We were robbed in more ways than one (Butlins (Bognor Regis))

Member Name: diddy67

Product:	Butlins (Bognor Regis)
Date:	20/08/03 (2262 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Swimming, Noddy, Redcoats

Disadvantages: Other Staff, if your aged between 5 and 17, Food Quality and Drink Prices

Last week I took my family to Butlin?s @ Bognor Regis, expecting fun for all the family. This break cost me £960 silver/self catered 3 bedroom apartment. My family consists of 2 Adults and 4 children, aged between 1 and 10 years old.

On arriving we found that we had to walk quite some distance to the pavilion from the car park, which you could imagine quite a task with 4 kids and loads of luggage.

Finding the apartment that they gave was not too hard to find. On entering the apartment and having a look around you could not help but notice the 1970?s decor and the bathroom was mouldy. My wife came prepared and got out the bathroom cleaning stuff that we bought with us and started to clean the bathroom.
The room came with a 14 inch colour TV which the quality of the picture was poor plus you could not even get channel 5 (not liked anyone watches anyway). You would have thought a campus of this size would have bought in communal cable or something like that by now. Cooking facilities were adequate and clean. Consisted of Microwave, Cooker, Toaster, fridge no freezer well enough to put in an ice tray and an electric kettle.

My kids are aged 10, 8, 3 and 1 so as you can see I am going to have fun here. The 8 year old and the 10 year old started to get bored after only a few days. Apart from the kids club which they found a bit babyish. You have an out door fun fair which consists 6 activities. One being Dodgems, where you can not bump in to each other, never seen that before so what is the point. Secondly Go-Carts which you had to pay £4 for which you get the next ride £3 if you use it on the same day offer not valid for the next day. This I thought was a cheek considering the price I paid for the holiday. This should have been free. Another ride was top spin. Not bad and the other two, mediocre rides. Plus you had an outdoor adventure playground. This was it. And to top it all off all these rides apart from the G0-Carts closed at 7pm. I m
ean in the middle of August in the hottest weather that we have had in some time. They were having a laugh there.
For the 1 and 3 year old there was the pavilion. This was based around a Noddy theme. There are a few ride and some live entertainment shows which was fun. They seem to enjoy it.

Even thou we was self catered we did eat at restaurants there. Don?t bother they even got the food at Burger King wrong. Every place we went the food seemed rush and over prices. A bit of advice here, walk into the town centre which is only a 10 minute walk and choose there.

Swimming facilities were nice. They have an indoor swimming centre called Splash. Which consists of slides, wave machines, water fall type things, Jacuzzi and Rapids.. Only thing wrong here was that it was a bit warm. But well worth spending the afternoon in. They also have an outdoor swimming pool. You have to get here early to get a good spot it you want to sun bathe. Very good for the kids.

Night time entertainment as we had kids was two choices. In front of the un-watchable TV or go to the entertainment night that they held. The entertainment night was alright I suppose. The drinks were over priced, ended up going to Safeways and buying my own and bringing it there. The kids were more interest in the arcades. So I class this as average.

The staff are general helpful if you don?t have to complain. I will get to this in a moment.

All the above we got through between the time we got there on Saturday afternoon around 5pm until Tuesday night.

Wednesday morning woke up and decided I will go to the beach for a change of venue. To my surprise I found I have had my video and digital camera stolen. Now I am a person born and bred in London and now that if you live your accommodation you close and lock all windows. I do this without thinking. It comes naturally. So I was shocked to find no forced entry to the apartment so my suspicions are on staff.
W
ent to the security desk at 11:30 in the morning, no one there. Hanged around for 10 minutes still, no one there. I had to call the number to speak to someone who had the cheek to say I will try to get someone to you as soon as I can.
When I told them what happened they was not even that bothered. Until I mentioned that I want to get the police involved. And still they still was not that bothered. It was like this happens all the time.
I asked to speak to the manager who took ages to come and see us. He was not that concerned. We asked for an apartment change, he said can not as they were fully booked. He then offered us a change of locks a free safety deposit box and a free meal for us to stay. My wife thought that was a cheek as was just had £750 worth of good stolen and the best that they can do is offer us a free meal.
We then asked for our money back in which he said yes straight away too half of it back.
We then waited for the police to arrive, he took a statement then we went home.


£960 = butlins
- £415 = refund for leaving early
+£750 = lost of Video and digital camera
------
£1295 + spending money :(


In whole Butlins is good if you like Noddy or Swimming or wasting money in general
Anything else forget about it.
Ps. If the weather is not nice, I don?t know how you will be able to stay in the dreary looking apartments

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