Waresley Park Garden Centre

The Father Christmas experience at Waresley is the best for miles around. My grandchildren were amazed that he knew their names and he made them and us adults feel very special. We didn't feel rushed and he answered all the children's questions. The presents were generally very good although I was slightly disappointed with the finger puppet my four year old grandson received as it didn't match those received by the 8, 6, 2 and 6 month old children. He, however didn't seem to mind. Very good value for money and an experience I will continue to give to my grandchildren.

Having done Lapland UK last year, I didn't have high expectations for Waresley. But what a lovely experience, the elf and Santa were just brilliant with the children. They took plenty of time with each child, had a lovely chat were so kind, welcoming and fun we had a brilliant time. The gift was also.lovely and I cannot believe we paid so little for such a wonderful experience. Even the lady who responded to me on fb chat was extremely helpful when I had a query. We will definitely be back, thank you!

We call in here a couple of times a month for a tea and coffee plus gardening requirements, gifts and cards. When we called in today for drinks and stuff for the garden we were not impressed with the cafe. Two young lads, whom I am guessing were filling in before going off to uni, were serving but have obviously not been trained in customer service. My wife and I both have obvious mobility issues but when we ordered our drinks we were abruptly told, I 'll put 'em on the end there when we 've done 'em. I asked if we could please have a hand to our table with the tray and there followed an embarrassed look and a reluctant uttering, Yer . The tray was duly brought to our table and when I examined my cup I found it was DIRTY. I got up and returned it to the servery, commenting, A CLEAN CUP might be nice. The response was an inane grin and laugh. In view of this our bi-monthly visits will be suspended until the schools and unis resume and we will go to other garden centres until then !

I’ve been here previously before and didn’t think the garden centre or cafe were great. Still no improvements were made. It needs some real investment friendlier staff recruited.

Went there today for Sunday lunch, which we had in the inside restaurant. The food was ok, but we spent the entire meal swatting house flies off us, which were also crawling over other diners, chairs and tables. Had a look at the plants, and then decided to have some ice cream, which this time we took outside. Once again we had flies constantly crawling over us, the table and the ground around us. Went inside to look around the shop areas. Guess what more flies landing on us and crawling over the goods. Surely this is something a garden centre has the resources on site to deal with if not, really need to bring in pest control!