Our Center Parcs Experience

Advantages: fun, lots to do
Disadvantages: expensive!

...I have been to Center Parcs several times but hadn't been for a while and since my last visit it has altered a little but still just as much fun as I remembered it to be. I thought I should review it as people who have never been are always asking me what it's like and whether it's worth it. The basic idea of Center Parcs is to have an active holiday where you try things you may never usually get round to doing without having to go far. All of the attractions are very close together so you don't have to spend all day travelling from one to the next and so you can really soak up the family fun atmosphere. I thought instead of reviewing everything individually I would review our entire holiday. **Arrival** We went to the Nottingham Center Parcs and we found that the directions on the website were fairly easy to follow and so we...

lorriellah 23.09.2009 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Review of Center Parcs, Sherwood Forest

Entertaining Indeed

Advantages: varied products, something for everyone
Disadvantages: could add more sub-categories perhaps

...The Entertainment section of Ciao is probably the one I use most, being very keen on both reading and writing opinions in this category. It has quite a wide brief, as it includes eight main sections - Films, Books, Music, TV, Radio, DVDs, Videos, Newspapers and Magazines. Each of these then has a number of sub-categories, meaning that hopefully, everyone can find something of interest. For example, the Books category is divided into Fiction, Non-Fiction, Plays, Poetry and Writer's Corner. The first four are fairly obvious in their content, but the Writer's Corner was new to me and being a wannabe novelist and sometime poet, I was interested to explore this further. The Writer's Corner is then sub-divided into Literary Criticism and Theory, Writer's Websites and (similar to the category I am now writing in) Member's Advice On. This...

KarenUK 26.01.2001 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Entertainment

  Center Parcs - Family Fun in the Forest!

Advantages: Great family holiday, perfect for kids, lovely natural setting, plenty to do
Disadvantages: Lodges can be shabby, you will wear yourself out with all the activity!

...Center Parcs is a resort type holiday where the aim is to enjoy a family holiday in natural surroundings. Accommodation is in self catering units, although there are plenty of restaurants available. The holiday can be as relaxing or as active as each individual chooses. There are plenty of optional activities available for those that want to keep busy or expand their horizons. The basic cost of the holiday includes accommodation and you then pay for any additional pursuits you wish to engage in. The main attraction for most families is the natural setting and almost total absence of cars. Apart from the checking in days of Monday and Friday no cars are allowed. This makes for a very peaceful holiday where the main mode of transport is on foot, by bike or even in some cases on horseback! This review covers the Center Parcs at Whinfell...

fallen121 20.03.2006 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Review of Center Parcs

Rise of the phoenix-Center parcs Elvedon

Advantages: Location, Facilities, Ideal family holiday
Disadvantages: Can get very expensive

...After the destruction of the dome that housed many of the facilities in the fire of 2002 Center Parcs Elvedon has risen from the ashes, but is it bigger and better? Firstly for those of you who are unaware of what Center Parcs is. Center Parcs are large family holiday villages set in forests. There are four sites in GB Elvedon Sherwood Forest Longleat and Oasis in the Lake District. There are also villages in France Holland and Belgium. Elvedon is the village that we return to again and again having visited twice a year for the last eight years. Elvedon village is set in 400 acres of Thetford forest near Brandon in Suffolk. The site has lakes and streams and varied wildlife. When you get there the first thing you do is book in at the gate lodge, where you get your villa keys, information booklet and any activity...

docpov 24.04.2004 (03.07.2004) · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Center Parcs

Center Parcs - Longleat

Advantages: Great for families
Disadvantages: Not so great if you don't like kids

..., this gets booked quickly - particularly at weekends. So if you are planning a special parents-only night out at one of the better restaurants you need to book both before you arrive. Payment is taken for any reservations at the time of booking (the two bookable restaurants will request a £20 deposit) but all can be cancelled almost up to the day. Our Experience Arrival ~ Despite hearing only favourable reports from friends I approached a Center Parcs holiday with some trepidation. My only previous experience of holiday camps has been bank holiday weekend drink fuelled beano's but even through those hazy remembrances I found them tacky, unpleasant places with second rate entertainment, accommodation and catering underpinned by a desperate 'have fun or else' sentiment. Although I was confident that this would be a different...

brereton66 09.11.2007 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Review of Center Parcs Longleat Forest, Costwolds

Center Parcs - 2 adults and 2 new tracksuits!

