Center Parcs

Last Friday we took the car to school and picked up Tom.  We were off to Center Parcs - there is one near Penrith, just an hour's drive from here.  I did some research last year and found that in January a visit is £100 cheaper than any other time of the year, so I booked us in as everyone had told us how good it is.

Timber Lodge

We drove up the M6 in the howling wind and rain, fully laden with bikes on the back of the car, (you can't drive once you are settled into Center Parcs, you cycle or walk everywhere.  We stopped off at Tebay Services to buy some food - we picked up some good looking burgers, bacon, haggis and chicken fillets and then headed onwards.  We got there in good time and had to queue for about 30 mins to get checked in.  We then had to find our lodge in the pitch dark (very few street lights) and got a little bit stressed (something to do with having to go the wrong way up a one way street to get to it in order to avoid having to do a massive circuit of the campus again).  Anyhow, we found it and unloaded.  We booked the cheapest lodge and were expecting to be located right on the periphery of the village as we didn't pay any extra to be near the centre, but as it was 5 minutes walk from the centre, so we did ok (I had a look when we got back, we should have paid an extra £50 to be located where we were - just goes to show it pays not to pay if you know what I mean).  The lodge is very comfortable: 2 bed rooms, open plan kitchen, dining room and lounge.  Everything you need is provided (towels etc), even has a bike stand at the front and a patio and bbq at the back.

View of the Village Centre

Although we arrived in the pitch black and it was raining, we decided on arrival to have a walk around to find our bearings, so we studied a map and went in a rather round about way to the village centre.  This is a huge, huge building which houses the huge tropical swimming pool area, a good selection of shops, including a supermarket and cafes, a bar, a bowling alley etc etc.  It was much bigger than I expected.

Strawberry Tom with a Strawberry Cocktail

We ended up in the bar and had a celebratory holiday drink.  Tom chose a strawberry cocktail whilst we went for the boring usual pints.  We then headed home to cook our burgers and put the boy to bed, it was almost 9pm by the time he was under the covers, but then we are on holiday!

Inside the oasis

Waterslides - Tom loved these

We didn't sleep too well in the night - something to do with howling wind and noisy sheets.  Yes noisy sheets - every time we moved we would wake up because the sheets would crinkle and crack.  The duvet was also very very thick meaning we were very very hot.  Oh hum, never mind, time to do some proper exploring.  We knew the swimming pool opened at 10am so we had a lazy breakfast and then got our stuff together and waked to the pool.  It was big, very big.  They provide swim vests free of charge for children, we put one on Tom which gave both him and us added confidence in the water.  We started off in the children's pool where Tom showed himself to be willing to try new things, and went down the two slides.  Ah ha, we then moved into the main pool, did some swimming, found a waterfall, swam under the waterfall, then found some adult slides.  Tom wanted a go, and he went down by himself and didn't cry when he went under water.  We did them again and again.  We then found some flumes (curly tubes).  He was just about tall enough to have a go, so we climbed the stairs and to our surprise he had a go (he had to go by himself) and he shot out the bottom with a smile on his face and asked to do them again.  Wow, wow, wow!

The next thing we discovered was the wave machine which was active every half hour.  We went to the main pool and Tom spent a happy 15 minutes jumping into the waves.  He was under the water, knocked off his feet, eyes and mouth full of water, and only a smile on his face.  He LOVED it.

Last we discovered the rapids - a section of fast moving water where you float and you are whizzed along around a circle.  Tom thought it was great, when we were spat out the end, I would have to grab him and fight the current to get him to go around again, it became quite a game where he would try to get away and I would have to swim hard to catch him.  Yet another swimming activity he LOVED.

We spent over 2 hours swimming, sliding, floating, jumping in waves and generally having a great time.  The pool did start to get very very busy and our stomachs began to rumble, so we decided to call it a day and go in search for lunch.  We ended up in a pancake house and had savoury pancakes all round - well deserved I would say.

