Glad to see that we can now view the rates for our reviews. Maybe next time Ciao should test the new...
Glad to see that we can now view the rates for our reviews. Maybe next time Ciao should test the new system before installing it?
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I have recently read an opinion by Brianlfc about Pontins and it struck quite a chord with me. In fact, as soon as I read his title, I though I bet he went to Wall Park at Brixham and sure enough I was right.
So, just in case you didn’t have enough excitement reading about Brian’s ‘wonderful’ holiday at Wall Park I thought I’d tell you about mine too!
I went with my parents about eight years ago. Mom had seen an advert in the newspaper offering a five-day break at one of a variety of Pontins Holiday Camps at a very cheap rate, with coach transport included. Apparently she had always wanted to go to a holiday camp just to see what it was like – Hi Di Hi has a lot to answer for!
I had been once before to the Pontins at Great Yarmouth
in about 1980 and whilst it wasn’t luxury it was OK and we had a reasonable holiday, so I said that I would go along with mom and dad on their voyage of adventure!
Anyway mom, dad and myself booked a self-catering break at Wall Park which is situated just outside Brixham in Devon. I can’t remember the cost off hand but I’m sure it was no more than £50 each.
We were collected by our coach, which was rather a boneshaker to say the least, but off we went.
It was a long journey from the Midlands and when we arrived at the camp we were herded into reception to collect our keys. I got the keys to our chalet and we set off to find it.
I will just mention at this point that the chalets looked very scruffy from the outside and were arranged in rows looking for all the world like a Prisoner of War Camp! This is why I instinctively knew that Brian had been to Wall Park when I read his title!
When we went into the chalet we couldn’t believe our eyes! We are talking seriously basic here!
The first bedroom contained two small single beds, which mom and dad decided to push together so that they could use that room.
The second bedroom contained a cot – now this chalet was booked for three adults and, at the age of 37 or so, I was a little old to be sleeping in a cot!
The main room was a kitchen, diner, and lounge and luckily had a bed settee. It had seen better days and wasn’t very comfortable but it was an improvement on the cot! When we made the bed up at night and went to close the curtains they didn’t actually close properly as they weren’t big enough for the windows.
The kitchen was basically equipped with enough crockery and cutlery for us to use and some cooking utensils. We also had a cooker and a fridge.
The bathroom was tiny and tatty and not particularly clean but we managed.
Since we were self-catering we needed some supplies. After all we had travelled by coach so we couldn’t very well bring a box of food with us.
We headed down to the camp shop. That was a laugh in itself. It was tiny and did not contain much variety of foods, but we were prepared to make do. The big problem on that first day was the fact that, as we had arrived late, there was very little fresh food in the shop. Bearing in mind that we were all booked into Pontins, so they knew that we were coming, surely they could have made sure that there was a bit of bread and milk for us when we arrived! We were disgusted and I have to say I really wanted to go home!
As it happened we had eaten on the way down so we weren’t very hungry, which was lucky under the circumstances! We got what we could and headed home to our chalet.
We decided to get changed and go down to the main hall to check out the entertainment. With the benefit of hindsight I use the term entertainment loosely! There was a disco playing the most awful old records – I’m not into the new music, I’m more of a 70’s and 80’s girl, but this stuff was dire!
As far as I can remember someone, probably one of the Blue Coats had a go at singing and sounded more like someone strangling a cat, so we gave up and retired to bed for the night.
The next day we went for a walk around the site to see if it was all as bad as the part where we were staying. It was! Everywhere was either tatty or closed or both.
At least being on an organised trip we had trips out each day on the coach, which got progressively less roadworthy as the days went by. Brixham was a lovely seaside village with a harbour and plenty of interesting shops. We saw a fair bit of the area around Brixham too, visiting Torquay, Paignton and Buckfast Abbey amongst other places.
We never returned to the ‘entertainment’ venue at Pontins – the excitement was just too much, LOL! Instead we stayed in at night with the Scrabble or the playing cards and a couple of bottles of wine.
By the fifth day we were more than ready to return home, but the coach broke down on the way and we had to get out and push! What a perfect end to a wonderful holiday! Never again!
It remains a standing joke in our family to this day and we quite often tell mom that if she doesn’t behave we’ll make her go to Pontins again!
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Oct 22nd, 2001
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