A weekend at Center Parcs Elveden - Part Two

A baby Moorhen in the waterways around the Village Square

Saturday morning we had a nice lay in, we'd taken some Quaker porridge pots to have for breakfast in the hotel room. You just add hot water and it saved us from going out for breakfast. We could of course have gone upstairs to the revolving restaurant, instead we went up for a peek on Monday morning but I didn't fancy it - I'm not a good traveller!

The bathroom

Back to Saturday, once 10am had arrived Lauren had eyes for only one thing again and that was of course the swimming. I couldn't argue as the weather was rubbish, so off we went and we stayed there most of the day. Again I only got in for about an hour and a half, Lauren discovered some slides (I forgot to mention all the slides and flumes and hot tubs in my previous blog - part one), we went on the lazy river, had a couple of spells in the waves, a bit of time outside, we played catch and dive with the weighted ring and then out I got and sat and read my Kindle with Lauren safely in my sights. She only really came out after she'd spotted someone with an Hawaiian Ice from the Canopy, a big bowl of ice drenched in brightly colours fruit cordials, she managed half of it, her tongue going an alarming shade of purple, before she returned to the water and before we knew it we'd been in there for 7 hours.

Once out, we looked for somewhere to eat dinner, we've been to Bella Italia plenty of times outside of Centre Parcs and as it was still late afternoon it had not had a chance to fill up yet.

Lauren and lasagne

I had my favourite Marco Polo, which I've blogged about before (here and here) although it wasn't up to it's normal standards, it wasn't very hot and the sauce was stretched too thin and Lauren had her favourite lasagne, she cleared her plate without complaint. As Lauren was having the dipping donuts for pudding included in her meal, I was convinced to try some cherry cheesecake which was tasty but a bit dry.

After dinner we headed over to the Sports Bar where I had a drink and Lauren had a play. We watched some people on the climbing wall and some badminton matches.

We stopped off at the Supermarket, which now boasts that it tries to match high street prices. The shop is like a co-op, similarly priced and stocked. It would have been no good to us on this trip but I do miss the deli and butchers that the shops used to house, rather than the rows of pre-packaged food. I guess they didn't have the turnover to warrant them, but that extra level of service seemed more in line with the Center Parcs ethos. We picked up some snacks and drinks and colouring and nothing seemed too outrageous in price.

We also had a look around the gift shop and sweet shop looking for presents for home.

So after showers all round, we managed quite a respectable bedtime, which was a good job as we had to meet a ranger at 7:30 on Sunday morning for a Woodland Awakening walk around the forest.

The finished article

More of the room

When we got there it was quite evident that the weather had put everyone else off and maybe people were having a lie in ready for the big England football game that night, but anyway, we were the only people on the walk. We checked with the ranger and he checked with us and we all agreed that despite the low numbers and terrible weather we would still go. He gave us a pair of binoculars each and off we went. The guests weren't the only ones put off by the weather, the birds and animals were in short supply, but we did manage to spy the obligatory squirrels, along with a pheasant, some jays and a deer with her fawn. The ranger was full of fascinating facts and it wasn't long before he was bidding us goodbye in the Sports bar where we were served with Danish pastries, a hot chocolate for Lauren and a black coffee for me.

Next we picked up our now fired pottery and went back to our room for a bit of a rest, before heading to the pool for more hours of fun, getting out early enough to get a good place in the Sports Bar for the England game. We ate in the sports bar as it seemed the most convenient thing to do, there was plenty of additional seating and big screens up for everyone to get into the spirit of the game. Unfortunately, a few boys got a bit too much spirit and after a while the friendly cheering turned into a bit of non family friendly verbal abuse, so at half time I dragged Lauren from the adventure play area and we headed back to our room to watch the second half tucked up in bed.

Monday morning and it was time to depart, no chance of a lie in as we were woken by the terrific sound of F15's taking off from Lakenheath, giving us an idea of what to do for the morning. We were packed and out by the given time of 10am, we stopped just down the road at Elveden Estate for a bit of retail therapy, before searching out Lakenheath and momentarily seeing the F15's landing before starting on our journey home.

In summary we had a great weekend, we would have rather have stayed in a villa, the room was tired but adequate for our needs, the thing that Sherwood did so well in December but Elveden failed on was the food, but in all honesty the restaurants appear to all be franchises so there's no need for it to be that way, maybe it was an off weekend for them, who knows, will I go again, already booked for later in the year, but in a villa this time.

A big climb!