Centerparcs Reviews 

I actually really like Centerparcs. I find the woodlands very peaceful and relaxing. I like that they have a lake and a beach you can relax by. I like being able to go out on the lake for the water sports. I like going on long ambling walks through the forest. I like that there are activities to book if I feel like doing some and that there are a wide choice of restaurants on site.

However, the things that let it down make it hard to keep going back.

1. Overpriced. They charge an arm and a leg for the good lodges with any features eg hot tub, sauna, games room, etc. No one wants to pay £500+ each for a lodge just because it has a hot tub and a games room.
2. The only free thing they give you is the swimming and even if you go outside of the school holiday season it is so overcrowded with kids it isn't even worth going to most of the time. I like the rapids but it is a free for all and people don't leave gaps so you end up being kicked by someone or dunked under at the end.
3. They do food delivery now but the food quality is just not that great and it costs a fortune for what it is
4. The ParcMarket on site is so expensive. I went in came out with 4 things and it cost me over £20.00.
5. The mini golf is expensive now, you have to book in advance and it's so overcrowded it takes over an hour to play and most of it is standing around waiting for the family in front's 15th mulligan for each of their kids.
6. We ordered some food from Bella Italia to be collected and the website was glitchy eg only letting me choose gluten free bread on a meal that certainly was not gluten free, listing something as a pasta dish and it arriving as a pizza etc

While I would go back again, I do wish that they would review the amounts they charge and maybe make swimming into bookable timeslots for a limited number of people so it doesn't get so overcrowded. Would also be nice if they did some kind of free entertainment during the evenings like musicians etc

Firstly the lodge and the forest at longleat are great. But... I have never come across such chaos on day one. Can't get to your "empty" lodge until 4 pm. Can't get early access ether with a 2 year old. So you end up at the main hub which is full of 100s of people, all sat on the floor. It was much like Gatwick Airport (utter chaos). Food was disgustingly expensive for the basics.

Then comes more pandemonium when they open the gates to get to your lodge at 4 pm. The carpark becomes a traffic jam akin to the m25 from 3.30 as everyone is forced to wait to unload. (Oh and the train doesn't run to make it even more difficult)

Overall not impressed. Over priced for off peak season with an utterly delinquent process for accessing your lodge. Cant say we will return or recommend.

Change your card only payment policy! Which applies everywhere. Not fair to children who bring their own pocket money to spend, bad customer care.
Centre parcs has gone down hill!
Overpriced, food not has good.
This is the last time for us here.

Fifth time visiting Longleat Center Parcs over bank holiday.
The forest is beautiful, no complaints about that.
However, for me the place is just too expensive now. The restaurants are highly prices and the food quality is average at best e.g. The Foresters was really bad.
We had electric bikes and they are starting to rust. They cycle centre staff found it hard to get me a decent bike even though we pre-booked them. The said they only had one bike left and the saddle was bust so had to put up with an awful replacement. Not good considering it was paid for up front.
The lodge was tired looking and for the cost - around £900 for 3 nights - I think it's way too expensive these days.
The forest and the animals are magical and that is really the thing that saved it.

We had booked a table @ 20:45, traffic was horrible, on top of that there was an accident on the only way in to center parc.
We came 50 minutes late, 21:40, were told the kitchen was closed though there was at least 30 people still eating. No kitchen in the other restaurants were open, not possible to order any takeaway, nothing…
We have been coming here twice a year for 5 years, this was the last time. 4 children hungry, me too. On top of that, it’s too expensive, we found much better value for our money elsewhere. Good bye Center Parc…

TL;DR A long time visitor that won't be back. Center Parcs is now more expensive than it's ever been, offering less than ever.

Ive been coming to CP for 10-15 years now, tried all the sites and its been a great run, but......

Whats been lost over the years are the lovely little touches like toiletries that progrsssively got worse and worse until you now receive nothing at all. The quality of the towels, the standards of cleanliness in the accommodation has deteriorated, no mid week visits by cleaners.
Particularly marked is the standard and choice of food getting worse and worse, but pricing dramatically increasing for what is effectively depressing wetherspoons quality. Everything microwaved or deep fried with whelming portion sizes.

