hi I'm a bit concerned with the reviews about the staff and young girls. Where can I make a comment to the management before we go as I dont want my holiday spoilt by this Diana

Ranna and palmerg

Please do not worry about the staff and young girls or women. Yes they do look but it is more than their job is worth to touch. You have to try to not forget that you are in a Arabic country where they do not have girlfriends and women wallking around in very little. Yes they are going to look but that is all.

They work crazy hours 14h a day or so for $50 a month, and i saw actual fear in their eyes when as they said 'boss boss' was near. They were like different people. We left our safe open one day and it was horrible as the guy who made up our room locked the safe and protocol is that he reports it to reception. The safe is then locked and to get it released it has to be opened with a member of management watching and the guy that cleaned the room. We had to confirm that everything was still there.

As for an ATM, you can get money from the Bay but i often heard the guy who you booked the trips with offering to drive people down the road to an ATM. I spoe to people who did this and everything was fine, nothing bad happend at all.

I hope this helps. You are going on holiday to relax, do try to go and have fun.

Hi Ranna and Palmerg,

Sorry if we have worried you with the men, didn't mean too. You get this all over the world. When I was in Jamaica, married American older women would leave there husbands behind and come to Jamaica especially to get chatted up by the entertainment team / watersports guys. You also hear of so many young girls who end up marrying Turkish men. So it happens everywhere. Just have a chat with your kids that they may get lots of attention from the staff and to ignore it as they do this to everyone. And as Ellieadore says if they did acctually do something more than flirting then they would be sacked.
So please don't worry try to enjoy your holiday and if they do flirt with you use it to your advantage, ie getting served quicker at bar!

Hi

We're flying out on the 21st July with our two children 14 and 10,
have read most of the posts in this forum and at first I was worried we may have booked the wrong hotel but going with an open mind and determined to relax and watch the world go by.
Regarding comments on 5* I would like to know what others are comparing this to, are they comparing with others in Europe or further a field?
Loads of Germans - get that everwhere - we just ignore them or have fun people watching!

Food - you can never please everyone!
Upset stomachs - had that in Spain, Kenya, Turkey - so nothing new there, it's just the change in climate.

My only concern is the rooms, read loads of posts dicussing the rooms etc and checked on our invoice to see what room we are in and it stated "standard" but then looking at the website it seems our family wouldn't even fit in this type of room as we are classed as 3 adults and one child - can anyone shed any light on this please?

Jo

Hi Budda

I think it is about 4* based on Europe tourist resorts, this does not apply to say hotel chains when doing a city break.

As for the room i can not help as we had a suite. Hope you have fun!

Thanks for your reply, going to get in touch with MY travel and see exactly which room we are booked into - been all over but never come across rooms that sound so different depending on which tour operator you book with.

Hi Budda

We have booked a standard room with Cosmos and I am also confused about what is on offer. As we are a couple hopefully a standard room will be fine.

I am more concerned about the different wrist bands. I asked Going Places to check this out for me and they contacted Cosmos on my behalf. According to Cosmos there is no up-grade available on wrist bands and we will be entitled to use all the facilities in the hotel as all inclusive guests. However from previous postings this is obviously not the case. Are you aware of this?

We go at the end of August and I can't wait.

Hi Budda and Sheila.

In answer to your questions, I have been to a 5 star in Greece, Dominican republic and Malaysia. 4 star Margarita, Jamaica, Kenya, Tenerife, Spain, Gambia, Mexico to name but a few oh yeah and 4 / 5 star in America. I would say Grand Azure looked the smartest, kenya had the best entertainment and food, well apart from the cruise we went on. We have to go on holiday where there are slides now for our kids so in this aspect this hotel was brill.

With regards to wristbands, the normal wristband allows you normal all inclusive the only difference with the upgrade is your allowed international drinks in the executive lounge, breakfast in the executive lounge, laundry, and room service stocked mini bar in room, oh and free tennis, the rest is the same so don't worry. We only used the executive lounge at night twice, because we had the kids with us and had to go off to mini disco after our meal.

Hope you have a great time any other questions please feel free to ask.

Thank you Nicolaw and Ellieadore for your reassuring posts just a bit concerned as I'm going with 5 teenage girls and 2 protective fathers
thanks Diana

Nicolaw, just wondered if you could tell me what 'laundry' facilities were included in the upgraded wristband/junior suite option. It's the first I've heard of it and I particularly hate returning home with 2 weeks worth of dirty washing for four! Yuk! If there is an easy way to get washing done whilst we are away I can also pack less Thanks.

