"Overall a very good stay here with a few hiccups and improvements required but was presently surprised after a bad start.
I’ll get to the bad start first then do a review over the hotel. We arrived to a very warm welcome where we offered for a free room “upgrade” to a family room, room number 6109 which we thought fantastic. Reda Mohammed took us to our room (by way he was fantastic) which was horrendous. The room very dark, dingy and well out of date also balcony area was an absolute joke. It’s situated on a corner section of the building so it’s squeezed in with hardly any view area. We went back to the hotel lobby and said the room was unacceptable, where they give us room 4245. The room was brighter inside but was filthy and bathroom was awful. To be fair to reda he phoned the manager and arranged for us to have an modernised room which was sorted for the next day, room 3223. This room was fantastic which I will review properly below, but very much appreciated to reda who looked after us.
Hotel grounds and building - The hotel is undergoing a renovation which has been slowly down over a period of time along with the new lobby and restaurant area. The hotel grounds are lacking and compared to the other Pickalbatros (laguna vista) is not as pleasing too the eye by a long shot. The pool area and tiling needs to be updated as they are starting to look worn down. However for the children there is a plenty of characters to see dotted around the hotel which is great.
Room - I will disregard the first two rooms and say room 3223 was fantastic. Was very modern, spacious and cleaned exceptionally well and over looked the bumper boat pool. A special shout out to the cleaner Ahmed Mohammed he was an absolute pleasure and was fantastic with our 4 year old son. He looked after us very well and can’t praise him enough and his towel art kept the little one very happy.
Restaurants / food - There is a lot of restaurants which we thought the food was cooked and prepared very well. In fact probably the best we have had in Sharm. We usually eat at cave du Roi for breakfast which was great, omelettes especially by Ahmed. However the waiter service here and in the other restaurants was awful, in fact non-existing (expect for Club mac) and had to go up ourselves to get our drinks or cutlery which we haven’t had to two in other hotels in Sharm. Club mac was great for the little one for lunch time and Wael Emad from club mac was outstanding. Made us feel extremely welcome and never let me get a drink or sometimes our pizza and would bring it directly to our table. Also he would cross the road to the kids pool and always offered his services for drinks. By far the best waiter I have encountered in all the hotels. That’s how it should be done (take note the other restaurants). Again food in the main restaurant area and burger club in the evenings was spotless and can’t complain at all with quality or choice.
Entertainment - As ever with Egypt the nightly entertainment does lack throughout. And thought the entertainment here was the same though to their credit for the animation team their enthusiasm and effort couldn’t be faulted, something that laguna vista could learn from. I don’t understand why there is only a weekly entertainment programme and not a fortnightly? Gets extremely repetitive if you are there for two weeks.
However to counteract this point the facilities outside the show area were fantastic and there was so much to do for the children (mini golf, bumper cars, VR room etc…) the best we have encountered in any hotel so far.
Daytime entertainment we didn’t both with as were around the number of pools in both hotels.
Drinks - Again a poor selection of cocktails however slightly more than the laguna vista and were made much bette by the bar staff compared to the laguna. This is definitely a Pickalbatros thing and needs to be addressed because to offer only 10 cocktails (less in other Pickalbatros hotels) with which most are exactly the same with just a slightly different flavouring is just unacceptable. Beer OK, by far the best (actually very good) in the lobby bar or from club mc in the proper glasses. In the show area they are served in small glass which go flat very quickly. I recommend having a paper cup in the show area, you get more and doesn’t stay flat. Special mention to Ahmed Omar in the lobby bar, a true gent who was great to speak to and was genuinely interested in you and if you are doing OK. Also his service was outstanding and pours a great beer and makes a fantastic coffee. Can’t praise him enough.
Pools - Fantastic, you are spoilt for choice with both hotels and in-fact didn’t even get to them all. You won’t get better in Sharm!
Staff - Genuinely the best staff, from the lobby desk all way through to the lifeguards this was the most friendly and helpful staff we have encountered.
Downsides:-
Heated pools - These were non existent and coming out of a colder spell in April where it was extremely overcast and windy from the 2nd to 5th. They said it was summer time so they switched them off, hardly anyone was in the pools as it was freezing. One pool was heated in the aqua park section (the deep one) however this was just about acceptable. Common sense should be applied and don’t turn them off until the weather has changed!
Also the heated pools in aqua blu are really tacky and are seriously need a renovation. Don’t know if this part of the ongoing works, we will wait and see.
Waiter service - With the exception of club mc, as discussed above this was non existent and needs improvement.
Local Tourists - This isn’t the hotels fault I will say and we have never had an issue before but unfortunately the local tourists in this hotel were appalling to other hotel guests and hotel staff. The constant queue pushing, food grabbing (hello it’s an all inclusive, don’t be so greedy) and pestering the staff to be seen first. Also on the bumper cars they would push past you and even my 4 year old son and their parents would also pick them up over the fence and help them to queue push. It’s unacceptable and we, alongside with other hotel guests had to have words but they didn’t care. Which is a shame.
Overall a very good stay, would we come again? Possible but it’s lacking a bit of edge and would probably try somewhere else."
