[grues-dinner]

I remember going to Center Parks maybe 25-30 years ago with my parents and another family (all in one lodge). I also remember humping in bags and bags of food and drink and getting the bikes off the car roofs.

Perhaps it's just a return to the ancient British Dad tradition of not paying for the optional extras after briefly convincing we millennials that every worthwhile experience has an uplift fee. Even, perhaps especially, if it means organising the stocking of the cars like Captain Scott preparing for a zombie apocalypse.

See also NT picnicing: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/ng-interactive/2023...

Of course, the best bit of the holiday was never going to be a manky old restaurant, you can have those anywhere. It was the forest, the cycling without threat of being turned into chunky salsa on an A-road, the unusual accomodation, the pool, the lodge bubble baths and most of all the fact that blocky-cushioned sofas disassembled into amazing fortress construction materials.

[petercooper]

That's a popular way to do it! But I think it may end up being the way to do it, at this rate. The restaurants used to be very popular in spite of the prices. We eat out as we don't want to cook (enough of that when we go camping!) and the quality of the restaurants is genuinely good (especially their gluten free provision). Whoever buys CP will need to adjust to a new reality though and go much further down the price scale for purchases within the park (one place that was always extremely busy was the Starbucks!)