Europe 2014- Center Parcs Elveden (Part Three)

A good meal is a key component to any good vacation and we ate like kings at Center Parcs Elveden. Center Parcs has a huge variety of restaurants and we tried several during our week stay.

Bella Italia was a family favorite.

Italian food is an easy choice with kids. At Bella Italia they could order their favorite, plain pasta with butter or if they were feeling a bit more adventurous, pizza. They kids actually participated in a pizza making workshop at Bella Italia, where they kneaded their own dough and picked their own toppings for an individual sized pizza. All of the kids making pizza, while wearing chefs hats and aprons, were so cute.

I enjoyed the spaghetti bolognese and the meat lasagna. While the kids were happy coloring on their placemats, we adults enjoyed pitchers of cocktails. Nothing says vacation quite like pitchers of beach drinks!

I'm not a huge fan of pancakes, especially when they are outside of breakfast. However, the kids love pancakes, so a trip to The Pancake House was mandatory. Oddly, The Pancake House opens mid-morning and is more of a lunch/dinner restaurant. I don't know if this was a cultural difference in Europe or only limited to this restaurant.

I ordered a crepe style pancake with roasted potatoes and peppers. It was delicious. Really, one of the best meals that I ate on the trip. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed my lunch. I also learned that unlike in America, regular cups of coffee do not come with free refills! Dan had baked beans on his pancakes, which is an English concept that I can't quite wrap my mind around.

Two evenings we tried the food delivery service. The service is fantastic, as long as you decide on it early in the day. We have discovered that if you order any later than mid-afternoon, you risk all of the delivery slots filling up. It's popular, order early.

We tried a selection of curry from Rajinda Pradesh and Chinese food. Rajinda Pradesh is a physical restaurant, where you can also dine-in, but the Chinese food was take-away only through a phone order. Both were average in taste and quality. The nice thing about our Indian night, was the discovery that my step-son is a fan of curry. He absolutely loved make a "curry burrito" out of naan, rice and tikka masala sauce. Discoveries like that are priceless.

Vacations have to include loads of sweet treats. In addition to daily ice cream runs, we bought these animal shaped treats from the sweet shop.

Center Parcs Elveden has the only revolving restaurant in England. Unfortunately, we just couldn't fit it into our visit. Next trip!

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!