Europe 2014- Vacation Disaster (Part One)

This trip, we did the worst activity that I've ever done on a vacation. It was so miserable, that I cried. A lot.

Teased?

Hang on a minute, while I tell you about the cute little pub that we ate lunch at on our way to our misery.

Arriving just as they were opening their doors for lunch, MJ's Cafe and Bar in Suffolk is the epitome of an English pub. It had darts, it had a pool table and it had scruffy looking patrons (us excluded of course). What it really had though, was friendly service and great food. I ordered the daily quiche, which was fabulous. It was served with coleslaw, which sounds strange, but was a good combo. Dan ate a full English breakfast and the kids had pizza and beans on toast. All were happy.

The kids loved that MJ's had a playground. They even had a British style totem pole.

After we left MJ's, it started to rain. Then it started to pour. We should have taken the change in the weather as a sign.

What vacation activity could have been so horrible?

Boating on the canals.

This is where I quickly learned that I'm not a boating holiday type of person. It's like camping, either you love it or hate it. Boating = hate it.

We arrived at the Bridge Boatyard in Ely for our three night rental of Sunquest Cruiser #4. Yes, SUN-quest. The irony is not lost.

After checking in at the office, we were shown aboard our boat. As we entered, there were two men trying to fix a leaking window above one of the beds in the back of the boat. Rain had poured in and soaked the mattress. They used duct tape to fix it, but the mattress was wet to damp the entire weekend. Luckily we didn't need all of the beds, because it was unusable.

I realized when I was going through our pictures that none of these really make it look too bad. What you can't see is the smell. Mold smells and everything aboard was damp and moldy. Dan even found mold behind all of the cushions that we were sleeping on. Ew!!!!

Let me give you a tour of our floating hotel.

Here is the backdoor and the two beds in the back, including the one with the leaking window. I slept on the side that didn't have the leak. It was still damp and moldy. Spider were everywhere and they fell on my face and skittered across me in the middle of the night. I didn't sleep much.

This was our bathroom with the shower. The other bathroom that was near the children's room had a sink and toilet. I did get in the shower to rinse off, but it had mold and was gross. I couldn't manage to stay in it long enough to wash my hair.

Our kitchen had a mini fridge and a stove. It was stocked with basic utensils and kitchen gadgets. I have no complaints about how the boat was stocked, but I personally found it difficult to use the kitchen on the boat. The cabinets were so full of kitchen items, that there was very little storage for our groceries.

The movement of the boat made me nervous to use the stove and it was a pain to clean dishes in the small sink. We had gone to Waitrose and stocked up on groceries, planning to cook on board, but quickly scrapped that idea and only did breakfast and snacks.

The one good part about boating, was stopping at pubs along the canal. It was relatively easy to eat out for all of our meals. Unless you're on a really strict budget, I wouldn't recommend cooking on the boat.

Dan and the kids slept in an triangle shaped alcove in the front of the boat.

Our living room doubled as the dining room and was the same area that had the steering wheel. When we had sun, we were able to retract the roof over this area of the boat. This was also the part of the boat where the ants liked to invade!

My favorite part of the boat is this hole.

In this picture were are being given a lesson in daily maintenance checks. We were supposed to clean the filters in this hole twice a day, morning and night. The filters get clogged with river muck from green plants that cover the water. Twice a day sounds nice...try several times a day as the boat kept coming close to over-heating. Dan would have to stop the motor and hand the filter to me, as I ran to the back of the boat to dip it in the water, clean it off and get it back to him, before the boat drifted too far over to the edge. It was frantic team work. Canal muck dripped all over the boat.

During one of the checks, Zoe lost one of her pink crocs down the hole. We never recovered it. The boat ate her shoe.

As the sun was starting to set and rain was coming down in buckets, we headed down the river on our miserable adventure.

Europe 2014- Center Parcs Elveden (Part Two)

Last year, during our first experience at Center Parcs, we didn't prebook any activities. This year, we booked an activity for the kids on every day of the trip and this was a huge hit.

On the first day, we woke up early and headed to the Ranger Ramble, a two hour family walk through the woods, guided by a ranger.

Unfortunately, five minutes before we were set to leave with the ranger, my step-son vomited all over the visitor's center entry way. Seeing that we clearly had a sick kid, Center Parcs was wonderful and fully refunded us. A lot of activities only take place once or twice a week. so we could not reschedule the Ranger Ramble for a different day. Next time.

A majority of the kid's activities took place in the kid's section of the indoor sports complex. We brought the kids here for face painting and Center Parc's version of Build-A-Bear. We booked a dance party, where the kids burned off some energy and loaded up on sugary treats. They decorated their own cupcakes in the Craft Worx Studio.

They decorated four cupcakes. Three of the cupcakes an instructor walked them though a particular design. They made a monkey, a pig and a swirled ice-cream cone. The final design was of their own choosing. As you can see from the pictures, my step-daughter proved to be a very talented cupcake designer. My step-son was more interested in eating the icing.

