ah well just goes to show you cannot please everyone, it suits me great

bluepeterno1

It was not a case of not suiting . This was a truly poor hotel or as is quite possible it had gone realy downhill from your visit.
There is another possibility that they work on minimum budgets during the winter. There were no snacks at all except for the left overs at midnight and a few plates of hard biscuits at teatime.
There were some good points, the animation staff and the general staff were very good. There were very few Russians mainy British and French.
What we experienced was nothing like the way it was described in the reviews on here.
Maybe in the summer it would be better but I and many others will not be going back to find out.
Margaret

Hi Margaret

Sorry you had a bad holiday

Glad the weather was good for you at least.

Look forward to reading your review

as you say neknit they may dowmgrade for the winter, but it is definately a different story in the summer , you can eat all day long if you wish , it is the only hotel ,that i could get fed up looking at food as there is such an abundance of it , sorry you had a bad time

bluepeterno1

It is a shame because as I said we and many others would not go back.
I am very dubious now about the 5 star AI in Egypt we are going to in June.
Margaret

Which hotel in Sharm? I know most of the hotels!

I was thinking about the ZEYNEP in the spring... won't bother....

We are supposed to be going to the Mirabel Beach Resort in Nabaq Bay.
Fairly new but a lot of good reports.
As for the Zeynep, what ever was going on there when we stayed is not reflected in the general reviews on HT I think it is worth bearing in mind that winter schedules are totally different from summer ones, which I did not realise. I think this is unfair because the price we paid was roughly the same as the summer price. Never mind it's over now.
Have to decide about next year as to going to Egypt or losing our deposit.
Thanks Margaret

Hi Briar,
I think i am going to have to decide this one for myself because you can only go by people's experiences that is why I chose the Zeynap. The write ups for the Mirabel beach are wonderful and it WILL be summer. The thing I have to decide is if I want to take a chance on 5* AI again.
On reflection we would dearly love to go to Egypt so if I did change it might be to a B&B
there. Thanks for the advice
Margaret

Hi Margaret

Sorry you were disappointed with the hotel in Turkey, it was one I had considered.

Re your hotel in Sharm, I dont know if you are aware, but if you look on the interactive map on the Egypt forum, it is the furthest hotel from Namma Bay. It looks superb and the reports on trip adviser are good, but I thought I would mention it just incase you didn't know and it would be a probelm for you.

Chris

I have seen all the reviews on Trip Advisor and they really are good. I have also looked some others but we have booked with Portland so if I was to change then it would have to be with them or I have lost three hundred pounds. They do not have the Coral Sea.
I think all this has made me realise that every holiday is a chance you take. As I wrote in an earlier post in this thread we met a couple who had been to the Zeynap and May and could not wait to go back.
I think people who go in the summer will have a different experience at least I hope they do.
We have had talk and decided to stick with the Mirabel in Egypt and hope for the best.
Thanks for all the comments and advice.
Margaret

same thing happened to me when we went all inc in april to the 4-5 star marmaris palace it was dreadful, the food was minimal and poor standard we had no snacks etc, hardly any choice of hot meals, only 1 restaurant open when normally there are a few, no live cooking all reheated rubbish,drinks very poor choice and cheap makes,rooms more 3 star standard we were so dissappointed yet bluepeterno1 loved that too, so i think what happens is as you stated, out of season they reduce the prices and down goes the food selection and quality totally unexceptable, such a shame because you look forward to a holiday no matter how much you pay and dont expect standards to drop out of season

Could not agree more Ellie. The point is they do themselves no favours because you would not dream of going back. One poor couple we met had been there the last week in Oct and the first two weeks in Nov. The last week in Oct, 24 hour bar International brands, last two weeks 10-12 local only. you would go mad. They were not told the hotel would downgrade the last two weeks. Anyone going early or late needs to check which one they are going to get, or like us and yourself they will be vey disappointed.
Margaret

just goes to show the difference they make between summer and winter,i have been to the marmaris palace and the sun zeynep plenty times and had great holidays with no complaints whatsoever we were thinking of going early 2007 but we will have to research some before we do . dont know how much cheaper they are in the winter.
bluepeterno1

not sure as we did a diy to marmaris palace this easter, the fact is though just because the prices out of season are cheaper then there is no need for them to drop their standards and selection , its not on, infact you arent really getting a good deal at all, if you read reviews and get recommended etc then go out of season and standards have dropped you arent getting what you expect after reading good reviews, they should keep up the standards if they want to keep hotel open slightly out of season, with the marmaris palace it wasnt just the fact that they had only 1 restaurant open but the standard of food was more 2* it was dreadful, i would never go back to this hotel

we came back from letoonia beginning of last month and although we throughly enjoyed it and the place was fantastic we paid the same as the people who went sept but only 50% of restaurants and bars were open when we were there they had closed the week before, and the ones with the fab views were closed, so we felt slightly cheated and missed out on the restaurants with fab views there were a few people complaining, we didnt but it does make you wonder why they do this, its very naughty of them, we would go back to this hotel as they did keep the standards of food etc up