Late stay on pitches
just a quick point really.
Due to work commitments we can't get to site on Friday for a weekend so we often like to arrive on Saturday for 12 and see if we can stay later on the Sunday if the site is not busy. This isn't normally an issue, but we have been made to feel a bit cheeky for asking a couple of times.
I for one wouldn't mind paying a couple of quid extra on the booking if their was an option for a 3-4pm departure.
Anyone else have an opinion?!
Comments
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Leaving late on a Sunday! Whatever next!
Ollie, there's no need to feel that you're being cheeky. It's within the rules for wardens to use their discretion and allow you to stay up until 4pm without charge. Obviously, it depends on pitch availability and may not always be possible.
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Last year Maragowan our local weekend site had a blackboard up at the barrier stating the lastest time that everyone could leave often 4pm which was great as meant on Sunday we could semi pack and go for a walk come back and have our lunch then leave, this allowed us to get the most out of our weekend mini breaks. Now word has it the wardens at maragowan in 2016 will be back in 2018 so fingers crossed
Sandy
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But you can always ask any wardens, Apa. It's allowed.
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More than likely disagreeing with whoever wherever
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It's never cheeky.
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Oh, surely not!
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Absolutely no need to feel cheeky! However, a few would wish you to feel that way even though the rule are deliberately written to allow such slightly later stays when circumstances allow. I'm sure the vast majority of reasonable members who know the rules would not mind that legitatmate request, it's far better than just assuming!
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So, a Sunday just after noon arrival, perhaps planning a lunch in the local pub, is to be offered the left over pitches that the stay longer people rejected when they arrived earlier and not be given the proper choice of all the unoccupied pitches.
A fee for being allowed to stay late of around £20 seems reasonable, to be detucted from the first night fee of the other member who has been inconvenienced by having to move pitch later in the day.
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all thats great about CC in just a few words....
best pitch syndrome alive and well and living in Lanarkshire?, lack of empathy towards flexibility, adherence to strict arrival time to ensure a bow wave of 'best pitch' hunters, exhorbitant fee for a few extra hours on site for the weekenders (despite many of these not even being able to get there on a Friday due to work), a warm feeling (not) towards your neighbour (who's obviously nicked 'your' pitch)......
oh dear.....
Nav, surely you're ribbing.....
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Only once been inconvenienced by those staying on late. Following heavy rain over a period of a couple of days most if not all grass pitches were out. Many hard standings were flooded. Sun had come out and many weekenders staying until 4pm. Only a couple of non flooded hard stands free. Too be honest I found it amusing.
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It is very much a lottery. Arrive just after 12 noon and you might not have a choice of all available pitches. Arrive at 4:30 and you might only have the one. However, everyone knows what they have signed up for.
In the 12 years we have been members I can only rember not having an adequate choice once. On that occasion because of circumstances we arrived at 5:00 pm. There was only one hardstanding left and although plenty of grass, that was closing next day, so we would have to move. However, the hardstanding was OK, perhaps not what we would have picked but OK. We could have course of moved, but could not be bothered.😀 When I notice folk doing there third orbit of the site, I do think some are just a tad fussy.
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Good try BB but you'll never rip those entrenching tools from the 'diehards'
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Can't understand what all the fuss is about to be honest. Ask the Wardens if you can stay a bit later, the bookings situation will give the answer. If it is quiet, then shouldn't be a problem, don't forget to say thank you. If it isn't, accept this gracefully and perhaps choose a site that is less busy. Or pay for another night and leave when you want.
Common sense really, nothing that requires too much deliberation, or degrees of guilt.
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As you describe this is exactly the way the rule is written and applied. Only when quiet can you be guaranteed that legitimate slightly later stay mind so as said, accept the outcome, whatever it is in good grace!
To be honest it's only a fuss by a few.
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Agree with Micky and TDA, you can ask, they say yes or no. It's the rules we've signed up for.
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Indeed, I have asked to stay on site until 1.15 tommorow as arrival time for next site is 2pm and only 45 mi s away I suspect. Could ask to arrive there earlier but suits us just as well to have lunch here at Blackshaw Moor before departing.
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As someone who damaged my brand new van years ago squeezing past an arrivals queue of 12 outfits at Bowness (in its club site days) at 11:30 am. I must say how much of a nuisance I find the mindset of the "by noon at the latest" arrival tribe.
Having thought long and hard perhaps the best solution might be a premium of £15 for the deluge of "best pitch hunters" for arrivals between 12 noon and 1:00 pm, decreasing by £5 hourly until arrivals after 3pm will not pay a premium.
This would probably allow the rest of us to enjoy a leisurely stay until after lunch before we depart homewards and those arriving can save a few bob if they don't get up at the crack of dawn to set off in search of the one and only perfect pitch that they are convinced every site possesses.
Come on get real and if you don't take 2hrs to put up an awning have you considered changing pitch every day to experience a site from a differing perspective.
Perhaps we can have a discussion topic for the best pitch numbers on sites for each of these categories.
The best to hear the comforting bang of the toilet block doors
The best to be alongside the main road.
The best for the site shop.
The best for counting the numbers using the dog walk
The best for monitoring the speed of site traffic
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Kento, the attached photo is the entrance way to Bonterra Park (in Benicassim, Spain) where I am currently staying.
the entrance way is only 50m from a busy main road, as can be seen.
the site is full, but every day a series of vans leave and new arrivals take their place....a conveyor belt, typical of a high turnover (yet virtually always full) site...
so, why isnt there a queue way out into the Avenida de Barcelona every day as those arrivals sit there until 12:00?
the answer is that would be silly when there are spare spaces vacated by the earliest leavers...
so what happens instead?
the gate is opened (for each arrival) and the van parks just past reception, out of the way (there are two such vans in the photo) while they check in, look at the available pitches on foot, come back to reception and then drive to the pitch.
you, nor anyone else leaving at 11:30 (or any other time) would have no problem driving out as the obstructing queue isnt allowed to materialise (this would inconvenience leavers and other local traffic).
whilst there is a steady stream of arrivals every day, from around 9:30, there is always someone who has left and never a queue. two or three vans is the most you'd ever see in the waiting area as in the photo.
however, IF a space was not available and there were leavers due, the van could sit as in the photo for a half hour or so (perhaps having a coffee in the bar) until a van leaves......but this situation is a real rarity.
the reason this approach works here (with no fuss) is that arrivals are happy to choose a pitch from the relatively small number available at the time they arrive....no 'best pitch' syndrome here...
to have a system here where all arrivals were 'held up' outside the site until, say, 12:00, would cause chaos and probably lead to a riot
as it is, calmness reigns, with vans trickling out and in, and the folk checking out the pitches doing it (calmly) on foot, removing the need for extra vehicles to be driving around unnecessarily.
this site has an entrance no bigger than many a CC site and an approach road that would have the Policia Locale getting very grumpy should it get blocked, yet we hear over and over that a system 'like this' couldnt possibly work at CC sites.......
so, members being members (and MUST have the choice of ALL available pitches for that particular day) they will queue, the warden wont let them in and you (and others) have to run the gauntlet to get out and away safely....
good luck....I'll take calm any day
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