Center Parcs - user review

We recently had a week away, the first time we've been away as a family (just the three of us) since our holiday in the Cotswolds which led immediately into my last relapse. In the two years since, we've been on holiday but always with a rolling cast of (very willing) family members. Maybe we've overreacted but as is probably obvious, it knocked me for six.

After going backwards and forwards about going abroad (potential nightmare, even without a three year old in tow!), we decided to go to Center Parcs.  In the past we've always been a bit unsure about these places - there's something of the Young Christian Camping Activity Weekend about it all. We did look at it when Evie was a lot younger but she wouldn't have been able to do many of the activities. These days, our main challenge is wearing her out! So it seemed like a good idea.

Because I was knee-deep in relapse by the time we drove back from the Cotswolds two years ago, we decided not to travel too far, settling for a week at the Sherwood Forest site.

(An aside - we actually managed to lose AN ENTIRE forest on the way there. But that's another story.)
 

map of Center Parcs in Sherwood Forest

BOOKING
The Sherwood Forest Center Parcs site is 400 acres. I still really have no concept of what that actually means but it's NOT SMALL. All the lodges are somewhere in those 400 acres, with most or the facilities in the middle. The whole point of Center Parcs is that there aren't any cars on site - you pull up, unpack, and park up all the way OVER THERE.

Because of that, Mrs D called the booking office to see what our options were, having a disabled person in our party.
 
We were told that the best option for us was to pay a £50 premium to guarantee a lodge in the centre of the park, so we wouldn't have to walk too far once we'd got settled. Mrs D said, "as my husband is disabled, is this really the only way we can be based more centrally?" (response: "Is he a wheelchair user?" Nurrrr....).  

Regardless, no dice. Hmmm - not a great start.

When we finally got there (we lost a FOREST) we unloaded and I went to park up in a disabled bay... then completely lost my sense of direction. I found Guest Services who pointed me in the right direction, but they also mentioned that there was a shuttle bus available for guests with limited mobility.

When Mrs D called to book, there was no mention of this and they are strangely quiet about it in brochures and on the website.

I can understand they're trying to create some kind of Pedestrian/Cyclist Utopia, and shuttle buses bombing around might ruin it, but if I'd had more trouble walking we might have thought twice about booking at all. Knowing that there are OPTIONS might be nice for other disabled visitor, as we could've booked one if we wanted to visit a location on the far side of the site.

First thing to say, 400 acres or no, the map of the Sherwood Forest site is incredibly misleading. In a good way.

Once we'd got settled in, we found that everything was easily walkable, and parts which looked like a good 10 minutes walk were more like 2 minutes away. The landscape in the centre is very flat, and while there is a lot of "CYCLIST ENTITLEMENT" (no cars!), there are predominately lots of smooth footpaths which are pedestrian-only.

We had an amazing time. Being in the middle of the forest was beautiful and we were surrounded by loads of animals (Evie loved this) - there was even a duck pond a handful of steps away from our lodge. There was lots to do but we didn't try to organise too much in advance, which turned out to be a good thing. Although we were busy every day, we still had a really relaxing time. And the subtropical swimming pool is immense, so you need to allow some time to spend in there.

The day before we came home, we went into Guest Services to see about arranging a bus to pick me up in order to collect our car in the morning - check-out was an ungodly 10am and we thought this might be a handy bit of fatigue management - certainly better than walking across the park, driving to the lodge, loading up, driving home...

I called security... and they said that they didn't have any drivers in for the next day. Considering the fact that the arrivals and departures are pretty much all on the same day, this seemed crazy. I explained that the reason I was enquiring about the bus was that I am disabled (response: "Are you in a wheelchair, sir?" Nurrrr....), and then he asked if I had a Blue Badge, because if I did, I could park outside our lodge overnight and load up in the morning.

Again, I understand that Center Parcs is a car-less utopia (and it was one of the most attractive things about it for us) - but it would've removed a lot of our worries about packing up and leaving with a 3-year-old at TEN A.M, followed by an (admittedly short) drive home if someone had mentioned this in advance. Maybe they don't want people to take the piss, which we certainly didn't want to.

