The Royal Park hotel was a great place. The hotel may not have been finished 100%, but the reception that we recieved from what was ready was great. The First Choice entertainers were great, and the high-light off my day was the pool quiz, our code name was the "Port Posse". the location right on the beach was great and the beer and pizza flowed like water all fortnight. the only thing that I would complan about was trying to get served in the "Irish Bar". If you are planning on going to this particular hotel, you'll have a ball, and please say hello to my wee pal Dimitre, the bar man in the reception.

Hi just back from Royal Park. Before I start I've been all inclusive for the last 8 years and this is totally utterly rubbish. The food is rotten, the staff are so unfriendly and they don't have a clue how to run an all inclusive hotel. It's put me off Bulgaria for life. Yhey are 20 years behind us. In the dining room the table cloths are dirty, they keep running out of food and drinks, the best one is it gets cold at night so take a zipper, yes a zipper. The three a la carte restaurants are garbage. McDonalds was the best meal I had in Sunny Beach the whole 2 weeks. Nothing to see in Bulgaria. Nothing to do in Bulgaria. I'll never be back.

As most of you know ... I left for this hotel on the 12th of July and returned on the 26th .. as promised I posted small updaes when at the hotel and even was sober for at least one of them ...!

Arrived on the 12th ... as everyone said the Hotel appears impressive in the distance and very impressive within the main reception area. So good so far ... we were all show to our rooms by 3 or 4 bell boys deperate to impress and to carry our cases
[Bit of advice here ... bung the bell boy well as it paid us dividends with the rest of the staff throughout the holiday and our maid service was exceptional]

Entered the room ... ours was a Suite ... entrance hall, 2 huge rooms (with individual air conditioning) and a large bathroom ... some may argue that there were bits that could have been tidied up a bit.. grout missing and other minor cosmetic problems, but can I say this is one of the largest hotels rooms I have ever stayed in and it was well appointed (pics to follow)
The other members of our team were in the twin3+1C accomodation ... There rooms comprised of 2 largeish single beds and 2 fold down seats ... [I was glad I upgraded to a Suite!]
However these were also well appointed.

We then went adventuring ... there are a number of bars in and around the hotel ... Reception ... Poolside ... Irish Bar (in the basement) ... Tallyana Bar and pizza ... Restaurant Bar ... Elenite Holiday village (300yds from the hotel) and several more ..
The beer is as reported okay [best pint in the Irish bar followed by the restaurant .. think due to demad ... gas in others is turned down to allow for faster flow and less waste]
The pool is cold and we tended to use the beach which is nice and relatively sheltered, but has a bit of shingle as you initially enter the water.
Facilities for the kids inclued the arcade, free pizza, ice cream, hot dogs and toasties as well as the water sports of rubber rings and banana boat, however as said already no pedaloes!

I would concur with some that it is evident the hotel could not have been ready in early June as there is still much work being carried out to improve the 'holiday experience' ... all tables in the restaurant have now been properly equipped and the difference in the food from my first to second week was notable ... we actually made a point of eating in the restaurant rather than any of the others as the food was of such a good quality [ please dont misunderstand tho .. there will always be on in the party who doesnt happen to like the menu ... but we just went elsewhere afterwards.. it is all inclusive afterall!)

The hotel continues to improve on a daily basis as the Victoria group strive to provide a 4* hotel as advertised .. I would also comment that some people were also unhappy on occassion with the state of their rooms, however I witnessed them being changed to different rooms with little or no fuss at reception.

The FC staff were at all tijmes kept extremely busy and although the entertainment was not to everyones cup of tea ... they get 110% for effort from me.

Please go to this hotel with an open mind ... It is approaching the 4* mark atm and I have no doubts that it has the possibility to become better .. I found the majority of the staff very helpful and polite and would happily go back to this Hotel once again

Returned from RP on 27th July.
Flight over was good (talk about knees on chin though, but hey as long as it gets me there safely I don't care!)) No long waits at Bourgas airport.

The hotel certainly has the wow factor when you first see it from the coach. Got checked into room fairly quickly and was given a packed supper (2 croissants, a banana and bottle of water each). We have stayed in quite a lot of hotels both abroad and in the UK and I can honestly say this is the largest hotel room we have ever had, it also had the wow factor when you go in.

We had a kids suite, which had 2 twin beds, bunk bed and a couch that could be folded into a bed. The bathroom was huge with bath, shower over bath, toilet, sink, hairdryer and telephone! If any woman (or man) relies on their hairdryer - like me - I would take your own though as this is a typical hotel dryer, not very good.

On closer inspection there were a few faults with room, there was remains of mould next to balcony door which looked like it had been cleaned up. When I first used plug for my hairdyer and unplugged it, socket came with it and sparked. The light switch had a hole next to it and kept falling off. I reported these faults as i felt they were dangerous and electrician came and fixed them, although he made hole next to light switch bigger, and never used socket again as didn't trust it.

