Haven Marton Mere (blackpool) (Haven Holidays in general)

Member Name: Rhiana

Product:	Haven Holidays in general
Date:	27/03/09 (655 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Ideal for younger children, easy to access tourist attractions

Disadvantages: I would say all of it if I wasn't with my daughter lol

Ok, so a Haven caravan in Blackpool isn't my dream holiday. That would be lying on a beach in the Bahama's somewhere, sipping cocktails. If only....

However I'm a single mum to two children, aged , at the time of visit last June, age 3 and 11. My eldest was off on a 3 week tour of California with my parents, so that left just me and my 3 year old daughter.

I've never been on holiday alone, and I don't drive. This is why I chose the Haven holiday park at Marton Mere, Blackpool. It was easily accessible by train within a couple of hours and the location of the camp promised plenty of attractions within a short and regular bus journey.

I booked through the Haven website, and chose a superior Plus 6 sleeper caravan. This was the 'mid range' caravan and included in the price entertainment passes (needed for any of the facilities on site) and bed linen. The price I was quoted and paid was actually less than the price of the economy range caravans, wich don't include passes or linen and have to be bought seperatly. I paid £139.50 for a 4 night stay, Monday - Friday. This was during school term time, the week after was June half term and the price for this week more than trebbled. Although I booked for just me and my daughter, the price is per caravan, and would have been the same had I booked for the maximum of 6 people.

Check in is from 4pm on your arrival day. We took a cab from the train station, wich took about 15 minutes and cost £10. The cab dropped us right at reception, were the receptionist quickly and efficiently checked us in, gave us a key and welcome pack and directions to our Caravan. Our caravan was a 10 minute walk away from reception and the facilities, wich was only a problem on arrival, as I had to trail a pushchair, suitcase, rucksack and coolbag aswell as an excited 3 year old along a bumpy road with no path and frequent traffic. No assistance was offered, but then I didn't ask, so to say it was unavailable would be unfair.

My first impression of the holiday park was good. It was a lot cleaner than I expected. Marton Mere park is set by a wildlife nature reserve, so while only a couple of miles from Blackpool center, had a country feel.

Arriving at our caravan, again I was pleasently surprised. While far from being the Ritz, It was clean and modern and more spacious than I expected. However its described as a 6 berth, I think the maximum amount of people I could cope with would be 2 adults, 2 small children maximum. The caravan had a double bedroom, and twin bedroom, a bathroom with shower, a kitchen area with fridge and gas cooker and all the accessories required and a living/dining area with colour TV. Bedlinen was provided in this caravan, but towels were not.

The park itself offers good facilities, most of wich we didn't use but can be found listed on the Haven website. The ones we did use were the playground wich was pretty good having plenty of play equipment for children upto around 12 years and well maintaned

The swimming pool was nice and clean, but not very big, I'd imagine it would be crowded during peak times. It does have an aqua slide, but there are strict height restrictions and its not suitable for under 5's. Parents are not allowed to take small children on, wich I thought a bit extreme and dissapointed my daughter. Theres only a very small shallow end.

There is an outdoor water area. It was a bit too cool when we were there to make use of, but was one of those fun splash play areas were water shoots randomly from different places. It looked like good fun, and I'd imagine children would love it.

The fun works factory. This is the entertainment venue. The entrance area is a huge arcade. Apart from a couple of goes on the penny slots, we mainly just walked through this area. It was clean, but probably not unexpectadly, very noisy. At the back of the arcade area is the bar and entertainment area. There is Bingo during the day I believe , if you like that kind of thing. Adult entertainment started at 9.30 pm. I never stayed for this so can't comment on the quality or enjoyabilty of it, and can only tell you about the childrens entertainment wich runs from 6.30 until 9pm.

The childrens entertainment centers aroung the Haven mascot, Bradley Bear and his friends Rory the tiger, Cheeky Monkey, Anxious Elephant, Polly the doll and a few others. The first part of the evenings entertainment was usually a short show. One we saw was about an evil sweet factory owner, another about a magic mirror. The children were able to sit at the front on the dance floor, and mainly loved the shows. There was a half hour break, where, annoyingly, the 'FunStars' (havens redcoat equivalent) would call to the kids to stand in line if they want a prize, then tell them they needed a pound for a raffle ticket or kiddie bingo ticket. Then back to the entertainment, a game or talent contest, wich the kids could be chosen to get involved with. The childrens entertainment ended with a magical dreamtime parade, where the children could follow the characters around the bar area, then line up to meet them and have a photo (either by a Haven photographer at a cost, or by youself) I have to say that as far as kids entertainment goes, it was pretty good. The children obviously loved it and the characters.

The bar itself was huge, and in good condition. The drinks at the bar were in my opinion, ordinary pub/club prices. You are force fed character merchandise everywhere though.

Also on site was a shop. Selling groceries, fresh produce, tobacco and alcohol and other general convenience items. I was expecting this to be pricey, it wasn't as bad as I thought. Probably around the same kind of prices as Spar etc. There are different bar areas to eat wich I didn't use (I cooked from the shop) and a fish and chip shop, wich was rank. We did go for character breakfast one morning, where the kids get to meet the characters. I got a full english for £4 ( and shared with my daughter) so I felt that was reasonable.

There is an open top sight seeing bus comes right into the park every half an hour and visits all the main tourist attractions (zoo, town center, tower, pleasure beach). It cost £4 for an all day 'hopper' ticket, wich was good value.

The zoo was fantastic, deffinatly worth a visit. We also did a tram ride to Cleveleys and the obligatory donkey ride, wich my daughter thoroughly enjoyed. And on the final day we did the pleasure beach, wich again was not as bad as I remembered 20 years ago. The promanade along the sea front was undergoing redevelopment, so was more like a demolition area, but the beaches were clean and my daughter spent a good few hours digging and paddling. We were blessed with a good weather week, however theres a lot of other indoor entertainment (the tower, the sandcastle ..a huge indoor water park, sea life center to name a few...however these are expensive so we didn't bother)

Don't get me wrong, there are some really tatty, cheap areas of Blackpool still, especially round the tower were all the arcades were. But they can be avoided and theres some really good attractions too, all within easy distance of the park.

All in all, it turned out not to be a terrible experience and was actually better than I expected. My daughter thoroughly enjoyed herself, and frequently asks when we are going again. I would deffinatly take her back, and would be happy to reccomend to other parents with small children. I would advise going off peak however, as I imagine school holiday times would be a nightmare. The week I went was busy enough not to be a ghost town, but far from heaving. Just nice. And most people had small pre-school children, just like me.

Summary: Fun filled and pretty painless for families with young children.