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Child Item

The Center Parcs Experience

JupiterKid

I just watched an advert on TV for Center Parcs Longford which opens in May of next year, in time for the summer.

Center Parcs seem to be a modern version of the Butlins holiday camps of the past, or like Trabolgan on steroids. There are a number of them in Britain and a couple in Holland also. It seems very much aimed at families with children. Families stay at lodges, which are located in a forest/wooded setting and the centerpiece of the Center Parc resorts is a huge enclosed subtropical swimming pool/water park facility, with many other activities on offer, such as cycling, gyms, sports facilities, play activities for younger kids, restaurants, bars etc.

Looking at the UK Center Parcs they do seem very expensive for what you get.

Anyone been to a Center Parcs resort and did you enjoy the experience? Do you think Longford will be a success?

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Atlantic Dawn

With the compensation culture in this country I see the place shutting down within 3 years as a result of personal injury claims.

awec

I think I'd struggle to get over the fact you're paying through the arse for a "holiday" in Longford.

Likely to come out of the place needing another holiday to get over the experience.

touts

Just checked what it would cost for us next August. 2 adults and 1 child for a week. €1809!!! And that is the cheapest basic option. It gets cheaper once the kids go back to school but we can't go then because our child will be back in school.

The idea is good and I'd give it a go but at that price it's just not good value. My bet is next summer (2020) the prices will have dropped considerably once the novelty factor has worn off and they can't fill the cabins.

ZzubZzub

I love Center Parcs! You don’t go for the location because you don’t leave the park.

We went for 4 nights, all adults. It can be expensive especially during school holidays. We booked far enough in advance though that we paid £85 each and got the lodge with a hot tub and pool table.

Did a bit of shopping before getting there so we were well stocked. The on-site shop is expensive but not as bad as I thought it would be considering it’s the only shop around.
Got pizza delivered too by the on site restaurant!

Love the spa too, though that’s extra again. The same with any activities, you book and pay in advance but it’s a bit of craic.

My husband hates it for the above reasons, so I doubt we’ll be going back any time soon.

iguana

€500 for a weekend is too expensive for me. I go away with a friend and our kids a few times a year and even splitting the costs I think it's poor value for money. I have been to Trabolgan a good few times and it is very tacky but I've always gone off-season when the place is quite empty, the pool is genuinely lovely when there is no more than 20 people in it. I've paid as little as €150 for a week in one of the bigger houses with the conservatory and dishwasher, brought my own groceries and spent maybe €20-30 when I'm there. I don't love the place, but my son really enjoys it and it's totally stress free. I don't doubt Centerparcs is much nicer but it's not nice enough to justify being 3-4 times more expensive for a much smaller house.

An ever better stress free holiday option is camping. I bought a small motorhome last year and it's one of the best things I've ever done. We went spent a lot of the summer in it, every second autumn weekend up to Halloween, a weekend in December, we'll be off again in February and away at least every second weekend of spring and then back to semi-permanent trips through the summer. We have really super camp sites in Ireland from the very chilled and relaxed to kids holiday park sites. Kids have amazing freedom to play about and it's a really relaxed lifestyle. We get to see a lot of the country, explore other towns, visit interesting sites and festivals. It's not free, between tax, insurance, fuel and campsite stays it comes to a bit under €2000 a year but that's for about 80 nights of holidays. I also plan on taking it abroad and exploring the UK and the continent as my son gets older.

xzanti

touts wrote: »

Just checked what it would cost for us next August. 2 adults and 1 child for a week. €1809!!! And that is the cheapest basic option. It gets cheaper once the kids go back to school but we can't go then because our child will be back in school.
.

That's extortionate.

You would get a week in the canaries for that price for a family of 3.

Thespoofer

Slightly related, stayed in Trabolgan in Cork a good few years back.
Similar set up, cabins in a wooded area, extra activities available and so on.

One day playing crazy golf with the Wife and kids a few 'residents' came up the path towards our direction probably going back to their accomodation absolutely langerated from drink. Staggering all over the place, both men and women. This was at about 3 in the afternoon.

It's stuff like this that would make me very cautious about staying in places like that.

demanufactured

awec wrote: »

I think I'd struggle to get over the fact you're paying through the arse for a "holiday" in Longford.

