Forget last years reviews...this was the best holiday i have ever been on.

First appearance was magnificent, there are cracked tiles and loose wires but you have to be looking hard for these to find them.

The room was lovely, we had a double room which included a double bed and a sofa bed for the children, we were on the first floor at the front of the hotel, this location was excellent and extremely quiet.

The maid came in every day and thoroughly cleaned, I had heard from others that the management were 'tight' with the towels but we never experienced this, our daughter was poorly and the maid was having to completely change all linen and towels on a couple of days, this was never questioned by the management.

Before going I contacted First Choice to inform them that I had Celiac disease and confirm that they could cater for this, they confirmed this was fine.Sure enough when I arrved the reps and the chefs were expecting me and were very accomodating. The food was the best we have eaten, we ate in the main restaurant every night and thought the choice and standard of food was excellent, it surprised us to hear any one complaining about the food. One night Jim, one of the chefs went out and specially prepared me a meal to meet my dietary requirements.

In our last few days there were problems with inadequate amounts of cutlery in the hotel, some guests were waiting for 20 minutes for knives and cups! I mentioned this to Jim and he said he was aware of this but that it was a management issue. We had heard that there had been a walkout by waiting staff due to them not being paid.

The layout of this hotel was ideal, both the beach and pool were so near that you could position yourself in one place and allow the children to enjoy all the facilities. The lounger lottery was amusing! You must set your alarm clock for 6am if you want a lounger! Some loungers had towels on them first thing in the morning but the owners of the towels did not appear until 1pm, I am aware that the reps and the hotel are looking into this and trying to find a system to put in place to stop this happening.

Hotel staff were pleasant, especially in the Irish bar where you finally found bar staff that not only smiled but sometimes laughed! At the pool bar the staff were miserable, if you were Bulgarian or had 'model looks' you got served quicker and were allowed to queue jump. Our maid was excellent as were the staff on reception.

Entertainment was brilliant, like the reps tell you, you're on holiday, join in and have fun, some of it is a bit silly but thats what being on holiday is all about! The best entertainment reps have to be Tom, Kelly, they really put their heart into everything they do, even if you don't have children you must watch the mini disco when kelly and/or Tom do it, they are excellent and they made the entertainment perfect.

The other person that really made the holiday great for us was Janie, a mainline rep, she is the most helpful rep i have ever met.

My daughter did come down with gastroenteritis whilst on this holiday, the rep (Hugh) organised the hospital trip and comforted me and my other daughter when we were in a major panic. I have no idea how my daughter caught this, (she had eaten the same as us and we were fine). Following her illness I did hear other people saying that they had also been poorly and my only concern is that the reps should now treat this seriously, I did mention this to them before I left and they said they were dealing with it.

Overall this was an excellent holiday and I would definitely return and would strongly recommend this hotel.

We stayed in the Royal Park Hotel, Elinite. 4 star, All inclusive.

Cleanliness was good, although toilet floors were very slippery.

Something for everyone, there were some not very nice smells in the pool area on some occasions.

The food was good but be careful of the fried eggs.

Location couldn't be better, right on the beach. With an All inclusive holiday there was no real need to leave the complex.

The staff were friendly, love the blonde children!

Entertainment excellent, gave 110% all the time. We would definitely visit again in the future.

We also had read some reviews from 2004 and were not sure if we had made a mistake choosing this hotel. However we need not have worried as we all had a great time.

The First Choice reps were great.

The entertainment was really good.

The weather was fab.

The food was as good as any other all inclusive hotel we've stayed in before.

The cleaning of the hotel goes on all day and if there is any mess it's only because lazy holiday makers don't clear up after themselves.

We arrived at night and left at night and didn't feel the need to leave the resort as it had enough to keep us relaxed and entertained for the week we were there. Plenty of organised activities if you wanted to take part, we just lazed around on the beach most of the time.

There is a good medical centre on site which we needed as my daughter cut her foot and the treatment they provided was first class.

There are peacocks and a really friendly deer roaming around.

We would go to this hotel again.

The hotel is kept as clean as possible by the staff who work flat out. Pool area could be a bit of a mess at the end of the day, but always cleared before the evening entertainment kicks off. Rooms were spotless, and cleaned pretty much every day.

The food in the hotel was great. Choice of cereal, fruit, cold meat & cheese, fried brekky on the buffet or freshly prepared omlettes with a choice of ingredients. Tea/coffee/toast/fruit juice as well. Tonnes of choice.

For lunch, the buffet restaurant was open with choice of at least six dishes, soup, salads, etc. If you didn't fancy that, you could have pizza at the beach, hotdogs or sandwiches at the pool bar, or the BBQ restaurant served a limited a la carte of soup, salad, chicken, pork, fish, etc.

