We decided to book a last minute holiday and was looking at caravan sites within the UK. We have been to Butlins a lot and our boys love it and we let them have their own way again this time and ended up at Butlins again. The thing they love the most about Butlins is the fact that we can sit in the main tent and they go into the sports bar and hire out a pool table and play pool for an hour. Upon arrival and settling into our caravan we headed straight over to the tent and our first stop was the sports bar and it had all changed, all the pool tables had disappeared and in it's place were tables. My son's looked so disappointed as they are at that age when they are too old for the baby stuff and too young for the adult stuff so this was always a good option for them. We knew from past visits that there was a games room so was hoping the pool tables would now be in here. We went a walk round to the games room and they were there. The problem with this option is it isn't the kind of room that you want to spend an evening in so we had to keep nipping them in here rather than it being more of a relaxed thing like it used to be when we could sit and have a drink and maybe watch entertainment or just watch them play pool. The other issue with the games room is that we never used to pay for snooker and it is now £5 for an hour and as snooker is a long game we would literally manage to fit one game in. I am guessing they are now charging for snooker because they have to charge for pool but it was a bit of a shock as we have never paid before. The other disappointment this time was the arcades. My children as I am sure with most people's children spent a lot of time and money in the arcade and at the end of the break they had over 2000 tickets, we went to have a look at prizes and have to say that it really was the worst gifts for value ever. For a pack of poundland LOL stickers they wanted 750 tickets. In Hemsby over the summer for 200 more tickets you got a £15 amazon voucher and for 500 tickets you got a proper football so as you can see in comparison these gifts are really poor. My children spent over £200 in arcade games between them and came away with 2 packs of LOL stickers (worth £2) which they were going to give as gifts and some sweets. It was truly awful. Food options for me were poor. I am gluten free and finding a snack around the complex is awful. I know the restaurants would have options but when we used to grab something snacky at lunch time there is literally nothing for me. The coffee shop there do jacket potatoes which I could have had which were about £5-£6 each but both times I went in they had sold out. Butlins really do need to look at gluten free options as there are a lot of people now through no choice of their own who need to eat gluten free. There are so many coffee shops now where you can grab a gf sandwich or some soup and a prepacked gluten free roll. The queues for everything were the worst they have ever been and yet the entertainment was also the worst choice I have ever seen. I can understand people queueing hours to see people like Diversity as we queued for 2 hours last time to see them but people were queueing for 4 hours for a pantomime and it just made the tent look even busier than it already was. I am not sure how Butlins can get away from this as people queue of their own accord but it does mean you either have to queue with them or not get a table. We didn't ever queue for entertainment as I was not prepared to waste my holiday queueing. I am not sure if the entertainment over the summer was different but normally there are some big acts on but this October half term there was nothing big on at all. The most exciting thing for us was going to be the Ed Sheeran tribute and as soon as he started singing people were looking at each other as if to say, "he sounds nothing like Ed Sheeran", he really wasn't good..... He may have been a decent singer but to be passed off as Ed Sheeran was bad advertising. We queued for 40 minutes in the rain to get into the swimming pool which is the longest we have ever queued and as everyone knows the Butlins pools are fantastic so it is worth it but this time because it was so busy it was hard to get a changing room and the floors were really mucky.
We left Butlins and actually felt like we hadn't had a holiday, it was just too busy and hectic and along with all the other little issues it just wasn't enjoyed as much as other holidays. If that had been our first time we probably wouldn't return and I am sad to say that.

I debated going to Butlins but was sold on their advertising on things to do in the daytime and evening. I will not go again. We stayed in gold apartment, it was okay but the beds were so uncomfortable, there was very little cooking equipment in the kitchen for a self catering apartment, the water was so hot you could not hold your hand into it, I burnt my arm on the shower pipe because it was so hot. We reported it but nothing happened. Some activities are booked on arrival but by the team we arrived every thing was booked up, though the activities were not really that exciting. The Halloween graveyard was a small fenced off area with a few tombstones in. We never made the evening entertainment as the queues to go in were ridiculous. We arrived in the dark and rain and the welcome was poor, it involves a printed map been given to you saying you are here and your accommodation is here, no proper directions, to be honest a complete lack of interest from the staff. The lighting around the signs to the apartments is so poor you have to get out of your car to read the signs. The age ranges for activities are also wrong, a 7 year old is not going to have the same interests as a 3 year old. The animal house consists of a few insects and reptiles, can be completed within 10 mins. The pool was nice but only open 10-5. The housekeeping staff and security/gate staff were lovely and friendly. The other staff were just there. I will not return, I would not recommend and I wish I had saved my money and booked a cottage as we spent more days out than on the site.