Many of you will know the Lightys’ love of CenterParcs. We went twice before Baby Lighty came along, once for our 30th birthdays with our friends and once as a couple for a relaxing break at one of their Belgian resorts.
But this time round, although we were going to celebrate Sister-in-Law Lighty’s 30th birthday, our family was no longer just the two of us. Things were definitely going to be a bit different; gone were the beer bottles and drinking games and in their place were formula bottles and toys and games for Baby Lighty. So what did we learn from this very different type of CenterParcs experience? Here are the Lightys’ top tips for a first-time family break to CenterParcs:
1) Baby Wear!
As you may remember, the Lightys are becoming firm fans of baby wearing. Although CenterParcs is very set up for buggies, we found wearing Baby Lighty so much easier. No having to find and manoeuvre your buggy out of the buggy park at the swimming pool, the sling just folds up neatly to fit into the pool lockers! No pushing the pram over uneven forest floors! And no having to negotiate the crowds with a large buggy at the resort’s Winter Wonderland fireworks…
If you’re planning to arrive before the time that you can get into your lodge, a top tip for baby wearers is to pack the sling, and if you have a particular baby wearing bag or rucksack, on top of the mountains of luggage you’ll doubtless take with you so that you don’t have to unload the whole car in the car park to find it.
Mr Lighty enjoying a spot of baby wearing!
If you can, book baby friendly activities to keep your little one amused. I say “if you can” because we found that at 5 months, there wasn’t a huge amount that Baby Lighty could do; most of the activities were from age 7 months upwards.
Having said that, we booked to see Father Christmas on the day of our arrival and a baby sensory session for the Saturday morning, which both Baby Lighty and his cousin Baby Browny loved. He also enjoyed the fireworks, and the children’s swimming area at CenterParcs Elveden Forest is excellent.
Enjoying the baby sensory!
Love the photos that we got of the babies with the sensory lights!
The lodges, while fantastic, are relatively small, and you may find that only one of the bedrooms is big enough to take the travel cot. It’s wise to take small toys if possible. Once the Poddle Pod and bouncy chair were out, there wasn’t much room for anything else, let alone the two highchairs needed for the babies once the two families joined forces in one lodge!
The living room area of lodge!
The Lighty’s chalkboard, not written by Baby Lighty!!
4) Avoid either Arriving or Departing from the Swimming Pool at Lunchtime
As I’ve touched upon above, Elveden’s Sub Tropical Swimming Paradise is fantastic, and not just for the little kids; the big kids’ pools and slides are equally excellent.
The only thing that lets it down, in our opinion,is the lack of family changing rooms. Obviously they only have so much space, so they can’t turn it all over to family changing, but the problem if you arrive at lunchtime – either as families are arriving after their lunch or departing to have something to eat – is that you could be waiting a long time for a changing room.
On one occasion, we waited for at least 10 minutes for one to become free, with Baby Lighty becoming increasingly agitated at being fully dressed in the warm environment of the pool, only to have two other families push in front of us before we could get one, as there’s not really a queueing system. Similarly, in the rush to get a changing room on another occasion, Mr Lighty’s phone dropped out of our swim bag and smashed on the stone floor.
5) Take your Creature Comforts from Home
Yes you did read between the lines correctly, for us our biggest creature comfort is the Tommee Tippee Perfect Prep machine! Unlike when we stayed in hotels in the summer, CenterParcs is perfect for self catering, so it was easy (and handy) to set up the Perfect Prep. We still took our trusted Milton Bucket, however, as we weren’t sure if the microwave steriliser would fit in the microwave in the lodge (although looking back, I think it probably would have done). As you make the lodge your own little space for the duration of your stay, it’s easy to take anything that you feel you really need with you, although we noticed that the Parc Market supermarket on site had a good selection of baby bits, should you forget something.
The kitchen area of the lodge. It was even equipped with a wine cooling fridge!