The former crown jewel of the subtropical swimming pool is just depressing, where theres missing tiles, limescale, dead plants, broken and unrepaired decorations and closed areas ansld rides now so frequent they no longer dont bother to email you to forewarn. No amount of cheap changing room refurbishment can hide the lack of investment in the main pool area.

The cynic in me thinks its because its the only area you dont pay for in Center Parcs. Granted the site i visited this week, Whinfell, is particularly grim but ive visited all the sites and theyre all showing their age.

I can only hope the opening of Therme in Manchester will show the sites up for the lack of basic maintenance and investment and people vote with their feet.

Look everywhere around the site, standard maintaince of buildings isnt undertaken, just look for a flat surface that shouldve been painted or jet washed and youll see dirt, mess and grim. Theres a veneer of a nice finish around site, but its a veneer at best.

Dont even speak to me about the 'gym', I made the mistake of buying a mid week pass, its an absolute joke, a handful of abysmally maintained pieces of equipment in a former squash court cut in half. Laughably awful and a complete waste of time.

Its appears to be sheer corporate greed, with its enviable 90%+ occupancy, theres no reason for the offerings to be as poor as they are, every subtropical swimming pool could be closed for a month of the year or work carried out in the evenings in sections, but instead increasingly delapidated equipment is just sweat further to increase profit.

Maybe Whinwell has been the straw that broke the donkeys back for me, as a visitor for many a year its been a great run, but its no longer the delightfully middle class, well tended forest break it rightfully earned its reputation for. Whilst competitors upped their game, Center Parcs rested on their laurels and its now a poorly maintained, overpriced Butlins, and I suspect I'm doing Butlins a disservice.

We booked Centerparcs Woburn for a week - for our children’s easter break & had the worst experience with the most dirtiest and tired lodge, waterpark & surrounding play area’s congested and dirty. The activities were all over priced with staff who absolutely were not customer friendly or trained. We were so underwhelmed and disappointed with the amount of money paid at the parc. For anyone thinking of trying it - our advice, dont. It’s absolutely not worth it.

Our experience with sadie was brilliant, she was so interactive with us and made our experience down the rapids way more enjoyable! She went the extra mile to entertain my sister by waving and coming over to ask how our stay was going. Would definitely recommend and thank you for everything you was amazing, from Harry & Emma 453

After being a regular visitor to Center Parcs for many years, they really let us down on this occasion. Terrible customer services, guest service experience.

For a company with such wealth and the ability to charge £4.50 for a large coke, all you want as a trusted guest is for your family to feel safe when an incident occurs. We were extremely let down by the Guest Services approach to a traumatic episode in our lodge.

We are yet to have it confirmed as tests are to follow, but as all four of the adult guest got severely ill with vomiting and/or diarrhoea after eating at the Foresters or having the Chinese the night before. We had a 10 week old baby that could have been left alone, and the security staff wouldn't even enter the lodge as they feared getting ill.

With that many families on site, how they have no 24 hour doctor or a 24 hour first aid team is beyond me. You can't plan when you get ill around it being a sunday evening!

When we rang up after 2 ambulances and trips to the hospital in the ambulances to ask the services team if we could stay in the lodge for an extended period. They gave us 1 extra hour!!!! In the night they brought us four toilet rolls to help with sever food poisoning symptoms.

They then all closed ranks when we even mentioned food poisoning and instead of making sure we were ok, with a 10 week old baby, they just wanted to shift blame from food poisoning. It should always be the customer is right first then look at the facts after.

We will be making a formal complaint to them and also wherever we need to as this shouldn't happen to any families.

This is our 4th time to Longleat c parcs.
We kinda sucked itup- vastly overpriced truman show experience... but kids loved it. Increasingly grinding my gears. Simple things- not enoughseats in basement bar area? Shabby, outdated outlets, £ cash extraction at every tunn ( go burn cash in the plaza cos u can't check in til 4? Seriously? Not again. Greedy and grubby

I've been going to Center parcs since the late 90s. Previously I took the kids and we went as a family, now I go with friends for weekend breaks. The cost vs the experience is making it less attractive. I can't book a restaurant or book a takeaway unless it's done with a lot of advance notice. The spa (whilst beautifully renovated) is extortionate and compared with other spas just isn't good value for money at all.

