We booked a 5 day holiday to Butlins at Minehead for the end of September 2005. We were very pleased with the price, which included dinner, bed & breakfast and were staying in a Silver Apartment in order to get the living space. If we had just stayed in the Silver Accommodation, once our son had gone to bed at 7.00pm, but we would have had to go too, so we upgraded in order to be able to watch the telly at night! From the brochure description, we had hoped to occupy our 2.5 year old toddler without leaving the site.
On arrival, we were impressed with the organisation and the speed at which we got booked in. We thought there would be a huge queue at the 'check-in' desk when it opened at 4pm, but there were just a couple of families ahead of me. Everything was sorted out quickly and we were directed accurately around the huge complex and guided where to park and how toreach our accommodation.
On entering our accommodation, we were quite impressed with the interior (the exterior of most of the standard/silver accommodation sometimes falls short of concentration camp, but not always)! The beds were comfortable, the linen was reasonably good quality. The living area was satisfactory - although the sofas turned out to be incredibly uncomfortable. The kitchenette was reasonably well-equipped and clean. The biggest disappointment was the shower. The bathroom itself was fine too, except the shower was a walk-in built-in enclosure with an incredibly baggy shower curtain, with no light - natural or otherwise - and a swathe of matted long dark hair on one wall from a previous occupant. Although it didn't take much cleaning to get rid of, it was gross!
When we went out and about, the actual facilities for toddlers were quite poor. Although they didn't lie about what was there, we felt it was 'beefed-up' to sound bigger than it actually was. For example Bob's Yard and the free funfair rides were listed separately, however the free funfair rides appeared to be in Bob's Yard.
We also paid £25 extra for our son to go on a picnic with Bob, Wendy, Spud and Pilchard. We knew it was a rip off when we paid it - and we were right. It was enjoyable for what it was, but for the money we paid, I would have expected a bit more than a cheese barm, an apple, a packet of quavers and a drink for his lunch. The Backpack we got was reasonable, but my son and most of the toddlers there were frightened to death of Bob, Wendy and Spud - and Pilchard never emerged.
We spent days 2 and 3 off-site and just used the Butlins facilities as fillers, and that worked a lot better.
Oh, and the weather was lousy, but I can't blame them for that!
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I have never been to Butlins and I doubt I ever will
DylanD 12.01.2006 23:08
oh god we have booked for May for Minehead never been before and taking a 3 yr old on the assumption MILKSHAKe from channel 5 is there, i hope we dont live to regret it, like you said hopefully we can leave somedays and look round Minehead.
steffee 05.10.2005 00:58
The weather was rubbish when we went too. We loved it. We found plenty of stuff on for the kids at the Skeggie one and our kids loved every minute. The funfair and Bob's Yard were separate too, and we stayed in the normal rooms but with a two bedroom, so the kids had one, we had another. We did pay £5 for an extra cot which never arrived however.
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Advantages: Great nightlife, Fantastic atmosphere, Wide variety of food/drink Disadvantages: Poor accomodation, Food served in the main restaurant wasn't fantastic
tracy191186 20.11.2008 ·
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: 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)
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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
Oct 4th, 2005
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