Kennedy Park Resort Napier — Hotel in Napier

Me and my family booked our Xmas vacation here and the only reason we booked our holiday here was from what we saw of the resort on their website. When we got there, it was nothing like it.

The pools shown in the pics are not big like it seemed in the photos. Far from it.

We booked the deluxe suite, which contained 3 sets of bunk beds in one room which made it looked really cramped, and queen bed in the other room which was nice.

It also had a kitchen, sng room table with tv, no sky. Now we brought along our chromecast so that we could watch movies beside the boring channels on tv. Dont bother taking the chromecast it wont work due to the wifi being sh*t!.

We brought along the kids iPads and tablets and they too don't work often due to the wifi as well.

Where our deluxe suite was we were close to the laundry room. Just so you know the washing machine take 2 x $2 gold coins and the dryers take $1 or $2 gold coins. Ring your own washing powder as they dont provide any. There is no atm machine at the resorts and if you need cash for these machine make sure you have some on you as the reception can only cash them into gold coins but you cannot draw some out.

If you are thinking of playing at the arcade you will also need gold coins for these as well. If you want to hire buggies to ride around the resort its $10.00 for 1 hr. (I think that's a bit too much for 1 hr ride).

Our older children with their partners stayed in the standard rooms and those rooms were ok, it has a mini fridge, little stove but no ovens. Wifi and it has sky but again channels to watch are limited. And close by is a laundry room which is free to use and comes with only 2 washing machine and 2 dryers. No coins needed.

Our deluxe suite, the cleaning lady only comes by every 4 days to clean and replace towels etc. The standard rooms are apparently cleaned every day or towels are replaced everyday.

To me and our family, Kennedy Park Resort was ok but not as great as we thought when we saw vids and photos of the place. They need faster wifi, upgrade all the TVs that didnt have sky with sky so it wasn't so boring to just watch channels 1, 2, 3, bravo, chinese channel, parliament channel, HGTV, etc.

There is a restaurant there within the resort, a bit pricey on their meals but otherwise ok. They also do takeaways, if you can't be bothered to go out of the resort to buy some. They do have bbq areas if you want a bbq but sometimes it doesn't heat up as hot as it really should. There is a room there by the bbq area to cook your own meals and can be shared with others as there are several stove tops, ovens and fridge to keep you food in but you'll have to name your food.

They have a quiet and reading room, a movie room, a little park and pillow jumper, 2 trampolines etc.

When driving around in or out of the resort, be very mindful of the many children riding in the buggies or walking in your path including adults as well. Some don't even care that they are blocking your path, they'll just keep walking or riding in your way (no matter how many times you beeped at them to move) lol.

I think that's about it, would i go back there again? NOPE! It was a good experience though.

The location was perfect! Close...

Entry was good, and reception looked very professional. Spacious with food and other bits you can purchase. Like a little shop. Friendly staff and we received discount vouchers, which came in handy for the activities we had in mind.

I wish we had a different room though as you could hear talking, beds and any other noise through the walls. I saw others, that will not have this issue. This made for a horrible morning when workers were up early, and also late night when others were moving around in beds.

The bunks in our room were quite wobbly, but the kids still had fun. They made their beds and enjoyed sharing the room. I do suggest taking extra bedding during winter or leaving the heater on. We left the heater on, due to the bunks only having a thin blanket. I could not touch our top blanket on the main bed, as something was on it. I have a thought, and we were making jokes about it. It would cost a lot to wash bedding, but it may be nicer to have clean blankets as some people are quite disgusting.

The pool was great. It was suitable for us and it was warm, which was great. If only there was a spa of some sort :-) Kids loved this and we had some great fun, and they made some camp friends.

Good playground, jumping pillow and spring free tramps. Little more rules than our usual spot, but this is for safety reasons. It was popular for many kids there.. and a few adults :-)

The games room has a pool table, which was a hit for us and we all enjoyed having a few games :-)

We didn't have to use the communal kitchen, but did use the bathroom facility. The size was great and are not coin operated. The only downfall to the ones we used, is that they are too short. You will need to be 5 foot 4 or under to stand under and enjoy it. Little difficult for taller people. However, it is hot and okay pressure :-)

They have done well to make it look nice, and there are quite a few facilities. It is a short drive to town, which was good for dinners, but there is an onsite restaurant.

Overall, it is different to the one we are used to, and may be back one day, if we visit Napier for a few...

Let me start by saying we are seasoned campers, staying at multiple camp grounds over the North Island over the past 3years. We were excited to visited Kennedy Park on recommendation over the alternative of the Top10 however we were not impressed however one positive things to include in the summary is the pools was heated which was nice considering the average weather. ||||1. Reoccurring campers advised us the camp grounds has a problem with theft so we headed out to the shops to invest in a bike lock. Despite cameras at the entrance of the campground, unwanted visitors find other ways to enter and help themselves to fishing rods, bikes, scooters & crocs. A heads up to advise campers to purchase a bike lock prior to our arrival would be helpful.||||2. You cant get cash out for the washing machine or drier!!! obviously no one in management team has the initiative to make a transaction in there accounting system to support this transaction. Sort it out guys it’s 2025 - missed revenue opportunity! Some camp grounds even charge a 1% convenience fee for cash out transactions - which we would glad have paid.||||3. Every rubbish skip on the grounds was overflowing by Monday 30th & even my husband commented on the state of the bathroom - he NEVER complains. ||||4. We did not witness any security or enforcement around the quiet-time, kept up by inconsiderate campers who were making a racket past 11 pm multiple nights. At the time of year it’s surprising this wasn’t enforced by campground staff.||||5. Water tap at site leaked water consistently and needs maintenance to conserve the precious resource over summer and the nearby garden is full of weeds. ||||6. Oh and the showers are rubbish. The shower goes for 30seconds at a time||||We wont be back, we wont...