The apartment accommodation was clean and comfortable but wow, it was like a student bedsit. Tiny, with beds in the living room. My mistake for not checking, I assumed the bedroom would be separate.

Also, the changing area at the pool were incredibly dirty and it was absolutely packed solid.

Queuing to join the village on arrival afternoon is still terrible, hours of sitting in queuing traffic waiting for the gate to open. Kind of defeats the point of a traffic free woodland experience in terms of environmental impact.

I didn't receive a 'come back soon offer' after my break. I emailed to ask about it 40 days ago, they've not replied. But on reflection of this review as I type it, I don't think I actually want to go again anyway. Too many people, not enough services to go round. So probably will spend my money elsewhere.

Woburn Forest - the web site is not accurate regards the facilities in the hotel rooms. Whats in the room and what centre parcs advertise is different.

There were 2 fire alarm activations during my weeks stay. Both were false alarms. The latter activation was at 02:30 in the morning. The fire marshalling was shambolic, and all they did was isolate the level 1 fire alarm loop meaning guests were sleeping without an active fire alarm

Decided to try Woburn again (went there a few years back) as it is a bit closer for us - big regret... we usually go to Elveden which is always lovely.

Seems there has been massive cut backs to cleaning/services. Years ago lodges were obviously deep cleaned and sanitized with plastic covering the toilet with a sticker showing it had been disinfected and the whole Lodge looked and smelt fresh. The lodges felt like a luxury break which reflected in the higher price paid. Our lodge on this holiday was supposed to be "Executive" too...

Room was very dirty/smelly... main issues we have with Woburn were:

- The patio door inside was smothered in possibly children’s hand prints - wouldn't be hard to give it a clean

- Looking through the dirty glass the first things spotted wasn’t a squirrel or deer but was in fact a Budweiser lager tin and a champagne cork - seems nobody checks/cleans outside areas or the sauna

- The front bedroom had a musty smell particularly in the bathroom where I think the plug holes were blocked (they could do with bleach putting down them when cleaned and unblocking).

- The kettle was in need of a desperate de-scale and looked yuk. Surely you can rotate new kettles for guests whilst de-scaling old ones.

- The inside of the cooker was filthy and grill pan stuck to my fingers when I lifted it out, I quickly returned it and closed the door as the cooker wasn’t fit for use.

- The carpets had not been hoovered since the last guests as there was dust balls and grit on the carpets. In the back bedroom there was toe nail clippings next to the bed that made me feel like vomiting.

- There was a Christmas sock under the sofa - this was not moved so likely still there now ready to be discovered by the next unfortunate family.

- There were many a stain on the sofa and rug in living area.

- The floors were dirty because when I dropped something and wiped the floor with a wet tissue it showed up black.

- The shower hot water seemed to go off at night but maybe this is a Center Parcs saving but no good when you get back from swimming and need a hot shower. Our little 3 year old was in the bath one early evening but we could not rinse her as the water went cold.

- The swimming pool also seemed very dark this year as the lighting seemed to be cut back? By 4pm leaving to collect a towel and coming back in after eyes adjusted it was hard to see how dim it was. From other years I remember the whole dome glowed beautifully which made it feel warmer. At other Center Parcs they have heaters which were switched off at Woburn? Most lights also seem to be off on the ceiling...

- The swimming pool was definitely not 29.5 degrees as the website claims and felt like warm at best. Elveden is lovely to swim in, but I actually hate Woburn as it was so cold.

- The Woburn pool in general was a big disappointment - very small, technically there is no main pool without waves like Elveden does (you have to leave the pool when they come on if you have young children), no whirlpools, no cold plunge pool, etc.

- The pool lockers were very dirty inside and most of the locks broke. I wouldn’t take much for staff to “wet wipe” them when they see a door open as they walk round.

- Ridiculously priced food. Restaurants shouldn’t be allowed to charge £7.99 for children’s Nuggets and beans which probably costs £1.99 to make, totally disgusting! We bought our own food like I suspect most do due to the pricing of food, but the dirty kitchen makes it slightly awkward to cook.

