"Overview
A fabulous hotel - perfect for families who are looking for a little bit of luxury but enough to entertain the children. This review is based on our first time staying at Zafiro Palace Alcudia.
Hotel Grounds
The hotel overall was very clean and well-designed. Sleek in appearance and did make me feel like I was staying at a 5* resort. The grounds were well-maintained with work being done throughout our stay ( nothing that would have disturbed your stay ) so you could tell that they take pride in the hotel's appearance.
Check In
We did complete the online check in process prior to arrival which involved submitting photos of your passports to avoid any lengthy waits on arrival. However, when we arrived we did have to check in all over again which was slightly annoying after a fairly long day travelling. The process wasn't extremely long but it was just a little frustrating having completed the online process for it to not mean anything in the end. The young lady checking us in however was very patient and friendly. She even offered us complimentary drinks and we accepted orange juice and cava. We did realise once we reached our room however that we the drinks were not given but put it down to an oversight, plus we were heading down to dinner and weren't particularly bothered about this being missed at the time.
Hotel Room
We booked a junior suite with pool view which is what we received so no nasty surprises on arrival / check-in. We did receive an e-mail from Zafiro around a week before suggesting you could select your room so when I followed the link I quickly realised that this was an option but you would need to pay to do this which was a little misleading. We were given a lovely second floor room located near the main restaurant but no issues with noise at all.
The room was cleaned every day without fail and replenished with bottles of water. We didn't realise that the room had such an open lay-out - for example, the bath is not enclosed with a window at the end looking into the bedroom which was fine with two little ones but if you had slightly older children you may not feel so comfortable so would recommend checking the lay out prior to booking to make sure its suitable for you.
The balcony was spacious with a leather sun lounger alongside table and chairs. Again very clean with a lovely view overlooking the grounds.
Entertainment
We drifted in and out of the evening entertainment, tending to settle towards the end of the schedule as we preferred to wander around the beachfront and explore with the children. We did watch two sets of acts which were enjoyable but compared to previous hotels we have stayed at such as Iberostar, we didn't find the entertainment as captivating for the children as we expected. There is a short dance session towards the end of the night but nothing major. I think they could do with putting on some themed musical shows and integrating part of the night with shows or performances that the children would enjoy like Disney songs for example.
Restaurants
We found that there was a range of food available for all meal times for everyone to enjoy. We were impressed by what was on offer throughout our stay. We particularly enjoyed the Verandah restaurant at lunchtime. However, we were disappointed to find that we could not book the Italian restaurant at all throughout our four night stay. You are unable to book on the app until you receive a hotel room number so by the time we arrived, the next four nights were full. I think there should be an option where only the first two days after arrival are bookable and so on to give everyone a fair chance as we didn't get to experience this at all which seemed unfair and why I have marked this hotel as 4/5.
Service
The staff were on the whole incredibly welcoming and helpful. We ran out of milk one evening and a lovely boy came up with a whole carton! We also had a knock on the door the night after we arrived and a staff member delivered a bottle of wine for booking with Zafiro directly. It came with a nice note addressed to me and when he noticed we had children, he ran off and returned with a bowl of small smarties which was a nice touch!
Pools
We loved that there were multiple pools available to use. Our children loved the splash park and especially the dome. We enjoyed the swim up bar also. It took us a day to notice that some towels were put to one side with a card on them and realised that unattended towels were being moved after 40 minutes to ensure no-one was reserving loungers then disappearing. We really appreciated this as it meant we didn't feel rushed to get down to the pool. We did encounter a grumpy man on the last day after we sat down on two empty loungers - he asked us what we had done with his towels to which I explained that the lifeguards or staff may have moved them and he insisted they had been there with no issue for an hour. Whilst I refused to engage in an argument about it, it was clear that they do enforce the 40 minute rule if his towels had been left for an hour - just be prepared for other guests to question you on their missing towels if you end up on their once occupied loungers. This only happened once so maybe we were just unfortunate!"