For dinner, again you had the buffet (with kids section for chicken nuggets, etc), bulgarian restaurant, a la carte restaurant or the barbecue. Again, plenty of choice - we ate in the a la carte once, the Bulgarian twice and the BBQ 3 times over the fortnight - the main restaurant always had a good choice as well.

The hotel's location is very good - in a quiet bay, right on the beach. Quite often sat out at night with a glass or two of wine watching the waves.

We didn't manage to use half the facilities available in the resort - mountain bikes/electric scooters/bouncy castle / pedaloes/ kayaks / etc... In the evening, there was 2 lots of entertainment to choose from.

Most often, we stuck with the First Choice program, which was usually worth a laugh - kids disco, bingo then quiz/show/whatever. There was a "Grease" show and a pantomime that the kids loved.

The site had entertainment in the Animation Hall that we went to twice for the Kids Pirate show and Mortal Kombat - these were "activity" shows with games and things. our two loved it.

The hotel staff were very friendly and helpful - don't have a single bad word to say about them. Pity a number of the guests werent as polite - a number of guests wandered up to the bar and simply demanded "Beer !!" - the bar staff duly ignored them and server the next person, which I thought was great.

We loved the hotel and the country - would love to go back next week, never mind next year !!

The location of this hotel is fantastic. We only went off the complex and this was to the dolphinarium, which was fantastic.

The food was not to my families taste so we went to a local bar which the reps recommended.

We would go back but maybe in a few years once it has ironed out the small problems.

A massive thank you to Leanne, Faye and Tom they were fantastic entertainers I personally thought Kelly was off hand with some of the kids and sometimes rude to customers.

Give it a few years and maybe we will return.

We flew in on the 22nd July, airport fine leaving Newcastle, then entering Bourgas for All Inclusive leaving on the 6th August.

There was an information file in the room at what the hotel offered. Signs on the what times things were on didn't turn up till our 4th day.

The staff seemed to be cleaning all the time. If anything was dirty i.e. sheets or towels I left them in the bath. The first time we came back to the room on our first day I found the door leading to the patio open I was a bit concerned but the staff said they do that to air the room, I thought someone else had been in.

By the poolside there were a few choice smells. The mops the staff were using looked dirty to start with.
Yet you could see the staff were busy and the hotel was very clean.

We liked breakfast, my kids ate hot dogs and pancakes and my hubby and I had omlettes made by the chef, very quick and tasty.

The coffee was nicer out of the machines. On one side of the restaurant there was both milk, hot water for tea and coffee but on the other only coffee and hot water.

Kids could go and get their own drinks, self serve but the floors were very slippy and to catch the drips from the drinks machine there was a large white containeer, well a few times the kids caught the container and it spilt every where. My youngest 9, fell a few times so he was frightened to use the machine.

We sorted lunch early on if we didn't like what was on offer in the main restaurant we ate at Talyana, and the kids ate chicken and hot dogs (too much ketchup for my liking in them) from one of the poolside bars. The pizza was lovely at the Talyana poolside.

Dinner time we went to the main restaurant, Talyana and the Sozapol in the Elenite hotel (too many steps for my liking) which had to be booked between 10 and 11 a.m. The Sozapol's goulash soup was yummy.

None of the family were bad through the holiday so to me that was a sign that the food was good.

You could get the bus into sunny beach and then on the Nessabar,reliable and costing only 1 leva 80 stinkies, mind you I tried to have the right money as they kept giving me less back.

There was also taxis outside the main gates costing 20 leva to Sunny Beach or 30 leva to Nessabar.

Being able to use the Elenites facilities location was excellent, I went to the casino, whilst the kids either played in the arcade, on the internet (1 hour, 5 leva)

I went to reception a few times to get things sorted in our room, the bed settee was very hard and I asked if I could have a mattress for the kids to sleep on and they did it.

My hubby got chatting to one of the barmaids called 'Boris' but he named her Brittney as she wore her hair in bunches. The staff were friendly, when they were giving you drinks at the bars,they said 'CHEERS!' it felt like they were shouting at you.

You could see the staff joking on amongst themselves sometimes it seemed like a friendly atmosphere.

My kids went on the scooter rides quite a lot 10 leva for 20 minutes. There was also kayaks for hire on the beach. Pedalos 50 leva deposit 1 hour, bring it back and get ALL your money back.

We went out on it a few times the 4 of us and we sometimes came back with 8, the kids would swim to us and keep jumping on and off the pedalo.

