We arrived here on Saturday 22nd May 2010. I thought i'd put an update on the place here.
Firstly, if you dont have your euros yet buy them in cash from wherever, as i went into first choice and paid my debit card and got charged 15GBP for it, maybe everyone knows about this and i was a bit ignorant, however if you didn't know get them in cash.
the flight... it's really cramped, i mean really cramped, my husband is 6'3" and had to sit sideways. The food and staff all ok though. Oh and pay in GBP for your stuff on he plane as they charge 1.5 in exchange rates!
transfer about 45 mins, when you get on the coach-take a pen-you'll be given a registration form to fill in do it then, it'll save time. We booked for a royal deluxe swim up. the hotel is built on a road so it's kind of on 2 halves. theres the activity side and the relax side. our transfer coach only had the holiday village people on so we went straight there rather than having to stop all over the place. The coach stopped at the activity reception first and dropped off the families staying there. We got dropped at reception at our place at about 9.30pm ish. We queued for reception-took a while only one member of staff doing everything. There was another lady but she was doing champagne for everyone, so not a moan from me!but as i hadn't filled in the card i was told to do it and they'd come over and do the wristbands. These are pink and blue. we thought pink for girls etc and nearly put them on ourselves, they're not so dont do it, cos theyll snip em off and youll be waiting an age for her to come back, well to queue again cos we gave up waiting for her. So its blue for adults and pink for the kids which my 11 and 3 yr old boys threw a bit of a strop at (yes i was a bit disgusted too, but in their defence we were all a bit tired!, also they're important as the activity side bands are a slightly different colour) still they all got over it! We were then given our room card and told to go to the restaurant first as it stayed open especially for us (it was getting on a bit time wise) the food, i was so diappointed the fried stuff tasted awful! but i will say now if you arrive late and its like that i can only assume it was because it had been sitting around a while, because although we have exclusive use of the royal deluxe clubhouse (which we love for breakfast) evening meals should definitley be taken in the activity side. It's really lovely and lots of choice, kids and adult meals, loads of salads etc too. ooh now i must point out there is white, red and rose wine on tap. now i'm a red fan myself but not here the rose is just delicious and makes you feel really mellow. The clubhouse for dinner is on a menu so no buffet thing and the food wasn't to everyones taste.
SAFE SAFE SAFE this is really important! you have a safe in your room. to hire for 1 week its 20euro for 2 weeks its 35 euro. so i paid 35. i was told to go back to the room and the man will be along to show me how to use it. he came and put in 4xAA batteries and left! i put in my own code and everything, i was jumping! so bring 4 AA batteries and save yourself some cash. only this morning i went through reception and saw a queue of 'newbies' i know a load arrives yesterday so i thought blow it if i can save someone else some money i will! A bit cheeky but who cares its 35 euros. everyone left and got batteries. so how long that safe thing will last till they cotton onto me i have no idea, in fact we'll prob get slung out! But its a bit annoying and the reason i've been so annoyed is because this is rated as 5*, well its not that. Safes are always included normally and we were misinformed that we had a minibar in the royal deluxe. It was certainly in the brochure (2009) but not in the new one. we have a fridge but its empty, everyone complained. It now says the royal villas only get them. I'm still not happy but what can you do? let it ruin your hol? i think not but as i have found this bar around the corner (star bar) internet and everything and the coldest beer(yum) i thought i'd post something on here instead.
oh yes as it stands the internet is still not working in the hotel.
The First choice reps are it has to be said brilliant. The kids club-excellent. Wavelength-excellent. My husband went off and did some of the golf things and was totally entetained by the staff.
Sorry if i sound a bit moany, we're 34 and 35 and just out to enjoy ourselves so not moaners, i was a bit irked at the safe/minibar thing and just want to save people some money, oh and we were given the wrong room card so at midnight we were trying to get into someone elses room! they weren't happy neither were we...
still that got sorted really quickly.
one more thing(well till i think of something else) if you suffer mosquitos terribly for the love of his almighty take some repellant, and use it, please. if i can save one person of the misery i'm in it'll be worth it. i have 29 bites all over my legs. i had to find a pharmacy yesterday (about 10 mins walk) he took one look and sat me down (george, lovely guy) gave me 3 anti histimine tablets there and then as one bite was weeping all over the place (gross yes i know) then gave me 3 more for later that day, this am and this pm. But the itching is terrible. I have cream but he did say to go back for antibiotics, which i think i may need to. However the water eases the itch totally, and the rose makes you even more mellow.... aaahhhh
So we have a convertible booked for sun/mon we're going to rhodes town on sunday night as its supposed to be brilliant. We got our car via the guy in reception.
Apart from the gripes it is lovely. The beds are very very comfortable. You can hire towels for 10 euros each, thats a deposit. And in my opinion worth doing. I noticed other families have brought their own, BUT you can change thses towels up to 3 times per week, so 6 times in total for us, then you get your money back. And the towels are really big and good quality (i'm a size 20 and they cover me no probs
so worth it.Tiiping: we have so far tipped the maid, breakfast lady, afternoon and evening bar ppl, i havent seen anyone else do it but i just wouldnt feel right not doing it. I only tipped 5 euros a time. There is a shop on site selling loads, the inflatables are a good price, we bought a dinghy for a about 11euros. There a couple of markets tho off site and one is about a 30 second walk from the swim up bit where we are. Handy cos i filled the fridge with gin and tonic and budweiser from it!
I've ticked to notify me of a reply but you can PM me on , i check it most days, feel free to ask me anything with regards to the hotel.
post edited to remove personal info..... wizard
we do not normally permit post from resorts but i will let this past as so many members have worries thanks for posting
