Life With The Hocks: Our Center Parcs Holiday

Hey Everyone, Before we tell you about our holiday at +Center Parcs UK Whinfell Forest we have a couple of apologies to make.

Before we went away we said we would be vlogging each day we were there and uploading them onto our new +YouTube channel, however due to unforeseen technical issues this was not possible. However we continued to take our videos and pictures and planned to make one large Vlog of our time there. Anna completed this the other day and when she went to save it to her Ipad it informed her she didn't have enough space. so she went through her pictures and videos and deleted them so the video would save, however it seems that with the software we were using if you delete the videos before saving the completed full video it wont work - seems rather silly to us as you have infact created a new video. Anna has looked into ways of trying to get the Vlog back and will continue but we dont hold out much hope. we apologize for all this and do not worry, more Vlogs will appear in the future on our channel.

Now to our Holiday in what has to be said is The Hocks favourite place ever, Whinfell Forest +Center Parcs UK

Early Monday Morning (8am) Allan, Anna, Colin, Rosie, Lynne and Eifion left Wrexham in 2 cars heading up to meet Michelle and Tommy at the +Llama Karma kafe which is just about 10 minutes away from the entrance to #Whinfell Forest. After 1 toilet stop in the Lancaster Services we made our way and arrived at the Cafe at around 10:30am where Michelle and Tommy were waiting for us.

A number of different food and drink was consumed in the cafe, from Sausage Sandwiches to Hash Browns and Coffee to Coke! Everyone really enjoyed everything they had and after filling our stomachs with lovely food we headed out the back of the cafe to look at the different animals.

After about 30 minutes looking around we then all jumped back in our cars and headed to Whinfell Forest. The scenery on this drive is just stunning, here are some pictures we took from the car.

And before we knew it we saw the entrance to the Park, and we all got extremely excited and even started singing the Center Parcs Song from their TV Advert.

After getting out the car and heading to the village center the family were met by Huck's by 2 comedians and Lynne was pulled over to them to take part in their magic trick / comedy performance

It was a really nice and fun welcome to the village and a great little added touch. We then made our way to the other side of the lake to one of our favourite areas of the Village - The Sports Bar. Upstairs has recently been upgraded and we really loved what they had done. a huge new TV screen showing live sports behind which was a new House of Games and to the side a newly designed bar that was actually manned. Anyone who knows Whinfell's sports bar upstairs will know there are 2 areas seperated by a bridge and all the pool and snooker tables have now been moved to the other side of the bridge. We can see why they have done this but the female members of the family did use to enjoy sitting by the tables while the Male members played and meant we could all interact, this however is now not possible but is not a huge problem.

Around 2pm we all headed back out of the village to +Morrisons to buy all our fresh food for the week. Its only 4 miles away so is ideally situated and we were back in the village around 3:45pm and drove straight to our lodge at 9 Fell View

After unpacking the many amounts of suitcases, bags, food and alcohol the drivers returned the cars to the car park and everyone else started unpacking!

We then got ourselves freshened up and changed and headed to the Village Center where we had a table booked at the American Diner, Huck's.

Rosie had a meal from their self service Children's Buffet whilst the adults enjoyed meals including Burgers, Ribs, Chicken and Fajitas. The food here was fantastic and Anna was extra happy as she enjoyed looking at Reuben the Waiter! To be fair though, Michelle and Lynne were also checking the poor guy out too lol!

After Desserts were eaten we all headed back for our first night in the lodge which mainly included watching #BadgerCam and drinking!

Tuesday arrived and the only activity booked was Rosie Pizza Making at +Bella Italia which she did when we went to Elveden Forest and Loved.

I have to say, Rosie really enjoyed this but from an adults point of view i felt like the activity was better at Elveden as the member of staff there was much more Interactive and allowed the children to make the base themselves and take their completed pizza to the Kitchen Pass, whereas at Whinfell the base was already made and the member of staff simply took the pizza into the kitchen. However, here they were taken to the Gelato (Ice Cream) cart and were allowed an ice cream with 1 topping.

After More pool and some games in the lodge it was time to start the first of our 2 BBQ's. Now we all know the Great British Weather so we came prepared with a gazebo to place Safely by the BBQ so if it rained (Which it did) we could still enjoy our food.

The night again involved Badger Cam and more drinking and of course our BBQ food!

Before we knew it Wednesday had arrived and was the busiest day activity wise, With Rosie, Lynne and Michelle Pond Dipping and Anna and Colin Pottery Painting! Anyone who has read about our trip to Elveden Forest will be aware how much Anna and Colin enjoyed the pottery painting there and so decided to do it again. We have to say the Studio itself at Whinfell is not as nice or comfortable as the one at Elveden and we didn't feel like we relaxed as much here as it was smaller and nosier but we still did really enjoy ourselves and our results were definitely improved on last time (Which in Colin's case wasn't difficult)

As you can see, Anna painted a Garden Gnome for her garden and Colin painted a Princess Money Box to give to Rosie - which she loves!

After these activities took place we headed to the +Subtropical Swimming Paradise at Center Parcs where we headed straight to the outdoor pool - the weather wasn't brilliant but it was dry and not too cold, but the water outside was really warm and it was just like getting in a bath! Rosie loved it out there! We also went on the fast slides and the rapids and took Rosie through the indoor Rapids. Rosie then headed to the Children's pool area and had great fun!

The changing rooms at Whinfell must be mentioned for their cleanness and warmth. and the design of the cubicles is brilliant. the Use of the Lodge Wristbands for the lockers is also a great idea.

Here is a Map from the Center Parcs Website of the Swimming pool area

Wednesday Night saw us all go to the on site Indian Restaurant - Rajinda Pradesh which is located at the entrance to the sports plaza. The food in here was delicious but, as expected in a place like this, very expensive.

Thursday saw an early morning with Rosie going to a Princess party for 3 hours on her own in the Activity Den. While she was there the adults decided to play short tennis and snooker. The afternoon saw a relaxing afternoon playing scrabble while Allan had some quality time with Rosie at the outdoor adventure playground.

And before we knew it we were packing again as it was Friday Morning. we packed all the cars up and parked them before enjoying a +Starbucks Coffee and another game of Short tennis, this time including Rosie ...... Kind of.