Got back from the Royal Park 4 days ago and have to say we had a ball. The hotel is spotless and the staff are hard working and conscientious. The location is quite simply stunning, set on a very clean beach with the hills in the background. Will divide the rest of my review into sections for ease of reading.
1). Food:
Plenty of choice in the main restaurant and never found food to be cold. Plates and cutlery do run out at peak times but are replaced within minutes by staff. Some of the crockery has small chips in it but nothing major. The food may not be to everybody's taste in the main restaurant but there are several pre-bookable ones you can also visit. The Talyana is a lovely barbecue restaurant which we visited 4 times and can be booked between 10-11am on the day you want to eat at it. My absolute favourite though was the Sozepol which serves traditional Bulgarian food.... their chicken soup, tender roast lamb and honey pancakes were superb, they also have traditional dancers on a Monday and Thursday night at 8.30 pm who take all the kids out to dance. Paco's is outside the complex but cheap to eat in, we were getting 4 meals and 4 drinks for under 40 leva or Euro 20 !!! You can get hotdogs,pizzas and chicken kebabs from 10-5pm beside the pool and there is a brilliant coffee shop that serves cappucino's, ice cream, biscuits and panini's. Trust me you will not starve and the alcohol is most certainly not watered down and the measures are humungous!!
2). Staff
The staff at this hotel are the most dilligent I have ever come accross. The place is spotless, someone is always sweeping, wiping tables, collecting glasses etc.The maids are lovely and our linen and towels were changed daily, they even put the kids dolls and teddies in different poses everyday eg in the bed, wearing sunglasses etc and they used to pick the kids up and hug them. The bar staff are friendly and efficient and get to know your order very quickly. If people are treated with respect they react to you in kind, I had only positive interactions with all staff where I used good manners and smiled as did they. I did however witness other guests being incredibly rude and verbally abusive towards staff.

3).Entertainment:
The kids club is fantastic and the girls who work in it are patient, kind and a pleasure to deal with. The club takes 24 kids at any one time as there are only 3 staff, but if you make your way to the academy 20 minutes before the session starts you will generally have a good chance of getting in. My 3 kids went everyday and loved it, sessions are 10-12, 5-7 pm, 9-11pm and some days a party from 2-4pm which you had to pay 15 leva for because they got sweets and had their faces painted etc. The animation hall hosts all kinds of entertainment each night after the mini-disco. There are plenty of bars with quizzes on in or in some cases dance troupes ( strippers really) there was also a firework party on the saturday night. The first choice entertainment team also provide lots of entertainment around the pool during the day. Sunny Beach is only 15 mins and 3 leva on bus/25 leva in a taxi if you fancy getting out and about.

4). Location:
The hotel will take your breath away at first sight if you arrive in the night as we did.... its spectacular. The foyer is something else, really beautiful. Our room was a kids den and it was huge, the air con worked perfectly and we had a fabulous seaview. I went to Nessebar by bus which was very pretty and then on to Sunny Beach which I found very commercialised and was glad to be back in quiet Elenite.There is security guards at every gate of the hotel and nobody without a wrist band can come in, I found this very reassurind as you were not bothered by people trying to sell you stuff on the beach/at the pool. The hotel has 2 pools which were lovely, freezing when you get in but fine after a few minutes. The water park is also brilliant with lots of slides and very little queuing. You have to pay 5 leva for a sunbed at the waterpark and you cannot bring food and drinks in with you. I found the prices a bit steep so we used to leave our stuff with the sunbed and walk the 2 minutes back to the hotel for our lunch. The beach is lovely and very clean, beds are plentiful and free as they are at the pool.

We had a lovely holiday at the Royal Park, met lots of people who were constantly moaning about every thing and they were the only thing that put a dampener on my stay!!! None of us were sick, none of us were starved and none of us had to pay for missing towels. I'm sure there are things I could have found fault with if I put my mind to it, but they were so insignificant at the time and not worth getting worked up about, in other words every hotel in every resort you ever go to will have faults if you go looking for them. If you are a 'glass half-full' type in real life then chances are you will have problems at this hotel. However, if like me you go on hols to unwind and experience other cultures you too will have a ball!!!

arriving at midnight, the hotel looked fabulous. however, when we were taken to our room we soon found that we did not get the suite that we had paid extra money for! we promptly asked at reception if there had been a mistake and could we be moved but were told to come back two days later! this would have been ok if i didnt have two children with me but i did so it wasnt acceptable. we were also put on the 7th floor after we requested a low floor! apart from this the hotel is clean. there is no entertainment to speak of apart from a few quizes in the morris bar. the food is plentiful but undercooked, cold and pink meat, we all had dodgy tummies and my 2yr old son had to be put on a drip because he couldnt eat anything and ended up with dehydration! although we complained to the reps i dont think they were interested. most of the staff were rude or wouldnt even look at you, but there were some friendly ones if you made an effort with them.

