Funcoast World, Skegness. (Butlins in general)

Member Name: stresshead2000

Product:	Butlins in general
Date:	10/06/01 (2083 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lots of entertainment for all ages, Lots of free stuff to do

Disadvantages: Opening times for funfair

Butlins really is a good value holiday, with entertainment for all ages. Like all holiday centres it can be expensive if you choose to go at peak times, but if you are prepared to let the kids off school for a week it can be very reasonable.

They do special weeks for single parents in June and July where the first child gets to go free, so it only cost us £108.00 for my son and I to go half-board for a week.

They also do lots of week-end and short breaks (Fri-Mon and Mon-Fri) which obviously cost less.

Our accomodation was only basic, one room with 2 beds in it and a bathroom but there is so much to do that it didn't bother us as we spent very little time actually in the chalet.

Higher class accomodation with much better furnishings is available if you are prepared to pay extra to get it.

Breakfast is three courses, including cereal, full English cooked and toast (if you can manage it all)

Evening meal is again three courses, with a choice of main meals. If you want something mid-day there are plenty of places to buy food, including Harry Ramsdens Chip shop and Burger King.

Amenities and entaertainment include the funfair, Splash fun pool and a number of clubs. All amenities are free, with the odd exception of Bowling, or Go Karting etc.

For a start their are two swimming pools, The Beach club which allows for a more laid back swim and Splash, where there are Rapids, a spa, 3 flumes, A masterblaster ride and the Space bowl.
The masterblaster consists of a course of over 200 metres and you are sat in a rubber dinghy while you are pushed along.
The space bowl is another fairly new attraction, which is an extremely fast water slide (apparently 40mph!), and a drop into a large bowl where you spin around before dropping out into the water.
However, at peak times these rides can have a queue time of up to 1 hour, but if you manage to catch it at the right time you can get away with
around 15 minutes, and sometimes less, especially for the space bowl.

The fun fair is not particulaly big, but all rides are free, and this year saw the edition of the new ride "Miami Wave". Sometimes some rides will not be operating which can be dissapointing, but at the moment, the fair consists of thewse rides:
Dragon Coaster (small childrens roalercoaster)
Miami Wave
Dodgems
Galaxy
Waltzers
Carousel
and Go Karts (£3.00)
The opening times are slightly dissapointing as most nights the fair closes at just 5.45pm, however there are 2 nights a week where it remains open until 9pm.

As for night time entertainment there are a number of pubs and clubs.
For teenagers there is the Zone, which although small, holds Discos almost every night and also special Ibiza nights 1 or 2 days a week.
During the day The Zone also arranges activities like DJ Skills, TV presenting skills, etc.

There is also Reds, Centre Stage, Jaks, The Crazy Horse and The Swingin Shillelagh, which all hold various performances.

Overall, I consider it a value for money family holiday with plenty for everyone to do.

Summary: