Norbreck Castle Hotel

B is for Blackpool's castle - DON'T STAY HERE

by sourbugger about Norbreck Castle hotel, Blackpool, UK

The Norbreck Castle hotel in Blackpool is a very large hotel, which outwardly resembles a castle (surprisingly enough). In the past many would perhaps swap the word 'castle' for 'prison', or perhaps ask if the castle has 463 dungeons.

It got a a very bad press last year and featured on the BBC consumer affairs programme - Watchdog. Dated rooms, queues for check-in and dining rooms, paper thin wall, scriffy furniture, fire alarms set off half the night, loud music, squeaky beds, rude and surly staff etc etc

Even with a 9 million pound refit, it would appear that the owners, Britannia hotels, have their work cut out. After all, it's difficult to make a silk purse out of a cows ear !

I thought I had entered a sewage plant

by A TripAdvisor Member

My brother was visiting me in Leeds and we decided to go and see the illuminations and stay overnight. I booked the Norbreck Castle Hotel under recomendation from a travel agent and the brochure sold it wonderfully. On our arrival at the hotel we noted it somewhat shabby exterior but it was very big. As we entered the reception the smell of sewage just hit you. We checked in and were given rooms which were at either side of the hotel not together as I had been lead to believe on booking. It took me a while to understand directions on how to get to my room which involved going through the dining room and bar areas where the smell was so bad it made me feel sick. I did not think that the taking of luggage through a dining area very hygienic either. On entering my room the room I found to be very small grubby the bathroom was nicer than the room. |The room had no fire instructions, information on the hotel. I had arranged to meet my brother in reception area but finding my way out of the maze of corridoors with no signs was a little scarry. We used the swimming pool, sauna and steam room which I think was the best part of the hotel. However the smell continued in this area as well. I got to talk to other guests asking them what the food was like to which they replied ineadable. It was at this point I felt that we should make a run for it to escape. We went back and got our luggage and spoke to the resturant manager who informed us that the smell had gone!! We infor,ed him we were checking out and we manged to get a refund. At the time we were checking out two other couples were checking out due to the same reasons. In summary Norbreck Castle Hotel should have shut until thew sewage problems had cleared and should also smarten up their act into the 21 century. It is not a place I will be visiting again and if I do I will take a gas mask ha ! ha !

Unforgettable.......nightmare

by A TripAdvisor Member

i had planned a birthday treat for my partner a week end to remember.Well she will remember the one night we stayed before we checked out & moved to a proper hotel.We had read the reviews here before we left but decided to keep an open mind.On arrival at the check in desk the poor guy had to deal on his own with a que of 20 people trying to book in. In his haste to check us all in he forgot to tell us any thing regarding the booking of a table for dinner even though we had an eveinng meal booked as part of our deal.A table was eventualy found for usthe room was tiny & furnished from a car boot sale, how ever the bathroom seemed larger than the bedroom. The wallpaper was pealing as was the paintwork. Our see view was obscured by dirty windows.......the windows oh yes, the were not able to be secured & ours kept blowing open, a sound making us feel we were in the arctic was a constant reminder ....O.K. granted it was very windy.During the night we woke feeling very cold we were told the boilers had "gone down" so no heating ......or hot water.Breakfast was O.K. but marred by the long wait for a table & there was a strange odour coming from the serving area's. Other families we also unhappy being asked to wait.our stay was a nightmare... we told the staff who were all helpfull & gave us a refund.mabe we will look back on our stay with a fondness or nostalgia that only comes from experiencing such things as this & the blitz & rationing

Global warming the upside

by A TripAdvisor Member

With global warming sending sea levels higher, this absolute dump of a hotel will be underwater fairly soon. That said it will probably fall down first. Reception was a nightmare, 20 minute que. Breakfast was foul, the room dirty & disgusting. And the noise from the corridor unbearable. Would need to pay me a lot of money to stay there again.