AN ASIDE - Evie was quite poorly on the last day and we wanted to get her checked out at the Medical Centre (because there is one - genius) so after loading up we used the car to drive to the nurse and ensure we had a good last day (you can use the facilities all day on arrivals and departure).

ANOTHER ASIDE - as I was loading the car up, a Center Parcs car pulled up to take me to the car park... I was very grateful and felt so sorry for the security guard who'd had to drive over to us. But still - a bit of communication wouldn't have been such a bad thing. (NB there wasn't a phone in our lodge and the mobile signal was non-existent).

CONCLUSION
(this is only based on our experiences of the Sherwood Forest site)
Our holiday at Center Parcs was absolutely perfect - we had a proper rest while still doing all kinds of exciting things, and came away feeling fully recharged - which is kind of what you want from a holiday, isn't it?

As an organisation, Center Parcs (rightly) shouts about how family friendly it is and we found it all totally do-able with a pushchair - but as there were a number of disabled people and wheelchair users there, maybe they should shout more about how Accessible they are?

There are so many ways in which Center Parcs is ideal for people with mobility issues, which is why it was so disappointing when they got a few things wrong. As mentioned above, the paths in the centre are predominately smooth, so I can imagine they are perfect for wheelchair users - but if disabled people think there are no transport options in and around the site then they might not consider going.

Again I can understand why they might 'soft-pedal' the transport on site, but maybe a question on the booking form about additional needs could trigger a phone-call (or email) from someone to explain the options which are available.

National Trust sites usually have a kind-of manned electric golf buggy available for guests with limited mobility - maybe this might work better than buses and vans at Center Parcs. Better for the environment, too!

We understand that the centre of the park is prime real estate, so the £50 premium makes sense - but to stay anywhere else was not an option for us. The fact that our best option as was to pay the £50 just seems a little "Non-Inclusive" - not asking for special treatment, but as I say, to stay anywhere else wasn't an option.

There are a lot of accessibility statements on the Center Parcs website.

But they're not exactly front-and-centre - you really have to look for them (they're below the fold at the bottom of the page, in a long list in small text - see image) and the onus is on the guest to look and make enquiries.

One of the parts of their Accessibility Statement is a pledge to:

Provide information to guests and prospective guests upon the accessibility of our sites, goods and services in a manner that best enables them to access our facilities and services appropriately.

Well, that didn't really happen for us.

It didn't impact on our holiday to a huge extent, but then our access requirements are pretty low.

We had a lovely holiday and are already planning our next visit. But when Center Parcs gets so many things right with regards to Access, it's just a shame that they don't make more of it.

I'd be interested to know if anyone has had experience of other Center Parcs sites.

I'd ALSO be interested to know if anyone has read this far!!!

take care

It's Carers Week at the moment - "an annual awareness campaign celebrating and recognising the contribution made by the UK’s 6.5 million carers who look after an ill, frail or disabled family member or friend".

Following the birth of our daughter and a period of maternity leave, my wife went back to her job at a local arts centre for two days a week. This had always been the plan up until The Child went to school full-time - we're lucky to have two full sets of healthy Grandparents who live nearby and who are only too happy to look after their Granddaughter!

The fact that her return to work coincided with RELAPSE 2012: Electric Boogaloo, coupled with the fact that our daughter is likely to be our only child, subsequently meant that Mrs D decided to step back from her career and concentrate on being a full-time Mum.

My wage is marginally bigger than hers was, plus she thought if she could run the house and do all the boring HOUSE-KEEPING stuff that we used to have to do at the weekend, it would enable me to rest up if required. And if I did feel OK, we would be able to do NICE STUFF as a family.
Obviously, living on one-wage is not without its constraints and issues but the fact is, it works us (most of the time) - we cut our cloth accordingly (but don't often go without).

I don't think Mrs D would ever have called herself my Carer by choice (more of a 1950s Housewife) and my care requirements are (at the moment) minimal - as long as I'm not knee-deep in relapse, that is. And when that's the case (touching wood furiously), the one wage we have coming in could... well, STOP coming in.

