It's like a mum and baby/toddler session that you take your little one to and stay with them for a structured play session led by the creche leaders. Some parents don't want to leave their kiddies on their own in the creche and go off so it's a way for those kiddies to have a play with some others their own age without being left by the parents.

The creche is highly recommended and can not fault the staff here, they can babysit in your room as well but make sure you leave a tip as first choice do not pay them anymore for babysitting, even though it eats in to their limited private time!

Just thought I would let people know that we got back last week after 2 wks, and my girls were in the pool constantly. One got an itchy ear the other was fine. The one complaining of an itchy ear, I am not convinced, it may have been attention, as she still got in the pool at every opportunity!

I reccomend the high ropes if your child is the right age 9 and over. My daughter loved them and was really proud of herself.

My partner and daughter went scuba diving ( sarigerme diving centre) had a brilliant day. My 9 yr old did two dives with the instructors full attention.

Did anyone try hiring a car with Delboy?
We did, he brought a right shed. We got a refund eventually.

We are flying out on the 13th October 07 nad are unsure as to what currency we should take the most of.
I believe prices in the Hotel are in English pounds but that is then converted to Lira at an extortianate rate, does that mean you cannot pay in English pounds.
What currency is :-
the gaming machines/pool tables etc
Kids club evenings - chocolate party etc
Shop
Drinks

Also I have heard that the market prefer English pounds, is this the same in local shops for presents and excursions ?
We are going for 2 weeks and need an idea of how much to take of each currency for 2 Adults + 2 children
I would appreciate any feedback

The hotel shops charge in Lira and are VERY expensive. The will accept pounds but convert it at a much higher rate.

You have to buy tokens for the games room and someone correct me if I'm wrong, it's cheper to pay in sterling.

The kids club take both sterling and Lira. Pay in sterling it will be cheaper.

I'm not sure what you mean about drinks as the hotel is all inclusive, but the shop does sell cans of beer and soft drinks. They are expensive though.

The hotel shops were converting at 2.5 lira to the pound when we were there in July which wasn't far off the normal exchange rate. It was much fairer than last year certainly

I'm far too disappointed to even comment on this place at the moment.

needless to say first choice will be our last choice in any future holiday plans. VERY poor holiday

Very sorry to hear that you've had a poor holiday carney but I think it's only fair that you put the problems you had on the forum to tell people your grievances as there are people still to go this year.

Okay - where to start
Hotel - Described to us via the agency and from what i could see as spacious, clean etc. Well it should be clean with the time the cleaners decide to come in and start cleaning the corridors and rooms. Unfortunatley they have no concept of being quiet and from around 06:00 they shout / chat as if completley normal waking everyone possible. The "kids Den" room we were given ( no more than a large room with a partition down the middle ) has worst walls than a travel Inn. You can hear every person in your block. My pool view room as specified we wanted = the pool of the construction site next to the resort.
The staff of the hotel were generally friendly but tbh you dont really have much interaction with them. The only problem i had was with the bar staff who refused to mix and type of drink we asked for. The choice of beverages i thought was a little poor and if we asked him to mix 2 or 3 schnapps with a fanta we were told he couldnt do it due to management ( unless we "looked after him" )

On the first day we arrived we were effectively left untill 11 am the next morning for the welcome meet. By this time we had been there 24hrs and felt we had wasted a day as we just wandered aimlessly around the complex not really knowing what to do . You would think they would have at least two welcome meets one early evening for those arriving in the day and one the next morning for the early arrivals.

Swim Kids :- I'm sure this is normally good value for money but if your going now be aware that they are now only running this with one instructor. Of the 4 that were there they have all left and gone home. This meant i paid £25 for the 5 lessons, however due to her days off she needs etc this means on a 7 day holiday you cannot fit them in. Does this mean you get your money back ? does it hell. It means she forgets your kids names , has no records of how the child is progressing and basically means you can save yourself the money and just get your child to swim 3 or 4 times across the width of the pool then sing a couple of nursery rhymes and then tell them to get out.

pools :- no issues with the ear infection , never really saw anybody having any trouble from it either. I saw a couple of people wearing them but we never used ours that we took. Pools in general are very good, however they are freezing at present . First choice has asked that they get the temp sorted but the hotel manager refuses ( apparantley ) the indoor pool however was turned up and although small seemed like a much nicer option. No issues with sunbeds either plenty to go around however monday and thursday seem you best days to change your location as they seem like turnaround days for the resort.

Food :- Excellent choice on a evening in the buffet, cant fault the buffet at all. Only issue is with the booking of the restaurants. If you want to go to them go straight to the first choice people by reception when you arrive and book it. If you wait for the welcome meeting then go you will find it is booked up probably for the duration of your stay ( we couldnt get in for 10 days ).

Money :- went several times to the blue bus and could never get money out from it :p i used the shop next door which allows cash withdrawals in sarigerme.

entertainment :- low quality butlins in hot weather. Again this could be because of the time of year and the guys are stretched as many seemed to be going home. Ollie seems the main star of the team however adam does keep his end up. We did feel as though it was kind of the same thing everyday. Each morning it was oh well we'll swim all day , do the quiz do the bingo then after seeing the carbaret singer once i thought every night seemed a little excessive. They did a couple of good performances in the evening and you can tell these guys do have their work cut out however not being a fan of sitting there watching people sing every night meant there was'nt much else for me to do.

We didnt feel,as many others did, that they announced the events going on well enough or in plenty of time ( if at all ). They have the boards in place for you to wonder past in the morning but wouldnt it be much more effective to hget on the tannoy 10 mins before each event and let you know about it ? i asked the in2action rep and he stated that the entertainment team take and hide the microphones so they are unable to do this .

beach :- excellent , sand is bloody hot and the water sports are varied and reliable. Recommend taking the blue speedboats out. cost me 40YTL for 15 mins.

excursions :- are ok but we took one of the reps advice and went to sarigerme and organised through the towns. Turkish bath is well worth the money.

Turkish night :- think it was saturday night , market stalls laid out and camels etc there near the pool bar. Very nice but worth waiting to go to sarigerme on sunday morning for the mrket there. Dont buy the Playstation 2 games from the stall as they are for the NTSC version or a chipped PS2. I enjoyed this mainly because it broke up the same entertainment each evening episode.

Dalaman airport :- Jesus ! £8 for a mcdonalds and people are buying it ! what are they on. Everything in this place is expensive, except the duty free and the cigs. Cigs were £13 for 200 .

To sum up , nice pools but unfortunatley we will not be using First Choice again to book a holiday through. Certainly wont be going back to a holiday village. We have been on sandals holidays and virgin resort holidays that just blow this holiay out of the water for less than we paid to go here.

Andy

3 more sleeps

So excited to be going back.

Not that im too bothered but does any one know what is in the family rooms ie is it one double bed and the sofa bed or 2 beds ???

Its a double bed in the main bedroom area plus a double sofa bed and a single sofa bed in the living area.

HTH

Catherinex

Latest update on my "complaint" to First Choice. Have now had a letter back from Customer Services telling me that I need to get in touch with their Legal Department. I also need to supply them with all medical reports, receipts for medication etc.

As we never went to see the on-site doctor (told how expensive it was and that you just get a prescription), we got our medication from the local chemist, I have sent them the original packaging (what a relief we brought it home with us) and will keep you posted as to what the outcome is.

I have also told them not to tell me I am the only one to have had this problem or to have complained because I know others have.

Can somebody please tell me whether you have to walk down the road or the beach to the village.

quickest way down the road about 30 min brisk walk

Got Back on Sunday morning and can safely say WE WILL NEVER BE GOING BACK

Hotel - Just as clean and lovely as last year so no complaints there.

Reps - Were very rude and unhelpful. After bringing up a concern i had with a rep and telling him that it certainly wasnt like this last year he said and i quote " well you paid more money last year" i can tell you i was gobsmacked by this comment and bluntly told him the the 4 of us paid £500 more this year and brought and extra 3 adults with us this year.

When one of the reps decided to cancel our room keys and give them to anouther couple for them to walk in while we were in the shower, they found it quite amuzing. Not sorry from any of them. I told them my corcerns that at the time they came in i was in the shower and my 2 children were in the room, now if my 11 year old hadnt of screamed i would have been no the wiser to them entering. Safe to say i didnt sleep at all for the rest of the holiday or take a shower until there was anouther adult around to keep and eye on my 2 children.

Kids Reps - well all i can say is what a disgrace they are. My partner always took our son to his kids club and i took our daughter dont ask why it just happerned that way. Well when i did have to pick my son up (rugby on telly) i went and they asked my sons name and before i had even filled the form out i was handed my son and his card, bearing in mind they had never seen me before. Again needless to say my children didnt attend again.

Food - well if you like chicken & Turkey for every meal then you will be fine !!!

Trips - after booking a trip with the reps. I asked at the time what the max would be on the boat trip and was told 40 max. Got to the trip to find 110 jammed onto it. We brought this up with the rep in question when we got back and she again said it should have been no more than 40 and would look into it. After she spoke to her manager she came back with well the boat can hold 120 and because we went on the trip we would not get a refund. We didnt know there was going to be 110 people till we got on the bloody trip !!!!!

Tropical is merging into Holiday Village next year. Is ashame presume that the Iberostar reps will have been fired and it'll all be English next year.

Nooo, how did you find that out Rob? I've been waiting to book the Iberostar accom only, so now its only bookable with First Choice who it was originally owned by, is that right?

It was bookable with FC and Eclipse only for English people but this year was avaliable to foreign customers via other agents I presume.

If you go on the FC website the booking for next year describes that they have merged the Tropical and Palace to create a super holiday village which is essentially what I believe it was like previous to this season.

Ashame really, there are no prices yet as the flights aren't avaliable but the quoted prices for May 5th were starting at £94 per adult which is great, perhaps this will increase when the flights become avaliable though!

I was considering this again next year but now it has become one again I don't think the Tropical will be the same as it was this year with the Iberostar Animation team and the more varied clientile!