The Center Parcs Experience

fits

monseiur wrote: »

A weeks holiday, self catering, for 2 adults & 2 children in the Greek Islands from 25th. August to 1st September is €1,955.00 this includes return flights from Dublin, transfer to accommodation etc. - now that's a bargain sun holiday:)

Its certainly cheap, but whether its a bargain: That depends on many things.

monseiur

fits wrote: »

Its certainly cheap, but whether its a bargain: That depends on many things.

I totally agree....hence the smiley !

PhoenixParker

monseiur wrote: »

A weeks holiday, self catering, for 2 adults & 2 children in the Greek Islands from 25th. August to 1st September is €1,955.00 this includes return flights from Dublin, transfer to accommodation etc. - now that's a bargain sun holiday:)

Hope CP do well, Longford and surrounding areas deserve a lift up, should be popular with foreign visitors as well as local but as others have said it's not cheap. I guess it's aimed at a particular niche market. The more variety we have to offer in our little rain washed island the better.

Its €1486 for a 2 bed for the same week (26th -2nd) in CP.
Find another family to split a 4 bed with and it's just over €1000 per family.

I fully agree it's not cheap but most of the comparisons I see overexaggerate the cost.

wildrover444

Hi. Was thinking of going in September with our 8 year old for four nights. Was going thru the booking process and it says It cost fifty euro to stay more central in the complex or else free but you could be a good bit away from eveything. Is it worth the fifty quid to a stay more central. Cheers

Black_Knight

Hello centre parcels. Does anyone know if there's a local number for centre parcs? Not the 1890 one.

And, anyone know if there's electric car chargers on site, or even a 3pin socket anywhere in the carpark.

Monokne

wildrover444 wrote: »

Hi. Was thinking of going in September with our 8 year old for four nights. Was going thru the booking process and it says It cost fifty euro to stay more central in the complex or else free but you could be a good bit away from eveything. Is it worth the fifty quid to a stay more central. Cheers

I've stayed in UK centre parcs a few times and never paid the extra. Have never had more than a 10 minute walk to the centre. I wouldn't be bothering with it.

enricoh

Hector Savage wrote: »

I find €2300 for one week in a Butlins style holiday center offensive.

Hope no one starts a thread on Ashford castle, poor Hector will have a heart attack!
We might even get a link for a hotel for e49 a night in torremolinos to compare it with!!

Cloudio9

wildrover444 wrote: »

Hi. Was thinking of going in September with our 8 year old for four nights. Was going thru the booking process and it says It cost fifty euro to stay more central in the complex or else free but you could be a good bit away from eveything. Is it worth the fifty quid to a stay more central. Cheers

Wouldn’t bother if you have bikes.

Darc19

Black_Knight wrote: »

Hello centre parcels. Does anyone know if there's a local number for centre parcs? Not the 1890 one.

And, anyone know if there's electric car chargers on site, or even a 3pin socket anywhere in the carpark.

All center parcs in UK have had electric car charge points for the past two years, so safe to assume that they have them in longford.

Beechwoodspark

Beechwoodspark wrote: »

You’d have to ask them

They are around 40. Live in a nice area of Dublin

I’d say just general boredom with what the offer is there.

He said the food was average and bland. And that the place itself seemed half finished as I said in the original post. The wife was harsher in her comments.

The call was literally about 4-5 mins so didn’t go into deep details.

Don’t shoot the messenger !

Well you see I found your post so odd that it read like you had made it up.

I noticed you edited it afterwards to mention food, a hotel chain and levels of construction completeness.

The bit about the parents being bored out of their heads in the evening was your downfall.

Any parents with kids the age you mentioned (4 and 8) know that the evening in a holiday village would likely involve one of the follow

Some outdoor activity until dusk
An evening in
Some sort of family friendly entertainment
Early bed, for the 4 year old anyway.

Parents of kids that age are well aware of what an evening consists of, very few would declare themselves bored if any of the above were part of the evening.

Likely if the kids are having a great time,as you imply, the parents would be far from bored.

In your original post you only mentioned the parents boredom.

You made it up, you have no work friend who went to CP that was bored out of their head in the evening
You are likely non parent as a parent would never equate a holiday camp with boredom.

Frustration, anger, joy, happyness, annoyance, sleep deprivation, being pestered within an inch of your life, yes, but never boredom.

Irishder

Saw 2 electric car chargers in the car park today. Both available

This is it

fits wrote: »

Heres a pool map for you

https://www.centerparcs.co.uk/content/dam/centerparcs/maps/subtropical-swimming-paradise/longford-forest-stsp-map.pdf

That looks deadly!

branie2

I've seen a lot of the ad on tv and in the cinema

This is it

branie2 wrote: »

I've seen a lot of the ad on tv and in the cinema

Fierce annoying.

"THE BRILLIANTEST!!"

Feisar

Ush1 wrote: »

This reads like a Ross O Carroll Kelly piece.

No it doesn’t

dazed+confused

fits wrote:

Meh. too much hassle for a long weekend. The early start and the check in and security and the other end, luggage, car hire, car seats. finding hotel...

Set an alarm
Check in online
Go carry-on if it's only a weekend
Use Google maps or get a taxi and point to a picture of your hotel.

