Centreparcs - cancelling due to weather

bagby

we were there three days before xmas last year - thick with snow - absolutely magical. Went swimming once, played bowls, made snowman, had snowball fight, went for a walk around the park, fed the ducks, watched the parade, played pool, board games, meals out. Couldnt fault the place - the snow made it. Sorry you didnt enjoy - we just got well wrapped up and braved the cold.

the_cows_udders

There wasn't much snow when we were there. Building snowmen and snowball fights would have been fun.

It was mainly just ice and thick frost. The roads around the village had been cleared but the paths hadn't been treated so they were icy and slippy and difficult to walk on in places.

It was -4°C on the Friday when we got there, then -6°C on the Sat and Sun and -11°C on the Monday when we left. Plus it was breezy, so the wind chill felt like it was slicing your face off! Although we were well wrapped up, it was still too cold for walking, especially for the two youngest ones in the group.

The person who organised it rang the park the week before we went and was told everything was operating as normal and there was no need to rearrange or cancel. He asked them to contact him if this changed as we were mostly keen on doing outdoor things. Centre Parcs never got back in touch to say all the outdoor activities had been cancelled due to the weather. He's written to complain that we were not kept informed about the cancelled activities and he's hoping to get an apology.

moneypooh

I'm not sure why people are so upset about cancelled events due to weather conditions. Any outdoor activity can be cancelled at anytime of the year, it's not the organisers fault. They lose money when events are cancelled so only do so when there is a public risk, and with the 'blame' culture we live in today it's not surprising.
We have had events cancelled abroad becasue it was too hot!! It appears that anything outside has the chance of being cancelled. That's why CP has so many things to do inside.

We went to Longleat last week and it was -11 one night. It snowed on changeover day but they kept the roads clear and the paths too. It was beautiful, a true winter wonderland.
Events were cancelled but no-one seemed to mind. There were notices in all the main areas keeping us aware of cancelled events.
They even had traffic noticeboards for those travelling home, making them aware of potential problems.
They did very well considering many of their staff were having problems getting there themselves.

the_cows_udders

moneypooh wrote: »

I'm not sure why people are so upset about cancelled events due to weather conditions.

It wouldn't be so bad if it was just one or two things that were cancelled, but in this case, everything we booked and wanted to do was cancelled.

What made it worse was being told the week before we travelled that everything was fine and they'd get in touch if things changed, but they never bothered to do that. It was upsetting expecting to be able to do all we booked, only to be told it was all cancelled when we got there.

Most of the group got there late afternoon on the Friday, so it was dark and we didn't see the signs saying the activities were closed. It was mid-morning on the Saturday when we went to do laser shooting that we realised everything outside was closed. By that time, the indoor things like bowling were fully booked as the indoor things were the only option. If they'd said when we checked in that the things we'd booked had been cancelled, we could have maybe had a chance of getting some indoor things booked in.

It could have been handled better and we could have had more of a chance of saving the weekend if we'd had more notice that all our activities were cancelled.

Other customer service aspects were spot on. On arrival, they'd forgotten to make the main bed up in my accomodation, so I mentioned it when I took the car back to the car park and it was sorted within the hour with profuse apologies. If they can do that for missing bed linen, I'm sure they could apologise to the organiser for the cancelled activities and not keeping him informed like they said they would.

Spendless

I went to Whinfell CP the 1st week of November and even then the kids managed the play parks only once as it was too wet. I think if you go at this time of year, you should be basing your trip round doing mainly indoor activities and anything that is running outdoors is a bonus.

moneypooh

Spendless wrote: »

I went to Whinfell CP the 1st week of November and even then the kids managed the play parks only once as it was too wet. I think if you go at this time of year, you should be basing your trip round doing mainly indoor activities and anything that is running outdoors is a bonus.

my point entirely, winter is just that and any outdoor activity can be cancelled - even at short notice. Surely it's better to confirm it's on, not assume they'll contact you if it's not. I'd never book a winter break without mixing indoor & outdoor things to do.

The winter weather is why UK theme parks close, CP does have an uphill task at providing the outdoor stuff, but at least they try.

the_cows_udders

moneypooh wrote: »

Surely it's better to confirm it's on, not assume they'll contact you if it's not.

the_cows_udders wrote: »

What made it worse was being told the week before we travelled that everything was fine and they'd get in touch if things changed, but they never bothered to do that.

We didn't find out the activities were cancelled until we went to do the laser shooing on the Saturday morning. It was then we realised everything was roped off and abandoned and according to staff it had been for a couple of days.

CP let us down as they did not contact the organiser to tell him this as they promised to do in the earlier phone call. He also felt we should have been informed on check in to allow us to try and book other activities, especially as he arrived in the dark so it wasn't clear that things were closed permanently.

Desperado99

the_cows_udders wrote: »

We didn't find out the activities were cancelled until we went to do the laser shooing on the Saturday morning. It was then we realised everything was roped off and abandoned and according to staff it had been for a couple of days.

CP let us down as they did not contact the organiser to tell him this as they promised to do in the earlier phone call. He also felt we should have been informed on check in to allow us to try and book other activities, especially as he arrived in the dark so it wasn't clear that things were closed permanently.

It's a shame that they didn't let you know when you arrived about the outdoor stuff being cancelled (We've had things cancelled before, they normally hand you a letter with your keys).

We actually went the same weekend as you (it was unbelievably cold!!!:snow_grin ) but we still enjoyed ourselves.

I'm assuming that they refunded your activites? Hopefully you will get your apology, their customer services are generally good.

the_cows_udders

Yes, the refunds have been sorted.

We never got a letter but there were a few cars checking in under one booking so maybe that confused them.