Dump!

by A TripAdvisor Member

On inspection of the cleanliness of the 3rd room we were given, yes, 3rd room, we found it lacking in every area, the bath was covered in black hairs, the double bed mattress had a broken biscuit under it as well as disgusting "used" tissue papers plus the top of a coke tin under it, my husband yet again complained but this time to the duty manager, he told my husband he would have the house keepers back in to clean the room properly with him watching over them clean the room plus, there were free drinks at the bar for us. He didn't watch over the house keepers cleaning the room nor were there any free drinks at the bar for us, the house keepers did vacuum the room and clean the bath which I thought would be fine. When the house keepers left the room I further inspected the room, I lifted the mattress to see if the biscuit etc had been removed, what I found was horrific, the mattress was in-fact urine stained on both sides from top to bottom too however, most worrying of all there was a large, thick and smelly excretion stain on it, how could anyone sleep on that let alone have small children near it, we complained yet again, this time the duty manager came to the room and said the mattress was disgusting and promised us he would bring us a clean mattress, he did and the mattress he brought looked ok, we decided to stay in the hotel for the 3 night we had booked as we couldn't go home as we had the builders in, suffice to say we shan't be returning.

Filthy, rund down and dangerous, a health hazard

by A TripAdvisor Member

Awful, we have stayed here in previous years with no real problems, this year it is run down, broken windows, filthy restaurant which stank of stale vomit, rooms were dirty, TV broken, we came home with flea bites, diarrhoea and feeling very angry.the rooms are not that cheap we payed £55 per night and £10 extra for the sea view!, I would not recommend this hotel to anybody, I think it has serious health and safety and Hygeine problems in addtion to its delapidated state

Blackpool and Fleetwood

by leecouk12324

If cheap and tacky is not your cup of tea - and if masses of large groups of very drunk men (and large groups of women) meandering around very drunk in the middle of the afternoon is not your cup of tea - then Blackpool is not for you.

However i always like to look beyond the cover of a book so to speak - and one may choose to stay in Blackpool for a many varied reasons - for instance - when i was here on a very warm sunny day on 31st May, 2008 in mid afternoon - the beautiful sandy beach was almost deserted - so if it is beach space you are after - there is plenty - i found a walk up the beach towards the Norbreck Castle Hotel i think it is called - offered lots of beautiful sand and there was a group playing "rounders" or something - in fact come here and set up your volleyball nets.
There is a fanastic cycle lane up here also (traffic free) - and i think maybe it takes you all the way into Fleetwood and from there you can get the ferry to Knott End and cycle into West Lancashire

"Very big Rollercoaster"

Another reason of course - why you may want to stay in Blackpool is to take in one of the many shows on offer at WInter Gardens or in the tower - i would recommend this more than just going for a drink in the pubs

And yet again another reason why one may choose Blackpool is because there is a huge no of very affordable accomodation such as B&B's (Bed and Breakfasts) establishments and you can get a room for as little as £12.50 a night - so you may want to use Blackpool as a central base for exploring the Lake District and the cities of Liverpool and Manchester (the latter you can get to by train directly also).

And of course in Blackpool itself - the Pleasure Beach should not be missed and in particular the Pepsi Max big one - scary by day - scary by night - go on it on the night - an experince not to be missed

"North Euston Hotel"

If it is Nostalga you are after than Blackpool has some very old trams (see travelogues) and although not very interesting or exciting you can get the Tram ride to Fleetwood.
Fleetwood is very quite compared to Blackpool and makes a refreshing change
What is of note at Fleetwood is the North Euston Hotel - now a long time ago before the West Coast railway line as we now know it (with all its tunnels and embankments) - tourists and or business travellers from London would stop at Fleetwood - where they would await the ferry to Ardrossan in Scotland and then again get the train to Glasgow - it fact this was the only way to go - and travellers would stay overnight at the Euston Hotel.
What i did learn is that peoples minds did not think it was ever possible that there would be great feats in engineering to make the whole journey by train possible - so this mafnificent piece of architecture - the Euston Hotel - i think was soon pu tout of business less than a couple of decades later when people no longer came here to stay overnight - before the journey to Scotland.