We went for a day trip at CenterParcs! We got to go for a day trip because another home-educated family had gone on a holiday there and they had spare tickets for us. I thought it was even more nice of them to let us have them because they hadn’t even met us before! We’d been to CenterParcs before, so we knew how good the swimming paradise pool was, which was why we went there from about twenty past ten to tea time, and then back in again after tea!
At first, we couldn’t find the family because we’d never seen them before, but eventually Mummy asked someone and they said that yes, they were Anna, and that yes, they had invited us to CenterParcs for a day! We went on the rapids and Tornado, a water slide, most of all. The rapids got us slightly bruised, but they were really fun anyway! We went in them when it was pitch black and only the occasional light in the pool showed us the way! Often we bumped into people because we couldn’t see them coming! For most of the ride we went penguin-sliding, which is where, in the shallower water, you slide along on your tummy like a penguin, and then crash into a huge, foamy wave! It was the best fun ever!
Tornado, however, was different and also the best fun ever. Basically you sit down with one other person or more in a four-person float, and then you go sailing down a quite powerful, wiggly path with some water in it to help the float go quickly. Then there was a sudden drop, almost verticle, really long, and you could only hold on to save yourself! Then there was a big circular room, and the float went up and down the walls really fast and made you get butterflies in your tummy! It was so fun! Also, at the top, there is a lifeguard to help you into the float, and one of them, with the name badge of Megan, was really nice. You would think he was a she, but no, his name was actually Alex and he used someone else’s badge because he had lost his… We made a kind of pact that when we went down we shouted a meal or something. We did that because Tilly once shouted, ‘Cheerio!’ and then I went, ‘Cornflakes!’ and it carried on like that.
Just when we were going to get out – luckily! – the fire alarm went off! The lifeguards evacuated the whole pool out one door, and guess what? It was snowing! Everybody were out in their swimming trunks or their bikinis, and it was so cold, and the people with no flipflops on, including us, had to walk along the snowy, freezing patio! Luckily they gave out these tin foils blankets, but still, there were tiny newborn babies, and everybody had to go out. However, as soon as we got to the nearest building, and warmed up a bit, the lifeguards said, ‘Right! Just a false alarm! You can all go back now!’ Though we got out anyway!
Anna very kindly asked us to come back to their lodge to have pizza and wedges with them. Their family were really nice, and we played a game called Apples to Apples and also Taboo. Tilly and I got on really well with their children, and the other family who had come with them. I hope we can meet up with them another time because they were really nice.
CenterParcs was really fun and I’d love to go again and again and again! Even though there were other things to do, I was quite happy to spend the whole day in the Sub-Tropical Swimming Paradise, because that is the best swimming pool ever!