That's always been at the back of our minds, so we were intrigued to read about Carer's Allowance in this article in The Guardian last year.

As I'm currently receiving Disability Living Allowance with a 'care' component at the 'middle' level, we found that we did qualify*. Plus Carer's Allowance can be backdated for up to three months if you began caring before you applied.

So do make sure you claim your carer's allowance if you are eligible!

(obviously the Coalition Government - and really, Lord, why are we still here? Is this really the best of all possible worlds?? - is trying to shave off as much as they can from the benefits budget - so some or more likely ALL of the above may change over the next year or so.)

 * AN ASIDE - I was instructed by numerous health professionals to fill in my application for DLA by talking about my symptoms on the worst of days - knee-deep in relapse, unable to wash, walk, prepare and carry hot drinks, etc. So that's why my care component is slightly enhanced.

To finish, this is one of my favourite songs of recent years!

circle of truth

Another brilliant film from the people at Shift.MS to mark World MS Day - fantastic to see a couple of famous faces in there too!

Watching this, I really felt for Gen - I wish I'd kept schtum, rather than bursting into tears in a staff meeting.

Ah well, 20/20 hindsight is a wonderful thing.

But also I recently had to do something very similar in a session at work - the horror, the horror...

Anyway - enjoy!

'Circle of Truth', directed by David Allain and written by Matthew Edmonds, explores some of the challenges that people with MS face when deciding whether or not to disclose their diagnosis to their colleagues. Produced by Rankin Film Productions, the cast includes Simon Day from The Fast Show, BAFTA-winner Lauren Socha, and Skins actress April Pearson.

this isn't happening

Ivan the Terrible's hair shirt (16th century). The tsar wanted to die like a monk.

Warning: this post contains language.

You find me today in a typically self-loathing mood. The main reason? WALKING INTO WORK. Again.

I'm currently averaging one day a week walking in. It's really not enough. But I know that I'll always find an excuse - "ooh, it looks like rain", "I didn't sleep well last night", and so on and so on..

To be frank, that's all bollocks.

The main thing that stops me walking into work is fear of unlikely events happening which were talked about enough in my CBT sessions a couple of years back.

Knowing how unlikely these events are doesn't mean that I can switch my brain off. The old drip-drip-drip of unhelpful thoughts can keep any of us indoors.

The day I walked in this week I had a Board Meeting - I finished at 8pm but I felt great all day. Walking home with a friend, he actually struggled to keep up with me.

I know the benefits. I KNOW the benefits.

I just need to bloody crack on with it. And posting this to you is - in a sense - a way to embarrass myself into doing it.

To offer a bit of much-needed perspective, here's a poem which I picked up on Twitter earlier. One of my old Freelance jobs was to do with Literature Development in the East Midlands, and part of that involved me working with Jo Bell. She's a poet and was formerly Director of National Poetry Day - as a boat-dweller, she's currently Canal Laureate for the Poetry Society.

As I mentioned in my last post, any song lyric can mean something to anybody at any point in their lives - see great misunderstood songs of all time like "This Land Is Your Land", "Born In The USA", "You're Gorgeous".

(although Ms CrankyPants I'm still waiting for your interpretation of "I Can't Go for That (No Can Do)")

And the same can obviously be said about poetry.

But this poem - "This Isn't Happening" by Anthony Wilson - is a remarkably accurate portrayal of what happens inside your head when you're handed a medical diagnosis which your brain cannot and will not compute. It certainly took me back to my own.

This is not happening. It happened. Past tense.
One day, every day, eight years, a minute ago.
When they told me, they said, they are saying.
Mr Wilson. Anthony. (Tony). Darling. My lover.
It looks like. If you could. You have great veins.
Here is a gown. Here is a bag. Here are your pills.
Yes, you will. Yes, you will. It will, yes. All of it.
We don’t know. (We will never know). We don’t know.
No. Because. Maybe your genes. More likely your.
It’s best if you. If you can. We advise it. Everyone.
One day, that day, this, after another, today, May.
I am not angry, was not, shall not be. But I am angry.
Today, when they said ‘Actually…’ A minute ago.
With perhaps and maybe. Not No. We love Yes.
Yesterday. When it happened. (Present tense). Now then.
It left, it is leaving, it never. I am still waving goodbye.

