Good old Pontins Prestatyn, the location for the film Holiday on the Busses in the 70’s, and Still pretty much the same!
The site is pretty darn massive, and you will not have to leave site during your entire stay unless you wanted to visit local beaches or towns.
The Accommodation is Apartments, on 3 levels, popular, Classic and Club. All have a minimum 1 bedroom, with 2 beds, a pullout double bed/sofa, bathroom and Kitchen area. Popular and classic are check in at 4pm, and you will pay linen hire, and pre-pay electricity. Club is check in at 2pm, and all is covered, including a daily paper!
Last year Pontins was going under, but have been bought out by a massive hotel chain, who says they are pumping millions into all the parks. Unfortunately, I didn’t see too much of this on my visit from 24th June to 1st July. At the back of the park there are apartments being stripped out and refurbished, and there is a new indoor paintball area, but minor things like heaters easily knocked off walls, and 2 people told me their cookers do not work need looking into. The major complaint we had was the vast amount of litter around the club apartments.
Checking in was a nightmare! Instead of the club apartments own check in being open, this was done at main reception, there are about 6 windows there, we lined up for 10 mins at one window applicable to our initial only to be sent to another window for ‘club checkin’ where we lined up for just under 45 mins! The longest I have ever waited and I have been going there for 14 years!
It’s not all bad though, as usual, our apartment was clean as can be expected, and luckily we had no faulty equipment. For entertainments info, there is PTV (The pontins TV Channel) ... info all out of date and wrong, or, the notice board outside the fun factory... which bore absolutely no relation to what was actually happening. In fact on one evening they announced a comedy illusionist.... it never happened. BUT, the bluecoats as entertainers are excellent, and they did have some good acts, such as the mad Hatters, A comic that was brilliant, typical old-style club comic, and there was also a good female singer. Oh, and Zippy, George and Bungle from Rainbow! No complaints there at all. The children loved it! And there is always something going on for everyone, even off-peak as our visit was.
Swimming pool, restaurants, on-site shop, pub, (as opposed to entertainment bars), Chippy, food outlets... excellent. Service centre where you collect towels, change linen etc, could not be complained about even by Victor Meldrew.
Now on to the important part, Wheelchair access. In theory, no problem at all, there are dipped curbs and ramps throughout and there should be nowhere that you cannot get by chair (or with a buggy) HOWEVER... Most of the ramps have not been maintained in many many years, and the edges are broken off or worn away, you need to hit them with a hell of a thump to get onto them. The disabled chair lift to the snooker and kids play areas was out of service, and the ramp up to the pool is great, pity about the ledge to get over in the doorway and the very narrow platform by the outward opening door. Was it not for my son-in-law being there when I went to the pool I would have gone backwards down the stairs.
When booking, it is important to specify that you need a ground floor apartment. There is a £5 surcharge for this which is waived for disabled/chair users as long as you state this when booking! They will also provide free of charge a wheelchair ramp; again ask for it when booking.
On the whole, a great experience, the staff (aside from the litter pickers) works exceptionally hard and very long hours. You do leave at the end feeling like you have had a great holiday. I will of course be returning... in fact I am back at the end of August with my other grandkids.
7/10 but seriously needs some work doing to the minor things like the ramps around the complex, especially at the main buildings, and the litter problems.
