Haven Hopton Holiday Village — Local services in Great Yarmouth

Upon arrival there were bugs in the room and on bed, silverfish and some other beetle, killed and left on the floor. Hair and dust at bottom of wardrobe, shelves and draws, someone's socks and other gadget also left in draw. Chocolate on the floor in living room. Oily cabinet doors, somone else's welcome pack left in cupboard. The caravan also came with loads of spiders on the celling (spider season) So we contacted them and said the caravan needed to be cleaned... While I was waiting I started to clean the kids room so I could start putting stuff away. About an hour later they came out and cleaned again. They were very nice, polite, easy to talk to. I ran round with them and told them what was wrong and they got on with it. After they'd finished they wrote down what was wrong and we're on their way. Upon further inspection there was still bugs on the floor, hair, dust and dirt still in the wardrobes and draws and I had to clean it all myself. When telling them this they only offered 1 days refund.. So this "cleaning guarantee" is nonsense. Found out that the bed leg was broken, somone had propped it up. Called maintenance, took approx 50 mins to come and tell me there is no maintenance till tomorrow but will have to come sort it tomorrow. Either he can take bed away and mattress on the floor (no, thanks. There's too many bettles popping up in the bedroom) or use pull out bed. So we opted for the pull out bed. Extreamly uncomfortable, can feel the wood digging in my back. Mattress is as thick as a towel and the bits on the outside where it folds over stick up, so everytime you get out of the bed you hurt your ankle and hip. I had to do this a few times as I am breastfeeding my newborn. We found out after getting settled and getting ready for bed there was no hot water and by this time it was 10/11pm so we just all went to sleep. In the morning, maintenance arrived and fixed the bed and hot water and we could finally start our holiday. Or so we thought. We took a pan out the cupboard and we thought that looks abit dirty, wiped round with some kitchen roll and it was caked in dirt! We opted for the evening entertainment at the marina bar. The only table and chairs and just general space was abit in the corner but it was flooded with a sticky liquid on the floor. We told about 5 different people, 2 behind the sound box, a lady at the bar, security and a glass collector and they all pretty much said "it's not my job". Went for a Costa thought I'd try the machines that are available, got a mango and passionfruit fruit cooler, came out with lots of I've cubes and watered down orange squash. Tried to get a refund from woman behind bar, she said its not my job, asked the lads at the arcade, wasn't their job, asked security he told me to go mini mart, went to the restaurant asked a guy cleaning the tables he directed me to the bar, where another lady was asked and another before getting the manager and even she didn't have a clue. She said I can make you a mocktail, I said at this point I just want a refund. She said she doesn't have it on the system. After another 5 minutes she refunded me. There was so many other issues, youngsters smoking at the marina bar, underage drinking, washing machines at laundrette were mouldy and disgusting, entertainment is extreamly poor, the characters were on stage for 10 minutes and it's mostly virtual now, could of just sat my daughter in front of youtube. When phoning to get in contact with the manager took us 6 days to get hold of her and it was all just "unfortunate" do we got another days refund. But the whole experience is tainted. Someone left rubbish out and we had seagulls at 5am that wouldn't shut up or go away, phoned the after hours and they said "it's not my job" they'd be someone in at 7.30 am for litter picking. Just a rubbish time for our kids and our wedding anniversary. It really has put us off haven. I don't think we'll ever be returning now. Sophie from the entertainment was fantastic with the kids and actually did her job. This was caravan...

Monday - Monday in August with 4yo and 1yo. Beautiful landscaped grounds with lots of shade. Super easy check in and quick turnaround to let us in to the caravan. Clean and spacious, but we did pay £590 for an upgrade for the week, 14ft right next to a little clearing with a park.

Staff all friendly. Confused by the activity passes having the 5th date of our holiday printed on, (did they expire or renew on this date?) didn't bother security as they only ever needed to see green card sticking out of wallet to let you in to the activity/restaurant area. Indoor pool was nice with slide and kids area, but kids area closed on first swim.

Shows were really good, entertainers were friendly and talented! I think one show repeated twice in a week. You can still get a good seat if you arrive just after 5.30.

It's a lovely quiet park in a good location with great facilities but there's still a bit of work to do ...

