Reliving my childhood (Butlins (Minehead))

Member Name: chrispitts

Product:	Butlins (Minehead)
Date:	30/06/03 (1153 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap, Entertaining, Location

Disadvantages: A bit tacky sometimes, Noisy, You must like kids!!!

I'd never been to Butlins before this month. And for some strange reason (partly fueled, I suspect, by large quantities of alcohol), my wife and I, her parents, her cousins, plus cousin's girlfriend and 5 month old baby, and of course our 2 yr old, Emily, decided to take a pilgrimage to Minehead in early June "for a break".

To be honest, I didn't really know what to expect from Butlins. I thought it would be cheap and tacky, and full of the sort of people who make me sound like a snob when I talk about them. I knew Exmoor - I'd hiked there several times, so knew that if the worst came to the worst, we could always explore the surroundings.

Anyway, to Butlins, and after a fairly awful journey (M5 - have you EVER been on it when there haven't been any roadworks?!), we arrived in Minehead. The resort is sited directly on the seafront, and our first impressions were very favourable. We were greeted by the most obviously camp redcoat, and proceeded into the carpark, having been given our weekly programme and car label. The "booking in" procedure was remarkably smooth - we'd parked the car, got our keys and found the accomodation within about 10 minutes.

The booking in desks are now sited in the huge "Skyline" Pavillion - the centre of the resort. This gives you your first impression of Butlins (your home for the next week). And my first impression of the Skyline was.... noise. Very. It seemed to be a mishmash of flashing lights, shouting voices, music, screaming kids, electronic beeps... although I'm the first to admit that it could get very wearing, it actually heightened the excitement for our whole party.

After collecting the keys, we reparked the car nearer (slightly) to the accomodation, and grabbed a red trolley to shift our stuff into the "silver bungalows" we had chosen.
That was a low point. The trek between the car and the accomodation was about 400m -
it doesn't sound like much, but after a few trips with heavy luggage, it felt like miles...

The accomodation, quite surprisingly, was very clean, and in a good state of repair. After settling in, and letting Emily play around on the adjacent climbing frame, we set off to explore.

As previously mentioned, the Skyline is the "centre" of the resort. It houses the 3 entertainment zones - the huge Centrestage, the more "clubby"-feeling Reds, and the Skyline stage. It also houses most of the eating places (Harry Ramsdens, Burger King...) a couple of pub/bars, numerous amusement arcades, many shops... plus the much visited (by our party anyway) Scalectrix Tournament track!!! While in the Skyline, we got our first taste of the redcoat entertainments, and, in all honesty, I am now a lifelong fan of anyone who has been a redcoat. I think they are incredibly talented, extremely overworked and underpaid, and have to contend with drunk adults, tantruming children and general moans and groans day in day out.

So, venturing out of the Skyline (which we were able to do, thanks to fairly good weather), we saw the fairground (all rides being free, but the "side-shows" cost extra). In fairness, I've seen better fairs, but there were still the standard dodgems, waltzers, carousel etc... as well as a couple of "adrenaline"-type rides. Attached to the fair was yet another amusement arcade, and slightly further down were the Go-Karts (£4/ride) and the cinema (showing the Matrix Reloaded while we were there, so pretty up to date).

Heading out of the Skyline in a different direction, you hit the entrance to Reds, Noddy-land (a small, roofed fairground area for preschoolers, which we struggled to tear Emily away from!), and then the LaserQuest zone (again, we frequented this almost daily!!!) The LaserQuest cost extra, and some of the guns were a bit tatty, but it was still great fun!!!

Circling r
ound the LaserQuest arena, towards the accomodation blocks, you next hit the multi-sports court - a fantastically designed sports area, primarily for football and basketball, with about 8-10 enclosed courts/pitches. Continuing along the edge of the Skyline Pavillion, past the display of caravans for sale (all of which look very nice, but we weren't really tempted!!!), you then pass another few pubs/bars, another amusement arcade, a children's "learn to drive" go-kart track, the children's adventure playground, which we were very disappointed to be too tall for, and then you head for the swimming pool.

The pool complex is enormous, but, sadly, seems to be pretty busy most of the time. With 3 different flume rides, plus an "inflatable boat" flume, a river rapids float, a wave machine, and several small, shallow children's zones, there's plenty for everyone. I confess to meeting my match in the SpaceBowl, a flume where you reach 40mph, before spinning round and round a huge bowl. Scared?!! Me?!

And I haven't even mentioned the soft play area in the Skyline, the small stalls selling everything from a "Make your own pop video" to a family portrait, the free snooker tables and table tennis, the rental place, where you can hire (very cheaply) anything from bikes and disability scooters to boule sets and stereos.

And how do Butlins deal with complaints. Very efficiently...

We were meant to be given an extra bed for Emily. We weren't. Trying to settle her in a travel cot didn't work at all. So we went to the accomodation office. The next day, we were put in 2 3 bedroom bungalows. Bearing in mind there were 4 adults and 1 child in one bungalow, 3 adults and 1 baby in another, we felt that was an extremely generous move, and we were very impressed.

I now realise I've written the whole review without mentioning the evening entertainment. It was good, they are all ve
ry talented, some of it was really cheesy, the venues are spectacular (they must have hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of lighting/AV equipment etc.) The downside to the evening entertainment is the price of drinks, but you can pick up a 4 1/2 pint pitcher of lager for £9.99 currently, which isn't bad.

And I defy any red-blooded male not to "fall in lust" with one of the redcoats at some point.
I'm trying to convince my wife to book again for next year, but having just read the previous sentence, she's a bit reluctant. Oh well, there's 2005, I suppose...

Summary: