Hi

Well our time has finally come we fly to the palace today and i can't wait. Bailey has text me to say its red hot so i'm all excited. I will leave a full review upon my return

Bye for now Clare

Hi Clare,have a fab time,cant wait to read your reviews when you get back

just doing last minute bits before we leave for the airport. my family are pretty *issed off with me for going. will let you know how great it is on our return. maryx

Just returned from the Palace this weekend and overall thought that the holiday was good. Here are my views:

Positives:
The hotel itself - really nice and clean and run exactly like a good hotel, sometimes not the case in Turkey. The place was clean and the rooms cleaned to a good standard. Air conditioning in the rooms is a real bonus.
The pool environment - really good to have the space and number of pools and the landscaping of the gardens was brilliant
The food - no dodgy stomachs, although we did meet a few people who had. The food overall was good, but got a little repetitive. However, I have little complaints apart from the fact that it has obviously been drummed into the chefs the need for hygiene and the need to demonstrate this. They go a little over the top and "cremate" the meat they cook on the grill. I asked for my steak rare and they virtually refused to give it to me that way.
Entertainment - the entertainment people do a really good job. Some of the shows seem a little like the school play and others are more professional, but so what! You are on holiday - sit back and enjoy.
Sunbeds - we were there in the peak August weeks and you could get a sunbed. However, people were up a 5am putting towels out in the preferred places.
The Reps - pretty good and very attentive. We had a slight medical emergency when we were there and my son had a few stitches. The rep was really good, brought the doctor to the room, cancelled the trip we were due to go on, left my son a little present, accompanied me to the place it happened to check nothing was wrong, etc. I know he was covering the company's back a little, but it felt he was attentive and caring
Airport Transfer Time - 20 minutes from the airport (but see below)

Negatives:
Lunch - if you eat at the pool bar, be prepared for huge queues and your lunch can last one and a half hours. This is simply down to bad organisation and poor equipment e.g. an electric kebab machine that cooked the meat very slowly.
Service at the bars - the bar staff serve as quickly as possible and work hard, but there is too few of them at peak times. England played when we were there and there was literally no chance of a drink whilst the game was on as the bar was 10 deep.
Service in general - the staff still need to learn how to act towards their guests when you are paying for 4 star service. They tend to be very surly and think nothing about keeping you waiting whilst they have a chat with their mates.
Restaurant organisation - the people who clean the tables and reset them, it appears are not allocated service areas, so the place at peak times can be a bit chaotic. I read other reviews where people simply set their own tables and this is what we did on a few occasions. It was not too much of an inconvenience if any at all, but is this what you would expect in a 4 star resort?
First Choice - I felt that First Choice need to understand that if you have paid All Inclusive, you don't expect to spend hundreds more and they should limit the number of franchises they let into the village. For example, lilos that you would pay a couple of quid for here were £10, a simple lolly from the sweet shop was £1.50, a Turkish bath, which I have paid £8 for in bathhouses before, was £40 on site, etc. It felt as though First Choice were always trying to flog you something, down to the blankets on the plane which I thought was poor.
Four star? - is the village really four star?? Not sure - certain elements are and others are not.
The beach - poor beach, dangerous seas and the sand drops away very quickly. Do not let your kids go into the sea on their own! I recognise however, that the beach is protected so they cannot really do anything with it.
Airport food prices - beware you will be ripped off if you buy food at the airport. Bought my kids and my wife McDonalds when we were waiting for the flight home. Three meals cost £23!!!

Overall:
Overall I would give the Palace 7 out of 10. We really enjoyed our holiday and all aspects of it by and large. They can make simple improvements which would make a vast improvement to the way you feel treated. Improve the canteen organisation, rotate the meal menu a little better, train the bar staff to be more customer focused and actually have more bar staff at peak times. We would probably not go there again (unless we got a fantastic bargain!!!), not because anything was particularly wrong, but because I don't think it warrants the 4 star price. There are also other places to go in the world. We really did have a great time and if they can sort out some of the stuff listed, they have a great resort on their hands.

Hello everyone off to p/p in 2weeks can't wait am so excited anyone know what the kids club for 3 year old is like what sort of activities and do you have to pay anything for it also do you have to pay for the content of the mini bar in your room? Also any one know what sort of tempreture it is out there in mid september? Anyone else heading out there that week?

You get 4 bottles of water free in your mini bar when you arrive.
If you wnt anything else you order it from the mini bar list and par for it.
My son was in the club for 3-5 they do different activities each day things like painting, colouring, playing outside, football each seesion has some sort of theme eg basketball, mini safari although sometimes what they had done seemed to have nothing to do with the theme!!!!
Nights 9-11 you pay mon,wed and fri £2 for cho party, sweetie bingo.
The othernights its things like movie night and dancing they are free just send a drink and some crisps/sweets for movie night if you want.

Hope that helps
Vicky

Can anyone tell me if there is an children's early dinner sitting please ?