(view the poem on Anthony's website)

Anthony was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a cancer of the lymphatic system, at the age of 42. Thanks to him for being gracious enough to let me share this here.

the perils of shuffle

My introduction to the world of blogs and blogging came in the "halcyon" days of the mid 90s. I can't remember the first ones I read but my main interest was the world of the MP3 Blog - how curiously dated that sounds now!

Songs from sites like Bubblegum Machine and Spoilt Victorian Child are still in my collection - either the original files or because (as was often the case) I bought the music in a Real Format.

These sites had something of a sharing, curatorial ethos - similar to the old Compilation Tapes I would force into the hands of friends and potential / actual girlfriends. The blogs seemed to be more generous and personal than simply banging a complete album into a zip file for anyone to download (although it has to be said that those sites have their place too *hem hem*).

Anyway, I persuaded the other members of my band to do one called Domino Rally - as a group of fairly young men with very few responsibilities we had a healthily competitive attitude to finding and sharing new music. And - my logic went - it would enable us to promote our band as people with interesting opinions and taste.

We started the blog in 2005 - our last album of new music was released in 2004 and we played our last gig in 2006. So that worked..? But the blog carried on for a while, even if it was eventually only me posting on it

For reasons too long to go into here, I deleted every single post and comment in 2009.

And for reasons unknown to myself, I've been spending a fair amount of time uploading the posts again...

As part of that, I'm creating a Spotify playlist for most of the songs and it has been really nice to listen to them again and recall a time when music was still the main focus of my life.

This is a song which I heard for the first time in an age (my original scintilating prose is here):


Now I know full well that I was tired and emotional (a plateful of MS Fatigue with seconds) when I heard it. And I also know that any song can be made to mean ANYTHING to ANYONE at ANY POINT in time, depending on what you read into it. But the lyrics really stopped me in my seat the other day:

Oh, just want to push somebody
Your body won't let you
Just want to move somebody
Body won't let you
You want to feel somebody
Body won't let you
Who, who, who do you talk to?
Who do you talk to?
Who do you talk to?
When your body's in trouble

I guess I was having a physically frustrating day!

On a similar musical tip, I was shuffling away quite merrily at home when this song came on.



A beautiful song. The album this comes from was released around the same time as my diagnosis and this song in particular was in HEAVY ROTATION on BBC 6 Music. While I was being cheerily stoical about my diagnosis, my soon-to-be wife was trying to process it all for herself.

I know that she found this song comforting and not-a-little cathartic at the time. It still makes me sad now, but it has a soothing, almost uplifting feel to it. Like looking out to sea and feeling that your problems don't really mean all that much in the great scheme of things. I think it helped Mrs D come to a feeling of acceptance.

I remember we went to see Richard Hawley at Nottingham's sweatiest venue the Rescue Rooms shortly after - it was nice to hear a man with such sophisticated, honeyed tones greet the audience with "F*ck me, there's a lot of you!"

whining about walking AGAIN

My recent post about parking got some interesting feedback on Twitter from the MS Trust and MS Society. Also the guy above who - and I may be being a tad oversensitive - seemed to be accusing me of some kind of sense of entitlement.

Yes, it might be my choice but I sometimes don't have a choice about how I travel to work - sometimes if I want to get to work on time and do a good job when I'm there, driving is the only option (and one which I really don't want to use).

*Harrumph*

The following week I managed the walk on Monday and Tuesday - I have no idea when the last time was that I managed to walk two days on the trot.

But by Wednesday I was really feeling it. The week previously a colleague had mentioned that I could probably park in an alley-way at work, so I decided to try that.

With one thing and another, my colleague had neglected to tell me that this wasn't going to be an option every day. So I found myself having to find a different space a couple of hours into my working day.

