocked the door the first thing it did was blow right out my hand in the wind and slam loudly into the side of the caravan. I also noticed the handrail outside was held together with duct tape. Not a good first impression. Upon entering the caravan (after finding the light switch) the first thing I noticed was dog hair. Everywhere. And it stunk (of dog). At this point I was too tired and fed up to care so I sorted the beds out and settled in for the night. At some point I noticed the roof appeared to be leaking but it turned out to be a vent left open. Not sure leaving a vent in the roof open is a good idea but I don't actually know who did it. If it was the previous occupants then ok but surely this should have been checked. There was a small colour tv but it could only pick up one channel and a VCR but no videos. Well everything else seemed to be working so I tried to stay positive. Until the next day when i discovered the cooker didn't work. I tried several times to ring the caravan owner but he wasn't answering my calls. So I had to make do with cooking in a microwave all week. Another problem I discovered later was some of the windows were jammed and wouldn't open.

But anyway now for Skegness itself. Firstly Butlins. The first time we tried to get in we were told we were too late. (At 1.15pm). I'm not a huge Butlins fan. I wasn't going for my benefit but it was annoying none the less (especially as the next day we were let in at 11.30am which isn't exactly that much earlier). My main problem with Butlins is not the admission fee but all those extra bloody things that require you to spend more money while you're in there. It works out as a relly really expensive day out, and it wasn't even anything special as a lot of it was closed for some reason.

I can't blame Skegness for the bad weather the whole week I was there and maybe things would have been better if the week hadn't been all rain as the beach is a cheap day out but you would have thought some of it would have been positive. I couldn't find anything to do. i like walking. I can walk for miles at a time, but not knowing the area, I didn't fancy getting lost. I also found, and this was the worst part for me, that every time I opened my mouth and said anything I would get funny looks, people openly nudging each other and even loudly saying "Ooooh she's a real-life cockney" which they seemed to find extremely funny. The local shop owner even asked what it was like down in "Eastenders". I thought he was messing around but both him and the elderly customer seemed really excited that I was there. So I gave them my best Peggy Mitchell impression and left. This wasn't a one-off it happened too many times whilst I was there. I do wonder though if anybody who visits Skegness with a remotely London/Southern accent gets accused of being a cockney lol.

Most people know Skegness is famous for it's penny arcades. I'm not a gambling girl but I thought I might as well try whilst I was there as I was really running out of options now. I soon gave up though. There is nothing like a bunch of teenagers in tracksuits loudly swearing and spitting to put you off anything.

All in all a truly awful week. I ended up spending a lot of it just sitting in the caravan which wouldn't have been so bad had it not been so dysfunctional. I would never go back. It was a truly awful experience. I'm giving the whole experience one star because I can't think of a single positive thing to say about it. And to top it all off I never got my deposit back. I never got an explanation as to why either as the caravan owner simply ignored all my calls. I was really disappointed. I had been through a bad time just before I went, and Skegness was suggested to me as a cheap holiday in an entirely different location to my everyday life. I can never normally afford a holiday so I was really hoping for something better than this. What a waste.

Summary: I guess i got what I paid for.