Book early and it's cheap! (Butlins (Skegness))

Member Name: dadofthree

Product:	Butlins (Skegness)
Date:	02/02/06 (2486 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap, the kids love it, little to pay for on site if you use the free stuff

Disadvantages: First Aid! - what first aid????

I have to admit, we only go to Butlins because we live in Scotland and my family all live in and around Skegness, so its a natural holiday choice... But anyway, I shall remain impartial and unbiased @:-)


THE GENERAL IDEA:

Butlins is mainly set up for children. A bit like a toned down version of Disneyland without the Disney characters... and without the travel!

You arrive, you book in, and you get the kids asking you if they can do everything at once. Activity clubs are run regularly and are supervised but can cost extra for materials... (like pottery requires the cost of the clay). You also get childrens Disco's, a funfair and the all important swimming.


MY EXPERIENCES:

In my experience, Butlins always turns out to be a good holiday. With a bit of reading on your first day, you'll soon have your kids packed off, while you while away the time in the adult entertainment, the snooker hall or one of the themed 'casino days' on the resort.

You can guarantee that the kids will come back happy and want to tell you everything about their day. Then you just have to feed them and wait the 4minutes it takes the shattered little devils to fall asleep following thier daily exertions.

We often like to spend some time as a family though, and will often go to the swimming pool, take them on the various flumes. Then visit the funfair, escape for a while in the soft play areas before packing them off to an afternoon club. Then retire at night to a kids Disco in one of the 2 main venues and sit and sup a non-quiet pint while then drink their overpriced coke. Effectively the day is free but you pay for the evening. It works well for us and means we dont spend too much.

While the resort itself has everything you need, canny campers will always leave the site during the week. Turn left and you get Skegness (which is just as boring as the town you came from!). But turn right and walk for 15mins, you get to a place where you find the rollercoasters and the usual beach front arcades. But most important, you find a market - apparently Europes biggest Indoor market... and biggest market full stop when in season. Here you will find all the clothing you can imagine at ridiculously low prices, along with very good prices on anything you can name... even min-moto motorbikes and the like! I was amazed and clothes really bore me. Make sure you dont miss this if you go - as I'm sure many do.

Anyway, we came home with a big seal (teddy version of course!) from the tokens earned throughout the week on the sideshows, two very very hapy children, and as many clothes as we could carry - which are still lasting on my two terrors a year later!

Sadly, my one bad piece of news on my latest holiday was the fact that My 6 year old was injured. She jammed her hand in a door and her thumb became infected and swelled like a balloon.

Sadly, Butlins first aiders were very slow to respond. I had to go and ask for a manager over 45 minutes after first requesting one, in the main entertainment building! Eventually we had to leave the building and go find one - who was at the very main entrance to the site. Having walked for 5 mins to get there, they still had to radio someone else to come and see to her as this was the wrong guy!. So, he arrives and misdiagnoses and declines to do anything other than offer an ice-pack. The next day it was worse, and stranded with no transport, we were told 'if its that bad, call an ambulance, otherwise you can call a cab from the payphone'... hardly customer care eh? My child came home and had an operation which saw her undergo a general anaestetic and stay in hosptial for a few days. So, make sure you either have a car, or have advice - the doctors told me that if she had gone to hospital or even a doctor that day, it would have been solved with anti-biotics!. Luckily, her finger has now healed.

Despite this very bad experience, I would always still go back as its such a fun holiday to have. And when complaining, they take you seriously (I got a real manager when I called from home afterwards). Indeed, I have to admit that I was in no position to make sense of her injury and accepted what they said at the time... and the only way they could have improved was by either taking us to hospital or calling a cab for us... they didnt even offer us a number. But I checked, and they do now have a list of the contact numbers at the main gate... so hopefully it won't come to that again.

Incidentally - my child still came to from her peration asking when we could go back to Butlins!

At £103 for five of us for a week - I was happy to say soon...


HERE'S SOME MORE DETAILED FACTS ABOUT THE FACILITIES:


THE ACCOMODATION:

A variety of apartments are available, although I generally get a standard self catering apartment with a double room, a single room and a cot. You can get bigger but I dont think its worth the extra cost.

You get the beds, a shower and clean linen - along with a kitchen with a toaster, cooker etc...

If you pay for the silver or gold, your TV gets bigger and your rooms a little more spacious, but its not really worth it as you are always out and about keeping the kids happy, and too tired to stay up and watch TV the next day!

You can hire extra items aswell - such as towels and mats. Just check the prices as they can become steep - you might be worth visiting the market off-site to get your essentials.

Special requests? You can actually phone in your booking and ask for a certain room number! (so you get the one you had last time) or request a bottom floor etc... it's all good and they explain things to you in detail.


THE SHOWS:

It's always worth checking the brochure (available from your travel agent, via your sky box if you have digital, or online at www.butlins.co.uk). Butlins varies its shows based on the season. You'll find Santa arrives at Christmas, with various Xmas panto's and shows throughout, and the kids Disco's go to your favourite Xmas tunes. Similar for halloween and suchlike.

