The Caravan Club Annual Fiasco

Jim

Jim

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For those Caravan Club members who want to book a pitch with the Caravan Club next year you need to get a date in your diary. Because at 9am on Wednesday 7th December the madness will start. All the countries best pitches on those important holiday dates will be reserved in just a few hours. Book as many slots as you like, don't worry about not turning up:Doh:
 
And at 9.01 am their computer will no doubt crash again.

Steve--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
i have no idea why people pay the high charges at club sites
its stupid when the CLs are so good value for money
 
This shambolic and unfair system seems to expose the caravan clubs couldn't care less attitude to its members if that what you are now......................:swear:
 
It's madness.

As you say Jim , reserve away and don't worry if you don't turn up.:Angry:

Sod that.

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it's about time they took deposits like the C&CC

It's about time they took deposits like the C&CC.

I did not use one of there sites this year and only use them for the discount on the tunnel.. pays the cost of taking Ezzie .. same as the membership fee.. but may not renew this coming year.. not value for money.. the magazine is rubbish as well.

Bob
 
We are members but we never book in advance and have always got in where we want when we want. The worse one is Rowntree park York every time you try to book its full at weekends but on the 3 occasions we have stayed there we have just phoned and got in each time.

Dont think the mag is great for motorhomers but we have used a few CL sites and used them for booking ferry a few times each time saving more than the years subs.
 
Only members for the CL's as said main site bookings are a farce, they need to listen to their members and charge deposits.

Well said Jim, a bloody fiasco:Angry::Angry::Angry:
 
I'm so glad we're in a position where we can spend a third of the year away in our van without spending a single night on a CC site.

It's a farce.

Gerald

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Like others , we joined mainly to have access to CLs . On arrival , or during booking phone call a few of them never asked us for CC membership details .

Have tried maybe half a dozen of the larger CC sites . A couple of them were ok . But mostly we found them to be soul less , over priced , over manicured places .With an emphasis seeming to be on plastering the sites with cant do this , cant do that signs.
 
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I have to say we must live in a small bubble because I have not noticed many 'do not' signs on CC sites we've visited, though obviously I would completely block out anything to do with children, dogs, pup tents, toads or anything really that doesn't apply to us.

We have never found any warden to be other than friendly and helpful either - on one site, she said 'Just remind me, you did book in advance didn't you, cos at the moment there's a discount of X if you did' so I said, 'Well we did phone you last week' and she said 'Oh good.' (All within approx 2 minutes of our turning up on spec and saying we hoped they weren't full cos we hadn't booked .....)

On another site last winter another warden coming round in a morning after a mega frost, to check people were OK and to say the other chap was in the act of unfreezing the pipes to one of the taps and it should be operational at X o'clock - and apologising. The weather was hardly his ruddy fault, was it?
 
We've been members of the CC since we bought the van and, like Jenny, never had any hint of a problem.

We only used one main site this year and will tend to use CLs in future but that is mainly because our van usage has changed as we've become more experienced and we don't have the same need for full facilities as we used to think we did.

Having said that, if it is convenient to use a main site in future we wouldn't be put off from doing so.
 
We are members and not planning to leave yet but here's a couple of examples of the issues talked about.
We pre-booked for one of our favourite sites in July this year (Top Lodge) and the website told us that only grass pitches were available. The weather was dry (yes there were a few days like that this year) and so we risked it. When we arrived we found that about 50% of the hard standings were empty and the warden told us to choose any one of those.
Second problem - we had a huge grass area behind the hard standing and wanted to put our utility tent on that. The warden said we couldn't - it had to be on the hard standing, so we struggled to put it on the there. Nearly impossible even with rock pegs. We were very close to the grass pitches where we could have put the utility tent and our grass area was right away from any access to anywhere else. It's these small rules and the imperious manner of some wardens when they apply them that make it less attractive than some other options.
Our membership is historical because we used to be caravanners but the freedom of the motorhome makes us wonder whether the membership is worth it now.
 
Been members for nearly six years now as well as the CCC never had a problem with either but will let you know if i do :thumb:
 
sedge said:
I have to say we must live in a small bubble because I have not noticed many 'do not' signs on CC sites we've visited, though obviously I would completely block out anything to do with children, dogs, pup tents, toads or anything really that doesn't apply to us.

We have never found any warden to be other than friendly and helpful either - on one site, she said 'Just remind me, you did book in advance didn't you, cos at the moment there's a discount of X if you did' so I said, 'Well we did phone you last week' and she said 'Oh good.' (All within approx 2 minutes of our turning up on spec and saying we hoped they weren't full cos we hadn't booked .....)