Advantages: lots of fun, encourages you to be active and try new things
Disadvantages: can get expensive

...? 2 different slides, plus an indoor rapids, plus a wave pool, plus an outdoor salt pool ? enough for a few hours entertainment at least - the evening disco ? hmm, yes. The disco. Very school-disco-esque - lots and lots of play areas for children ? made me very jealous that I was neither under 12 or under 1.2m! The staff: The staff were invariably helpful and friendly, honestly couldn?t fault them and helped make the holiday great. The Spa: Excellent! See review in the spa section if you?re interested. Overall: Center parcs is obviously very family orientated but has enough to keep people in their 20s/30s without children amused if you a) have the money to do all the activities you?d like to and b) have the tolerance to cope with lots of short humans running around! It definitely made for a fun and different holiday, but I might...

MarieHHH 13.06.2009 (11.07.2009) · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Center Parcs

Entertain to Entertain

Advantages: Well maintained and plenty of good ops available
Disadvantages: Some glaring omissions in the books category

...I have found some success and recieved good feedback on my opinion about the games category, so I thought i would give it a go in the somewhat more competitive entertainment category. Time to test myself against the big guns. The first thing to note about the entertainment section is that there is such a wide berth of products available, from films to videos, computer games to restaurants, books to days out. You can find it all in this section. When you actually look into the sections you will soon find why it it so popular. These are the products that most people want to use, a night out is something people do often and want to get right, so reading an op on the place before going is only common sense. Because of this the opinions tend to get more reads. By far the most popular topics in here are the latest film...

robsgirl 14.06.2001 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Entertainment

Entertain yourself at Ciao

Advantages: good writing talent, relevant to me, good variety
Disadvantages: beware the churners, no teletext

...Slap me on the head and scrutinise my eyes, I'm in a mood of the inane kind. Having said that, or rather typed it, I'm here to give ciaoers the low down on the entertainment section, yesireee! For those of you that have had the misfortune to encounter my work prior to this moment, you may have noticed, being the mandible that I am, that my opinions rarely stray from that which is the ENTERTAINMENT section. Why is this? Well, TV, games, music, books are a huuuge chunk of my life, and I really need to get out more. Being the evercretin that I happen to be, I tend to only read opinions that fall under that category too, although I have been known to stray from time to time, although probably not that often. Entertainment is of course a large part of many people's lives, so I reckon(yes, I'm wrong about this) that a large chunk...

arcadionseyes 14.08.2001 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Entertainment

Entertaining category to write for

Advantages: Huge number of products, great variety in styles of writing, constant evolution of products, competitions regularly
Disadvantages: Opinions don't always agree with yours

...Entertainment has to be one of my specialist subjects on ciao. I have always been a great fan of TV, Film and Music especially, since I write my own plays and music and watch as many films as possible. Since there is so much available in the entertainment area on ciao, and there is such a wide variety of things to read and write about, it's a category that I often find myself visiting, to catch up with what I've missed and any new releases (or old ones) from bands that I like the sound of, and, of course, those I don't. I find Ciao extremely detailed and easy to use all over, not least in this region. There is so much to see across the region, covering Books, soundtracks and music retailers, to CDs, DVDs, gigs and TV shows. The thing that always amazes me is the number of sub-categories 'Entertainment' contains. For example, in Music...

craigy_baby_2000 03.02.2001 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Entertainment

Center Parcs Review

Advantages: None
Disadvantages: Everything!

...My mother used to work for center parcs as a cleaner so we managed to get in for free for swimming. but Center Parcs was a true disappointment. You see the advert. Calm, serence peaceful surrounding to take that monkey off of your back and let you relax. In reality, its quite the opposite. Swimming Facilities are poor at best not to mention the Queues where you stand around wet, now freezing and in danger of dying from a severe case of hypothermia. White water swimming rapids go about the same speed as someone shot with a horse tranquiliser and the slides give you the thrill and excitement of being kicked in the groin. Sports Center is.....ok. Badminton (Always Full), Table Tennis (Always Full) Pool (Again full) Roller skating (Shoes are all broke or not open or full). The shops prices are abismally high because they know theres...

Razzmond 24.08.2007 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Center Parcs