Parkdean Resorts Highfield Grange Holiday Park, Essex — Local services in Tendring

On arrival from first glance at reception the park looked nice, we arrived quite late, our caravan was very basic, however it had everything we needed, the over all cleanliness of the caravan wasn’t amazing. We were having trouble with wifi so phoned the number that was on the leaflet however the person we spoke to said he didn’t know what we wanted him to do as he just uses the staff wifi. When we woke up the following morning and I saw the caravan in the natural light I realised that the floor looked like it had never seen a mop, there was marks all over the sofa, chairs and carpets, there was hair in the shower, and bits in the main bathroom sink, the walls and doors were covered in dirt, and the door trims had bits and dirt all over them which to me confirmed my thoughts that the floor hadn’t been mopped. I do think the caravan had been cleaned to a certain extent but maybe this was done in a rush meaning this was done to very low standard. Every time we went to get food from the restaurant, service was ridiculously slow we waited over 40 minutes for food on one of the evenings even though there was only about 3 other families in the restaurant, food was mediocre at best, most nights it was lukewarm, staff service again mediocre at best. One of my daughters has a milk allergy and the food selection for this was limited, nothing was labelled as milk free on the actual menu making it hard to understand what was ok for her to eat unless you cross referenced the app. Again restaurant cleanliness wasn’t amazing, tables were always cleared but tables didn’t look or feel the cleanest. Fish and chip shop was open on one evening out of the days we were there, but none of the staff seemed to know what times or days this was open. The tots evening entertainment was good, my girls enjoyed it, service at the bar was quick, it wasn’t overly busy when we we were in there so there was plenty of seats and tables! Arcade is fine, not overly big but does the job, everything was of working order while we were there and they seemed to have a maintenance team in here regularly. We only attended one of the activities as everything else was showing as booked, this activity was moved from the Wednesday to the Thursday but there was no notice of this, no signs, no email, no announcements at the evening entertainment, we found out from a fellow guest who happened to mention it to a member of staff. Same thing with the swimming pool, it was showing as fully booked but again after speaking to a fellow guest they informed us that you could just turn up, so we did and was let straight in, it seemed quiet which was nice. However when we got into the pool, it was filthy, I have never seen such a dirty pool, in the first smaller pool there was clumps of hair, leaves, and bits of god knows what else floating around, same for the second pool which lead into the outdoor bit but that also had green stringy clumps floating around, bugs, and dirt. We left after about 10 minutes and didn’t return. I have got to say that Danny from the bar was absolutely lovely, he was attentive and really helpful, it was a relief to finally see a friendly face who made you feel like you weren’t bothering them! And Beth, who waited for our daughter to cash in her tickets so she could get her prize, again she was so so lovely, attentive and made the experience of winning a prize 10 times more exciting for our daughter! Overall this park was dirty, poorly ran and dingy, not once while we stayed did I see a member of cleaning staff anywhere, outside one caravans they had put some bed sheets on the grass on the Wednesday and they stayed there for the remainder of our stay. I’ve left feeling really really disappointed, and can’t say I’m tempted to go back to any park dean site...

Caravan was very run down. Holes in walls and door missing. Caravan floor was filthy. Cleaner came to hoover the carpet but as she was using a Henry hoover it was mostly flattening the hair and dust on the carpet rather than sucking it up. We found a sock and golf ball that weren't ours so this highlights how thorough the cleaning was done. The plugs were for show only as they didn't fit the plug holes. No net curtains which other caravan parks have so very limited privacy and caravans were closer together compared to other sites we have stayed at. The pool was disgusting, baby pool closed with no reason as to why. This led to the main pool being overcrowded and meant the toddler in our group couldn't really enjoy the pool. There was black mould / dirt at the bottom of the pool and we went there in the morning so wouldn't have been from that day's use. Too few changing areas. We didn't use the pool again which was disappointing as swimming is one of the activities the kids look forward to.

Toilets in the swimming pool were also used by arts and crafts so were covered in paint. We went into these in the morning on 2 occasions and both times they were filthy and had no soap.