Likely to come out of the place needing another holiday to get over the experience.

Your not going to "longford".
Your going to Center Parcs.

Graham

Center Parcs have never really been a destination for cheap breaks, that's not their selling point and they don't appear to suffer for it.

It is essentially a self-contained resort/activity park centred around a sub-tropical aqua-park with reasonably upscale accommodation within an hour or two drive for most of the population.

Mosney/Butlins/Trabolgan/Costa-Del-Random it is not. The prices and consequentially the clientele reflect this.

JupiterKid

Thespoofer wrote: »

Slightly related, stayed in Trabolgan in Cork a good few years back.
Similar set up, cabins in a wooded area, extra activities available and so on.

One day playing crazy golf with the Wife and kids a few 'residents' came up the path towards our direction probably going back to their accomodation absolutely langerated from drink. Staggering all over the place, both men and women. This was at about 3 in the afternoon.

It's stuff like this that would make me very cautious about staying in places like that.

I have a feeling Center Parcs wouldn’t tolerate that sort of carry on. I can see people being politely “asked” to leave if that happens.

Water John

It's another option, esp for families with young kids, not dragging them through airports. Not sure why some here need to p**s on it.

nice_guy80

Plenty to do around the place too if ye get sick of the Centre Parcs

Canal path cycles
Sky diving in Abbeyshrule
Kayaking on the Inny and Shannon
Horse riding
Boating and fishing on Shannon

WoollyRedHat

StupidLikeAFox wrote: »

Tbf if you wanted to do a proper analysis you would have to look at the wages, taxes, cost of living etc if you want to compare like with like. It all boils down to whether people are willing to pay the price or not, and centerparcs will probably have done their research and if they got it wrong they will find that out fairly quickly.

I can see the attraction. Have no kids myself but for families this is a good proposition. Kids don't care where they are on holidays as long as they are occupied, they have no concept of Longford

I can see the attraction too, but UK companies are notorious for overcharging Irish consumers, retail being the best example.

salmocab

WoollyRedHat wrote: »

I can see the attraction too, but UK companies are notorious for overcharging Irish consumers, retail being the best example.

I’d say undoubtedly they do, companies in general want to make as much as they can so will charge the highest they can without losing business. Center Parcs will surely be the same, they will charge as much as they can at a level that will keep occupancy high. Just like pretty much every hotel in the country does. If people think it’s too expensive then in a short enough time frame prices will drop a bit but I suspect they’ve done their homework on this and will be close enough with the price.

CramCycle

demanufactured wrote: »

The thing is, I don't think Center Parcs Langford is actually aimed at The Irish market.
I have a friend working there, who has told me the majority of the bookings for next year are from European countries.

Same here, sort of, know a few people from nearby and the talk was actually mainly Asian tourists as opposed to Europeans, but basically, not trying to appeal to much to the Irish market bar a small %

Yaretzi Thousands Sandbox wrote: »

Is there that much unemployment in Longford already?

Pretty bad, always has been, even in the boom, Longford, Leitrim, Roscommon etc. were always closer to the highest level of unemplyment than the lower..

This all said, bar our club football, it is about the best thing Longford has had or will have going for it for awhile.

salmocab

CramCycle wrote: »

Pretty bad, always has been, even in the boom, Longford, Leitrim, Roscommon etc. were always closer to the highest level of unemplyment than the lower..

This all said, bar our club football, it is about the best thing Longford has had or will have going for it for awhile.

I think it’s great for Longford, plenty of jobs albeit lower paid and there will be some small over spill of tourism from the place which could certainly be increased if the right work is done. It will be bringing thousands of tourists into the area who in general will be well healed, enjoy the outdoors and families. So businesses will already know what market they should be aiming at if they want to piggy back off it.

CramCycle

100% and if Ballymahon play their cards right, you'll have alot of footfall on the way there and the way back. Tourists stopping for their taste of real Ireland before CP, having a pint and a toasties with friendly service. This and all the local jobs will mean it will great things locally for the foreseeable future.

It's a win win for Longford if they don't **** it up somehow..

meeeeh

Water John wrote: »

It's another option, esp for families with young kids, not dragging them through airports. Not sure why some here need to p**s on it.