Go in a normal time and you will find 'family entertainment' or 'butlins revisited' shows. This is when various activity shows take place, singalong shows for the kids and they even throw in Comedians late at night for the adults (but they let kids in...).

Overall, the shows are usually great value (being free) and keep the kids entertained. The inevitable appearance of the Butlins mascot, Billie Bear leaves the younger children amazed and chuffed as he does stop and give them attention, playing games etc...


THE FUNFAIR:

Butlins advertise this as a funfair but its actually only 4 or 5 rides, not all of which open at once outside of the school holidays.

Outdoors, this can be a good respite from the constant energetic activity you will find yourself being dragged into, allowing you to sit on the dodgems or rest in the small simulator (which alwasy has a long queue!). There are also some smaller rides for the younger children as well. One word of caution though, they all come with height restrictions and children under the height are simply not allowed on.... This can cause problems when one is tall enough and the other isnt - or they are over the 'need to be accompanied' line and you have 2 kids, 2 adults, and nobody to watch the baby...


THE SWIMMING POOL:

Easily the kids favourite and main attraction. The pool is free, contains 3 main flumes (one of which involves a rubber boat and goes uphill in places!) and they allow you to take your children on , providing they can swim well or are sitting with you as you go down the slower one.

You also get the important shallow pool, whirlpool section and a big main pool. Got a real little one.... take them into the kiddies section and you get a really small chute, some sprinkly water things which they like watching, and a small waterfall to take them under. All in about 10inches of water, to ensure you can sit them down without them drowning...


THE ADVENTURE PLAY AREAS:

Yep, they find good names for 'parks' here. You can enjoy a variety of both outdoor play areas and indoor soft play areas. They insist on height seperation though - so you're children may well be seperated. You are also responsible for supervising them at all times in these areas, causing some problems when they get stuck at the top of something!


CHILDRENS HUT:

You got younger ones who cant do some of the activities above? Simple, take thenm to the kiddies hut. This area was full of Bob The Builder the last time I checked, and involves a lot of characters dressed as Bob The Builder and his pals. After staying to watch the stage show, have your kids pictures taken with the Characters and enjoy a lot of screaming happy children, you can queue for one of the rides. Here you find your little kiddies roundabouts and such like.


THE SKYLINER:

OK, sounds posh but its really just a name for a big canope type building. Basically, this is where all the decent kids action takes place. It contains one of the show rooms, a reasonably priced cinema (with the latest films!), a few eating places (at a rather high cost) and a main stage. You'll also find the all too familiar arcade there! It's worth a look as you can often find some fun to be had, but it will be expensive if you stay in their too long as its funfair type side-shows in many cases.


THE BICYCLES:

OK, we all know we want to ride one! You see them going about, four people sat on a bike with the front 2 pedalling. Its good if you want to just ride about and the weather is good, but you cant take the bikes in any of the entertainment areas, and you are responsible if it goes missing. So hire them for an hour or so to fulfill your little 'whim'. But then leave them where they are.


FOR ADULTS:

Adult only weekends are available, and involve an obviously far more adult theme. These dont interfere with the kids breaks as they tend to be midweek - so you dont get drunken louts rolling about when you walk the area with your kids.

If you are there with your kids, you can pack them off to a supervised activity area and settle in to one of the bars, snooker halls or various other 'adult only' areas. If they are with you in the entertainment huts, you can get a pint while they are there enjoying themselves to a kids Disco - so you won't be left bored! You also get things like poker or casino nights in the bars if you can get the other half to let you go!


THE PRICE:

For a full price holiday, you can be as much as £400 a person. But those who are canny will look in the brochure and book before January 31st of that given year. This way you can enjoy the early booking prices. I got mine for £103 TOTAL for a family of 5. This includes the £5 cot fee! I go in a few weeks again - and again I'm paying only £109 in total (£27 pp or something like that). It's all great if you sort it properly.

Paying full price does get you more, school holidays etc... but it will be packed and you will struggle to get a seat at any of the main events unless you stay there from 3pm until the event starts at 8pm!


PREMIER MEMBERS:

Go 3 times in 3 years and you become a 'premier member'. This means you get to check in early to avoid the queues and get longer on resort, you get free vouchers, and you can book easier.

In fact, this is a useful thing if you do get to this point - and includes free gifts when you arrive etc... Well worth it if you go standard. You also get preferential booking, extra special offers on holidays and a standard discount on your holidays as well.

It won't affect a first time visitor but comes in handy when you go a lot.


SUMMARY:

An excellent place that the kids will enjoy - they can enjoy a family holiday and go off to the variety of kids activity clubs so they can have some time without you. The cost is very low and the service is generally good. Go off-peak and you'll find everything is easy to get to, queues are all short and there are few people to annoy you.

Summary: Excellent all round - kids will love it and adults can enjoy too.