Parkdean Resorts California Cliffs Holiday Park, Great Yarmouth — Attraction in Great Yarmouth

I was unsure whether to post this review or not so I gave myself several days to calm down and think about things logically. I now believe it is the right thing to do to make people aware of our week. Unfortunately, this years holiday has shown a severe decline in the facilities and a push by the management of this site to simply grow and not ensure their standards are kept high enough to accompany increased numbers. We travel as a family group taking Grandparents, 1 severely disabled and wheel chair bound, and then 4 Adults and 4 children (6 to 12 yr olds) Upon arriving both of our vans had issues with their doors, we couldn't lock them so had to call for maintenance who were able to fix my door but told our elderly relatives there was nothing wrong with their lock. For the rest of the week we had to use a faulty key which had to be positioned in the perfect place before it would either lock or unlock the door. I'm not kidding you, every time we went out it was operation lock pick....but with a key lol The van that my mother and father in-law were put into was a converted disabled van and as such we had to pay a premium for it but, as well as the faulty lock it also didn't have a slope outside of the van that was wide enough to turn the wheelchair into the front door and so each time we went out or came back either myself or my 65 year old father in law, who has had a knee replacement, had apply a lifting and pushing pressure to the back of the wheelchair so that it spun into position. When we complained to the management team we were told it's the only van and so you can either have a refund or put up with it...Ok a refund was offered but who is going to tell their Grandkids they aren't staying for the holiday as the van isn't comfortable enough. Our van had very basic levels of comfort and the shower pan literally sagged when I stood on it, when i went to reception to speak to them about it they made me feel as they I was some obese goliath of a man. I'm 6' and weigh 14 Stone....hardly massive on anybodies scales! We hired a bike for our 8 year old to use through the week and had to go back to the store 3 times for a lock that worked....3 times! Honestly I feel like I spent more time talking with their staff about various problems than I did talking to my wife. The onsite entertainment is limited and could really do with updating. I like music but in the evening the kids disco was far too loud. Our children were dancing by the stage but the grown ups couldn't talk to each other as it was so loud we couldn't hear unless we were shouting so I spent the next 2 hours browsing websites on their over priced wifi and using hand signals to check if my wife wanted another drink yet. The A/C was on sparingly so as to encourage you to drink more....i felt as though I was in a 40ft shipping container under scorching heat and the staff were unhelpful to say the least. The parking is woefully inadequate. We were 3 rows in and had to zig-zag our way through the caravans so that we could get to the road and go enjoy Norfolk. Again, staff were less than helpful and there are no other parking bays onsite so you have very little option than to run the slalom each day. We have enjoyed this site for several years but will not be coming back, we are a group who booked 3 vans and have spent a lot of money onsite too but have been treated with No respect or concern for our vulnerable persons. Park Resorts you have been given all of the details from our stay and have not replied in an adequate timeframe therefore you have received this honest and frank assessment of your site at California Cliffs. If you are going to charge the premium prices then you really need to deliver. Management needs a shake up and staff need some coaching, standards have slipped and in your drive for expansion you have forgotten the guiding principles of hospitality. Take Care of the Customers and they will keep coming back. We are going to Devon next year and have already booked 3 vans and 1 tent pitch. Premium sites that we know will deliver a...

Now this is a tough one to rate. Staff on site were friendly. The site itself was ok. The caravan (B11) was a budget caravan so we were not expecting anything fancy, however we were expecting clean. The kettle on arrival almost made me sick. On opening it the bottom was covered in yellow slime. The shelf between the two single beds was hanging off the wall there were nail varnish and food Mark's on the table. The shower was a nice temperature and good pressure although the water didnt drain quick enough so you were paddling . If you showered for too long the water came over the bottom and out on to the floor. We complained about the kettle and they were very quick to exchange it for a brand new one.we also mentioned the shower and we were told someone would look at it. This must of happened as the next day it stopped happening and didnt re occur. However we were weren't notified that someone had been in or there was no note left to let us know that it had been fixed. The table we cleaned ourselves and the shelf we just left and mentioned it on leaving. The site itself was good for the kids. The swimming pool times were limited if you were not an owner but the times suited us so this was not a problem. There were bikes to hire, crazy golf, little arcade, A basketball court and some little morning events for the kids so there is enough to keep the kids entertained. On site theres a laundret , shop and bar.The bar on site serves good food and even when it was busy they seemed to cope with the rush well and were very friendly. Eg. Food didnt take too long to arrive . On coming to leave the site they ask you to put your linen in a bag and leave it in the lounge. When I took our linen of the bed I was mortified to see a large amount of black mould on our mattress. I've taken pictures below to show it. We complained on leaving and the ladies just said thanks for letting us know we will get someone to look at it. We also left it as a poor comment on the feedback form they gave us. Surely housekeeping would see that when they make the beds ??? That's not something that has appeared in the weekend that we have slept in it so surely that should have been raised before. Anyway the site itself could do with a bit of TLC. Some of the little dirt roads have green webbing sticking out of the them which my one year old got her foot caught in and went flying. Very few people seem to abide by the one way signs or the 5mph speed limit maybe more speed bumps (they seem to be more in one side of the side than others so maybe this is on there to do list. And maybe more signage for the direction may help. . To sum up. The place is ok cleanliness and housekeeping for the budget caravan definitely needs improvement. We had family in a bigger caravan and it was newer but also cleaner from what we saw. Park itself could do with some TLC but overall was a nice site with good facilities and...

This is going to be a long post BUT please read it as this may protect someone going through the same stress me and My wife is going through..

We arrived at California cliffs a few weeks ago after spotting a caravan on Facebook, we met up with the saleslady and long story short we brought a caravan and decking the address was Kittiwake 33 we paid a two thousand pound deposit on card and agreed to pay the rest cash and BACS.

After two weeks I emailed the saleslady and after two or three emails she emailed me the total amount and the BACS details - we paid and got an email to say it was received, a few days later we arrived at the park cash in hand to pay off the final settlement. The money was counted taken and then, a horrible reality struck...

The saleslady said when are you going to pay off the final amount...

I said we have she said no you haven't I took my phone out and said heres the email from you thanking me. The saleslady said I didn't send that, after 2hours on the phone to the bank it transpires the sales ladies emails had been hacked/intercepted. I asked for the large amount of cash back and was told it was now in the safe and it wouldn't be easy to get it back but I could have a receipt.

I contacted the general manager the following day and agreed to return in two weeks to sort out what could happen. We had by that point contacted, my email provider who couldn't find any hacks on my part, the police fraud unit,

Here are the facts. The received emails were all on the same email stream, all had parkdean badges etc on. On very close inspection some emails had a slightly different email address and the parkdean phone number was a digit different however still in the same stream.

The money was sent to a bank account with the name Parkdean Resort ltd

One of the later to be found bogus emails had an exact breakdown on costs ie deposit already paid, remaining money, decking. This information was not on any other email.

Two long weeks went by and we arrived at California cliffs to meet the general manager.

He said We don't have your money so we can't give you a caravan. 2 . We Have a fantastic treasurer team, a fantastic I.T. department and we haven't been hacked. We have investigated the saleslady and she has sent over two hundred emails with no other issues. Parkdean had investigated my email system and found out I'd been hacked in 2019 (I did know about this and it was sorted)

In conclusion I can't do anything more so where do you want to go from here. Totally stunned I said can we have our deposit back he said yes I'll get a BACS payment done in seven days.

This meeting took 4 minutes, three hours there and three hours back home..

He then turned around and walked back into the rear office. That is Parkdean's part clearly done, we lost our caravan and we are now dealing with our banks fraud department hoping to get our...