Butlins, Bognor Regis Review – September 2020

Holidaying at Butlins during the COVID19 pandemic was a surprisingly full on affair.

It wasn’t quite the Disney magic we had been looking forward to this year but it was still full of fun, laughter, dancing, shows and more fun and our little one had an absolute blast and best of all – we were joined by the whole family.

Day One – Arrival

Butlins have set up a number of drive through check ins which we found to be extremely efficient and definitely better than the pre-covid walk up check in desk. You will need to check your text/email the day before to find out which check in gate you need to go to.

We arrived onsite at 4pm and went straight to our room (a seaside apartment in Atlantic Bay) which we found to be nicely furnished and spacious enough for a 4 night stay for a family of 5.

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After we’d finished unloading our bags we headed out to the funfair and found them shut (they closed at 5pm on the Monday) so we headed to one of the playgrounds instead.

Bad idea! This was probably the only place on resort we found the social distancing guidelines went completely out of the window so we didn’t stay.

We had an 8pm booking to see Platinum Queen on the Outdoor Stage. We picked up some (very nice) chips from the takeaway fish and chip shop in the resort (woohoo, it was half price thanks to Eat Out to Help Out) on the way to the show.

The children enjoyed the late night dancing while the adults enjoyed singing along to some classic Queen hits.

One of the biggest benefits of COVID19 is that Butlins now have the B-serve app which allows you to order and pay for drinks on your phone which are then brought over to your table, plus with your booking you are guaranteed a table/seat for your whole party.

Day Two – Fun Splash

We had a booking for Splash (the swimming pool) first thing today.

My little one spent most of the session in the heated toddler pool using the slides while I tried to reason with her to come on the Sky Garden which she went on previously and loved (but no, we stayed in the toddler area… at least it was warm).

The rest of the family braved the various slides, chutes and the Sky Garden (lazy river).

Considering you had to book a slot in the pool in advance in order to allow social distancing, the pool and changing rooms were very busy and some of the ride queues were 30 minutes (which is a third of the entire session) but we all still enjoyed it and got to do everything at least once

After swimming we hit the outdoor and indoor fairground. Rides were cleaned after every use with every other row shut off in order to maintain social distancing.

We had the Little Mermaid panto booked in Centre Stage. Again a table was reserved for each party and drinks could be ordered on the app and delivered to the table.

Both kids thoroughly enjoyed the show and were very enthusiastic throughout. It was quite a nice break for the adults to sit in a darkened room and not have to run around for a full 60 minutes!

The evening’s entertainment we had booked was the Skyline Gang on Safari which both kids were again very enthused about.

Afterwards we headed out to the Outdoor Stage for the Calvin Harris experience.

Quite a late one for my littly but she was dancing until the end. I think the supply of fruit shoots and Haribo kept her going.

We were feeling extremely lucky to have dry and warm weather so far in our break as it meant we could take full opportunity of all the activities scheduled.

Day Three – Fun at the Circus

We didn’t have any bookings today so we decided to venture off site for the day.

It started with an early morning run along the seafront with a dip in the sea to cool down after (for the ladies), followed by a full English (prepared by the men) back at our seaside apartment for our return, perfect!

The rest of the day was spent on the beach and in the beachfront playground and the big bouncy slide. My mini me was not impressed at the lack of law and order on this big inflatable so we hastily left before she was served a lifetime ban!

We walked up in the direction of the town where we found an amazing ice cream parlor just off the seafront called Pinks Parlour.

They offer an amazing selection of (delicious) ice creams and sundaes and I’m more than happy to recommend them. The ice creams are made on site which you can see behind the window. Inside was quite small, so be prepared to wait for a table if you go at a busy time (it’s worth the wait) otherwise they do offer takeaway too.

As we walked back into the resort we saw we were just in time for the Billy Bear meet and greet so we took our little one along for a photo.

I was expecting her to refuse as she doesn’t normally go for mascots if they’re up close but she was feeling brave (and maybe it’s because he was in a sectioned off area) and ended up going up twice after a camera malfunction (user error).