We then went back to the lodge and then decided to go for a bike ride.  We couldn't have timed it any worse as literally 2 minutes after setting off on the bikes, snow came down.  It came down quite thick.  Tom had a melt down, he didn't like the feel of it on his cheeks, his melt down meant he wouldn't move, which of course just made it worse!  In the end he managed to pull himself together and carried on towards the Sports Plaza after another melt down we eventually rode up and headed inside.  We headed straight to the bar which had a soft play area.  Tom hasn't been to a soft play area for a long while and he loved it.  In fact we didn't see him for over an hour and it was only a small one.  In this time the weather had cleared and the sun was out, melting the snow.  The Sports Plaza was another massive building.  In it is nearly every indoor sport you can think of: badminton, tennis, squash, tennis, archery, climbing wall, etc etc.  They have a massive sports itinerary - both indoors and outdoors, all of which are pretty expensive - you could easily spend £100's without realising it.  However, we had resolved not to do any of the extra activities this time, just swimming and cycling - both of which are free. Once we were all dry and recovered we headed back on our bikes to the lodge for an early tea, and then we went back to the swimming pool for another session when we found another pool - the outdoor pool.  It was heated but you had to run across very cold flagstones in the cold to get to it.  We were brave.

Tom went to bed very tired, so tired that he fell out of bed and didn't wake up.  We heard a big crash and then 'ouch'.  We went into his room to find him sitting cross legged on the floor.  We put him back in bed and when we told him about it in the morning he didn't believe us!

Sunday morning we did pretty much the same: so were in the oasis when it opened at 10 and played and played and played.  Tom wanted to do everything again and again and again.  There was no stopping him, he loved it.  At the end we asked him what he liked the best and he said the flumes.  There was one ride he couldn't do - the Canyon which was an open air flume (he as 5cm too short) and he can't wait to come back to have a go at that. We were there for 2.5 hours until our stomachs told us it was time to leave. We found lunch in an American diner type place where we had nachos, chicken wings and sweet potato chips.

Wet, soggy Matt

Wet, soggy Tom

We then went back to the lodge and decided to go on a proper ride around the village.  It was still raining (it hadn't stopped all weekend) but it wasn't too bad and Tom said he wanted to do it.  It didn't stop raining, but we had fun.  There were lots of wooden owls on the roads so we spotted them, and enjoyed being outside.  We decided to try out the village pub.  We were quite soggy by the time we got there, so we derobed and put all our gear on radiators.  There was another soft play area in the pub, so Tom disappeared off and we relaxed and had a drink.

Our evening was spent at the Indian restaurant in the village.  We had pre-booked this, hoping to go on Friday evening on arrival, but it wasn't open on the Friday?!  It was ok, but quite overpriced.  In fact all eating out here is very over priced.

Thumbs up for Center Parcs

We stayed Sunday night but were up at 6.30 on Monday morning to go and collect the car and pack it, attach the bikes and hit the M6 back.  It was wild weather: very strong winds and rain, so strong that the wind actually lifted one of the bikes off the bike carrier and we had to stop on the hard shoulder and put it back on again.  Great fun in the lashing rain with trucks shooting past us at 60mph spraying us as they went.  We certainly weren't going to fall asleep at the wheel!  We had to stop 2 more times to check the bikes - it really was horrible, horrible weather.

We arrived back in Ingleton with 15 minutes to spare before school, so we parked at the house and walked Tom down.

It was a great weekend. We didn't get to explore the whole place, mainly because the weather was atrocious, there were loads of outdoor play areas, walks in the forest etc etc that we didn't even contemplate.

Hints for next time:

+ Take more food to cover lunches in the lodge - eating out is very expensive.
+ Get to the pool as it opens (10am) then again at tea time (5pm) it is less busy then.
+ Take our own sheets - the sheets they use are noisy - we (Matt and I) really didn't sleep well at all.
+ Take torches
+ Don't need shampoo, conditioner, soap etc