The best entertainment was the Deer chewing away on my sons neck, only kidding, it must have liked the taste of him.

My kids 9 and 12 weren't interested in the daytimes entertainment/activities.

Nightitme they were some good shows on like 'The Weakest link (Faye), she kept telling the audience to stop giving the answers. 'Miss Royal Park' (Tiny Tom) the contestants had Tom's life. Congrats to Hazel.

The shops on site were ok and reasonably priced. A wide variety of things to buy.

When first arriving at the Royal Park Hotel, it looks great. It is clean tidy and looks very nice.

The room I had booked was suite comprising of two rooms, one with twin beds and the other with twin beds and a pull out double. The room was clean and tidy and exactly what was required.

The food served in the restaurant was also to a good standard and quite varied as long as you were prepared to try different things. The chefs were doing a great job trying to keep everyone happy.

The hotel location is great as long as you don't mind it being quiet at night. If you want clubs and night life, take the sweatbox(bus) into sunny beach.

The staff at this hotel I found very good and helpful when treated with respect. The maids done an excellent job every day ensuring that our rooms were clean no matter how much sand we had deposited on the carpets.

I would not go back to this part of Bulgaria again. This is because it is becoming a Spanish Costa and I really don't like these places. The hotels have been thrown together. Royal Park is not very old but it does have some major faults - The rain runs into the reception area, Drainage appears to be insufficient as in a storm, all the water runs down the walls inside the rooms.

There were some very unhappy people staying here because the rooms were flooded or they had not got the rooms they had booked. I count myself as very lucky that my room was good and stayed dry in the rain.

This whole area does not reflect well on Bulgaria. But I will visit the country again and probably take a tent.

Food was ok had a lot of variety, enjoyed every meal I had and one day we had apple crumble, food is never like home but was very nice

Hotel was very clean, you always saw cleaners cleaning round the pool, corridors, etc

Location is quite out of the way from other resorts but the hotel caters enough for you that you don't have to venture out plus the beach is just outside the hotel and is glorious

Hotel staff were friendly but most didn't speak English but they would always nod and smile at you

Entertainment was very good, my 3year old loved the mini disco every night and they also put on a entertainment for adults which had us laughing. Entertainment finishes at 11pm which I think is too early but there is an Irish bar in hotel that stays open to 2am

Would defo visit again we all loved it, I have and will continue to recommend this hotel

The hotel was very clean except for the toilets near the dining room which they tried to keep clean but always ran out of toilet paper.

As we arrived the hotel was a welcome sight and looked quite grand all lit up at night.

We booked a suite and had 2 rooms, 2 balconies and a bathroom. The air conditioning wasnt very good but the room was clean and I was very pleased with it including the sea view from 1 balcony and mountains from the other.

The choice of where to eat pleased us as you can book to go to the barbecue,a la carte or Bulgarian restaraunt or just go into the main dining room which wasnt bad but they always run out of cutlery and glasses esp in the morning.

I found lunch was the best meal in there if I missed breakfast.

I wouldnt visit again because I never go back to a place (too many places in the world)
I tried to speak a few words of the local lingo to great amusement and pleasure to the bar staff who were friendly ( most of them )they work long hours.

As most people say, first impressions of this place are WOW!

And then you check in and..... well.....

The room was reasonablly big, but badly lit, damp, and with wires and sockets hanging off the walls, these were reported but not fixed during our 14 day stay.

The floors were constantly wet from being mopped,(with dirty mops)The pool areas were also soaking wet due to a lack of drainage, thus making the pool area filthy.

Then we get onto the food. My wife begeed me to get a taxi into Sunny beach so we could go to Mc Ds, it was nothing short of awful. You had to stand over tables while people were eating just so you could sit down, the crockery and cutlery were dirty and chipped and in very short supply. The food was cold, tasteless, and all this with an English chef in charge?!!!..... Oh yes and then there was the total of 4 days that our eldest daughter and myself spent in bed with food poisoning. My wife mentioned this to the really helpful FC rep who told her it was sunstroke!!! We had been in resort for 3 days and had no sun!! He then said it wasnt his problem. Not very helpful. Then they started to limit drinks on the all inclusive deal! Again FC reps werent intersteed.

Talking of the FC reps, I have never come across such a lazy arragant bunch ever. The kids club were a joke, and the family day was even worse. 2 young girls were left on their own while the reps sat on bean bags and had a chat.

The rumours about the sunbeds are also true. I had to get up at 6am every moring just to get 2 sunbeds, and even then there werent many left. As we came to the end of our holiday there were more people encamped on the grassed areas.

The only saving grace was the Bulgarian Animation team. The evening entertainment was second to none.