Hi again. I dont think any two people in this world will have the same perception of any holiday, it is all based on what experience you have as to wether you can come home and say you have enjoyed it. Firstly I am not blonde (just thught it sounded good as a name) and I did get looks and comments from the men all the time, yes I did end up using it to my advantage by getting served first at the bar and getting an umbrella round the pool ! On arrival at the hotel we were amazed and couldnt imagine how anyone could complain about this hotel as it seems fantastic, but little things later in the week bugged us like only been able to get into the Chinese once and the Italian once and not the times we wanted as they seemed to get booked up at 10am on the dot so make sure you get to reception early ! we only got booked on the shuttle bus twice and agian not the times we wanted. We had to be up at 8am to guarentee a sun bed and never managed to get one round the Waterfalls pool as they had towels on them at 7am! As for the rating I am comparing it to 3 - 5 star all inclusive hotels I have been to in the Caribbean and Europe. As for the stoamch upset I too get one everywere I go, but have never had it when I het home I still have Diorhea and carmps and am booked in at the doctors on Monday. Go with an open mind and if you get ill go straight to the chemist across the road. I would just tell your teenage girls to be polite but ignore the men as much as possible and they will be fine, i just things some young girls were getting carried away with the attention that they may have never had before at home.

soory forgot to also say dont worry about currency, we took 50 pounds worth of egyptian money and the rest in english we planned to change it there but didnt need to, everywhere accepts english money they love it as they get more for it, we paid our excursion in english, meal in Hard roack in English, souvenirs in Naama Bay in English and also our taxi back the airport ! so it was all dead easy coz you know how much you sre spending!

Having a nightmare with our booking - due to go in five days time - just telephoned Airtours direct to query our room - party of four, 3 adults and one child. daughter is 14 so classed as an adult.

Airtours have informed me that the room they booked for us will not accomodate our party and have advised that we have to cancel our booking - NO WAY, not my problem. I'm not accepting this, advised thenm to contact the hotel direct and sort this out, there fault not ours.

Not happy infact really angry that this has happened and I pointed it our to them, what would have happened if I hadn't, we could have arrived and found no accomodation for us????

Finally sorted the room issue with Airtours - they have contacted the hotel and arranged an upgrade to the Junior suites, we ahve to pay for this however Airtours will reinburse us on our return!

Just one quetstion - with the junior suites are we automatically given the upgraded wristband or is this another extra on top of the upgraded room?

Firstly Budda, that is really bad what airtours have done. Surely they should honour the booking and give you an extra room at there own cost because it is there fault. We were going to go to Turkey originally and when ever we tried to book online we would encounter problems so when I phoned up they would say the room would not accept the cot and so we would have to get a family room which was a lot more expensive. So they do tell you if you won't fit in a room cos they will get more money. Hope you get it sorted.

With regards to the laundry factilities you get one free laundry during your stay and you can have as much as you want done. We never did it as we unfortunately left it too late.

Crazyblonde, yes I agree no two people will have the same view on a hotel. We were lucky and only had a mild tummy upset and didn't need to get the tablets from the chemist. We also were able to get into the speciality restuarants all the time. We had a brilliant relaxing two weeks (even with having a baby) and would certainly go back, but so many other places to see first!

Glad its got sorted Budda and that Airtours will reimburse you. Don't know if they will give you the upgraded wristbands though as the hotel does charge different rates for suite upgrade only, drinks upgrade and upgrade with both,so I can imagine you will only get the suite!

Hope you have a wonderful holiday though

... so does that mean that if you have booked a Junior Suite through a Tour Operator (First Choice in our case) you will have to pay extra to upgrade the wristband when you arrive? I thought that guests in the Junior Suites got allocated the upgraded band as part of the deal - but maybe I haven't been following this thread closely enough.! As I recall the Junior Suites were quite a bit more expensive than the Family Rooms - if the upgraded band isn't included with the Jnr Suites, the Family Rooms (which sound like they are larger with a partition between adult and child beds) would seem to represent better value. Can anyone who has travelled with First Choice and stayed in a Suite clarify this matter for me please. Obviously I'll also try to obtain clarification from First Choice. Thanks everyone.

Can anyone tell me if you can up-grade your wrist band if you are staying in a standard room.

As a couple we do not need any additonal space, but we both enjoy branded spirits and it would be nice to be able to order them as part of the AI deal.

Apart from the drinks are there any other benefits. We do not normally eat breakfast so being able to use the executive lounge in the morning holds no appeal!

Having been on AI holidays for the past few years, this is the first time I have encountered a two tier system and I find it very odd that there is an additional cost to upgrade to get access to all the facilities I thought we had already paid for.

Hi both,

If you have booked a suite in this country (we did) then your entitled to the full all inclusive package. If you have booked a standard room, then you can upgrade the wristband only i think around $10 each, upgrade the room only $15 or upgrade both at $25 each.
With regards to Budda , as Airtours messed up and they have asked the hotel for a bigger room, i can imagine them only giving the bigger room and not the drinks package also.

I could be wrong though. It is funny having a two tired system though. I never understood the kids wrsitbands though as they all seamed to have different combinations.

Hope this helps a little

Nicola