Ferry Meadows then Butlins Skegness

We just returned from 8 night holiday. First 4 nights were at Ferry Meadows - wow what a lovely campsite, the kids loved it - we opened the caravan doors in the morning and they played until hungry. Everything was perfect (barring a dead rabbit in the awning the first night and the kitchen tap failed on thurs (my wifes birthday) crowlands were very helpful here). 

Nene park is a fantastic location, we walked around from what seemed like miles - i just wish we had brought either the bikes or an infatable canoe.

Peterbrough town was also a very nice place, we spent a few hours looking around the place and felt it was time well spent.

On friday we packed up and took the drive to skeggness - halfway there we got stuck in traffic. Sitting there for 20 mins with no movement - the engine was off at this point we had been there that long - bang. The idiot behind drove into the back of us. Lots of swearing and cursing later the damage was mininal infact i was able to buff the damage out.

4 hrs later and another 40mins traffic jam we finally arrived at butlins. 

We were allocated a pitch in a massive field between two other vans - the first thing i noticed was the grass had been cut but not cleared.

We set up and went to fill the aquaroller - this took 20mins just to fill the bottle. the pressure was all but non existant. I noticed how poor quality the toliet waste was as well. Never mind get on with it.

After a quick pitch (knees cut to shreds with dead grass) we decided to check out the shower and toilet block.

OMG it was like the toilet in trainspotting (ok i am eleaborating a bit but you get the drift). It was flooded, blocked toilets that didnt flush correctly, smelly, no it stank, there was no hot water and the cold water was the type you have to hold the button in to get anything out of it, as soon as you let go it stopped. 

While we were looking around at the other vans i was amazed how close some were - they could open the windows and take some stuff out of someones elses van in someplaces. Then the amount of people not using grey waste carrier was incredible.

One big family had set up a marque with full sized fridge freezers etc i kid you not the amount of gear they had was probally more than we had in our first flat. This family also climbed one of the lamposts to fit a large tv ariel.

We were there for the entertainment so off we went. Being august it was incredably busy - but we didnt see a single redcoat - the centre stage was standing room only and "reds" was also busy but no entertainment. 

I had the brain wave of looking in the cinema - WTH they are now charging??? Butlins used to be all inclusive and now they are charging for the cinema. This is when the penny dropped, lots of stuff now is chargable, the pool and fair with the only ride i wanted to go on was broken down (waltzer) were included - funny enough the waltzer never ran until we were driving down the road going home.....

In the fair the largest part was taken by the go karts which again was chargable 

The swimming pool was fantastic, and was basically the only thing we used on the site, the kids wanted to use the pool from the moment they got up to the min they went to bed, shame it closed at 5. 

With CC sites the kids explore and do what they want to do like we used to when we were kids, at butlins the kids were not intrested in playing in the field - there was no playground and the kids were either in the entertainment centre or in thier vans. 

The costs were ott for a british holiday camp - ferry meadows was the better value by a country mile. 

The kids enjoyed the arcades - funny that butlins seems to do this the best - acades everywhere but they cannot clean a toilet / shower block.

If you are wanting to visit butlins with your tourer do it soon as they are developing it in the next two years and tourers will no longer be welcome on the site - they are putting statics on there, my advice is save your money and go elsewhere. We are glad we done it but we will be sticking to cc sites or cl from now on.