I went 'round the corner and noticed a sign like this - something about the wording struck me as a bit odd, so I returned to work and got on the City Council's website. Where I found the following -

In Derby, Blue Badge holders have
Free and unlimited parking in: 

• areas covered by on-street charging and limited waiting 
• areas covered by residents-only parking schemes

So basically - as long as I see one of those signs, I can park all day for free, without having to move my car every three hours. I called the Council and they explained to me that this was the case.

Yay... I guess...

Except since last week, I haven't walked in once.

Today was the first day I managed to do all my many necessary (?) checks and stops:

• have I had a wee?
• have I taken my Solifenacin Succinate, to prevent needing another wee?
• have I got my Orthotic Stocking and walking stick?
• one last wee?
• have I had a poo? 
• now wash your hands!
• is your bag ready? (many thanks for the sandwiches, Mrs D)
• what about one last try at that wee, JUST IN CASE?

Which basically meant that I got to work at around 9.15 today - not a massive problem and people do understand.

But the walk in this morning was SO ridiculously hard - I really struggled with lifting my foot and by the time I got here I was utterly banjaxed.

So today's lessons:

1. If you have a Disabled Person's Parking Card, make sure you understand the ways in which it can be used - when I think about all the time I've spent driving home at lunchtime when I could have stayed in one place all day...
2. Don't underestimate the benefit of a decent night's sleep - ours has been interrupted pretty much every night this last week (not the lovebirds, other stuff)
3. If you try to get more active (the old "Use It Or Lose It" argument), for God's sake keep it up - I really feel that I've allowed myself to retreat a couple of steps, just by having an easier option. 

And if you promote a post in order to get a reaction from people, you've got to be prepared for whatever that reaction might be.

Either that or stop putting things online!

social mobility, where art thou?

So the ongoing saga of 'Steve Getting to Work' has taken a new turn recently.

I've continued to walk in occasionally but sometimes it's just not going to happen (we all have those days) so I'll take my car and park across the road for my designated 3 (and a bit...) hours.Then I'll nip out for lunch, come back and park for the afternoon.

This can be particularly useful on days when I have meetings around the city - it's bad enough going to meetings without worrying about being a stumbling, sweaty mess (or worse) when I get there.

The sign at the top of this post appeared in all Derby city council-run car parks at the start of March. I've known this was coming for a while, from about the time that I had to pay for my three-year Blue Disabled Persons Parking badge - £10 for free parking is a pretty good deal.

But no more.

I called the number which trumpeted 'discounted season tickets' - and it isn't even a season ticket.

It's a (free) card which you can flash at the ticket machine which gets you 20% off your parking.

(Annoyingly to get this, you need to take your current Blue Badge to a different car park, which has never offered free parking for disabled drivers - or you could display your Blue Badge and park in the disabled bay across the road - but then you need to take in your Blue Badge to get the discount card... )

Okay here comes the Maths:

• A regular 12-month season ticket for my chosen car park is £830.
• The all-day parking charge is set to rise to £7.10 - with my 20% discount, this would mean a daily cost of £5.68
• Daily charge times five-days a week for 48 weeks(ish) makes a rough annual cost of £1,363.20

So obviously a regular season ticket is a good deal.

But why advertise discounted season tickets when they don't exist?

I've always had a problem with people who view Accessible Car Parking schemes as some kind of perk which we are lucky to enjoy (some visitors may remember this from a closed-group on LinkedIn a while back).

As I wrote on the MultipleSclerosis.net blog earlier this year;

I think of [Accessible Parking] more as a LEVELLING OF THE PLAYING FIELD.

For example, if somebody without a health condition like MS wants to go shopping, and they live close to the city centre (as I do), they have a couple of transport options – they can drive or walk in. If I tried to walk to the shops, I’d be exhausted before I’d even begun to start complaining about having to go shopping.

My Blue Badge is still a total life-saver and I can still park on the street at various places around Derby - but walking in to work is going to have to be the favoured option while we're still living in the city.

Has anyone reading this had a similar situation where they are?