The weather had turned drizzly by this point but luckily tonight’s show was a Circus (in the Big Tent). I was expecting it to be a toned down affair (think red costs doing Circus tricks) but it was an full on, professional touring Circus – Gandy’s Circus. I would have been more than happy if we’d bought tickets to see it.

There were some hair raising daredevil stunts, clowns and a whole host of acrobatics. The atmosphere was amazing despite half the seats being blocked off. This was definitely one of the highlights of the trip.

Day Four – Splash(ing) Around

Our last full day today and we had a few bookings; swimming, bike hire and Diversity Live.

We had booked the early session in the pool again and the queues were still quite long. There seemed to be a long standby queue as we were going in, so presumably this was people who hadn’t managed to secure a pool booking and were waiting to see if there were any no-shows. It was a long queue and most people in the pool seemed to be staying for the entire session so I imagine there were a lot of disappointed families.

We had great fun in the pool and managed to convince our little one to try out the Sky Garden. I try not to pressure her as I know she doesn’t like to try things outside of her comfort zone but on this occasion I told a little white lie and managed to get her to agree. She absolutely loved it and wanted to get straight back on, so we queued up again and were the last in line before they shut the queue.

Right as we got on (after the first dip) the water started drying up and the current stopped.

Needless to say it was a very long, cold and uncomfortable crawl to the end whilst trying to drag the kids along.

It turns out they’d turned it off before we’d got rounf. I managed to slice my finger on one of the joins but was just glad it was me and not one of the kids.

We didn’t complain as aside from that we’d had a great time using the Sky Garden, wave pool and Racer slides. It’s a really great pool and worth booking to go to Bognor for alone.

We hired out a Chuckle bike to go around the site on. My nephew, aged 7, rode one of the Dino bikes (my little one was too young for one). All of us enjoyed it but they really could do with having a dedicated area to cycle around as you’re left just cycling round the small paths in the resort grounds and they’re fairly busy with people walking, cleaning carts and other bike users.

We had booked on to Diversity Live on the Outdoor Stage in the afternoon but got our times confused and thought we’d booked the later show. When we realised we missed it we went to talk to guest services as we’d spent the entire holiday gearing the children up for it and they were upset we’d missed it.

The next show was fully booked but they said we could join the standby line (which was already snaking around the corner). It turned out the show we’d missed hadn’t gone ahead due to “the inclinate weather”. We hadn’t noticed any weather but were relieved we hadn’t actually missed anything (and so definitely weren’t to blame for the upset…).

The cancelled show wasn’t rescheduled but we managed to catch the next show by standing in the car park round the back of the old pool. Most of the show seemed to focus around quizzing the audience and playing flip the bottle so we actually didn’t end up sticking around to watch the whole show as the kids weren’t really enjoying it.

We did have a decent view of the show from where we were stood so if you don’t get tickets for a show on the Outdoor Stage, that’s where I recommend you head.

We spent the rest of the day at the arcade and fairgrounds. The children loved the indoor carousel and the guy operating it was doing a great job of amusing them ride after ride (after ride…)!

It was a bit of an anticlimactic end to a fun filled week.

We had tried to get more Skyline gang/Billy and Bonnie shows but they were all fully booked or clashed with our other bookings. As a whole, I thought the whole operation by Butlins was managed fantastically. Lots of families had missed out on so many things in 2020 and Butlins really did manage to put on a full and fun itinerary.

Time to say goodbye (until next time)…

This was a great family holiday and we all enjoyed it.

At times I did feel a bit on edge about how packed some areas were (mostly the pubs, beer gardens and swimming pool changing area) but felt that Butlins had done all they could to comply with COVID restrictions.

Planning in advance is definitely recommended as I did feel for the families who were queuing in the standby queues. It did seem that if you waited until you got on site to make bookings then there weren’t many shows/activities left to book.

We will definitely be back (probably in 2021 as it seems to be a yearly thing now) and even once COVID restrictions are no longer in place I hope to see the return of the B-Serve app and table reservations.

For further information on planning your Butlins break with COVID19 restrictions in place, see my post Visiting Butlins during COVID19