Crealy Theme Park & Resort — Attraction in East Devon

We visited Crealy and stayed with them for 7 nights, 12-19th August 2024, we were impressed initially on arrival with the very friendly and helpful front desk staff.

The Lodge and Resort

First of all a few downsides. After a few days in the lodge (sooty suite 2) things started to become more apparent. Veneer was hanging on to the table legs for dear life by the last bit of adhesive, childrens dirty hand marks where on the livingrom mirror (they did clean this quickly), the WiFi was non-existent and you shared it was all the park guests so was not resort exclusive (signal is also non-existent which is expected for the countryside). We nipped into the shop on site for a loaf of bread and noticed that it was dated 17th July 2024, we were informed that the bread was still OK as it was frozen when it came in the previous month (we opted to go without it). The grip trod in the doorway of the master bedroom came up and unfortunately we hadn't noticed and my child trop of the nail that had come out (she is ok). The dishwasher was broken, it was missing the top rotator spray arm so did not clean and was full of rust. There was a built in stereo system but this did not work properly and we could not get the Bluetooth to link up and the TV needed retuning as majority of the kids channels were missing.

Let's talk some good points now! The kitchen was well equiped and has everything you needed to cook meals. The hot tub was very well maintained and the staff that did it was extremely friendly. The lodge end of the resort is very quiet (excluding you expected noises of children playing in hot tubs which is absolutely no issue). The beds had actual decent mattresses and the bedrooms were very spacious, each bedroom has usb charging sockets and all rooms had undercounter lighting. The decking had a nice rattan table and chairs set, which was lovely as I really dislike plastic ones. The living room has a toy trunk with built in "snakes and ladders" which was a lovely addition.

The Park

When we arrived we already had our entry wristbands which for families with no additional needs would be fantastic as you can go straight in. However in my family my husband is physically disabled and we have an Autistic child. My husband can not use the rides and only spent a total of maybe 8 hours across 7 days in the park.

Myself and our child spent about 4.5 days in the park. Our only issue was that when we arrived and collected our welcome pack,we were informed that to collect her ride access pass,we would have to que at the main ticket office every day. After waiting in the que for 30 minutes on the first full day with an over stimulated child who was quickly disregulating due to the noise and how busy it was in a confined space so left. We quickly learnt to be down at the ticket office at 9:30am to be at the front of the que. She could then run around for 30 minutes whilst I waited and ,t wasn't overloading her.

One of the days when my husband came with us just after opening time he took her through into the park whilst I waited and qued for her RAP, the woman on the desk was rude and refused to give me the wristband so I could go and put it on my child. She insisted she had to put it on herself so ended up putting it on me. This then caused issues in the park and our daughter was refused access onto the flying machine via the RAP entrance without me going on because I had the band on and not her (I did not fit in the swing seat). My daughter could not understand why she could not go on without me. This disrupted her so much that by 10:30am we were leaving and we spend the rest of the day in the lodge.

On another day I stood arguing with the young man on the ticket desk as he was adamant that my daughter did not have a RAP prebooked. After checking for the 3rd time he found her name on the list.

These issues could have been avoided by letting resort guests collect their RAP passes from the resort front desk of putting a dated RAP band (like the resort bands) and predated time cards for the duration of the stay in the...

We saw the resort advertised on an instagram post and booked it last minute, we stayed for 4 nights in one of the Farringdon lodges with hot tub. First time visiting Crealy and it wasn't long enough in hindsight!!

Crealy Resort has something for everyone’s budget and preference - glamping, camping, caravans and lodges! I can’t praise our stay enough - the lodge was outstanding, it had everything we could want and more. The lodge definitely had the luxury touch to it with all amenities - the Ninja airfryer, the 75’ TV was massive and the hot tub was so lovely after a day on your feet, we honestly didn’t want to leave!

The hot tub was checked 2x daily which was nice to see. The theme park, softplay, toilets, carpark, playgrounds, clubhouse were spotless. As soon as someone had vacated a table the staff were there to clean up instantly, they were friendly and approachable which was refreshing to see. (We’ve stayed at a Haven park in Feb and tables were often left dirty for hours) We noticed the staff were predominantly young people, but couldn’t fault them - great customer service provided by all the staff members in the resort & theme park !

The clubhouse had lots of variety for us to enjoy, the £1 meal deal for children was amazing! It meant we could eat out more often than we would normally have had.

My son enjoyed the theme park which was a nice edition to the stay especially on the colder days when you don’t want to venture far. (It was nice you could use the park on day of check-in too)

We were offered on the app to extend our stay but it wasn’t clear how to do this and the phone line didn’t connect to a human so we unfortunately left, we would have happily extended our stay had they had availability.

We were sad to leave but will definitely come back for sure 😌

Negatives: My only real complaint was Check-in is very late (4.30pm) I think latest should be 3pm. Gives people time to checkin, unpack and get some food. Especially with little ones it felt very rushed around dinner time.

Suggested improvements: Lack of recycling facilities around the park. I would have liked to see more dotted around. Even the communal biffa bins didn’t have anywhere for plastics/cardboard.

Prior to arrival (on the email confirmation), it would be helpful to tell people what to bring ie loo roll & bin bags etc. We’ve been to Lodges before so we’re prepared but would be helpful I think to first timers. Also we only noticed the small cardboard box of teabags, sugar, coffee, dishwasher tabs etc on the second day, this should be better displayed, it was a lovely gesture.

Finally you need to update your website photos, the website doesn’t do it justice for how luxurious the lodges are ! Hope to...

Is this really the best the South West has to offer? 🤔 I won't waste my money here again standing to watch people with a ride access pass go on rides all day long. I have a child with ADHD and who has an EHCP. I have another child who is on the ASD pathway. I personally know the access card is there to help people with disabilities enjoy experiences, but here it was very obviously abused ruining the experience for all others. For instance, my son has an access card because he finds queues difficult, and it is hard for him to be around loud noises. I got no response to my enquiry on if my child would be able to use his card here, but we came any way as my husband had to work nearby, and it is half term. When we got here, the access card was used by families to get a ride access pass, and then it was used to queue jump all day long. So a family without the card had to wait 45-60 mins to ride the twister roller coaster, which wasn't worth the wait as goes around once, whereas a family with it could ride 4 times in that time. There are only 2x 4-seater carts. Usually, the card should be used once, and then there is a wait time before it can be used again - so a person with a disability doesn't have to physically queue with all the stresses that has but at the same time it doesn't put everyone else to a disadvantage. When I raised this issue with the ride assistant and it was clear my son was suffering from the buzzer noise at the start of the rides they seemed powerless to do anything saying it was park rules to let the same family go on first again, only after just having a go. But this wasn't the only incident where a ride assistant seemed powerless to tackle poor behaviour. At the aqua blasters, there is a sign that clearly says not to spray water at the queue. This was done by the same boy 3 times until I told him off as he got water in my daughter's eye, which hurt her, and me in the face 3 times. The parents/guardians did nothing. I spoke to the ride assistant and asked her what the repercussions are for children who have broken the rules (e.g., is it to be called in early), and she told me she was too busy calling boats in and getting children in and out to do anything about it, but she said she would issue a verbal warning. No warning was given, and the other children copied the poor example. This is an accident waiting to happen and can be prevented by putting up plastic panels to protect those in the queue. All in all, this wasn't a pleasurable day out because ride assistants have not been trained to act when issues occur, therefore I won't come again even with a ride access pass and my children don't want to come...