Butlin's Minehead - Our First Family Holiday

Last Monday we set off on our short break to Butlin's at Minehead, as part of my ambassadors role for the company this year. I have so much to say and so many photos to share that I will be covering my stay across more than one post.

As it was our first family holiday since the boys were born, to say we were a little excited was an understatement!! 

We set off in glorious sunshine and made the short journey to Minehead (via my Mum's house as we popped in for lunch en route) and arrived just in time for checking in which was 3pm for our accommodation (the gold apartments) although we could have entered the resort from 1pm had we decided to arrive earlier. 

As we approached Minehead, the unmistakable outline of the skyline pavilions on the landscape stood out and we pointed them out to Burton (Jenson fell asleep for most of the journey!) and whenever we saw the white pointy roof tops around the resort afterwards, Burton would point to them and say "there's Butlin's" even though the entire campus is Butlin's!!

As I mentioned in  a previous post  , we were given a gold apartment to stay in which according to a welcome desk member of staff is "posh" accommodation, when we went to the wrong office to sign in! From the outside the apartments look a bit like a beach hut with blue and white painted wooden panels along the exterior, and certainly stand out in a pleasing way. 

The interior is simple but contemporary and I was really pleased with the layout. A twin bedroom, a double bedroom, a shower room with a toilet, a lounge/diner/kitchen and a balcony which the boys enjoyed eating their snacks on and people watching. As part of our package we also had daily housekeeping, even if it always seemed to be when we would return to our apartment each afternoon for a cuppa and a little break from all the Butlin's excitement. I took tea bags and coffee with us but I need not have as each day we were left complimentary ones, and we were also given dishwasher tablets, washing up liquid, a tea towel and washing up cloth - things I would not expect to have given to us. It is little things like this which I think add to ensuring that their guests enjoy their stay. There is also a TV and DVD player in the lounge and a very small TV in the double bedroom. A clothes horse was also provided which was handy for drying our towels and swimming wear.

The great thing about the resort is that even though it is huge and has so many activities and buildings on site, nothing is too far to walk to and once you know your way around; everything which seemed a long way on your first night isn't by the next day when you have found a more direct route!

As part of our accommodation package, breakfast and our evening meals were included as part of the premium dining plan which was a great addition to our stay. We ate in the Yacht Club which was a self service buffet style dining hall which offered a wide variety of meals.

Breakfast - continental style, full english, freshly cooked omlettes and pancakes, cereal, toast, pastries, fruit, yogurt and fish.

Dinner - carvery roast, stir fry cooked to order, vegetarian option, salads followed by desserts, cheese and biscuits and ice cream from a machine which you could dispense yourself.

If you don't have meals included in your break there is not need to panic because there are a lot of restaurants and eateries all of which are child friendly from Burger King to Pizza Hut, from a pasty take away to a bakery which sold made to order sandwiches and pastries, to a coffee shop to a pub which had an amazing couple of outdoors adventure play areas to keep the children occupied while Mummy and Daddy enjoyed a drink and some free wifi connection

 and a fish and chips restaurant and a Spa shop where you could buy groceries. Oh and did I mention an ice cream parlour???

Being Butlin's there is always something going on to keep you busy and entertained from 8.30am until the early hours and there is something for everyone. Although, if like us and you have little ones then we were kept busy from 6.30am until 8pm!! The activity programme is packed full of things to see and do for all ages from the very young to the young at heart and we didn't manage to do all the things we would like to have done, and we thought we did well at attempting to do so!

There are daily live performances throughout the day in the skyline pavilion and a chance to meet some well know children's characters too and have a photograph taken with them.

Not to mention all the rides, the soft play, the sandpits, the swimming pool, the fairground, messy art, arcade machines, bowling, playground areas, football, volleyball etc.... honestly there are so many ways to be kept entertained. Once on site your holiday price does include an awful lot of free entertainment but you do need to pay for a few things like the bungee trampolines, the go karts, the sand diggers and such like but on the whole the majority of the events are included in your stay.

From the moment we arrived at Butlin's Minehead, the staff were friendly, helpful, courteous and polite. From the security staff on the gate who explained where we needed to park, to the reception staff who held the door open for us as we struggled with our luggage, the boys and the buggy entering the building and the cleaning staff who personally walked us to our apartment when we asked for directions. The poor lifeguard who very kindly cleaned up a little code brown incident which we incurred in the swimming pool showers (soooo embarrassing!).

However, what impressed both myself and my OH the most, was that when we got home and unpacked we realised that we could not find our iPad. I called Minehead's lost property department and explained my predicament and explained that we thought it had been left in the lounge (Burton left it on the sofa while he used the toilet before we exited our apartment). Half an hour later I received a phone call back and the iPad had been found and the member of staff we spoke to offered to find out how much it would cost to have the item returned to us in the post via special delivery, which we agreed to and paid the £8.75 postal charges.

 I did not expect Butlin's to offer to do this, I was assuming we would have to drive back and collect it in person. Butlin's customer care is top class and I appreciated it very much as sometimes the little things like these examples can be forgotten in many areas within the hospitality sector nowadays.

Was it all perfect?
Pretty much yes BUT there were a handful of little complaints but only really for trivial things such as:
>no chest of drawers in our apartment - wardrobes, bedside table and a dressing table yes but not really enough drawers to accommodate 4 people's clothes.
>no internet connection in our apartment -  which was a little annoying as it was available across the majority of the site with access to free wifi. Seeing as though most evenings were spent in our apartment while the boys slept, our entertainment was limited!
>the food in the dining hall could have been hotter - can't be helped as it was all self service I know
>more options for toddlers in the dining hall - like kids yogurts at breakfast and dinner instead of low fat ones, 
                                  - toddler friendly cutlery and plates/bowls
                                                               - I am sure Annabel Karmel meals were mentioned as part of 
                                                    the dining plan but we didn't see any in the Yacht Club 

Would we go again?
Yes please!
We all had such a wonderful holiday  and as I mentioned before there were still so many things we didn't do or couldn't do due to the weather or the boys ages.

Was it good value for money?
Yes absolutely.
 I appreciate that this break was free for my family and I but had we paid it would have cost us about £700 which when you consider all that is included in that price (house keeping, two meals a day each and all the entertainment and facilities) I think that is excellent value for money. We didn't actually need to take much spending money - just enough for some lunch (which I often didn't need maybe a light snack, as I had a cooked breakfast most mornings which filled me up), some rides, drinks and a couple of trips we made outside of the resort (more about that in another post).

Thank you Butlin's Minehead for such an excellent stay!!

*Here is a sneak preview of what my next post will cover*

My family and I received a free holiday as part of my role as a Butlins Ambassador.
All comments made about my holiday are my own and honest.