Pontins Hemsby

What a dump!!!!!!!!
It may of been cheap to book but they are quite right that you only get what you pay for. Even so I think we deserved better than this crap hole.
The stinking Queen Vic "pub" was only out stunk by the stinking "show bar".
I have been to scores of holiday camps which range in my opinion from 2/10 to 10/10. Well done Pontins at Hemsby for making my range complete with 1/10 (no lower option available suggest holiday watchdog add demolition to the range!).
There were no redeeming factors and this place needs to be dragged through the 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's to what people expect in 2008 as some sort of normal standard.

2 readers found this review helpful

Id just like to add a positive review about this centre it doesnt deserve all these bad reviews my kids love it the bluecoats the entertainment, the competitions too. they work so very hard and shouldnt have to put up with the general abuse that they recieve on a daily basis. We have already booked to go back next year and my children cant wait. its just sad that so many bluecoats have left and the ones that are left might not be there next season. but the shows and whoever the blues are next season im sure will do just as great job as they always have.

After holidaying every year at pontins hemsby as a child i decided thios year to take my own 2 kids there for the week. We arrived at 4pm were given our keys, upon entering our chalet someone was in bed and there possessions everywhere. We were then told we had to wait 2 hours for another chalet to be cleaned.After 2 hours we were then told the cleaners had found fault with the chalet so we were moved again and had to wait another hour for that one to be cleaned. Upon entering our chalet to say it had just been cleaned was a lie it was filthy. I have a 5yr old and 3 month old son, on sweeping the carpet the room filled with dust which made my kids gag. Half of the amusements/cafes were closed on the site, bluecoats were trying to bed single mothers away with their kids. There was no airness in the bluecoats choosing the kids where games were concerned as any child under 10 didnt get a look in. I am appalled by our encounter and things got that bad we cut our holiday short on day 3 and moved to the haven site in yarmouth for the remainder, which i could thoroughly recommend.Were not posh just a normal working class family but the place is tatty and filthy and very unorganised. Nearly everyone we spoke to there had the same feeling about the place and also said they would never go back there. Pontins what has happened to you i literally am a positive person but have nothing at all good to say about you.

Me and my family went to Pontins Hemsby and had a great time! After reading the reviews on here i was getting pretty scared! but once we got there we had a great time! We were checked in very quickly and arrived to a welcome pack of tea and coffee and money off vouchers. Our chalet was clean and looked fairly modern. The sofa bed was a bit lop sided but was ok to sleep on. The bathroom looked new and had a shower that you sat in with shower jel attatched to the wall thank god as we forgot ours! All towels and linen were clean and the cleaning ladies were really helpful giving us loo roll and new towels. We were right next to the main building which was brilliant and even though we were so close we didn't hear any noise at night. The place does look a little old and looks like it needs a bit of work on it but it's nowhere near as bad as other reviews have described it on here. All the staff were lovely, so much so that my little girl took a shine to the boy that worked in the halloween shop! all the Blue coats were brilliant with my daughter and the other children and really worked hard on all the shows. The restaurant and the bar are fairly priced and service was quick. There's always lots to do and the beach and arcades are only 10 mins walk away if you fancy venturing out. My 6 year old had such a great time that she cried when we left! and has begged us to take her back again. Me and my parter had a lovely time and we'll definatly be going back to Pontins Hemsby next year. I'd advise anyone thinking of going to ignore the reviews on here, if you have young children you will not regret it!

Me and my family ventured to Pontins Hemsby in August 2008 and had a fantastic time.
I never usually write on these boards but I felt I had to in regards to the bluecoats being called 'rejects.'
Like many people say here I believe they work so very hard and I work in a travel agents so I get to visit a lot of places.
One irish chap I spoke to had just come off a an american cruise ship, so they must employ decent blue coats.
The accomodation is not top notch but my kids love going there and they love going to see some of their favourite bluecoats.
I don't think this forum is to publically slander staff from anywhere.. The bluecoats were decent, hardworking and did their job well.

After reading the reviews on here, I have to say that we were nervous as we drove to Hemsby from our Northamptonshire base, with myself & the wife expecting an absolute flea-pit! We were booked Fri-Mon on a Sun deal, staying in Budget accommodation with 2 kids (5 & 3). This was sacrilege as far as the reviews on this site were concerned. I was checked in within 2 minutes!?! Strange…this supposedly took over an hour! Our apartment was on the 1st floor, a 1minute walk from all the amenities & had ample parking!?! Things were getting stranger! Granted, our apartment was on the basic side, but for a base for the weekend it was clean, had hot water, tv & best of all a bath. The sofa bed was a bit strange to get used to, but was comfortable enough. Now for Pontins itself. I have never been to a more friendly site. Hat’s off to every bluecoat employed. They were always smiling for the children, and for the evening entertainment, they gave 100% effort & were superb (I have been to Butlins & Haven & they are not a patch on Pontins). The bars/play areas/pool were well spread out, clean & well maintained. Drinks were fairly priced & even the shop wasn’t ridiculously priced. I was planning on going abroad next year, but all my kids are talking about these days is returning to Pontins! All in all, as long as you don’t plan on spending all your time in your chalet (& why would you, you’re on holiday), & you have children, then Pontins might well be for you. And my final piece of advice…don’t believe half the scare-stories that are on these review sites. If there are 700 chalets filled every week, & only 1 person writes a poor review every 2 weeks, the odds are very much in your favour that you will have nice holiday/break.

