Discovery Holiday Park, Doncaster East

The Discovery Holiday Park in Doncaster East has it all when it comes to styles of accommodation. They have unpowered sites, powered sites as well as cabins and villas galore. During our visit we chose to stay two bedroom villa. We had a lot jammed into our visit at that time (from the perspective of a parent with young children, that is) and I wanted to be assured that we would have a place to get restorative sleep as well as solid meals, including packed lunches, along the way.

My trip to Melbourne was also, in part, for business. For this reason I purchased an Internet Access Card which failed to work. The card has a '1300' number in case it doesn't work which I rang twice with naught but a digital answering service to leave my message on. When I spoke to reception the next morning they reset the system to no avail. The best guess would be a configuration issue but who knows since no one on that help number ever called me back. Not so glad to see a technical support line drop the ball again.

The one thing that the grounds really had going for it was a 'bouncy mat' (for lack of a better name). Operating under the same premise as a bouncy castle the mat is inflated to create a 'mound' which children can spend hours jumping on. When getting ready to go of a morning we gave our boys the freedom to head out there. They made many acquaintances along the way and together they created their own games and competitions based around the 'bouncy mat'.

We did not make use of the laundry facilities during our stay but do know that it came at a cost for machine use. The villa itself was everything that you would expect.

When we checked into the park we changed our booking to include the early departure of three of our party (lowering our rate by $50.00 for the nights thereafter) as well as gaining park membership which put us ahead another $15.00. Add the internet access card cost and an American Express surcharge to the equation and you unfortunately wind up with a rather unpleasant receptionist. We were treated with disinterest for the remainder of our stay which really was not professional on the staff member's behalf, especially when all other people in the facility were so helpful. So, in addition to broken internet do not expect service with a smile.