Ponient Hotel Dorada Palace by PortAventura World

"Avoid!! Don't waste your money . I'm here right now. This is no way a 4 star not even close. I've stayed in better 3 stars in Spain. Sunbed situation unless your queuing from 8am don't bother. There is actually a viral post showing the queuing the people jumping over sun loungers to get one, this is actually how it is. I met one group of people that 3 men reserved 21 loungers One pool has around 80 sunloungers and other has about 30 with 3 umbrellas. This hotel has over 300 rooms currently there's around thousand people nowhere near enough space. The pools are small and over crowded. Also the pool silicone is all mouldy and disgusting. The only good thing is on Tuesday they have a inflatable for children in the main pool. No balls or floats are allowed in this pool. Inside there is self service for all inclusive the soft drinks run 11am till 11pm once it runs out by midday it won't be refilled for at least 2 hours if your lucky. There's no one doing the beers there. This then makes the pool bar queue very long. Your looking around 20 minutes for a drink as they have only 2 staff on. The snack bar is quite good they offer burgers, Fries, hot dogs and pastries. The toilets near the bar often have no toliet roll all night it all 3 toilets male/female and disabled it's awful thankfully I brought wet wipes in my bag as my son needed bathroom desperately and no loo roll.in sight. Restaurant no matter what time you go it's over busy the traffic light system means nothing. Within 5 minutes of it being open likes of prime products meats, Bacon etc run out expect to wait again for this in a cattle market unless the Restaurant area manager is visiting then instantly its refilled. They offer drinks at bar there with only 1 member of staff one day I waited 16 minutes before leaving the queue to go upstairs to get a drink, they need self service stations or at least more staff. Food is a lot of the same apart from theme section. They say they offer ice cream but we've had it once in 5 days as they've not had any even once we asked. People will queue at entrance of Restaurant to get in but then other people will queue arcade end and be let in. There's no system. Expect people to queue jump everywhere here. I emailed in advance letting them know of our wedding anniversary and my son birthday on the Friday. They gave us a badge for him and upgraded our room to apartment. But the apartment was only made up for 2 people. 2 towels and one bed. The kitchen was empty no cups, silverware or plates. So we asked for sofa bed to be made up for our son and extra towel. I offered to put it together and they said housekeeper will instead I had knock on the door at 7pm with one towel and 2 sheets no pillow. It's now night 5 everyday they don't add a pillow instead my son uses a decorative one of the main bed. I've asked but nothing beeb done. Some days we still have 2 towels instead of 3. It's very bizarre but I will say it's clean at least. Air con is awful it works on living room not cold but okay but bedroom is boiling its old style with turnstile. We've asked about it and told that's as cold as it goes our room near 27c. All inclusive drinks they serve frozen cocktails,beer,wine l,cava usual spirits vodka, peach snapps, (knock off) malibu, gin but tequila not included. No where has aircon. Entertainment inside no air con be prepared to bake also not enough tables and chairs for everyone. They have stage outside which would make more sense but only use it during the day. No aircon in reception or the restaurant either. So like I've said before don't bother wasting your money unless you want to queue for everything, fight over sunloungers and overheat. All these complaints have been noted but reception but nothing has been done. To the point even reception staff saying depends on the management. You are just a number to them."

"I don’t normally do reviews but I feel like I have to with this hotel as it’s absolutely disgusting. We visited last week, family of 4 and it was the only holiday we were looking forward to returning home. The rooms are so small and very basic, don’t be fooled by these influencers showing you there rooms that they stayed in (remember they get a free holiday) there was no space at all in the rooms so we had to put our cases on the balcony. No shelves in the bathroom to put toiletries so everything went on the floor under the sink. Just not a relaxing room, and it just looked dirty all the time even though it was cleaned. We got bitten during the night a lot , not the typical mosquito bites so presume it was bed bugs. The pool area is absolutely chaos, there is no room in the pool for the quests, and if the kids play water polo with the entertainment team be prepared for them to get hit by the adults like mine did, and this was reported to the hotel manager and his response was “they are having fun” honestly he needs a management course to get that hotel back to high standards. The food …. I have no words, this was the first holiday that my children didn’t want to have breakfast as in there words it’s disgusting. Everyday we hoped it would be better when going for lunch and dinner but everyday we walked out laughing because it was a joke. One night we were served frozen pork. The bar in the evening needs more staff as it takes such a long time to get served. Where do I start with the sunbeds ,not enough for the guests and yes the reviews are right the sunbed wars are crazy, grown men and women racing for beds when the door opens, jumping over the walls to get the beds first. We didn’t participate in this , we just watched and walked out after all the vultures ran. In my opinion it shouldn’t be a 4 star, not even good enough to be a 2. The health and food inspector definitely needs to take a trip to this hotel and fingers crossed shut it down."

"Our second visit to this hotel. Still as good as last time. Lovely hotel, friendly staff, handy for the town, short 10 min walk down to the beach. Rooms are air conned and spacious enough for the 3 of us, (could have done with a few more shelves in bathroom and near shower). Shame about the sunbed wars still and noisy British families til midnight spoils it - a suggestion to the hotel, dim the corridor lights could help passers by be more considerate! A fair amount for vegetarian and vegans - more options than last year. The rooftop pool and jacuzzi is nice touch for adults. Amazing views from there. We would happily return for a third time."