Centreparcs - cancelling due to weather

the_cows_udders

There's a group of us travelling to Centreparcs Sherwood Forest for a weekend away on the 17th December. We booked that one as some of the group live in the north and some live in the south, so it was a good place to meet in the middle!

Anyway the organiser bought insurance when he booked all the accomodation, but he is not sure if that will cover us if we can't travel due to snow. He also has a paid for current account with Barclays that includes travel insurance.

What happens if we can't go due to the snow? Will we be able to change the dates of the accomodation to another weekend, claim on one of the insurances or just lose the money we have paid?

I know it's still a couple of weeks away, but the organiser is a worrier and would like to know where he stands.

Catherine_Johnson_2

Why not ask Center Parcs, see what they say? Or read the insurance documents to see what's covered?

RenovationMan

The snow should be gone next week; if the forcasts are right, we are in for higher temps and rain. I wouldnt worry about it too much.

the_cows_udders

Thanks. I haven't got the insurance documents, and I'm unable to drive to the person who booked it to have a look at them.

He's just looking for "worst case scenario" situations as he's worrying like mad about it.

p00hsticks

Have a look at the T&C on the website-

http://www.centerparcs.co.uk/makeabooking/terms/

Form the brief summary of the insurance cover (towards the bottom of the link) and the link within it, it doesn't appear to cover not being able to get to the site due to the weather - just illness, accident, jury service etc.

What You are covered for

1. Death, injury, illness or being made subject to quarantine of You or of any member of Your party or
a Close Relative or Business associate of You or any member of Your party.
2. You or any member of Your party being required for jury service or as a witness in a court of law in
the United Kingdom.
3. You or any member of Your party being made involuntarily redundant, provided that We are
informed in writing immediately notification of redundancy is received and that You were not aware
of any impending redundancy when the policy was issued, subject to the person declared redundant
being under 65 and having at least 1 years’ continuous employment with the same employer at the
time of being made redundant.
4. Your home or place of business or any member of Your party’s home or business being made
uninhabitable, up to 14 days before the commencement of Your holiday or during the course of Your
holiday, due to fire, lightning, explosion, earthquake, subsidence, storm, flood, falling trees, riot or
civil commotion, malicious damage (including burglary), burst pipes, impact by aircraft, the police
requesting You or any member of Your party’s presence following burglary or attempted burglary at
Your home or place of business or any member of Your party’s home or place of business.
5. Unforeseen posting of You or any member of Your party or having agreed leave subsequently
cancelled by the emergency services or armed forces, for operational reasons. This cover does not
apply to cancellation of leave due to war, invasion, acts of terrorism, hostilities (whether war be

declared or not), civil unrest, revolution, rebellion, act of foreign enemy or any similar event.

However there is a paragraph further up (H4) that says if more than 25% of the facilties are unavailable, Center Parcs may arrange another date, another Center or a refund

pinkmami

I've just come back from Whinfell yesterday & the road into the parc was clear (they did a great job of clearing too ) & the M6 was totally snow free. I guess if you use the main roads they'll be clear for you.

the_cows_udders

Just an update. We did manage to get to Centre Parcs but it was bitterly cold all weekened.

Nothing was happening on the lake as it was completely frozen over. All the outdoor play areas and all the outdoor activities were closed as they were all too icy.

Some of the group had planned to do the high ropes assault course, the zip wire, do the climbing wall, play crazy golf, do laser shooting, paintballing, take a boat out on the lake, take the little ones in the outdoor play areas and go for walks. All these activites were cancelled, the play areas were all roped off and as it stayed in minus temps it was too cold to walk anywhere.

We went swimming a couple of times and mooched around the village centre, then spent the rest of the time playing board games that we brought with us in the accomodation.

Had a good time and enjoyed it, but left feeling disappointed that we couldn't do all the things we wanted to do due to the weather.

themull1

i think that if you booked for december you can't expect tropical weather, we don't even get a decent summer!!

pinkteapot

I understand your disappointment but have to agree with the previous poster.

We went to Whinfell CP in early December and it was cold. We were well bundled up in winter walking gear and were happy walking around the village. We got lucky in that it was dry for a couple of days so we did some outdoor activities but we hadn't been expecting to be able to.

As well as the pool there's badminton, squash, short tennis etc in the sports hall. Ten pin bowling is also indoors. And the fact you're in a little house means that board games and DVDs are always an option. We like Center Parcs for a UK winter break for precisely these reasons. Staying in a hotel in mid winter can be pretty boring if the weather's poor. The Lake District has notoriously wet winters so to increase your chances of a dry CP I'd head for Longleat or Thetford.

the_cows_udders

There is no need to be sarcastic. Of course I wasn't expecting tropical weather!

December isn't usually this cold and we didn't expect such extreme cold weather when it was booked back in March. If someone had told us then it was going to be the coldest and hardest winter since 19xx, then we would have booked something else. We had to go last weekend as it was a surprise celebration so we were tied to that date.

Nobody wanted to do the indoor sports hall stuff as we're not really into that, and the ten pin bowling was booked solid due to all the outdoor activities being cancelled.

alja

I went to the exact same centre parcs last december with my bf, we stayed for a few days from 13th december, but had to come home one day early due to snow thank god we did leave as we ended up with loads of snow just a few hours after getting home...I'm sorry to hear about your trip not exactly going to plan, but I hope you enjoyed staying there I quite enjoyed walking round the park in the cold! but didn't enjoy snow in my eyes whilst trying to go kart around corners on the last day we were there! lol!