Parkdean Resorts Highfield Grange Holiday Park, Essex

The very few positives of the site all the staff I spoke to were lovely & helpful, however it's quite obvious that the site is really under staffed. Our caravan had lots of storage. The highlight of the week was the Wrestling. The site is very close to supermarkets & has a bus stop right outsid. Now the negatives. Our caravan had the hallway door missing. Holes in the bedroom wall. Broken drawers. The caravan was dirty the carpet was covered in hair, housekeeping came very quickly to try to remedy this but their vaccum cleaner was obviously past it's best & failed to collect any of the hair, also we found previous occupants dirty socks. There was dog faeces for several days by the entertainment building it eventually got washed away by the rain, also dog faeces was in the car park near the caravans. When it rained the entertainment complex was difficult to get into as the entrance nearest us was under water. The club house toilets are filthy & probably a health hazard. It takes an eternity to get served in the clubhouse & if you order to get table service they will substitute your drinks without asking as they frequently sell out popular drinks, obviously caused by being under staffed. The tables & floor in the house are never cleaned they were filthy even at opening time. The swimming pool was not fully open & the water had strange black bits floating around which looked like mould, the changing rooms were filthy most didn't lock & the smell in the pool area was putrid, one visit was one to many. The air all around the site is thick with the smell of cannabis, security were fully aware but did nothing to stop the culprits. Building works are taking place & were were not informed of this & found it very odd that someone was it seemed trying to measure the floor area while childrens entertainment was taking place. We had one meal onsite which was edible but didn't appreciate what seemed to be builders sitting right behind us effing & blinding while we were eating with young children, my Grandchildren learnt a few choice words from them. This site is the worst site we have ever visited & we will not be returning. Clacton pier was a fantastic day out & id recommend a visit they did Halloween spectacularly well for all ages

The very few positives of the site all the staff I spoke to were lovely & helpful, however it's quite obvious that the site is really under staffed. Our caravan had lots of storage. The highlight of the week was the Wrestling. The site is very close to supermarkets & has a bus stop right outsid. Now the negatives. Our caravan had the hallway door missing. Holes in the bedroom wall. Broken drawers. The caravan was dirty the carpet was covered in hair, housekeeping came very quickly to try to remedy this but their vaccum cleaner was obviously past it's best & failed to collect any of the hair, also we found previous occupants dirty socks. There was dog faeces for several days by the entertainment building it eventually got washed away by the rain, also dog faeces was in the car park near the caravans. When it rained the entertainment complex was difficult to get into as the entrance nearest us was under water. The club house toilets are filthy & probably a health hazard. It takes an eternity to get served in the clubhouse & if you order to get table service they will substitute your drinks without asking as they frequently sell out popular drinks, obviously caused by being under staffed. The tables & floor in the house are never cleaned they were filthy even at opening time. The swimming pool was not fully open & the water had strange black bits floating around which looked like mould, the changing rooms were filthy most didn't lock & the smell in the pool area was putrid, one visit was one to many. The air all around the site is thick with the smell of cannabis, security were fully aware but did nothing to stop the culprits. Building works are taking place & were were not informed of this & found it very odd that someone was it seemed trying to measure the floor area while childrens entertainment was taking place. We had one meal onsite which was edible but didn't appreciate what seemed to be builders sitting right behind us effing & blinding while we were eating with young children, my Grandchildren learnt a few choice words from them. This site is the worst site we have ever visited & we will not be returning. Clacton pier was a fantastic day out & id recommend a visit they did Halloween spectacularly well for all ages

Caravan was very run down. Holes in walls and door missing. Caravan floor was filthy. Cleaner came to hoover the carpet but as she was using a Henry hoover it was mostly flattening the hair and dust on the carpet rather than sucking it up. We found a sock and golf ball that weren't ours so this highlights how thorough the cleaning was done. The plugs were for show only as they didn't fit the plug holes. No net curtains which other caravan parks have so very limited privacy and caravans were closer together compared to other sites we have stayed at. The pool was disgusting, baby pool closed with no reason as to why. This led to the main pool being overcrowded and meant the toddler in our group couldn't really enjoy the pool. There was black mould / dirt at the bottom of the pool and we went there in the morning so wouldn't have been from that day's use. Too few changing areas. We didn't use the pool again which was disappointing as swimming is one of the activities the kids look forward to. Toilets in the swimming pool were also used by arts and crafts so were covered in paint. We went into these in the morning on 2 occasions and both times they were filthy and had no soap. The clubhouse was also filthy. We attended a children's activity in the morning and the tables, floor and bar area were sticky and clearly hadn't been cleaned from the night before. Again the toilets in the clubhouse had no soap. We ordered drinks using the App and waited nearly an hour for these. Clearly there were not enough staff to serve at the bar and also deal with orders online. When our drinks finally arrived they had been substituted without an apology or explanation, we had to enquire why our drinks weren't what we ordered. They were meant to be frozen cocktails but had clearly been sitting around for a while as they had melted. There was dog poo by the clubhouse for 3 days. It only disappeared once the area flooded due to the rain. The smell of cannabis was overpowering. Security guards acknowledged it but didn't seem to be doing anything about it. Security guards on the clubhouse doors let small children run out without an adult. The crafts activities we participated in weren't very well organised. We were left to work out what to do by ourselves. No instructions and very limited interaction. Other parks have made these experiences more interactive for children. The fish and chip shop, ice cream place and chicken take away weren't open despite this being a busy time of year due to school hols. The restaurant was very slow and again seemed to be running on skeleton staff. This left us no choice but to eat off site. Very limited things to do during the day and especially when it is raining. No soft play or free activities to do. We hired 2 travel cots and a highchair and these were in our caravan upon arrival. However, we couldn't set up the travel cots as we weren't able to move the beds ourselves. No note to explain this or who to contact. We had to report this to reception and it took a long time to resolve this issue. There were building works taking place and we hadn't been notified of this in advance. Children enjoyed the playground. Location is good. Large Tesco within a 10 min walk. Bus stop right outside which we took to Clacton pier. Highly recommend Clacton pier for kids especially during Halloween.