A few weeks ago we were asked if we wanted to have a lovely weekend away with Park Resorts. It sounded like a great idea to have a cheeky weekend away before the madness of the last few weeks of term hit us so we said yes, chose the lovely sounding Cayton Bay Holiday Resort in North Yorkshire and set off on our travels one rainy Friday at the start of July. We’re not usually bothered by the weather so the rain didn’t really worry us – we just packed wellies and rain coats along with the scooters and the Summer Bag.
Before I start, I don’t have as many photos as I would usually have to share with you considering this is a review but you’ll see why in a minute!
Checking in at Cayton Bay was really easy and the site is so well signposted that we found our caravan in no time at all and we were pleasantly surprised to find that our kitchen had been stocked with everything we needed from fresh bread and bacon to wine and strawberries. The caravan itself was lovely and clean and there was plenty of space for us all to live comfortably for the weekend without getting in each others way too much. We had three bedrooms – one double and two twins and again they were spacious enough to stay in comfortably with the beds being much more comfortable to sleep in than I would have expected for a caravan.
We arrived late-ish on the Friday so didn’t do too much on the night other than pop out for a quick meal in the on-site restaurant – they have some great offers on in there and the food is tasty although had we not been so tired, we would have just cooked something in the caravan as the kitchen was really well equipped.
Saturday was mainly about being in the pool as the kids love being in the water and wanted to stay in there most of the day. We booked them a session on the water jets at £5 each as a treat but out of the five jets they had, only two were working so they did spend a lot of time in the water waiting for a turn. This did take away from their enjoyment a little bit but they did love the water jets so it was worth it I guess.
After tea we went to watch the evening entertainment and play Bingo and we were surprised at how easy it was to get a seat – usually when we’ve been places like this before it’s a nightmare to get a seat on a night if you’re not there early so this was great! The Bingo was quite expensive at £16 if you wanted a full card for every game but it’s a link up with other Park resorts so the prizes are high enough to reflect the higher prices and we were just one number away from a big win at one point so it could have been a good investment! 😉
The entertainment looked quite good and had the kids been younger, I’m sure they would have been madly dancing and learning new party dances with the best of them. You could see in the younger children’s faces just how much they were enjoying themselves but our two just wanted to eat snow cones and play passes with a flashing bouncy ball for some reason.
The next morning we found ourselves back in the pool area sat watching the kids playing in the pool as the rain came down quite heavily outside. All of a sudden the lifeguard blew his whistle and told everyone to get out of the pool and move to one end of the pool building. Lots of people were pushing to get our of the pool as no one had any idea why they were being told to move. The kids got scared at this point as some people really are rude when there are young children around and they were pushed and shoved a little trying to get out of the pool. At first I thought it was something small and that we’d be allowed back in soon enough so I didn’t really worry to much and just stood there with the other people but than a lady (a guest, not a member of staff) told us that the roof had collapsed in the amusement arcade which was part of the same building that the pool was housed in.
We didn’t get any communication from the staff although I do understand that they may have had other things to concentrate on as by this point they were using big sweeping brushes to sweep the (dirty) water that had come through the roof into the swimming pool.
I’ll be honest, at this point I started to panic, especially when a man in a suit came to look at the ceiling in the swimming pool part where water was dripping a little bit. I was trying to get the kids dressed in an area filled with people worrying about what was going on and there was still no communication from the staff.
By this time, the swimming pool fire doors were open so we left, half dressed and went back to the caravan although as we were leaving I did hear someone say that they’d been told that the swimming pool would probably be closed for the rest of the weekend.
I just wanted to come home now as I had been quite scared and I certainly wouldn’t have wanted to go back into the main area after part of the roof had collapsed and other parts were leaking. We packed up the caravan in about ten minutes and were on the road soon after!
In their defence, the rain was torrential but I still wouldn’t have gone back in the building with the kids so we came home on Sunday morning instead of Monday evening as we’d planned which is why I don’t have as many pictures as usual.
I’ve spoken to the lovely people at Park Resorts since our trip and they’re happy for me to write about my experience as they will make sure that any necessary lessons are learned – apart from making sure the roof is strong enough that this doesn’t happen again, they really need to make sure that their staff communicate with people to stop panic. I was genuinely scared at one point for my safety and that of my children and I really don’t expect that on what should be a fun filled weekend!
