Author's product rating: 
| Advantages: |
Plenty to do |
| Disadvantages: |
Price of the drinks ! |
| Recommend to potential buyers: |
yes |
Oh thankfully, a holiday, we decided to forgo the long drive abroad and stay in the UK. We trawled and trawled through the Internet looking for a bargain and gave up in favour of Bakers Dolphin. They cam up with a seven night stay with Pontins, we decided to ignore past reviews, worked out that the slightly higher price would offset any activities we'd have to pay for at another holiday park and book at the price of £367. Expensive? Well, the brochure was £699 for the Bank Holiday week.
We chose Camber Sands in Rye because we had to go to London in the morning, going back to Bristol later would end up a 4 hour journey anyway. Looking at the M5 traffic going to Devon and Cornwall, I was glad we were heading the other way! Camber Sands itself is about 12 miles from Hastings, don't rely on the instructions given to you they aren't that good. But once you get to Camber, there's only one road and Pontins is on it.
So we get there at about 1pm but we cant book in until 4pm, however we get to use the facilities, so we spent a few hours having a drink and splashing about in the pool.
Booking in was not quite the horror others have described. They had 6 Bluecoats working, you handed over your booking letter and received an envelope with your key, directions and some vouchers. Where you got to go was luck of the draw. This is why we're not entirely sure we got the Classic apartment we paid for, or the cheaper Budget one, the only difference is the distance to the entertainment's. If we did end up in a Budget apartment then we paid £50 for our linen hire, but we are enquiring and will let you know what happens.
We trotted off to see if we were really in Stallag 13 and were pleasantly surprised. They were in two storey blocks, but tastefully painted with lots of greenery and trees around. Quite a few did look a bit tatty, lots could have done with a lick of paint. But inside they were fine, after other reviews I immediately went on the hunt and didn't find any! The kitchen and living room were spacious, with sofa bed (probably the most uncomfortable thing I have ever slept on), small(ish) tell, table and chairs, wardrobe and chest of drawers. The kitchen was spotless and contained everything you needed. Aah, but there wasn't a corkscrew which could prove a problem for a few people! The bathroom was bigger that mine at home ad contained what looked like a fairly new shower. Which I actually found really dangerous, the shower base is almost completely smooth and very very, slippery. There was another small bedroom with another wardrobe and two single beds.
The bed linen was a different matter, as it always seems to be, it was quite stained and one of the sheets had a tear in it. To their credit, it was quickly rectified and fresh linen bought. I could see that I could quite happily spend a week here.
I do have to mention the staff apartment, they were absolutely disgraceful, filthy, dirty, rotting windows and smashed windows plugged up with a variety of things. Should be sorted immediately.
We unpacked and the thirst thing we did was head back to the swimming pool, which was a another building in need of a lick of paint. Nor was it as glossy or exciting as portrayed in the brochure. There was a big pool and a toddler pool, which was wonderfully warm, could have been all the kids peeing in it, I'm not sure! The big pool was quite large with 3 small slides and 2 very strict lifeguards. Ever day there was a sessions with loads of floatables chucked in! There were only 3 tiny changing cubicles and one of these had a torn curtain. Hence other females were getting treated to an impromptu show of buttocks, usually I charge for that on my webcam! The whole place was kept very warm and there were plenty of chairs , tables and sunloungers around. There is also a complete ban on cameras, video cameras and camera phones, safety reasons obviously although it made some people rather ratty.
So we're quite happy with the apartment so what did we pay all that money for? The entertainment's of course!! Particularly the kids and that sure was plentiful. There was a games room with lots of pool tables, air hockey ad giant board games. The inevitable arcade with lots of ways to lose your money, unfortunately several machines kept going on the blink. Adventurelands was for up to 8yr olds and open till 10pm. It had big screen Disney films, a big jungle gym, play houses,games and lots more. For my 12yr old there was the leisurezone which had activities such as fencing, scuba diving, climbing abseiling and most unimpressively rifle shooting. All activities were undertaken by qualified instructors, all the safety equipment was constantly checked and I felt quite happy to leave her to get on with it. Then there's the characters and shows, Brandon loved the Spiderman show, the Sooty show and even Postman Pat came to say hello" Not to mention Captain Croc who leads the kids in the big Crocodile March every evening. The kids wont have time to be bored with the parks, crazy golf, track racing, games , competitions and discos. Best of all, its all free!
Adult wise we didn't get to see much, but they have bingo, comedians, tribute singers, etc.
Of course these take place in the bars of which there are three. The adults will be glad to hear of the Queen Vic, a real pub showing the footie which kids are banned from after 8.30pm. The Lunar bar seats 500 and is where they have the competitions, quizzes, karaoke, etc, its always packed and is always very clean.
The Fun Factory is the main venue, it holds a 1000 people and is where they have discos, bingo and the cabaret shows, its a good sound system ad always kept clean.
But this all sounds too perfect! They have nowhere near enough bar staff, 5 is the absolute maximum at any bar, with a wait of up to 15 minutes. The prices are extortionate! An alcopop will cost you £3.20, a pint at least £2.75, J20's £1.80 and a Double Malibu and Orange Juice a disgusting £5.10
The toilets adjoining both bars were appalling, whenever we went in there, there was water and toilet paper over the floor, the toilets were not always clean or had working locks. Attendants did check regularly, I have no idea what for as the rubbish always got left there!
Food and drink are, of course, important and of course there's plenty of it on the site.
The Sands restaurant was really quite good particularly the breakfasts, not too expensive either. Pity they didn't check the milk before a I took a big mouthful,
Mama Luigis provided us with a 14 inch pizza with loads of topping and cheese for approx. £9, it really did taste like a home made sauce and was quite good.
Caseys Whistlestop did excellent fried chicken and burgers, again reasonable prices.
Downtown Diner, more fried and hotdogs, well they looked nice anyway.
And the extortionate shop, well not really. I'm sure this had something to do with the fact that it also served the local community. It was no more expensive than my local Spar. It did have a large range of food and novelties, pity it began to run out of chocolate by Wednesday. It also did phone, gas and electricity top-ups.
Finishing off of course with the staff and Bluecoats! They were fabulous, always friendly, with a smile, they were always happy to chat and quite frankly worked their socks off. If they didn't have the answer to an enquiry, they would go and get someone who did.
And a big thanks to the poor chap who was talking to a 6yr old in a competition who told him he didn't like girls cos they stank of fish! And his sheer daftness at asking him next what his favourite food was!
Just a little miscellany, the site is about 5 minutes away from the lovely beach. They give you an excellent book of vouchers to use on site, for example buy two adult meals and get the kids for a penny.
So what did we think? Well, excellent, well worth the money. I was most impressed with the staff and facilities. And yes, we would go again.
very helpful