On another site last winter another warden coming round in a morning after a mega frost, to check people were OK and to say the other chap was in the act of unfreezing the pipes to one of the taps and it should be operational at X o'clock - and apologising. The weather was hardly his ruddy fault, was it?
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Our experience also, though we tend to use the main sites out of peak season due to their cost - for a members funded facility I cannot understand why they are so expensive for members. Its cl's in summer. This seems to work well for us, the grass on some CL's can be difficult when wet and boggy out of the summer period, whereas we have usually had a hard standing when its been late autumn/winter on the main sites we have been to. We have been late arriving because of motorway accidents, and wanted to leave early (not too early) for ferry crossings - the wardens have always done everything to help us.
 
We are new to the caravan club and have so far only stayed at Durham, Stockton, and Melrose. We have found them all to be very clean and accommodating. The wardens at Durham Grange even rang to tell us our missing gas cowl had turned up and posted it to us.

Can it really be this bad? I thought that you could only 'no show' a couple of times and then you were banned from booking for a while?

We are not members of the CCC only the CC do people recommend them both?

We had our first taste of a CL last weekend and although it was a lovely setting and the owners were wonderful the shower block wasnt quite what I wanted!! Freezing:imoutahere:
 
the caravan club

ive not used them in 2011 at all in 2010 i tried to get in pembrey with the grand kids and they told me it was fully booked so we camped out side by the beach and for 2 days i look into the site and there were 6 empty pitches .i spoke to the lady in the office and she.didnt give a s###.and said i should have booked. so we only use cls now its a shame .
 
Well - I haven't stayed on a CC CL yet that had a 'shower block'.

However I have stayed on one with a beautiful indoor swimming pool - wave machine, jacuzzi, the works! - and showers LOL - which you could book for sole use for something ridiculous, a tenner?

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pre booking

Our experience with the caravan club has always been very good, apart from one site (Losehill) at Castleton, the wardens there, the big guy in particular are still in the old little hitler mode and rules are rules...:Doh:

We stayed on at least 15 different caravan club sites this year most booked the night befor and have been greated by welcoming smiles and helpfulness so don`t have anything bad to say about them. :BigGrin:
 
Big Change

We have been members of C.C for 25 years (time flies).All those years ago when you arrived at a site in a motorhome we felt we were treated like second class citizens by Wardens and Caravaners.But now find we are accepted more cordially ,still dont like all the petty rules so dont stay too often.


Presto:Laughing:
 
presto said:
...... dont like all the petty rules so dont stay too often...
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I've always thought the Club rules were more or less common sense so that everyone has a peaceful and enjoyable stay .. without rules , well, we all know what can ensue ..



Any rule in particular ?

Club Site Rules Broken Link Removed
 
We've been members of CC and CCC for about 5 or 6 years but find we're using CC less and less just getting too expensive. On a recent 5 week trip around the UK coast we only used CC sites twice and that was to do the washing we use Cls and CCC sites more now. Never found the wardens to be too bad most are very friendly there's always one prat in every job, give them a uniform and a title they get power mad.:Eek!:
 
The MCC are a far better deal, you don't even have to be a member to use their CL's, the only club that allows that.

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Hi Wildman, who are the MCC? Tried googling and an array of different sites come up none of which looks like they have anything to do with holidays.
 
Chris65 said:
Hi Wildman, who are the MCC? Tried googling and an array of different sites come up none of which looks like they have anything to do with holidays.
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You're obviously not a cricket fan? They have a brilliant CL in St John's Wood, ideal for central London, just be careful when there's a match on. :Rofl1:
 
We have always had a good experience at CC sites. Not a bad word to say.

However, the booking system is really abused and we reckon Jim hit the nail on the head with this one!!

The free nomadic style of holiday us motorhomers are accustomed to isn't really compatible with the regimented style of the majority of tuggers in our opinion!

The clue is in the name of the club when it comes to their loyalties!

CARAVAN Club!:BigGrin:
 
ScotJimland said:
I've always thought the Club rules were more or less common sense so that everyone has a peaceful and enjoyable stay .. without rules , well, we all know what can ensue ..



Any rule in particular ?

Club Site Rules Broken Link Removed
Click to expand...

The one that I have been irritated by is rule 7 about how you park on the pitch. The implication of the rule as printed is that you can park any way round, however quite a few wardens enforce this rule to make the site look neat without consideration of the comfort or convenience of the camper. At the Sheepcote valley site I was told to park broadside on to a blizzard in an almost empty site. After failing to sleep and worried the van might be blown over I moved it to face into the wind in the middle of the night and left in the morning.:Angry:

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