So all in all I think Center Parcs Woburn has massively gone down hill - we're still paying luxury prices for something you'd expect to see at a 1 star budget holiday park.

Facebook is full of hygiene complaints which I didn’t believe prior to booking because I had never experienced it, but I can now confirm it is indeed correct!

We usually visit Elveden, so to be honest feel a lot of regret and sadness this trip to Woburn was such a disappointment. Definitely won't be back.

Waste of money/time to be honest. Should have booked Elveden...

At the time of writing, I still await a call back from the longleat customer service team - after waiting 2days (and several missed promises). If somebody would speak to me, I would explain that, due to lack of staff and maintenance, our holiday has been ruined by no kids pools being open, no outside hot tub, no plunge pool, no soft play… the list goes on. We were told that kids high wire was fully booked - when another member of our party of 22 was on it (and the instructor confessed the next session was completely empty). Overall, as a long standing customer of centre parcs (over several years) I will now be finding a new holiday of better value elsewhere… poor - buyers beware.

Always been to Whinfell Forest with my family. However my recent stay shows a decline in staff attitude, which is really unfortunate!

After our first and only experience of center parcs, I've been left in complete shock in the lack of training/safety awareness and disregard for my family's safety. I've requested several times for a copy of the certificate of cleanliness for the fire after we were greated with a 2 foot soot dome above the fireplace when we arrived. After a long drive, we initally woke to a freezing lodge due to the boiler developing a fault over night, so no warm radiators or running hot water until mid afternoon on day 2 and then during the 2nd evening we light the fire only to discover the flue was blocked. Called guest services who sent maintenance and cleaners out to wipe the wall. Both teams agreed the room needed to be redecorated after we leave but no offer to move us. Next day I requested soft furnishings to be replaced as the room was subjected to large volumes of smoke and flames and in addition, the levels of soot already within the sofas. The house keeping team were shocked we were put in such an appalling lodge that they suggested we should be moved. This was at 4pm the night before we left. Personally I feel the lodge wasn't fit to be let out in the first place, we definitely shouldn't have been left to sleep in there the second night, but then to add insult, the customer service rep I have been in contact with believes moving us for our final night is sufficient action, I disagree, the carsonogenics alone in the soot can be absorbed through the skin and I think its disgusting that a family including 2 young children should have been subjected to this. Not only does the attitude fall short of good customer service, but the mere suggestion that soot builds up over time is nonsense, else the second lodge wouldn't have a canvas inches above the fire and in perfect condition. It was clearly a sign of a fault which makes me question perhaps the flue isn't being swept as frequently as it should be? I recommend not accepting the lodge it its anything less than perfect as soon as you arrive

Happy to take lots of my money 2nd time.at cp and definetly my last. Charged a small fortune for 3 nights but would not allow us to use the room until 4pm. Only told this via txt message day before. First day completely wasted as we couldnt sit in the pool all day with the dogs as reconmended by the rude staff. Longleat this weekend nothing special fpr the money shabby compared to other cp. If you like walking an hour from the.car park to your room its for you. Everything is overpriced and they dont accept cash. Wish id booked a weekend to new york it would have been cheaper.

We booked a mini break at Woburn (3days), on the first day of the break my wife was admitted to hospital so we couldn’t go. I rang customer services who not only allowed us to rebook, but upgraded our accommodation. I didn’t expect any refund or rebook so it was a very nice surprise indeed. Looking forward to our break in January now. Thank you CP Woburn

Was a great time longleat center parcs, but was a little concerned seeing good Christmas tress being chucked into a back of a lorry and brand new ones put in.
What happens to these?
Some even had decorations still on them, surely family’s that haven’t got much money would appreciate these donated to them.
Lodge was lovely, but just felt lack of cupboard space for 8 people.

Excellent facilities, spoiled slightly by very poor value due due a near total lack of effective competition in their space.

It would be great if the Wessex way could finally reopen as this closes off the larger cycle routes and that's a big part of the experience.

The water facilities are second to none.