I am writing to complain about the accommodation provided for my family and me from
the 22nd to 29th August 2008.
My family and I were so looking forward to our holiday, but when we arrived at our holiday destination we were appalled at the condition we found our accommodation. We arrived at approx 20.00 hrs on Friday the 22nd of August, we received our accommodation key and instructions from the gate guard (to see reception in the morning).
- Accommodation - Finding our accommodation turned out to be difficult. the
accommodation and number was not visible from the road because they were
obstructed by trees.
Upon locating our accommodation we were met by peeling paint, cobwebs and
mildew up the stairs and landing, our first impression was that we were booked into
Budget accommodation instead of what we had booked. (Classic Accommodation)


- Living Room - Once inside our accommodation we discovered that it was not
properly cleaned. The carpet needed hoovering, there was wasps inside, settee
cushion did not match sofa and it was stained and soiled. Ther was only one single three drawer chest for a family of six.

Bathoom - had spiders. cobwebs throughout, a big hole under the towel rail,
loo roll holder was missing a part. (Nothing to hold the paper on)

- Kitchen - fridge missing rails and shelves in the door making it difficult to put all our
food away. Had to leave some out overnight.

- Bedroom - no hangers to store our clothes.
- The following morning my wife immediately pointed out the discrepancies to the
reception and was told that someone would come to see us. When a member of staff
arrived she said that alot of the discrepancies were out of her hands, but she would
see what she could do.
When the maintenance men arrived we were told that all the sofas in stock were the same or worse. So we had to settle for what we had. There was no budget or resources
to replace anything.
We immediately brought this to the attention of the duty manger (Shelley) and she
said if the maintenance men said there were no more sofas in stock she could not
do anymore.
My family and I have been doing these holidays for over 20 years and I must say
this accommodation was the worst.
We are aware that these holidays are not expensive, but we do expect our
accommodation to meet certain standards.
The fact that we paid extra to upgrade from Budget to Classic we expected better accommodation. If we were in classic accommodation, I hate to see
what budget would look like. We heard similar complaints from other guests.
- Convenience store - My son was given a five pound note that had been defaced (part
missing) We took it back to the store and the manager refused to take it back. She
checked to see if the part missing had been turned in before passing this matter on to
the duty manager (Briony). After explaining the matter the duty manager said
that we could not prove that we had received the five pound note from there and that
all
staff were trained to inspect every note. She refused to ask the cashier on duty
(Steph) at the time if she had given my son the de-faced five pound note. She
repeated her earlier statement that
we could not prove that the cashier had given us the five pound note (which made us feel that she was accusing us of lying).
Maybe we as customers should apply their training when receiving our change and not take it for granted that we are being
given the correct change and no defaced notes. What happened to the customer is
always right?
The standard of accommodation which we were forced to accept detracted
considerably from our enjoyment of the holiday.
NOTE: Could not re-locate due to the long Bank holiday weekend.

I was actually pleasantly surprised by Pontins Hemsby. I've never been before, I was dragged along last minute and was expecting the week to be total torture but it wasn't too bad. My first thoughts where “god this is tacky” but actually I had a really good time. I would say though only book a Club room, not classic or basic. I heard terrible stories like the below reviews of mould and filthy carpets and even so my advice would be only book club. Walking past some of the other chalets though i did think "thank god my cousin didn't book them!” But thankfully our room was fine. It was clean and looked fairly new inside. The carpet was fine, the sofa bed was a bit old and dipped a bit but was ok to sleep on. The bed linen was clean, the bathroom was spotless and everything in the kitchen worked and was clean, although the saucepans looked a bit old and horrible so we didn't use them. Overall the accommodation for us was ok. No signs of anything like the other reviews. Outside the chalet however looked horrible. The paint on the balcony’s and railings just flakes off in your hand and makes the place look a lot worse, apart from that it was ok. The place just needs a good lick of paint and it’d be fine.
The food in the restaurant there is very over priced! But you do get vouchers on a whole range of things from food to drinks to activities to help with the costs. The food is ok, It's not terrible in anyway, but not great either. Thankfully we bought some food before we came so we didn’t eat in there all the time. Some things in the shop are overpriced, others are pretty cheap. The Trick or Treats toy shop toys are about the price you'd expect, but not too bad and the restaurant and shop staff were very friendly and chatty.
The Bluecoats were all really friendly and helpful even when they had finished their shift and really helped keep me sane! The entertainment was what i expected it to be, cheesy and child orientated but that's to be expected of Pontins whose slogan is "the party for children" and is bearable. My 7 year old cousin loved it, as it seemed all the other children did too. The entertainment acts aren’t anything amazing, but watchable and even funny. Like Britain’s Got Talent act Visage and some really great singers. What with the swimming pool, go carts, golf, hire carts, quad bikes and other things there’s always other things to do if you don’t fancy people dressed in big animal costumes dancing around.
Overall we had a good time and I’d go back again. The place does need a bit of TLC but from what we saw nothing too terrible. We had a laugh, our 7 year old loved it! And we had lots of fun.

The Room Was Discusting And Smelt of Mould,The Bed Sheets Smelts And Had A 16 Month Old Baby With Me Which i did not Want Her In This Room So i Made A Complaint For Someone To Clean It Again Or Move us.They Can Straight away And Cleaned And It Was Better Then Before, Apart From the Room The Staff Was Polite, The Blue Coats Made the holiday, I Would Go Again Only To Hemsby Because me and my mate had fun. Also there was alot of things to do like indoor swimming pool which my 16 month old enjoyed and tired her out.the blue coats always had sumtin for you to do.. they made the holiday thanx to them we all did not want to go home. They Made me Laugh And they always was friendly to everyone x

Agree with everything everyone has said. The place was awful. I would complain to them, but I'm too scared they'll send me some vouchers in compensation and believe me, I wouldn't go back there if someone paid me! A bluecoat said some people stay there for 2 weeks....4 nights was absolute torture. DON'T GO THERE.