NEGATIVES: Swimming. Haven restricted indoor swimming sessions for a long time now. Not a fan. This is the only place for toddlers to swim safely with graduated entry and in shallow pool and kids area. If the park hasn't got any bigger and they aren't accomodating any more guests then not sure why the pool isn't big enough for guests. 14 sessions per caravan isn't a fair rule. A family of 4 (which must be the average number of guests in a caravan) burn through this in 3 days and then you have to toss a coin to decide which parent goes with which child to use the two remaining sessions on day 4. Spontaneity out the window as you have to pre book the sessions asap (week before your holiday begins otherwise they're 'sold out' We knew our kids chill out around 4 and eat at 5 so booked 3.15 swims so we could still go out in the morning with a packed lunch if we wanted to. Haven will stress that there is an outdoor pool available and that indoor swimming doesn't have to be booked between 6pm and 8pm, but they're not exactly family friendly times, and most people -this year particularly -might have booked a UK holiday to avoid huge queues where you risk being turned away after a long wait. Not something you want when you have small children The outdoor pool is 0.8 at shallow end so not the same experience for a 1 year old as the indoor shallow child pool with water activities. Oh, the Indoor pool can be booked from 24 hours before IF SPACE AVAILABLE. we finally managed to book 4 slots on the last day of our holiday (had to look at 6am to find one!)

Communication, information and app. Probably had 2 dozen emails in the build up, makes everything exciting and tells you to download 2 apps to use on your holiday. They need a bit of work and considering how easy it would be, neither app can tell you what time the restaurants or shop opens, or a restaurant menu. What a wasted opportunity! The app didn't work for 2 days so our first evening of pizza delivery in the caravan was disrupted. Had been in earlier and they said they open at 4, but after the app situation and calling Reception, they seemed to think it opened at 5pm and to wait and see if an order could be placed later on. Next morning forgot coffee and couldn't find any shop opening times on the app or website so walked to the shop at 7am to find a sign on their door saying 8. Drove to a co op garage on the edge of the site which was handy. On drive back all the beach items were suddenly outside the shop at 7.15 so really confused. Running theme here, opening times need to be available either on website, app or on some literature in the caravan. (The only thing you get given in your caravan welcome pack on arrival is a key and two bin bags) Recycling bays consist of General waste and a small glass bin. No recycling of plastics or cardboard on site.

Tldr. Nice and modern, updated, clean and well presented park. £2k for a week is a lot for the hassle of only getting 3 guaranteed hours in a family friendly pool with the family. Communication and information needs a...

Im giving 5 stars even with though we had a problem? Read on...Haven Hopton is quite Possibly the best ever Haven we have ever stayed at and weve done a few. Infact other Havens sites and staff could learn alot, including the abhorrent tattersall lakes (I've not put the review for that one yet but it's going to be a 1 star, dint stay there)

Accommodation: So we booked a silver static, only a stones throw from the main complex. The caravan itself was super clean and tidy and the beds were surprisingly comfortable I didn't have a single spring burying in my crevaces when we slept but we had a massive problem, coming back the first night and we found out we had no heating or hot water (I can't live without a daily shower) so I went and spoke to the reception in the morning and someone was out within 20mins looking at it. A boiler fault required an engineer, so we went out and by the time we was back around 3pm it was all done and we was compensated for the issue very VERY well. And none of the staff looked down at us or seemed fed up, they genuinely wanted to help (again tattersall lakes staff should all come here for training) a dishwasher, a microwave, a cooker it was perfect. But guys come on throw away toilet brushes would save your cleaners alot of hassle. Fortunately we've done many of these so take a cheap bottle of bleach.

Site entertainment/services: so we ate put twice once from the papa John's and once from the garden restaurant. Make no mistake the prices here are very VERY Reasonable, even better than cleethorpes. Infact the whole area and seaside is incredibly competitive. A 4 pint pitcher costing £17, cocktail pitchers at 2 for £22. The soft drinks are naturally costly but that's the same wherever you go. Walking the coast directly off the site for 20mins takes you to the main hub of the seafront and again the desserts,ice creams, meals all actually cheaper than our city in Nottingham.

Now the entertainment is very young child orientated for the majority of the night, we did have a singer on the Friday and she was good. But the carnival for me was lacklustre (again that's only personal taste) the kids entertainment seemed to run until 9pm.

The activities we booked the perfect games the water jet thingys absolutely well worth the money, the staff make the events and there's loads to do we didn't have time to even get on the adventure golf.

I dont think I can say anymore except to say well worth the money, absolutely marvellous staff, it doesn't break the bank. This is the 1st Haven out of about 6 sites me,the wife and kids would return to.

Sorry can't add photos, the Google is being a pain...