Reviews of Pontins Hemsby, Norfolk

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.

Just arrived back from Pontins Hemsby and what a nightmare it was! After a 7 hour drive down from Northumberland with 2 small children, arrived at our chalet to find the most dirtiest place imaginable. We had to go to the overpriced shop to stock up on cleaning products and clean the chalet from top to bottom. I Couldn't let my 10 month old baby play on the floor so the little fella had to stay in his buggy for the time we stopped in the chalet (which believe me was not long). The so called entertainment was BAD, you can see why bluecoats are really rejected redcoats cos who would honestly want to work for a company with so many complaints made against them.

The food was terrible from the fast food outlets and the restuarant not much better. No healthy food at all on offer for us or the kids.

As for them giving you passes when you left the site (which we did every day) who would want to smuggle anyone in.

It's about time they took a step back and looked at the place with fresh eyes.

Going back to Butlins next year (Hooray). Poor Fred Pontin would be turning in his grave at this squallor.

I can honestly say my heart sank as we arrived. Our room was basic to say the least. The carpet was filthy, with visable stains, the sofa bed had mould on it. The cupboard doors on the wardrobe were falling off. The beige bathroom suite was chipped and dull. I felt like I was being punished to have to stay there. I diddnt want my daughter to walk on the floor.



The pool was freezing with non attentive life guards, cold showers, broken tiles, I could go on.



The main hall had a pungent smell. The music was deafening and the entertainment was of very poor quality.



In short, only go there if you are desperate to get away from your normal surroundings and it really is all you can afford.



I myself actually felt depressed there and degraded. In my opinion it should be flattened.

Having read the reviews on this site prior to going to Pontins Hemsby, I was a bit apprehensive. However on arrival to our appartment (Budget), I was pleasently supprised. Overall the apartment was fairly clean, however the sofa bed could have done with a bit of a dust.



We got our selves £5 worth of electric but used no more than £2 worth. This was used for lighting, heat and cooking as well as the tv hair straightners etc.



Overall i would say that this holiday was good value at £89.50 from pontins direct for two people and 4 nights 5 days.

We have just arrived home from this camp earlier today.I can honestly say this place is exactly as I remember it when my parents took us there 35 years ago!The overall holiday was quite good,mainly because we went out all day every day.believe me,the previous contributors comments regarding the accomodation are no exaggeration.our chalet,(used in the very loosest of terms),smelt as we opened the door and once inside the overwhelming smell of damp mixed with stale urine was quite vile.Without even unpacking we went to reception to ask about changing chalet and were told this was the height of the season and not possible.Not wanting to disappoint our children we went out and bought lots of cleaning products and spent the next two hours scrubbing the filthy pit.Among the problems we had were mould all round the bath,mouldy shower curtain,stained,lumpy sofa,dirty cutlery,crockery.Be warned if you are used to your home comforts this is not the place for you!!!just to add to our great experience the parking is so tight that someone kindly put a lovely big scratch down our car as they backed out.So finally if it was you and you are reading this,thanks very much for just driving off.I would wish something nasty to happen to you but staying at Pontins Hemsby is probably enough pennancefor any poor sod.Just to add ,dont bother complaining to the dut manager at the camp because you really get the impression she has heard it all many times before- which I dont doubt for one minute!!!

on arrival staff were pleasant.

the chalet was away from the recepton

the room was not very tidy or clean

but staff were polite

children entertainment not as good as used to be

Pontins in Hemsby is a dreadful, grubby, smelly hellhole. The chalet was filthy and smelly. Thankfully we had a full 7 days of good weather so we managed to stay out of the chalet for most of the daylight hours. The main entertainment hall stinks of hundreds of unwashed feet and body odour. It's a miserable place for a holiday and I'm determined to make sure everyone I know never goes there. How they justified charging us almost £500 I can't imagine. How anyone could be pleased with the level of cleanliness is beyond me. I'm by no means a clean freak and if I was very disappointed with the chalet then most people would be too. Believe me, the reviews that slate this place are by normal people. If you've booked already demand a refund. They won't update unless they are forced into it by lack of bookings. I waited all year for a holiday and this was the most disappointing holiday of my life by a long way. One day we were in the small children's play area and the member of staff that was supposed to be supervising everything was READING THE SUN. At one point a girl came out of the soft play area and showed the member of staff a red area on her arm where she'd bashed it while she was playing. The member of staff looked up and said 'oh' and then looked down again to her paper. This was the day before we left and I just kept thinking 'come on Pontins, do ONE thing right, impress me somehow before I leave this squalid dump' but no, they didn't. You can't move without being disappointed. They have no recycling facilities, they only sell white bread in the shop. Come along Pontins it's 2008 for crying out loud! Stop treating your customers like imbeciles.

Accommodation was very basic & in desperate need of an update however it was clean & tidy.

I would like to comment on the senior management of Pontins Hemsby in particular the so called general manager,catering manager & life guard.

Myself & my family witnessed the said 3 engaging in all sorts of unsavoury fowl mouthed antics at the bar in the fun factory.

When i made some discreet enquiries was astonished to find out who these drunken foul mouthed idiots were.

If thats the sort of example set by the general manager its no wonder Hemsby Pontins has got such a bad reputation.

As well as the centre needing an update how about revamping the so called management?

An absolute disgrace!!!!!!!!!!!!!