"Honest review, from a family of four (children aged 5 and 9) who have been visiting this hotel at least once a year since 2018, including getting married here several years ago.
We all genuinely love this hotel (hence it being our tenth visit), however, even since our previous visit a few months ago in December 2025, we’ve noticed the decline in facilities for children/families.
The staff upon arrival were very welcoming and helpful. Check-in was swift, and our room was ready so were taken by buggy with our luggage straight to our room.
👉🏼 Mini Disco: With the buffet restaurant now operating summer hours (7pm opening) and the mini disco now starting at 7:30pm, this does not allow much time for families to eat prior to the disco, especially if you have children of mixed ages/younger children and it may not be appropriate to eat after the disco. We struggled to get the balance between dinner and not missing the disco, given that this is the only evening entertainment geared at children. We also noticed the disco is a lot shorter than previously, sometimes finishing just after 8:05pm, with many of the ‘traditional’ mini disco songs being forgotten about now.
👉🏼 Evening entertainment: With the children’s entertainment now being finished by 8:15pm, and the music now being in the disco bar, it allowed too much spare time for children to just ‘run loose’. Now I appreciate this is down the parenting but we found it got far too chaotic very quickly after the mini disco had finished, with children just running round in circles. Even when the music/performer began at 8:30pm, you couldn’t really hear them, over the chaos. There certainly needs to be a bit ‘more’ for the children. We miss the evening entertainment of bingo, music quizzes etc!! These really helped bridge the gap in the evening entertainment and were a bit of fun. In our opinion, the music would be better off returning to the piano bar, so adults could enjoy and appreciate the music. There were many times I felt sorry for the singer as they may have well not been there.
👉🏼 À la Carte restaurants: Unfortunately during our visit, the steakhouse was still closed. We only visited the Italian once, and we had a late sitting (8:45pm), and while the food was very enjoyable, we did find the pizzas to be very burnt. This was probably due to the pizza oven having been on for a good few hours and was boiling by the time it came to cooking our food. It was still edible (for the most part), but I’d probably not go for a late sitting again. My daughter was the only one to not have a pizza dish and she found the Carbonara delicious (and she’s very fussy!!).
👉🏼 Buffet restaurant: It is a little busy, to say the least. But you would expect this during peak times. We always found a table outside, as it was far too hot to eat inside. Food was plentiful but what I would say is this time round, the evening food was a lot more repetitive then in previous stays. The three meats were usually always the same, at both lunch and dinner (chicken fillet, steak, and pork lion). We missed the chicken skewers & lamb dishes that they used to do, and also we didn’t notice any pizzas at all in the evening buffet this time round. The children’s section opened halfway through our stay (as the hotel began to get a lot busier) and this did help on finding my two fussy eaters something to eat. You will always find something to eat at both lunch and dinner, and the food was always hot, so no complaints there. The restaurant does get very busy, so this is something to be mindful of. We went at various times between 7-9pm and there wasn’t really a ‘quieter’ time during these hours. If you were wanting a quieter meal, the last hour it’s open is definitely the time to go, if you can wait for a later meal.
👉🏼 Room: We stayed in a privilege double room (8415) and this was the perfect location for us. We usually stay in a junior suite which always ends up being at the other end of the hotel, and we said we much preferred the location of the this double room, over the additional space provided in the junior suite. The room was plenty big enough for us, given we didn’t spend much time in the room. But all I would say is, the floors are grim, you can almost feel the film layer of dirt on your feet, so socks (if you don’t mind them getting filthy, or a pair of slippers is advisable). Otherwise, the room was really well maintained and the cleaners came in daily to do their thing.
👉🏼 Mini club: The animation team are always so good with our children, year after year. But we did find the mini club slightly ‘lacking’ this time round. The “trip with Daisy” which used to be a train/buggy ride around the hotel, is now just a walk up to the mini disco bar. The “mermaid party” used to have an animation team as the mermaid in their little cage thing around the pool, and this time it was just an empty cage for children to pose on for photos. “Bracelet making” which used to be loom bands or other ‘real’ bracelets have been replaced with paper chain style bracelets. No decorative bottle painting anymore either. There was an awful lot of colouring activities.
👉🏼 The staff are always polite and helpful. They’re great with our children. A bit like anywhere, if you smile, and say ‘hello’ and are polite to the staff, they will return that back to you. They are very overworked and understaffed, in almost all areas of the hotel, especially the bars and the restaurants, and they all do a great job. Yes, sometimes there is a little bit of a wait for drinks, or for them to clear your dirty plates away, but that isn’t down to their lack of attention or hard work, this is simply down to staff:customers ratios. There are too many of us, and not enough of them!
Sadly, we feel like the hotel is leaning more towards adults and reducing the facilities for families and children more then ever. I know they’ve added the adults only section but I do wonder if in a few years time, the whole hotel, like many other H10 hotels will become adults only.
Over the years we have watched several children’s facilities/activities disappear: Picnic with Daisy, trip with Daisy, Daisy attending breakfast, lunch & dinner, Daisy attending 90% of the full hour of the mini disco, themed mini disco nights, all around the world night with Daisy, foam party on the bridge and in the children’s pool, outsourced inflatable obstacle courses, to just name a few.
Overall, we really loved our stay. Will we be back? Of course. But. We will probably leave if a little while and find somewhere new for 2027, just to wait and see if any other changes occur here."
