My complaint:
We booked this weekend away back in April as a way to relax from a busy lifestyle and treat our 2 young children to some fun after a horrible 16 months. The excitement was immense. We arrived on Friday 9th July to horrendous rain and a caravan that stank of smoke and sweat.
We decided to air it out while we went off to buy some food for the mornings.
Luckily we bought toilet paper, washing up liquid, sponges etc because the caravan didn’t supply us any even though the email told us only to bring tea towels and towels.
Our first night was fine although the double mattress we were on had many broken springs and both my partner and I woke up with stiff backs.
We spent Saturday out at a family adventure park and returned in the evening. We went along to the arcades which were ok but nothing to write home about. After that we visited the sundowner club to watch the evenings entertainment. We tried to order drinks on the app and after half an hour of working out how to add our drinks and pay, we kept getting an error message and in the end we had to go to the bar to order. The drinks took another 45 minutes to come. The next act came on, he was a ventriloquist and had the kids laughing and we thought he was great, up until he started making inappropriate jokes in front of many young children. The first one being a talking rat confusing his tail for a “Willy” which we ignored but then he brought out an old man… this old man liked to tell jokes about his wife refusing to have sex with him, he preferred to sleep with prostitutes and “how do you make a hormonewhore moan?”. Just when we thought it couldn’t get any worse, he brings out a baby called Charlie, who once again was fascinated by his penis. I’m no prude but it really wasn’t appropriate for children.
We returned back to our caravan and lumpy mattress for another nights sleep.
The next day we decided to relax as the day before had been so busy. The weather was miserable, heavy rain and at one point thunder which obviously isn’t park deans fault but didn’t help to lift our moods. We had previously booked a family swimming session at 6pm so we went along and had a good time. Until 6:30 when we were told it was closing. We understand Covid restrictions etc but we read that the sessions were 45 minutes not 30. we returned back to our caravan, got changed and went down to the reception to see if we could book a table in the restaurant for dinner. We were told that the restaurant would not be serving dinner that night because the football was on. Every football fan was in the sundowner club watching the game so we were confused as to why the restaurant would not be serving others who had no interest in the football. We were told however that we could order from their takeaway and take that back to our caravan.
The takeaway had nothing left to serve except pizza. Burgers, chips and all toppings weren’t available. All restaurants in the area were closed as it was Sunday. Once my partner kicked off and asked the staff what on earth were we paying for if we couldn’t eat in the restaurant and the take away had nothing for us to eat the staff agreed to make us some food in the restaurant to take back to our caravan which was lovely of them but again, eating in the caravan isn’t what we wanted to do.
Suggested solution:
I honestly feel like we’ve wasted a large amount of money and haven’t been able to use any of the facilities advertised that make the park sound so great. We could have done more and had more fun at home which totally defeats the purpose of going away.
The caravan was less than adequate in terms of the mattress the smell and the fact we weren’t supplied with anything except crockery and cutlery. The only way I feel this would be resolved and make us feel less ripped off by the whole experience is with a full refund or an invitation to visit again at a later time for free.