Black_Knight

Irishder wrote: »

Saw 2 electric car chargers in the car park today. Both available

Thank you very much sir! Great to know. Wonder would one need to reserve one. Thanks for the info

salmocab

Black_Knight wrote: »

Thank you very much sir! Great to know. Wonder would one need to reserve one. Thanks for the info

Most cars will be parked up for a few days so I’d imagine people aren’t just allowed plug in and head in for a week. Or certainly shouldn’t be anyway.

fits

dazed+confused wrote: »

fits wrote:

Meh. too much hassle for a long weekend. The early start and the check in and security and the other end, luggage, car hire, car seats. finding hotel...

Set an alarm
Check in online
Go carry-on if it's only a weekend
Use Google maps or get a taxi and point to a picture of your hotel.

Ridiculous. I was a frequent flyer until three years ago. Try all that with twin toddlers in tow.

Cyrus

fits wrote: »

Ridiculous. I was a frequent flyer until three years ago. Try all that with twin toddlers in tow.

Indeed

Black_Knight

salmocab wrote: »

Most cars will be parked up for a few days so I’d imagine people aren’t just allowed plug in and head in for a week. Or certainly shouldn’t be anyway.

I'd have no problem, and would out of courtesy/embarrassment move my car once it's charged over night. Early days in electric car land, we need to be considerate.

touts

the beer revolu wrote: »

That very, very long piece had vicious judgment simmering under a placid, smiling surface. More in the tone than the actual words.
I had no idea that people observed and judged other people to that degree and depth.
Kinda strange.

Well people who go to CenterParcs rather than Spain/Portugal have had to put up with over 40 pages of even more vicious judgement simmering under a not very placid smiling surface. I thought I'd have a bit of fun and poke back at the stereotypes who have been pouring out the bile for 40 pages. If you can't take it don't give it lads.

salmocab

Black_Knight wrote: »

I'd have no problem, and would out of courtesy/embarrassment move my car once it's charged over night. Early days in electric car land, we need to be considerate.

Oh sorry I wasn’t suggesting anything, was just thinking that as it’s not like a normal car park in so far as there aren’t a lot of coming and going’s they must have a system for letting people take turns as it is the sort of place where cars could easily be parked for 4 days or even a week. Or at least should have a system.

Ush1

Feisar wrote: »

No it doesn’t

Only a tanned, GAA jersey wearing ruffian would say that.

dw2016

wow some amount of bull talked here and very little about the centre parcs experience!

Black_Knight

salmocab wrote: »

Oh sorry I wasn’t suggesting anything, was just thinking that as it’s not like a normal car park in so far as there aren’t a lot of coming and going’s they must have a system for letting people take turns as it is the sort of place where cars could easily be parked for 4 days or even a week. Or at least should have a system.

No worries. Never inferred any suggestion.

I'd hope there's a system. Ideally i'd actually just plug mine in the night before I leave and have it all charged up and climate control set for the morning.

the.red.baron

Can anyone post up how much the feckin activities cost? All anyone says if it really adds up, no matter where you go these things cost

Is it worth kayaking in a man made pond in the middle of a coilte pine forest in Longford

The location looked flat and uninteresting, is it?

Were there activities you could do on a rainy day like tomorrow?

How much was the food?

What did they do, how were the gaffs

All we have so far is a let's say dubious review of the kinds of people who go there,, and that smelt of manure, Leo's people by the sounds of it

So made up

There are hardly any videos up on YouTube about it, the pool looked crappy enough from what I could see in the videos, a lot of it outside?

It might be great, but didn't look as good as the aquadome

PhoenixParker

https://www.centerparcs.ie/discover-center-parcs/activities/example-activity-prices.html

Activity guide.
There's a whole heap of info on the website if you look.

salmocab

the.red.baron wrote: »

Can anyone post up how much the feckin activities cost? All anyone says if it really adds up, no matter where you go these things cost

Is it worth kayaking in a man made pond in the middle of a coilte pine forest in Longford

The location looked flat and uninteresting, is it?

Were there activities you could do on a rainy day like tomorrow?

How much was the food?

What did they do, how were the gaffs

All we have so far is a let's say dubious review of the kinds of people who go there,, and that smelt of manure, Leo's people by the sounds of it

So made up

There are hardly any videos up on YouTube about it, the pool looked crappy enough from what I could see in the videos, a lot of it outside?

It might be great, but didn't look as good as the aquadome

Whatever about the rest of your post the pool looks excellent, the white water bit is outside and a small bit before that but the kids area, wave pool and the slides are inside (slides presumably go out and then back in) I looked up the slides in their other parks on YouTube and they look the business.

Spanish Eyes

Typical Irish, few have a positive thing to say about much. Ugh.

Each to their own. If someone wants to go there they will.

For those with toddlers and young kids it surely must be so much easier to set off from your house with all your supplies, and arrive when it suits you. It's an all weather place from what I can see so is not that much weather dependent.

The very high heat in Spain etc. in July and August can be unbearable. And let's face it holidays are all for the kids. You are watching them all the time for sunburn and so on. Or trying to avoid the high heat yourself!

I hope it is a roaring success. My brother and his family are going next year. No more torture in the heat abroad and the cancellations, delays etc. at airports.