I think that's it. I'm hoping for holidays in Ireland this year because I'm actually exhausted from airport travel we did last year. Not all was with kids but once you are juggling connecting flights and four hour flights, six hour flights, baggage handling delays, airport hotels, car hires and so on holiday in Ireland isn't that bad. It's unlikely we'll end in family friendly resort in Spain so the one in Ireland 45 minutes from home isn't something that appeals to me (when the little feckers start paying for the holidays we can do child themed ones) but it's an easy option with something to do even when it rains. Also foreign holidays tend to be fairly expensive for us, we don't go for Michelin star food but we tend to end up in decent restaurants. Once you factor in that, luggage allowance, car hire cost of getting through the airport and so on the 800 Euro week in Malaga including flights is long gone.

BuboBubo

Center Parcs is another option for family holidays, I think it'll do very well. I will never visit it as I don't have children (I believe it's a kid-centric type of place, correct me if I'm wrong), my brother is likely to bring his brood up for a week. They're an active bunch so they'd love the pool, climbing and forest-stuff.

The prices charged for a stay in Longford are higher than it's UK counterparts, I reckon insurance might be a factor there.

I hope it does well, it'll create a few jobs anyway. There will be a knock-on effect for local businesses too. I know if it was there when I was a kid I'd have loved it anyway - it looks great! Best of luck to them.

Marz66

What are the restaurants like in these places?

Hurrache

People seem to be missing the whole point of a Centre Parcs if they have a problem with what county it's situated in.

JupiterKid

Quite a lot of adverts on the TV for the new Longford Center Parcs resort over the past few days. Perhaps early bookings aren’t as stellar as they’d anticipated?

Mind you, given how packed out restaurants are in Dublin every night of the week lately, it seems the good times are well and truly back and the name of the game is to spend, spend, spend...

Graham

JupiterKid wrote: »

Quite a lot of adverts on the TV for the new Longford Center Parcs resort over the past few days. Perhaps early bookings aren’t as stellar as they’d anticipated?

Virgin media, Flash spray and Bord Gais must be struggling too. They're advertising all the time. :pac:

I have a suspicion that advertising was always part of the Center Parcs launch plan, I certainly wouldn't be reading too much into it.

Spanish Eyes

Over time it will work. They may have to pitch the price initially for volume and publicity.

People with younger kids will go there. It has to be so much more convenient than going abroad for a slightly smaller price with all the same things that kids need, like a huge pool and other activities.

Let's face it, kids don't care where they go as long as they have a ball.

road_high

buried wrote: »

Summer in Longford? May as well have the Winter Olympics in Miami.

I can see why logistically they chose the midlands but the weather is invariably terrible. Compared to say somewhere in the east/south east which would be sunnier, drier and more suited to outdoor activities.

Spanish Eyes

If the weather is good, there will be lots of activities. If bad, there is the HUGE pool and associated things.

Was made to be all weather anyway.

If I had young kids that's where I would go now, instead of all the hassle of going abroad for a similar experience really. Well for the kids anyway, they don't care as long as they are having a ball.

Be interesting to see how it works out.

road_high

Thespoofer wrote: »

Slightly related, stayed in Trabolgan in Cork a good few years back.
Similar set up, cabins in a wooded area, extra activities available and so on.

One day playing crazy golf with the Wife and kids a few 'residents' came up the path towards our direction probably going back to their accomodation absolutely langerated from drink. Staggering all over the place, both men and women. This was at about 3 in the afternoon.

It's stuff like this that would make me very cautious about staying in places like that.

Trabolgen is/was a bit of a knacker hole. As an ex boss of mine going to a Centre Parc one weekend with his family, said to me it’s like “Butlins for the middle classes...”. The above carry on is unlikely given the pitch

JupiterKid

So it’s only a matter of a few weeks now until the Longford Center Parks resort opens...

...anyone here booked a few days away with the family? Looking forward to the experience?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5BZ5Nk9e74

Plumbthedepths

No too expensive off to Italy instead.

Hoboo

If the experience is anything like the ad I'll give Longford on the holliers a wide birth.