After reading several (conflicting, but generally bad) reports about this hotel before travelling, I was somewhat concerned about my family's wellbeing whilst away. However, previous reports, I realised, were from 2004 and 2005 and I would like to give an up-to-date version of the situation.

I travelled out with First Choice on 29 May with my daughter and two grandchildren (aged 8 and 4 years). The flight was delayed by 3 hours so we arrived late. The hotel does look quite spectacular upon arrival.

We checked in OK and went to our room overlooking the pool and sea. The view was fantastic. The hotel is clean, the maids are always working. Towels were changed every day and on one occasion when no clean onces were left, a call to reception produced towels within 10 minutes. The soaps and shampoos are not replaced however these can be bought cheaply in the small supermarket on site.

The food was generally OK - not a lot of meat but quite varied sauces. Afterall you are in a foreign country! and should be prepared to eat accordingly.

Beer, wine and spirits were plentiful and the bar staff friendly. Pizzas excellent. There was a children's restaurant under a canvas awning for lunches. Quite a fun area with colourful small tables and chairs and a party atmosphere. We used the Bugs Bunny club for both children during the day to keep them out of the sun for a while and they both had a good time, meeting new friends to play with the rest of the day.

If you took the trouble to say good morning to the maids and smile, they responded with a smile.
I did find some Brits attitudes towards the local people as very rude. The evening entertainment was not great although I understand that further into the summer, this will be held in the open air and will therefore be less smoky. This is obviously caused by the holidaymakers and is not the fault of the hotel.

I am pleased we went to Bulgaria and especially pleased that we chose the Royal Park Hotel.

The hotel was very impressive and the Bulgarian staff very friendly and helpful.
Unfortunately the food was very poor quality and we suffered stomach upsets.

On the plus side the weather was great and the beach was beautiful and very clean (a few jelly fish)
The hotel staff particularly the cleaners and bar staff were delightful.

The biggest shock for us was the "playboy" shoot that took place in full view of anyone using the cafe bar or beach,(we had children with us) and the Male strip show which was on in the annimation hall which is where all the childrens entertainment took place.

Very bizaar holiday, not bad as such just very odd!
Would highly reccommend the donkey safari and lazy day cruise two great days out!

Would not however reccommend First Choice, completely useless, uncaring and ill-informed!!!

We arrived at the Royal Park apprehensive after reading previous reviews but was pleasantly suprised. The foyer and reception are wonderful,the staff were efficient and polite as we were all tired arriving in the early hours of the morning.We were even provided with a sandwich,fruit and a drink to take to our rooms.

We had booked a family den which was enormous. The bathroom alone was about 15 foot square. Just off our double room was a childrens room with bunks which was ideal as we no longer wish to share with the boys now they are 14 and 12.

Towels were changed daily and bedding twice a week. Our maid was a diamond picking up after the kids and earned every penny of the tip we left.

My only complaint on the rooms are that the bunks could be full size (a bit of a squash for my two )and more wardrobe space especially for the children as they only had drawers.(take plenty of hangers although I am sure the hotel would find you some if need be ).

The food in the hotel was great with something for everyone. Our youngest is a little picky about his food but managed to find a plate full every evening. We tried most of the restaurants whilst there and had a particularly memorable night at the barbeque.

Beware of the red wine on tap here which i found to my cost as it is not something I would normally drink and hasten to say my legs no longer were in coordination with the rest of my body ( much hilarity from the kids .)

The pool and beach areas were spotless with poor maids constantly walking round picking up rubbish and mopping( in that heat no joke ).

There were young lads employed to pick stones off the beach and rake seaweed that had been washed up. Plenty of sun beds but you are better on the beach as it is a little cooler and a lot less noisy. (kids entertainers at the side of the pool.)

There were some jelly fish in the sea but didnt appear to be bothering anyone,we swam daily and didnt have a problem although Matthew did get stung on day two but boys will prod and poke and wont be told.