The clubhouse was also filthy. We attended a children's activity in the morning and the tables, floor and bar area were sticky and clearly hadn't been cleaned from the night before. Again the toilets in the clubhouse had no soap.

We ordered drinks using the App and waited nearly an hour for these. Clearly there were not enough staff to serve at the bar and also deal with orders online. When our drinks finally arrived they had been substituted without an apology or explanation, we had to enquire why our drinks weren't what we ordered. They were meant to be frozen cocktails but had clearly been sitting around for a while as they had melted.

There was dog poo by the clubhouse for 3 days. It only disappeared once the area flooded due to the rain.

The smell of cannabis was overpowering. Security guards acknowledged it but didn't seem to be doing anything about it.

Security guards on the clubhouse doors let small children run out without an adult.

The crafts activities we participated in weren't very well organised. We were left to work out what to do by ourselves. No instructions and very limited interaction. Other parks have made these experiences more interactive for children.

The fish and chip shop, ice cream place and chicken take away weren't open despite this being a busy time of year due to school hols. The restaurant was very slow and again seemed to be running on skeleton staff. This left us no choice but to eat off site.

Very limited things to do during the day and especially when it is raining. No soft play or free activities to do.

We hired 2 travel cots and a highchair and these were in our caravan upon arrival. However, we couldn't set up the travel cots as we weren't able to move the beds ourselves. No note to explain this or who to contact. We had to report this to reception and it took a long time to resolve this issue.

There were building works taking place and we hadn't been notified of this in advance.

Children enjoyed the playground.

Location is good. Large Tesco within a 10 min walk. Bus stop right outside which we took to Clacton pier. Highly recommend Clacton pier for kids especially...

DAY 1: Our check in was scheduled for 21st Feb at 3pm. On the morning, we received notification that check in would commence from 6pm for our van to be cleaned and readied due to the extreme weather and staff shortage. We arrived and was told the van was not ready and that we could use the entertainment facilities. Our party consisted of sight impaired and physically disabled people. Also a learning disabled child. The child was already tired and upset due to the delay so we opted not to go to the facilities as we thought this might not help the situation. So our only option was to wait in the car outside our caravan. The venue is so poorly lit, numbered and placed incredibly silly and also was not easy to park and get to. We visited reception several times, phoned the office several times, each time being promised we would be prioritised for our van cleaning and we'd be called when it was ready. It was cold, windy, wet and a horrible night to be expected to wait in the car for what ended up being over 5 hours. At about 9:30pm we visited the reception one final time to inform the staff we would be entering the van so we could warm up and let the kids rest, we told them we still expected a cleaner and bedding. The said this was fine and our van should be in the next few vans to be cleaned and they would still call when the van was ready. 10:30 rolls around and we're just getting the feeling back in our fingers. A maintenance worker walks by and we ask what's going on? He is unsure but will go to get bedding immediately and find out where the cleaners are. 10 minutes later he returns with the news that no more cleaners are on site, hands us our bedding and goes. We had no options, we put on the bedding ourselves and just headed for bed as the ordeal was already too much.

DAY 2: About 10am I frog marched into reception and explained the situation and how disgusting it was how we were treated the night before, I fully expected a cleaner by now but they still had not been. Kelly the receptionist however, did claw back some respect. She promptly apologised offered a night refund on the booking and also £40 worth of vouchers for the facilities. We accepted this but later thought they probably would be more than happy to do that because they probably made a fortune in the bar / restaurant last night seeing as they were advising people to wait in them, hense probably more spend. The cleaner arrived not long after. The stress of the previous night left one of our party out for the count, they were unable to enjoy a break, they literally spent the whole weekend in the van.

The kids were able to enjoy some activities like the treasure trail and archery, sand art and activities at the clubhouse. We purchased wifi, however, the account locked itself out, and when trying to forget password processes the reset link never arrived. I contacted the support who manually reset the password, but by the time it was resolved, the holiday was over. So the company did give a refund as my data usage matched that version of events.

Yes the weather did put a dampner on things and the park didn't act correctly because of it but they did make an effort to make the rest of the stay enjoyable. Sadly though like others, I think I will remember the things that went wrong over anything so I can't give Highfield a...