Haven holidays (dreadful) (Haven Holidays in general)

Member Name: dreadful holiday

Product:	Haven Holidays in general
Date:	17/05/08 (765 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: None

Disadvantages: Most things

My holiday review for Haven Lakeland park caravan holiday in Flookburgh near Grange-over-sands.

I, and my family, (Wife, 2 year old son, and father in-law) have just returned from the Lakeland caravan holiday park in Flookburgh near Grange-over-sands in the south lakes/Cumbria.

I am writing this review whilst the memory is fresh in my mind as unfortunately it is not a good review, it's not all bad though there are some good things to say.

We booked a midweek break (Monday to Friday) as it looked very good in the brochure. We arrived at Lakeland Park at 2.10pm on the Monday, we had a quick look round and at 2.27pm I entered the reception to book in and was greeted warmly by the lady behind the desk, at this point I presented my booking documents and was told that I could not book in until 2.30pm (which was three minuets away) I asked if it would be ok to wait at the desk for three minuets and she said yes, by this time it was 2.28pm, I stood at the desk, the receptionist sat on her chair (doing nothing except adding to an awkward two minuet silence whilst I stood there looking at the walls and ceiling out of emberasment) two minuets later she looked at me with a false smile and said, "it's 2.30pm you can book in, can I take your booking documents", surely this is avoidable.

The Caravan

We arrived at our caravan and, on first impressions we were happy and remained so throughout the holiday. It was a little basic for what was supposed to be a luxury caravan (we had gone for the top of range caravan) although it was very clean when we arrived. There was a problem with movement, in that when anyone walked about inside the caravan and or a car went by, it shook a lot and gave you the impression of being in a small earth tremor, this I suppose being due to the fact that the caravan was secured upon soft earth ie: grass and soil, instead of a concrete base which is usually the norm on other suchlike parks we have stayed at.

The Park itself looked dated and a little uncared for, there is only one venue/bar that you can purchase food and this was one of the first places we visited. It was simply filthy, the tables surely had not been cleaned for days and the toilets were simply a disgrace. (bear in mind this review is from a visit in early May when the camp was not busy) The food at best was OK.

The Fish Shop

The camp (in the brochure) boasts of great fish and chips from it's very own fish and chip shop. On the first night we decided to give it a try. Once we arrived at the afore mentioned, we decided not to bother, the smell of old dirty oil, and the black smoke coming from the fryer was a bit of a put off to start with butt when we saw the quality of the fish "on display in the heated counter thingy that fish and chip shops have" we decided not to bother. As my father in law said "it looked like the fish had nicked off from the batter" ie: a burnt piece of batter around the size of a five pound also in there was a portion of what I can only presume was a portion of scampi which simply looked like burnt batter balls.


Entertainment

The entertainment was pretty laughable on the whole, although to be fair the entertainment staff clearly worked very hard and did their best. For some reason though they insisted on playing their music (which was intended for children's entertainment) at ear bursting decabells in a room that was not even half full. I recall my two year son (who was sitting with us at the back of the room, complaining that it was too loud).

On one occasion myself, and my father in law decided to stay after the children's entertainment had finished and watch the entertainment that was laid on for adults. Suddenly around 9.45pm a club type singer arrived on stage, sang one song, then clearly mimed two, then sang another, and starting miming another song when we and most of the 27 people who were left in the entertainment venue decided to leave.

Another thing that the brochure does not tell you is that most of things that you would expect to be included with your entertainments pass are in fact chargeable, ie: Golf, both mini, £3.00 per person, and the 9 hole golf course was around £9.00 per person. The peddle carts were £6.00 per hour, I have now been on four holiday camp holidays over recent years and the Lakeland park is the first that I have visited to charge for such amenities. However this is just the beginning, everything on the park is designed to get your money off you, so you will need a fat wallet for a weekend and a spare fat wallet for a midweek break, one to two week holiday, "mortgage".

Summary: Dreadful