Its just that I'm trying to plan our evenings and if the kids can eat early we can go straight to the mini disco/kids entertainment and have a few drinks while the kids have their fun, then hopefully have our meal in peace when the kids go to the 9 - 11 evening club (although I don't think they'll be staying till 11 pm - it might be too late for them).
We'll miss the bingo then hopefully, neither of us can stand it.

Also can anyone tell me what time they serve dinner till please ?

Thanks vicky ,do you stay with them or leave them there? Also this may sound silly but do they sell any washing powder in the shop as i am going with my young daughter and will more then likely need to wash some of her things through or should i take washing powder with me.A lso do thety take sterling in the airport (dalaman) for food etc? thanks

how much is the 9-11 kids club and do you have to book,also i am going all inclusive have changed up 150 pound in lira and the rest is sterling will that be ok ? thanks

The 9 - 11 club is £2 but they don't charge this every night.
I'm planning to take the same as you - £150 in either Euros or Lira and the rest in Sterling.

Alex UK

They do a kids buffet from 6pm, and the main restaurant opens from 7 - 10pm.

The kids disco Crow's Feet Island is on from 8.15pm until 9pm, then Bingo, then a show of some description.

Anymore questions please feel free we got back on Monday.

Rachel

Thanks Rachel

Do you know if theres anything going on for the kids between about 7pm and the start of the disco ?
Its just that if they eat at 6pm it won't take them until 8.15pm so we'll have a bit of time to kill.

Also do you know if the food is still nice in the restaurant after 9pm.

Thanks in advance

AlexUK

Not sure if anything going on from 7pm but I don't think there was.

We had no quibbles with the food, some people expect a la carte food and service and with the amount of people they have to serve your not going to get it.

We ate later once and the only thing that I noticed they had less of was the desserts, apart from that the food was still of the same standard as early.

You get plenty of choice and none of us went hungry there was always something.

The only thing I would say is that the kids buffet was ok but could have been better, as same food every single night no variety. Pizza, chicken nuggets, meatballs, sausage, baked beans and mash.

My son went in the Tweety Creche as he is coming upto 2 years old and he loved it.

Any1 tell me what the doctors etc are like onsite are they avalible 24 hours first time on holiday with daughter aged three a bit worried in case she is ill. Is the p/t much different from the p/p as i think you can use both sites? A bit dissapointed about the reports onnthe beach.

alex we ate at 7pm and managed to make it for crows feet island at 8.15pm to be honest though the kids were not that botherd about going to it some nights....it wasnt fantastic compared to kids hours in some hotels....not long enough either.
Other thing to think about it if you eat before 7pm you have to eat inside as outside is after 7pm only (we tried at 6.45 one night and i got told off for taking food for the baby and he told me to go inside....i never i just didnt get food for anyone else til 7pm.
If i was you i would go at 7pm and eat outside....we ate inside one night and it was the worst experience of my holiday it was like being in 2 different places it was noisy kids running everywhere like being in school canteen whereas outside was peaceful quiet and a nice enjoyable evening meal experience.
They do have the normal food inside before 7 aswell as "kids food" mine just ate the normal food everynight as there was so much variety......someone mentioned the other day it being repetative....i never ate the same evening meal twice in 2 weeks.

I used the drs onsite and they were fine the receptionist took details adn got the dr if necessary it was £30 consultaion plus medication but they didnt charge me £30 because i knew exactly waht was wrong so just £7 for medication(same as uk prescrition) dr there certain hours but reps call them in 24hrs if needed.

You leave them at the 9-11 kids club.

Dont know about washing powder i boought liquid travel wash before we went and used that for my babys clothes.

I only took £50 lira which was plenty everywhere in the rip off sorry airport takes sterling and we found most places gave a better deal for sterling also if you dont spend it no hassle changing back when you come home.
You can change sterling at reception if you need extra i wouldnt personally take £150 in lira like i say £50 was fine for us.

If you can eat before you go back to the airport make sure you do so you and kids not hungry we had evening meal before we flew so we were ok also fill empty water bottles up at hotel we bought 1 bottle of water and i can of orange juice and it was £4.50 as she didnt have 50p she gave me a tiny sweet instead....very expensive.

Vicky

HI vicky thanks can you get liquid washing powder at the supermarket? is it bulky to carry?Also what is the area of serigerme like in general? Out side of the complex is that much to see? Local people nice? thanks

I bought it in somewhere like home baragins for about 99p im sure they have it in all supermarkets it was called glo care i think in a yellow tube its only a small tube say like the squeezy tubes of herbs and chillies etc you can get to give you an idea of size.

Sarigerme is a nice small village with very friendly people go and see mustafa and eyup in sarigerme tours just on the right as you enter sarigerme and he will sort you out with some good trips for your family so you can see some of turkey we went on the 12 islands boat trip which i would highly recommend for families.

Ask Dan the entertainer if he is on TV on channel 253 there is a programme called redcoats my friend saw it and i had a look and im sure its dan the entertainer.....hes a really good entertainer.

Vicky

okay will do,thanks for that.

can you buy nappies in the p/p shop?and also how much are the watersports on the beach