Next to the Craft Worx studio, was the Art Worx Studio, where the kid's did pottery/wood decorating. They were allowed to decorate three items each and could utilize various stations for paint, stickers, markers, glitter, et...

We had booked a family photography session. I had a sinus infection and had to skip it (no amount of make-up was going to cover my cold), but the photographer took some amazing family photos of Dan and the kids. I highly recommend adding this activity.

Our final pre-booked activity was an animal show called Mammal Magic. I'm the animal lover, so this was probably more for me than for the kids. We sat on folding chairs in a semi-circle and the team leading the show explained the animal, then brought out two of each animal type. They split the audience in half and walked around, so that we could all touch and see the animals, without stressing out the critters. They did not rush the interaction. The emphasis was on small animals that are popular pets and the pros/cons for each animal. This was a great show for both animal lovers, but also for families interested in getting a pet. My favorite animal was the sugar glider.

We didn't prebook all of our activities. The weather is unpredictable in England, so it made more sense to take our chances with the outdoor activities. We were lucky and it didn't rain during our week at Center Parcs Elveden. The weather was warm and sunny. We were able to book all of the outdoor activities on the spot, without any problems.

We did the very popular, Treasure Island Adventure Golf.

We went on the lake twice, first in a pedalo and the second time in a Catacanoe. I prefer arm to leg powered boats!

One other last-minute activity that we did, was indoor bowling. If you enjoy bowling, book it early. It was so busy, that we couldn't book a time slot for a full game.

Our visit coincided with Center Parcs Elveden's twenty-fifth anniversary. They had a party with free ice cream and a BBQ to celebrate.

One of the best parts of Center Parcs is just walking around the beautiful grounds. The complex is massive and filled with nature trails.

I really liked the environmental quotes on all of the Center Parcs' vans. With the exception of loading and unload on arrival/departure days, the only vehicles allowed on the grounds are emergency vehicles and the Center Parcs vans.

Besides all of the activities, we also visited the Subtropical Swimming Paradise complex every day. The kids were much stronger swimmers this year, which meant that we could go on more slides. Zoe was even strong enough to do the rapids body slide that spans nearly the entire outdoor perimeter of the pool complex. It's easily the most fun slide at Center Parcs!

Next time, I will report on our experiences at the Center Parcs Elveden restaurants. We ate well on the trip, trying a majority of the on-site offerings.

I will leave you with a picture of the talking plants.

Europe 2014- Center Parcs Elveden (Part One)

After having a wonderful five days at Center Parcs Longleat in 2013, we decided to include Center Parcs in our 2014 vacation. This time we tried a new location, Elveden and stayed for seven days. The biggest difference between Longleat and Elveden is the terrain. Longleat is hilly and Elveden is flat, making it much easier to navigate.

Other than the terrain, the two locations were more similar than dissimilar. We had the same check-in procedure, which including picking up our keys at the arrival lodge.

We loved our room from last year, so we booked the same style executive cabin. It was nearly identical to the one we had in Longleat, including the same maroon couch and same forest prints on the walls. The only difference was the position of the bedrooms. at Elveden the bedrooms were next to each other and at Longleat, the were separated by the living room.

This is one of my favorite pictures of our trip.

I went into this Center Parcs holiday thinking that we were experts and that we were going to learn from our mistakes in 2013. One of the biggest things that we wanted to do differently, was food. To save money and to keep everyone happy, we were going to cook meals in our cabin. Nice thought.

We pre-ordered a grocery pack from the Center Parcs grocery store. The starter kit was okay, but many of the items we didn't use. We didn't touch things like the giant bottle of Pepsi or the HP Sauce. Although it was nice to have some groceries in the cupboards when we arrived, it ended up being a waste of money and food.

Center Parcs actually has a great on-site grocery store. It has a decent variety and the prices don't seem to be inflated. The best part is if you spend over fifty pounds, they offer a free delivery service to your cabin. We used this many times during our stay and had we been sensible, we would have just headed here on the first day and done our shopping, rather than pre-ordering stuff that we didn't need. We had also pre-ordered four BBQ kits. The BBQ kits can be great, if you use them. We only used one and since we were far from home, we just left them at Center Parcs.

We found that cooking in our cabin was great for a quick breakfast or snacks, but overall, it was more hassle than we wanted to deal with on vacation and ultimately, not a huge money saver. One big piece of advice from last year, make sure to bring extra toilet paper, paper towels and a cleaning solution to wipe down mucky tables. These items are not provided in your cabin.

The best purchase at the Center Parcs grocery store? Bird and squirrel food. We had tons of wildlife coming to our backdoor, including a beautiful deer.

My absolute favorite visitor was a moorhen family. The adults would peck at our patio door and they would gently take food out of a mug feeding it to their chicks. It was so sweet.

In Part Two, I will highlight the activities and restaurants of Center Parcs Elveden. We had a busy week!