Center Parcs Les Trois Forêts — Hotel in Sarrebourg-Château-Salins

We just came back from our trip at Center Parcs - Les Trois-Forêts. In total we stayed 5 days, from Monday - Friday. The park itself is pretty big and depending on where your cottage is located, it can be very quiet (and relaxing) which we personally liked a lot. Also, it definitely helps coming on the off-season to avoid big crowds at restaurants, etc. What we really like was the Aqua Mondo. They had an outside area, a lot of slides, even some slides in which you had to sit in a tube, a big kids play area with sand in the middle (surrounded by water) and every half an hour or so they triggered waves, which our kids really enjoyed. Once we had an issue, which was directly being fixed, which I appreciated a lot (it was how to turn the jacuzzi on in our cottage). Center Parcs really makes it easy to check-in, the ability for us to communicate with them through WhatsApp, etc. The things I would like to address to Center Parcs to improve are the following:

Even though we stayed in a "Premium Cottage", the mattresses were really hard. My wife and I started to get lower back issues after 3 days. Furthermore, we did not have two separate mattresses, but one big one and also did we share 1 big duvet, with the result that every time one person moved, the other would wake up. I personally woke up at least 2-3 times every night, due to these issues.

I wish there would have been instructions in our cottage for the usage of the multi-function microwave, the dishwasher and the jacuzzi. We figured it out at the end, however, to save time, a one-pager about the basics would have been much appreciated.

Since the park is really big, you can expect a lot of carts driving around (which I personally don't mind at all). However, when I was out on my run in the afternoon, a group of teenagers were driving around with one of those carts, pretty much honking all the time, even honking at me and passing me very closely, even though I was running on the side of the street already, raising my hands to like a "what do you want?" You could tell that they were just fooling around, therefore this goes out to all future visitors to please consider other vacationers. It's OK to have fun be goofy and fool around but please be considerate.

My French is not the best, but at least I used some French words, as I think everybody should do when being in a foreign country (it's just a respectful gesture, right?). However, I wish the staff would have spoken a little more English, as you could tell that I sometimes did not understand what they said or wanted from me. I am aware that this is a typical French thing, but on the other hand, Center Parcs is a tourist destination which gets visited by tourists from so many different companies. Therefore, I think the person in charge of this Center Parc should bring this to the staff's awareness. We personally will not visit another Center Parc in France, mainly because of this. I rather tend to go to one in the Netherlands or Belgium in which I am able to communicate in English, which is - like it or not - English. I just googled "why do French dislike speaking English" and this came up (should say it all): "1/ Because we are not English. Which explains that when we are at home, we tend to use this beautiful language that is French"

The food at the restaurants was a little overpriced, even the Fast Food. One example: I almost paid 10 Euros every morning when getting just some croissants and pain au chocolates.

Unfortunately, where were no kids dance parties in the evenings, which we personally thought was a pity (this might have been due to Corona though, which I personally doubt though since all restrictions were lifted in France just recently).

When packing this morning, I checked under the beds (to make sure the kids did not throw anything under there) and saw a lot of dust, which I doubt was from us just from those 5 days. Therefore, I would appreciate if this gets addressed...

I heard a lot about center parks and to some extent it is true- family centric holiday park. Idea is good but the execution- not so much. So we went for a weekend with kids. Overall it was an ok experience but not amazing.

They charge, or should I say overcharge, for everything- from making the bed to having a better location. The prices from some things are ridiculoualy high- for instance to rent a flimsy golf cart (and you will need one if placed further from activities) costs the same as a big car in car rental. When we were there I could never shake off the feeling of some theme parks- "you are here so we will rip you off and make sure that what you get is never more than mediocre".

So having paid extra for "close to center" location which is still some 15 mins walk we come on the first evening after a long drive we drop our stuff and go to have a dinner to the creperie, and wow- chairs on the tables- it closes early "today". Not a great start- need to walk more with hungry and tired kids. The buffet restaurant was ok but again either the price should be lower or the quality higher (comparable quality to cheaper all inclussive hotels).

The weather was not great with some rain here and there but the kids wanted pedal catamaran. We were the only ones, but they insisted on booking precise time, arriving precise time and riding just the time they allow, which if I remember correctly was 30 mins in a small muddy pond. Two sections of the boat were full of water but nobody bothered to scoop it out.

The Aquamundo waterpark was not bad, i liked the natural flowers and plants, but some slides are way too dangerous for kids although allowed. For example the river outside should not be allowed for smaller kids. The water park was extremely crowded too. They sould manage the outside visitor numbers because some pools were so full like I have never seen before.

Walking around park could be nice but there were plenty of golfcarts, some racing by way too close and way too fast, so letting kids run free and explore did not feel safe at all.

We opted for a "premium house" and it was ok but not very clean. The smell of rancid oil was always present in the living area, the ventilation/heating system was unusable, no mosquito nets on the windows, outside loungers dirty and the cherry on top was the cockroaches we noticed on he last evening. We had to check all our stuff and despite being very careful when packing we managed to bring (at least) one home. Hopefully I will not notice more. I would not be shocked to see this in the cheap backpacker hostel but for the price they charge this should not happen.

The EV charging is extremely slow- way below declared power.

The carrefour supermarket was actuallly good and surprisingy not overpriced.

Overall it was an acceptable but underwhelming stay, kids liked it, it was more quiet than some campsites but we will...

This review will solely focus on our terrible experience at one of the restaurants on the resort premises, Il Giardino, and the complete ignorance of the resort management that followed. Unfortunately we got food poisoning and the reaction of the resort management was abysmal. More details are provided below.

Here is the review (copy-paste) that I wrote for the restaurant itself:

• Il Giardino * Ten days ago upon arrival to Les Trois Forêts our group of six had lunch here, which turned up to be a terrible decision as two of us got severe food poisoning.

We arrived to the resort on Friday afternoon after a long drive and this was supposed to be our first meal that day. Me and my wife ordered the same type of pizza (pizza Gina with burrata and truffles) - luckily our kid and the rest of our group ordered other things. 2-3 hours later we started feeling the first symptoms, nausea, stomach aches, following with vomiting and diarrhea throughout the whole night and next morning. We spent the whole next day lying in bed, feeling sick and completely exhausted. There goes our nice relaxing weekend in the woods through the window. Luckily, our kid and the rest of our group remained in good health.

These things can happen in any restaurant business, people do mistakes, however what is completely unacceptable is the reaction that followed of both Les Trois Forêts resort and the restaurant management itself. When we regained a bit of strength we immediately complained to the resort management and explained what happened. They immediately, without too many questions, blamed it on us with a defense that they haven't had a case of food poisoning in X years. With that logic I guess they expect they will never ever have a case of one. If it didn't happen for long enough, it won't happen again - a splendid logic and strategy to handle situations like these. Anyhow, no apology for the ruined vacation, no questions if we need any help or assistance, not to mention any refund of the money that we spent to get poisoned. There was also a potential problem that we won't recover by the time we need to leave (it was a short vacation over a long weekend), and we had a long drive in front of us. But who cares I guess.

Long story short, I would advise everyone to think twice before eating here. This restaurant is part of a bigger open area (no separating walls) which is decorated as a sort of tropical jungle. It is really warm and humid, far from ideal surroundings for a restaurant. I assume they are not taking really good care of ingredients that are left outside of cooling areas. I suspect that in our case it was burrata that almost "killed" us, as it was added to pizza as fresh ingredient (no baking).

If not for this, then think twice just for the pure fact that your complaints as a customer will be completely ignored. But this ones goes for the...