Would you add any points to the above? I hope that regardless of whether you’ve been on a drunken weekend to one of the resorts in the past, or you’re a first timer as a family, you’ll enjoy your break to Centerparcs as much as we did with the help of these tips!
CenterParcs Elveden Forest, Suffolk.
Fab post! I’ve never been to Centre Parcs before but am going on a hen do there next year, so will get to do the “adult” part then but really want to do a family trip there soon. Hopefully we can get one booked just before I go back to work – I will be bookmarking this post to come to for then!
You’ll love it! It’s perfect for both grown up holidays and family holidays alike. You might like this old post of mine, as it’s about our 30ths at Centerparcs: https://anansweronapostcard.wordpress.com/2014/06/03/party-in-the-centerparc/ We had such a fabulous time!
I love love love Centre Parcs and I honestly don’t think there is anywhere better for a family break in the UK. We’re addicted! There’s even soft play in the restaurants to keep the tots entertained while they wait for their food. Just amazing and I would live there if I could. Brill post and lovely pics hun xx
Thank you! We love, love, love it too! Hope we can go back soon, very envious of friends who are going for Christmas, think it would be such a lovely place to spend Christmas Day! 🙂 xxx
Ooh yes that would be magical. I hear that they give each lodge a tree and a box of decorations for xmas eve. How lovely is that? It’s so nice at this time of year xx
Oh that sounds so lovely!! I really want to go back now! Is it Elveden that you usually go to? Xxx
Erm, well we tend to have different favourites for different times of year (told you we were addicts). We tend to do Elveden in spring and always Whinfell at Christmas. We’ve tried all the UK ones but haven’t got as far as the European ones. What are they like? Xx
Ooh that’s a good idea to move around! We’ve only ever done Elveden here but probably might branch out as Baby Lighty gets older! I would say that the lodges at the European ones aren’t quite as plush, but their villages are just as good and they looked like they had a good selection of activities for the little ones. Not to push another of my blogs (ha!!) but this is the link to my Belgian Centerparcs post: https://anansweronapostcard.wordpress.com/2014/08/25/centreparcs-belgium-style/
Ooh love it. Thanks hunny. I shall check it out xx
Looks like you had all bases covered! We did centre parcs when Tigs was 4 months, and had a fabulous time. I don’t think we really had any problems with baby friendliness…and, we are now going again in January whoop whoop (so excited) this time with a 3.5 yo and 13 mo…The packing will be epic I’m sure but I can’t wait 🙂 Thanks for reminding me about a few things…and of course to linking with #coolmumclub
No on the whole I agree, it’s really baby friendly. Ah you’ll have a fabulous time in January, I already want to go back! Thanks for hosting #coolmumclub 🙂
Fab post! Love Centre Parcs we visited Sherwood late last year with 3 month old. Would really recommend hiring a cabana in the pool area allowing Mum to ride the outdoor rapids whilst Dad looks after the baby. Also good for feeding in private too X x
We saw the Cabanas at Elveden, didn’t know about them before that! Were they very expensive, and did you have to book a long way in advance? Thanks for reading my post 🙂 xxx
Looks like you all had a fab time. I haven’t been to Center Parcs since I was about 10, but looking forward to going there en famille one day. I like the idea of an action family holiday, now Finn is a toddler hopefully he would be able to do more activities. I know he’d love the pool! #myfavouritetrip
We did have a fab time, thank you! And thanks for reading my post. Centerparcs is a must for all families in my opinion, and that’s after being very sceptical before our first visit!! #myfavouritetrip
I’ve never been to Center Parcs but would love to go. It looks great with so many child-friendly activites too. My boy is nearly three and would love it I think. The photo of the baby sensory lights is very cute. Thanks for joining in with #MyFavouriteTrip Polly x
It’s ideal for a 3 year old, I can’t wait to go back when Baby Lighty is a bit bigger 🙂 Thanks for hosting #myfavouritetrip, I hope to link up again soon!