The hotel looks great. we had a family room with the separate side room for the kids. the room was huge which was ideal for the kids, TV in the kids room had no socket to plug in an ariel so that never worked, our TV was dead when we arrived and it took 4 complaints to reception and me walking a manager up to our room to get it sorted. The air con never worked but i couldnt find anyone who had a working unit. the only english TV channel was BBC world news.

The 2 pools that are with this hotel are okay but both were freezing. The area around the pool was usually full even though the hotel was only at one third full occupancy, i would imagine that in august its a complete nightmare.
The food is not brill. The buffet restaurant was always busy and i dread to think what its like in the summer, i was usually able to find something to eat but it gets a bit repetitive after a few days, its regularly stone cold and quite often the chicken was not cooked.
there are 3 other restaurants that you can use, the first is Talyana which is a BBQ style restaurant and was not bad, again watch for the raw chicken, the second is a Bulgarian style restaurant called Sozzapol (not sure of the spelling), we did not eat here but heard good reports about the food, the last one is in the 5 star hotel next door, its called Sunshine and is only open from 10pm till 11pm (great idea that) this one has waiters and you get to choose from a menu. All 3 of these need to be booked in advance, although Sunshine was always empty, probably because of the opening times.
Ther are many snack bars around for hotdogs, kebabs (or as the sign says kepaps), pizza and sandwiches. the only place on the whole site for ice cream is in the back of the coffee shop. the poster in reception says that there is a baked potato stall next to reception but no one could find that. another thing i find strange is that there is nowhere to get food after 9:30.
we found ourselves going accross the road to Pacos Bar, dont be put off by the fact it looks like it was built by robinson cruso, its a great place and opens from 4pm till whenever they feel like closing.

The entertainment was awful. the ampitheatre was closed for repair so the only place for entertainment was the animation hall.
my kids will usuall watch any old rubbish but even they complained about it, imagine getting the krankies and the chuckle brothers together, getting them drunk and watching them, well thats the quality of the entertainment.

the kids clubs are good but only take 24 kids so the chances of getting them in is pretty slim, also some of the clubs have to be paid for (6 levs for the chocolate club for example)

The reps (first choice) are a waste of space, they are only there to sell the product (trips) all of which are VERY overpriced.
The trip to Khans Tent is 89 levs per adult and kids are 54 levs, total for our family would be 286 levs, for that you get a coach to the dinner show and a 4 course set meal. if you go to Pacos Bar he will arange a taxi for you to go, entry is free and you can choose from a menu, cost of taxi 60 levs return plus food 28 levs, total of 88 levs, so we saved 198 levs on this trip alone.
all the other trips can be booke else where, we found the best place to be at a travel shop called Condor, its about 100 yards past the sunny beach bus stop, all the trips are much cheaper and are exactly the same including being picked up by coach from the hotel.

the water park is quite good, drinks and food are expensive, and for god sake dont break anything, they wont let you leave till its paid for.

now this is where it gets scary....... THE GREAT ROYAL PARK TOWEL SCAM....... we had heared about a great many people being charged for missing towels when they tryed to check out, so we kept count of ours each day and if they were incorrect we would go to reception and ask for a replacement, after being accused of leaving it on the beach or by the pool we would get another one. when we were checking out 2 familys were being asked for payment for missing towels, one lady, staying with 3 kids was being told she had to pay 155 levs, she had no money left and could not pay and why should she as it was a mistake,
within half an hour 6 big Russian (not Bulgarian) men arrived in reception and were following her around intimidating her. some of the male guests tryed to intervine in this and they became very theatening. the gates to the resort were locked and no one was alowed in or out. she was told that she could not leave the hotel until she had paid, this went on for about 2 hours until we had a whip round and paid it.
while this was going on the reps (Alan and Vlado) did absolutly nothing to help, saying it was not their problem, after a stand up row with some of the guests Alan admitted that this was a known problem and a regular occurance.
quite why first choice still use this hotel if this goes on, and why they dont warn people is beyond me.

