The good: There are plenty of places to eat. For example, Pancake House does fantastic breakfasts and Bella Italia has friendly and fast service. There are at least two Starbucks onsite and two ice cream places. As for your normal family activities, the bowling is super enjoyable and the pool is warm with lots of different slides for adventurous kids. The lodges are spacious and equipped with all the basics.
How about the activities you've really come to Center Parcs for? I thoroughly recommend laser combat. It is great fun for all the family and will get even your grumpiest, video game addicted teens running around. The staff leading the activity are friendly and fun.
The Aerial Adventure with the zip line over the lake was also an amazing experience for the kids. They were very nervous and we let the park know ahead of time that our three kids are autistic with anxiety. So they had extra staff, who came up to help the more nervous children (not just ours!) and encourage them. It was easy to follow along with them from the ground with our cameras too.
The junior quads and indoor climbing wall are like any other quadbike and climbing wall experience. Enjoyable but not much more to be said. I wish we had booked the escape rooms too as these looked amazing. There are also plenty of other sporty activities to do that we didn't get around to, including fun options like table tennis and table football.
The bad: The pool doesn't seem to be cleaned during the day, only after closing. That means the changing rooms get really gross towards the end of the day, and the pool has things floating in it all the time like other people's plasters and lots of leaves. I'm not sure why they don't have some sort of filtration system.
The lodge itself was also dirty on arrival, and only equipped with the very basics. The TV was rubbish - bring a laptop or an xbox to hook up to it if you want to actually watch any streaming services. There's no hand soap or spare toilet roll to be found, no complimentary toiletries, and most unusual, no pasta bowls? Plates and cereal bowls only. The beds may as well be made out of large rocks and the bedding made out of paper. None of us got a good night's sleep all week.
The activities are a fantastic experience for the children but seriously overpriced. We can do the same things closer to home for half the price. Ā£44 for junior quads is a rip off. 15 minutes of safety talk followed by 30 min of going around the track when we could do the same thing for Ā£20 near home. Not worth it.
And pottery painting? We do this on every holiday as a tradition but the selection of pottery is meagre. You pay Ā£15 per person as a studio fee PLUS the cost of your pottery. For a spoon rest and a sculpture of two foxes it cost us Ā£80 total.
Lastly, the onsite Parc market (basically Co op) is so expensive you need a second mortgage to shop there. And when you get back to the lodge, the fridge is so tiny you can barely store any food in there despite sleeping six people. I'm sure this is designed so you spend more money with them on eating out, instead of self catering. Luckily there are normally priced supermarkets within 15 min drive of center parcs.
Not all the staff are friendly. Most were wonderful, but I got upset over being late to an activity because the signage from the lodges to the outdoor activity centre is almost nonexistent. I'm autistic and started crying because we had got lost, and a member of staff accused me of being abusive instead of trying to help. Abusive behaviour is someone swearing at you and being threatening, not someone crying and expressing frustration.
All in all, it was an experience the kids will never forget, but not one worth repeating. It's incredibly expensive and those little touches that makes a holiday park stand out are sorely missing. If you do book here, 4 nights is enough to do all the things you want, so save yourself a few pennies by not...
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