Hi everyone, thanks for all the R/R/C s its much appreciated and I will return the favour .
Hi everyone, thanks for all the R/R/C s its much appreciated and I will return the favour .
Member since:26.05.2007
Reviews:81
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We went to Craig Tara holiday park in Ayr this year for our summer holidays ( July 2007), I went as I thought it would be a fun holiday for my kids, at that stage they were aged 8 years, 6 years and 5 years.
Looking for a family holiday
It was October 2006 and we were looking up different holidays on the internet as we wanted to book well in advance we came across Craig tara, I must say by the look of their website it was brilliant. The chalets looked amazing and there seemed to be loads to do and the prices didnt look bad either.
Booking
We decided to book a week, half board in a silver chalet, we rang Havens them selves and asked for more details, they told us the price, which was £526, the check in time (2pm) The price included funworks passes for us all, so we booked there and then and paid through debit card. Everything was going well so far, we couldnt wait .
Traveling
All was left was to arrange was the traveling, which all went to plan. this cost £180 for 2 aduls and 3 children, we went through Ulster Bus.
Eventually we went on holiday, after 4 hours traveling between Ulsterbus and Stena Line,
we finally arrived at Havens , the bus dropped us of at the Entrance which we thought was handy, as we had originally thought we would have to go right in to Ayr and make our way to Havens from there.
Arrival at Havens
We got our luggage of the bus, got the kids together and made our way to the entrance with five heavy rucksack bags, only to find that we had a long walk ahead of us, down a very large steep hill, eventually we made it to reception for approx 11.30am, they showed us were to leave our luggage until check in time.
Check in
Lucky enough the weather was good that day, we had 2 and a half hours before check in, so we took a walk round the place to see what was what, it eventually came to check in time, we got our keys, passes, and also these dinner passes and directions to our chalet. The chalet was about 10 mins from the reception, but with five heavy bags and three excited kids, it seemed like it was miles away.
The chalet
We arrived at the chalet at approx 3pm and were so glad to get there, the chalet had 2 bedrooms, a bathroom and a hallway, as we went half board there was no sitting room area, in the front bedroom there was a t.v and tea and coffee making facilities, but for milk you had the powder milk, so the tea was not nice until we got some proper milk. The front room had a burn on the carpet from an iron on it and the decor was cheap and nasty, not at all what we expected, nor was it the impression we had got of the website.
We didnt do a lot on the first day as after all the traveling we were exhausted, we just played the machines for a while, then it came to dinner time, which was anytime between 5pm and 7pm, Dinner was at Turnberry gardens restaurant, firstly you had to stand in a que and secondly when you finally got in, you had to present these dinner passes, so that the staff could punch a hole in them for each meal you had.
Turnberry gardens
It was self service, you could eat as much as you wanted, although there was a good enough sellection, I didnt think much of the food, the soup was rotten, the chicken was really overdone, the chips were hard, I could go on about the food all night, basically it was not nice. Anytime we were in Turnberry gardens it was really busy, it was like a flea market, you were always tripping over someone and trying to get a seat sometimes was awful, we got the kids to sit at a seat while we got the meals sorted out, during this time they had been told to move of the seat were we had left them as this table was not theirs. So the kids being so young they did move and they were stood in one of the aisles looking lost when we came back with the dinner, after confronting the person we found ourselves a seat and ate what we could of the dinner.
We went into the amusement arcade again and found the two entertainment rooms, there was names for these rooms but I cant remember what they are , so we sat and listened to the music for a while and the kids got to see one of the characters (Rory the lion) as far as we could make out, the kids entertainment was up until 9pm and after this the adults entertainment started. The entertainment seemed ok so far.
The next day we went for breakfast, it was served between 8.30 am and 10.00am same thing again queing up, stamping the passes, we were hoping the food would be nicer than the previous evening, but no such luck, it was rotten
Things to do
We went to soft play area, which the kids thought was great, stayed there for a while then the kids got bored, so we went to the park, so by day two we had covered four places. Near the park was amusements so we went there, and there was only a few things for the kids to get on. each ride was about £1.50, After this there wasnt much left to do, apart from swimming, going to the beach and the out door trampolines which again was pricey. approx £2.50 and if you paid for the tramolines you got on the climbing wall for half price. which all in costs £3.75 each.
We went along the beach which was full of rocks, it was so bad the kids didnt even get to paddle, it wasnt the type of beach you could walk on, bear footed or even sit on for that matter, so we didnt stay on the beach for two long.
shops
We decided to check out the shops, this wasnt much better, there was one shop to get pressies, with scary prices, (so scary that a football cost £6.00, the same one in Sports World cost £2.50) there was a shop to get groceries (for those who were sensible and went self catering) and there was a sit in cafe, there was also a few stalls which sold burgers, cakes and candy floss, that was it.
After dinner we went to see if there was entertainment on for the kids, I think the entertainment that night was a kids disco and fun and games, they really enjoyed this, so we just stayed there until 9.00pm, we didnt really go to the late entertainment, as by this stage the kids were exhausted.
The next day we went swimming and then decided to go into Ayr town to see if there were any resonably priced shops, there was a bus that took us from Havens into Ayr and we did find some reasonable shops and got our pressies in. That night there was a wrestling show on, obviously having two boys we thought this would be good to see, the show started at 7pm, but we noticed people were starting to que from about 6pm, so we done the same, finally they opened the doors and we got in, it was literally a fight to get a seat, the kids ran on in fronf of us to get a seat and they were shoved of them, again this was by adults, we reported it to the doorman and nothing was done about it.
By day three we had done everything in Havens that there was to do, we were really disappointed with this holiday, during the week we were there not once were we asked for our funworks passes, these were supposed to be to get you into places free, which this was a lot of rubbish, the only one good point about it was that most of the staff were helpful. I wouldnt recomend this holiday to my worst enemy. absolutely the worst holiday ever.
Thanks for reading I have also done this review on dooyoo
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Advantages: Great for all ages. Fun and relaxing. great value. Disadvantages: noisy at night in adjacent chalets & not a nice beach. Bar quite expensive.
Moiraken 02.07.2004 (02.07.2004)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Craig Tara Holiday Park
Dec 8th, 2007
(Dec 20th, 2007)
exceptional by (7%):
very helpful by (93%):