The entertainment was pretty much aimed at the children and the animation hall was not big enough for the amount of holidaymakers.( also concerned about the amount of cigarette smoke in here as it was full of children gasping lungs full as they ran about not for asthmatics .)

A definate for the ladies is Maximus on Monday evenings and only 5 lev.Money well spent.Best coffee was to be found at the cafe in Elenite holiday village and best place for adults to have a drink was the nightclub located next door to this.

Overall we had a fantastic holiday and would definately go back.The boys enjoyed the freedom of being able to roam without us worrying as security was very tight and meeting loads of other kids from our hotel and others in resort. We also enjoyed the peace and quiet of hardly ever seeing them. A proper holiday.

The hotel its self is great very nice.

The rooms were clean the towels an bedding were changed every day but the toilets were always flooded an had bad smell you felt sick when you went in.

The food was bad very bad if it wasn't cold or not cooked it had hairs in it. The first three days it was ok but we all fell ill with very bad sickness an the runs. The kids would not eat a thing they lived on crisps an stuff from the shop I can't tell you how bad it was.

The beer was ok but sometimes it had a bad smell an tastes to it in the end we went to the shop to get beer an food. We have being back 2 days now an some of us are still ill.

The entertainment was ok. The kids had a good time at the kids disco an movie night the kids reps were fab

The hotel staff were very rude

We will not be going to this hotel again.

I was so excited when we arrived at the hotel,it looked like a kingdom.

The room was fantastic I thought wow!Then it all went down hill.The food was absolutely terrible & I mean terrible.If it hadnt gone off or from a jar then it was pink and undercooked.

The entertainment was non-existent,the reps were more concerned about going home as it was the last week in the season.

The whole resort closed down around us after the first day of our holiday. There was one pub still open in the hotel called the Irish Bar, great bar apart from you cant breath because of the cigarette smoke and it was rare you could get in there as it was the only pub left open for the thousands still left in the hotel.

Word of advise, cancel and re-book somewhere else! Trust me!!!

First impressions of the Royal Park were great with the big grand gates and the reception with marble and winding staircases,we had a quick check in with a friendly porter and were keen to start our holiday the following day as we arrived at 2am

The pool area was impressive with a massive pool and a great area for kids although the pool was freezing!!!!! We had read that you had to get up at 5am to get a sunbed but this was not true and we always got two even upto 10am by the pool or beach

Lots of little ladies going round cleaning,the whole hotel and room was very clean the only down point was the toilet round the pool which stank!!

We found the food a bit hit and miss,the Rpyal Park buffet was dissapointing but the Talyana barbecue and the Sunshine alacarte were better,if you want junk food,pizza hot dogs round the pool although the hot dogs were cold. My boyfriend had a bad stomach for the last two days and was laid up in bed,we think this may be from the drinking water round the pool

The staff dont speak much english and are a bit dismissive although there were a couple that were quite nice,the language barrier is definately a problem,the entertainment was pretty good altough first choice seem to be competing with the hotel team and with two sets of music blaring out round the pool I wished they would have just worked together

Our room was huge and comfortable although we had a dripping bathroom ceiling every night at about 6.

Just returned from the Royal Park which was our first visit to Bulgaria.
On the whole we had a good holiday but there are definately a few areas that need improving that let the hotel down.
Quite a few members of the staff were extremely off hand and abrupt to the point that we complained to the reps about. Im not usually one for complaining but after talking to other holiday makers about this it seemed that we werent the only ones to feel miffed about the attitudes of the staff in the hotel.

The hotel was kept very clean, but when we arrived the pool water was a murky green! You couldnt see the huge "Royal Park" mosaic at the bottom of the pool (as illustrated in the brochure) The water looked horrible but just try explaining to your children that you cant go in the pool!Low and behold it took an outbreak of kids becoming ill (including mine) before they cleaned the pool out.