when you book out they try and cut your wrist band off, DO NOT let them . if you are on an early in the morning flight it means that you could be sat around for over 12 hours with nothing to eat or drink. you cant even go to Pacos because they wont let you back in without a wrist band.

this hotel is classed as 4 star but is no more than a 2 at best.
im just really glad i didnt go in the summer.

when we arrived it was 5am it took nearly 2 hours to get a room we then found out we were on the 5th floor of the new part which didnt have a lift so we had to go to the 4th floor then walk right round then up a flight of stairs. room was ok but when we booked we were told it was a bedroom amd living area but there was no wall inbetween so no privacy . food was repetative and cold and chicken was undercooked and tables were never cleared we had to queue for at least 30mins to eat. there was one staff on the bar so getting a drink was a nightmare. entertainment was ok when you were drunk . the pool was freezing cold nearly had a heart attack when you got in it . the pedaloes were ment to be free but the life quard was charging 20leves we reported it to the reps but they were not interested. on the day we checked out the TOWEL SCAM STARTED. i lady with 3 kids was told she had to pay 155 levs as she had stole the towels after a few hours and a lot of arguing we all put in some money to pay it for her as soon as it was paid the security backed off . the reps just sat there and did nothing . 10 mins later another man was charged 60 levs and he kicked off but payed as his wife was upset.you have to check out of our room at 12pm and if you wish to keep it until 6pm it costs140levs which is a rip off . we booked a shower room from 6 till 7 pm and it was 20 levs when we got to the room the water was cold and we were told the whole complex was off , funny it came back on at 8pm when everyone had payed. they would not refund the money even though nobody got a shower.

The hotel was spottless.Very clean.The food was of poor quality,slightly undercooked,but had a microwave.Not many changes to the menu.The location of the hotel,i thought is great.Its right on the beach and seems to have everything on sight that you may need.Its only a 10min journey to neighbouring sunny beach which to me is like blackpool.Hotel staff seem very,very over worked and not polite at all.They are all very ignorant and miserable.Firstchioce entertainment was ok but iv seen better.Hotel entertainment was good but didn't see much of it as could never get a seat.I would visit this hotel again if i ever came back to bulgaria.

When we arrived at the hotel it was very grand and impressive and after reading some reviews we didnt what to expect. we had paid extra for a family room and it was well worth it! The room was immaculate and very big! The hotel was spotless with cleaners everywhere which is a priority for us to go somewhere clean. They were around the pool area and the reception area, waitresses were constantly removing dirty cups, really impressed with the cleanliness.
The food was really nice, we all ate well every meal time and only queued for 10 mins at the most! It was constantly being topped up and the waitresses were friendly and polite as were all the staff at the hotel. We were told to meet the rep the morning after we arrived but after 15 mins in the foyer, we realised he hadnt said where? We found our way around the hotel and the pubs etc but didnt really see any entertainment for adults apart from during the day.

hotel was spotless, the cleaners and glass collectors never stopped clearing up.

the hotel really does look stunning very clean,cleaners never stopped working, I found the staff at the hotel quite helpful and pleasant.the food seemed to be not very warm, but plenty of it maybe cause people could't eat it.wasn'nt to impressed with the food.the hotel location not very good,if the weathers crap there's not much to do, and nowhere to go. the beach is nice so is the pool area.entertainment wise they really need to work on that. its non existant,they have a kids club to keep them entertained, but if you ain't got kids there is nothing they need to put some on in the hotel.other than my wife slipping up on the stairs and breaking her wrist the holiday was ok, would i go back don't think so,

reception staff ofhand hotel very dirty staff not cleaning every body smoking even in restaurant food rubbish basic entertainment bingo barbeque staff very helpful alway,s smiling

Just returned from an absolutely fantastic two weeks in the Royal Park. All members of our party thoroughly enjoyed it. Yeah the food wasn't fantastic but there was always a good selection and we travelled with some very fussy eaters but nobody went hungry.
The only downside to our holiday was the amount of whinging brits in the hotel. The entertainmenets team put on some fantastic shows at night but for the best entertainment during the day it was to be found in the reception listening and watching people complain to the reps, it was always amusing but unfortunately at times it was embarassing.
The reps - Dianne, Becca & Craig must have the patience of saints to put up with it all and we would like to thank them and all the team in the royal park for a great time.
For everyone travelling to anywhere in the world remember your holiday is what you make it yourself!!