I am a textile designer, lecturer and artist (sculpture and photography)
I am a textile designer, lecturer and artist (sculpture and photography)
Member since:20.07.2001
Reviews:13
Members who trust:1
“Skegness is so bracing” chanted the jolly fisherman who danced along the sands, in a reproduction postcard above the bed. Yes this was Butlins; Skegness and I had come for a long weekend with my wife and 2 year old child to get away from the weekly grind. It had taken us 6 hours to get from home to the camp and we had missed our dinner (no late comer’s sandwiches, just a welcome to Butlins pack of instant tea and coffee) so we got our daughter to bed and crashed.
The next day dawned, suprisingly the sun was shining and aforementioned daughter was bouncing on the bed, ready for whatever the holiday was going to throw at us. We were on half board (this seemed to be a good deal when we booked) and had to walk from our apartment
to the restaurant which took us 15 minutes and toured us through the major sites of interest: the historical chalet, past the post office and news agent, passing the fox kids adventure playground, pool, hairdressers, Skyline pavilion (of which more later!) and out to the restaurant.
Butlins is a strange institution with a mish mash of Hi Di Hi and modern self-catering requirement fulfilment or some such management speak. So you can do self-catering and stay in one of the older blocks, shop at the on site supermarket or eat at the various restaurants including Harry Ramsdens, Burger king and the Tom Cobbleigh pub. Or you can do half board, stay in a modern pastiche of the Truman show town and eat in a refurbished drill hall and eat institutional food. We had chosen the latter and you are given your numbered table to sit at and your time slot for both breakfast and dinner (breakfast is either 8.00-8.15 or 9.15-9.30 and dinner 4.45-5.15 or 6.45-7.15) there is NO flexibility woe betide you if you sit in the wrong place at the wrong time!Half board covers breakfast and dinner (you order dinner at breakfast so that they know how much to cook for the evening!) and a typical breakfast menu includes cereal, full cooked breakfast or KIPPER? (a hang over from more genteel times I think) toast and tea/coffee and orange squash? With a kids smaller breakfast available. And dinner offers starter, main course including something like roast beef with all the trimmings (if you don’t like foreign food!) and pudding (always something with custard or a cold tart) tea/coffee and orange squash? There is always a kid’s meal with chips and pudding. Now you may be thinking I didn’t enjoy the food but once I got into the swing of it, it was fine if institutional and our daughter was quite happy, which is why we went on holiday in the first place.
Butlins Skegness however is not just about the food; it does have three major attractions for parents:
1: The nursery you can give your child to the trained nannies for an hour and a half and the little darling plays whilst you have time to yourself (they also do baby sitting for £5 an hour at night!) so you can go for a drink or to the onsite cinema!
2: Free rides for the little ones, hours of amusement in Noddys Toyland with guest Noddy and PC plod appearances
3: Waterworld the hub of the action open from 10-6 and special late nights there is everything from waves on the beach to huge flumes and an activity centre for the under 5’s. Fun to be had by all the family. There is also a beach at Skegness, which goes for miles, and straight past the site, where in the summer it would be great, it was a little cold in October though. Access is directly onto the beach through security gate 1 surrounded by anti vandal fencing and barbed wire (do they want us to go out I thought?).
Butlins also has the traditional evening entertainment but we didn’t get to experience that on this visit so I can’t comment on the experience. The other major entertainment focus is the Skyline pavilion which has shows,10 pin bowling, the cinema, fast food outlets, shops and games machines and stalls (all under cover and there to extract money from your pocket as efficiently as possible) I found this an impersonal space and very commercial and tried to avoid it as much as possible. We went in October for a long weekend of family and fun and I have to say that Butlins supplied that at a very reasonable cost. So I would recommend it to young families but out of season when it is much cheaper and less crowded.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
We're off in July so it will be interesting to compare reports when we get back!
Pumpkin 15.10.2001 22:19
Excellent opinion which covers everything. My only suggestion is that you break it up with blank lines between the paragraphs as this will make it slightly easier to read. Hannah
NH Hotels, the hotel chain leader in Europe, with more than 300 hotels in 20 countries in Europe, Latin America and Africa. Enter into our web site and find the best available tariff at all times
Advantages: loads of kiddie orientated entertainment and a chance to be a kid again yourself! Disadvantages: expensive over crowded venues in peak times.
darky2005 26.03.2005 (26.03.2005)
·
Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Butlins
Advantages: Great fun, lots to do, well themed, brilliant location, very atmospheric Disadvantages: Expensive on site, get fat from all the drinking and junk food.
Trixie_Firecracker 12.05.2005 (12.05.2005)
·
Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Butlins
Advantages: Lots to do, great fun family entertainment, good standard of accommodation Disadvantages: Limited choice of food outlets for self-catering guests
very helpful by (92%):
helpful by (8%):