Our air con wasn't working either but that got fixed also. We were on 6th floor, we had thunder storm one day and heard things falling on the balcony, it was builders debris falling from the roof onto the balcony. We could see the roof from our balcony and can see why the hotel is having problems with mould etc as the roof has been put together very shoddily, lots of gaps between tiles etc.

We never tried any of the other restaurants, only the main RP dining room. The food was ok, not the best we've had but by no means the worst. There was always a good choice, and found it more to be down to personal taste, never found the food to be cold. My husband is a chef and only on one occassion with pork did he say it was undercooked and wouldn't eat it. There was a British enviromental health officer out when we were there checking temps etc, which is qutie reassuring. The pizzas during the day were excellent, didn't like hot dogs, but again just a personal thing.

We're not big drinkers - big Al never left any for us (only joking Al), but beer etc was always cold.
The FC kids club was excellent, lots of activities and daughter loved it. When we arrived it was based at Royal Bay but during the week they moved to RP, far better room with air con, and the reps were great with the kids.

We found the evening entertainment to be quite good, kiddies disco, bingo (which I won, 532levs) and then FC reps doing entertainment. Had we had no children then I think we would have found it quite boring, but it kept my daughter happy, so we're happy. There was stuff going on in animation hall but we never went there so don't know what it was like. The FC entertainment was all outside, which did get quite cold at night, so remember take some woolies. I think the hotel needed somewhere indoor for the entertainment.

The beach was lovely, although there was a bit of seaweed, but that can't be helped. There was jet bikes, banana boats etc there.

The thing I did find unacceptable was the queues, not so much during the day as the evening. We have gone AI many times and never experienced queues like this. At dinner in the evening you had to spend about 5mins looking for table, then another 10 to get food, to be fair though some nights were better.

The outside bar where the FC entertainment was awful, it was a 10-20min wait for a drink. Some evening you had to wait in one queue for lager then another for spirits. There were only 2 barmen and one lager pump which obviously wasn't enough.

The bar in the reception was the same, we like to take a drink up to the room with us but the queue put you off, one night I waited 20min for a coffee. On an average evening you could easily spend an hour in queues for food and drink.

A couple of nights before we came away they started a new system for food, if your room was an odd number you had certain meal times, and other if your room was an even number. Our meal time at night was 8 - 9.30pm, we complained to FC about this and they said hotel did it without them knowing and just carry on going when we liked.

The mini disco started at 8pm at night so 8pm tea was no good for us. I can see the idea with staggering meal times, but felt they went about it the wrong way.

Went to Sunny Beach a few times, which was good, unbelievably cheap for everything.

Overall it was a good holiday, the hotel has the making of being lovely but I'm afraid that it has been finished in such a hurry it has been spoilt. I felt the hotel staff did a great job always busy and pleasant but feel there is a lack of management at the top. In my opinion FC were outstanding, could not have done anymore to help, and all gave 110%.

Arrived home from the RP tuesday 27th july.I was reading the holiday reviews right up until i left.I must admit i really wasn`t looking forward to going to the RP however once there my worries were over nothing my advice is "IT`S WHAT YOU MAKE OF IT".

Okay the food wasn`t excactly Gordon Ramsey but it was edible. Now obviously it isn`t going to be everyone`s taste. I have kid`s 8 years old they never complained they were hungry they can eat all day if they want. And not one of us had a bad stomach. The second week the food was getting better an everything seemed to be improving even the weather.

You will always get people who like to MOAN about evrything go with an open mind an you will enjoy it.

I must admit before we left we didn't no what to expect, we had been reading the reviews right up until the morning we left and to be honest we wasn't looking forward to our holiday.

When we arrived we was overwhelmed by the size and beauty of the hotel but we where still very weary. We checked in and we were located on the sixth floor we had two rooms which were very clean and very roomy. When we woke to the sounds of ? we later found out the noise was from peacocks and peahens which after the first week you got use to it. The view from our room was fantastic and the swallows look nice too! they also like to swim in the pools (well dive in),

we went for breakfast nice food different but ok i have a cast iron stomach and so does my daughter but the rest of the party came down with sickness and poo's and one of the kids had a really bad ear infection the doctor seems to think she got it from swimming. The food is chicken, pork, beef, in different sauces but you are in a foriegn country there are other resturants you can eat in as well but we just stuck to the hotel,

the beach is just a stones throw away a bit stoney but ok.The pools are cleaned out every day but the patio area at the side isn't which is a shame cause thats what pulls it down, they also have a few animals apart from the birds they have a very sad looking monkey two parrots a rabbit and a very impressive pelican that has a wing span of about 20 feet.