We found the food in the restaurant excellent with a good choice but beware - at peak serving times the restaurant is disorganised chaos! People were queuing and fighting over cups and cutlery (most of the crockery was chipped or dirty) And it was really frustrating to find that there was no coffee left or hot water for tea bags. Waiters would whip your plate / cups away without asking if you had finished!
It may sound petty but sometimes it was difficult to digest that we had paid for 4 star accommodation.

Our best meal was at the Talyana restaurant (part of the hotel) the atmosphere is lively and the food is great especially if you like barbeque style food. There was a band on everynight and everyone was up dancing. The only drawback is you get kicked out at 10.30pm!

Entertainment - You couldnt go wrong for the entertainment both during the day and at night. During the day there is stuff going on all day to keep kids and adults entertained but the good thing is they dont pester you to join in if you dont want to. There were shows on everynight in the animation hall but it was a struggle getting in it as it was a dark, smokey theatre style room with hundreds of steps and having a buggy with us was a nightmare!

The hotel is further away from anywhere else than we realised and would have prefered to have been able to take a break from the complex and go for walks out and about away from the complex. Sunny Beach is fantastic at night but is 15 mins in a taxi and cost appox

This was our first visit to Bulgaria.

When you turn the bend and catch sight of the hotel for the first time - it was wow!!! The security gates, huge forecourt - it definately looks four star.

However, I felt that some aspects of this hotel was definately a 3 star!!

The location was excellent, away from the hustle and bustle of Sunny Beach,safe enough to wander around the complex, lovely sandy beach and a lovely bright and spcious room.

Everywhere you went in the hotel, you would see cleaners cleaning, mopping etc....The staff were ok - not over friendly and can at times be a bit abrupt - I put that down to not understanding english very well!!

The entertainment put on by the FC reps was really good, apart from when they held it in the animatoruim as it got far too smokey.

The restaurant was a huge dissapointment - there was always a mad rush for cutlery and the plates were chipped.The coke was watered down and the coffee machine was far too slow.We are vegetarian and we found it extremely difficult to get a decent meal in the restaurant. Apart from breakfast, which was ok - there was nothing on offer for us for lunch and dinner, and on a couple of ocassions my little girl(age 4)had to eat a banana and a few chips( and she's on medication!!!). We filled the request form out in the restaurant and the next day we did get a veggie option but after that it was a bit hit and miss.

In the end we would go down to Sunny Beach where we found a wonderful Indian restaurant called ' Taj Mahal' and eat there some evenings or go to any of the other places in Sunny Beach like ' Elaine's'!!

This was our first trip to Bulgaria and although Bourgas airport is tiny we got through and onto the coach in about 40 minutes.

We arrived at the hotel about 2.30am local time and was amazed how impressive it looked. Check-in was a relatively stress free affair and the bell boy couldn't have been more helpful.

Our room was massive with fridge and t.v although the balcony was small with a solid wall rather than railings so you couldn't really sit outside.

The maids came in every day and changed the beds and towels and generally tidied up.

Meal times were no problem as we always found a table for the 6 of us and there was a variety of food available' sometimes we had to queue but never for more than a couple of minutes and the catering staff are always bringing out more food.

Our only complaintis about the restaurants outside of the main dining hall and that is that they say to book them in between 10 and 11. Not true. You need to get there by 8.30am to stand any chance of booking a table.

The poolside snacks are fine, kebabs are the best but there are pizzas, hot dogs, chicken and baked spuds. Drinks and ice creams are great for the kids but the beer is questionable.

The hotel was marvelous rooms big and spotlesss. Bed linen and towels changed daily.
The staff were realy friendly and helpfull

Had a great holiday, my daughter and her family joined us on the 2nd week,they have allways had exclusive holidays, but they had a marvelous time.

The restaurant provided us with a good variety of food, my grandson, who is a picky 3yr old ate as though the world was coming to an end.

The First Choice entertainment team were a let down.They did not move from round the pool to let people know what was happening and encourage people who would not normally join in,to join in.

The bar people in the Irish Bar were marvelous made everyone feel they were special.

Toilets around the hotel were not clean,they should take lessons from the cleaning staff at the Eleneti main comlex.