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“Great Holiday - Loved it!”

written by VikkiH on 04/10/2012

We have just got home from a mid-week break at Center Parcs Whinfell Forest and thought I must write a review - as I had been scouring the internet review sites before I booked.
Myself, husband and son 20months booked a 3 bed new style woodland lodge (as I noticed on one review site and discovered during searching for lodge availablilty) it was cheaper (by £100) to get a 3 bed than a 2 bed, so friends of ours came up for 2 nights with their little boy. (so tip one - check for all rooms types as you could get a better deal)
Our lodge was great - plenty big enough, we loved the modern style, and easy layout, everything was clean, and seemed really new. We decided not to pre book a location and just go where they put us - which is great and we have said we will do this next time we go as when going for walks you can experience different areas of the park. However we were lucky and were pretty much equal distance from a lot of the main areas, we had bikes with a toddler trailer so it was easy to get about - if you arent too active or have little kids if could be worth booking to be closer to the areas you will spend the majority of your time.
Re the toddler trailers, they are brilliant - we took one with us - but you can hire from the park and they are worth it. No whinging and wanting to be carried, we just sat him in there and he loved it.
The swimming is great, clean and tidy, we werent sure how much of it our little boy would be able to enjoyed but (as he is so adventerous) he went in/on everything. I think he must have said the word slide well over 100 times while we where there.We went swimming 3 days out of the 5 we were there. We noticed on the first trip there was a center parcs photographer taking photos, which we thought was a great idea (as so many swimming places dont let cameras in - so its near impossible to ever get a picture of your own child swimming). On the second day we saw a few people with waterproof disposable cameras so as we left we went into the swimming shop and they were fo sale. £13 which is a expensive but we got one for our last day as we thought the memories we could capture where worth it. (so tip two - buy a waterproof disposable before you go (or if you are a fancy git (there were some there) and have a waterproof digital camera - take it, you will get some unbelievable pictures)
Food - we planned to have most of our meals in the lodge (partly as alot of the reviews said that eating out was expensive), however on our first day it was my birthday so we ordered take away from dining in - we opted for indian and it was really good (popadoms, 2 starters, 2 mains, rice and naan was £30 - not too expensive in my opinion) very impressed.
The next day at swimming we ate at the canopy bar inside the swimming dome (meaning no need to get dry and dressed) it serves the food from Dexters grill (a smaller menu) mainly fast food, burgers, snacks but prices are good (similar to macdonalds meals - but nicer burgers, a lot better than other swimming places food bars I've been to)
We also ate at Hucks Diner, The Pancake House and Bella Italia (we only ended up cooked to evering meals at the lodge, we had luch out every day). All the places we went to were great, we really enjoyed the food, and prices were ok, meals were only as expensive as you make them.
The Parc Market supermarket is great (although it isnt open late) it has everything you need more - I wasnt expecting it to sell so much. Prices are ok - I think the reason people say it is exepnsive is that all the items are brand products and nothing has an offer on it (where as most people are used to buying own brands and getting bogofs and other discounts from big supermarkets) If you take things with you (cereal, crisps, drinks, alcohol, snacks etc) you will only need to buy fresh items from the shop. Remember washing up liquid - we forgot.
All in all it is a fantastic place and it is definately what you make of it - dont let comments about it being expensive put you off (although the prices during the school holidays are bad - i wouldnt pay that lol)