We went into sunnybeach a few times that is ok but be warned DON'T CHANGE MONEY IN KIOSKS I GOT SWINDLED BIG TIME use the banks also be careful in the shops if you ask for something and they don't have it they will try to sell you an alternative if you dont want it they will shout in bulgarian as you walk away. Not all shops are like that though, we visited Varna it is ok but watch out for the pick pockets and gypsies they are every where.

All in all the holiday was ok apart from the illnesses that 5 of the party picked up the entertainment is ok for 5-10 year olds and the play bingo as well and that your lot. I'm sorry to say we won't be going back to bulgaria we will be sicking to america from now on.

Was worried about visiting this hotel as had heard very bad reports but we also decided to keep an open mind. Hotel is spectacular when you arrive. Staff were very friendly at early hours of morning arrival and the room was immaculate. We were on 6th floor and had lovely views.
There are things that need ironing out.
Lots of damp, particularly on ground floor - if we had been put in a room here, would have asked to be moved as they smelt.
The toilets outside resturaunt were swimming in water and my 5yr old son slipped and was soaking wet!! This was my main concern as there were towels all around the room which as the weeks went on turned from white to brown dirt rags and I feel this was a health and safety nightmare. We did point this out but they remained.
For a new hotel there are broken tiles and such like which is surprising as well as signs of subsidence. The marble entrance is impressive but BEWARE .... when it rains (it did a little on 1 day of 2 wks!!) is very slippery. One lady fell and cracked her head quite badly.
The food was good. Lots of variety, and as mentioned earlier you must expect foreign local foods - there are many nationalities to cater for. I was grateful to sit down every day having food someone else had thought about and cooked and walk away leaving the cleaning up to someone else!!
First Choice Entertainment was FANTASTIC for kids. Our two loved the disco and clubs and cried when we had to leave.
Another plus was we all felt completely safe and unthreatened on this holiday. this is not the place to go if you want to get boozed up and cause trouble. It was lovely, beach, choice of 3 swimming pools, ice cream (could do with few more venues for snacks and drinks though) lovely beach.
All in all we were impressed and the faults didn't impair our holiday too much but if they aren't ironed out will only get worse. In fact a rep told us that First Choice will pull out if it doesn't get sorted out so will wait until next year to see!!

Stayed at the Royal Park Hotel in Elenite. Lots of problems before we arrived and on arrival were allocated a room at the rear of the hotel, overlooking what looked like a scrap yard, we had booked and paid for sea view in UK. Spoke with Rep who promised to move us on Monday, which he did, said that Reception had allocated our rooms to others who were leaving on the Monday. Rooms with sea view were fantastic, very clean and spacious - no problems at all.
Food was good, but got a bit boring towards the end of the second week.
Entertainment fine for younger children but a 16, 15 and 12 year old in our party and nothing much for them apart from amusement arcade. Animation Hall not big enough to cater for everyone on site.
Major problem is the lack of enterainment on an evening, it was very cold during the evening whilst we were there and indoor entertainment only in the Animation Hall. Bar under the hotel but no entertainment there.
Toilets in the hotel not too clean, although everywhere else is spotless - if they concentrated more on the loos and less on the reception area it would be fine.

Before we flew we did not know what to expect, especially after all the reviews I had read on here. When I arrived, we had been allocated to the wrong room. The rep was there (BONUS... Where else do you know where there are 2 reps there at 3 in the morning?) and she told us to come back in the morning as the reception manager was not there. Surely I came back in the morning and spoke to a young lad rep, and he managed to move us that day, to the exact room we wanted with the sea view we had paid for.

How people can complain about the food I dont know. There are two British chefs, and the head chef makes a point of coming out each lunch and dinner time to see how everyone is. The bloke is catering for nearly 900 people so dont expect "Savoy" food, but what is served is very delicious, and you can use 3 A LA Carte's too which is great.

The kid's loved the Kid's Club and it made their holiday, and ours..... really grateful to the staff ion the kids club for this.

There is a British Entertainment team here (First Choice I think) and they are great. From early in the morning to late at night they keep us alive and active. Great shows (the panto on a sunday was a great laugh). Kid's loved mini disco each night and so we just had to buy the CD! If I hear the Mimic Man one more time i'll scream!!!

The 5 reps in the hotel are excellent. They work damn hard, from early in the morning, until the wee small hours. They booked us on a couple of great trips, especially their show on a saturday which the whole family loved (check out the kids rep with long arms in riverdance!! - he is Michael Flatley in the making!). They sorted out any problems, and had this constant smile on their faces which certainly reassured us when the rain was pouring.... thank you FC Reps.

So it really is not that bad.... make the most of it; your on holiday!

I ADVISE ANYONE NOT TO GO TO THIS HOTEL ON HOLIDAY, READ BELOW FOR THE REASONS WHY:


Food
The hotel food was absolutely awful. If you like pork then you would be in heaven, because that is an option every night. The breakfast options were OK, you could have either a