"The good bits..
Friendly and helpful reception staff
Very good housekeeping staff, pool staff and lifeguards were excellent, as were the catering staff.
It felt a Clean Hotel,
The food trucks by the pools with fresh pizzas, burgers and hot dogs were very handy.
Good variety of pools and slides.
Short walk to the beach
Policy of no reserving sunloungers longer than 40mins is great.
Luggage room, lockers and a shower area for the last day was great given we had a lateish flight.
Bad bits..
We arrived at the hotel late after a long days travelling so went straight to bed and there were only thin sheets on the beds, and with the aircon on it was too cold, so we had poor sleep allround, next night I tried to adjust the aircon but the temp couldn’t be controlled so another poor night sleep for everyone, we asked for blankets for the third night which the hotel gladly obliged and housekeeping supplied, shame there weren’t any already in the room really.
The food was just ok, not great, not enough variety in the evenings as I would have hoped so it all did become a bit samey.
Long queues at the bars at times, one pool bar was closed for the last four days of our stay for some reason which was quite inconvenient as the nearest other one that had slush drinks was on the opposite side of the resort to where the kids pools are, strange to have limited service during the height of summer, given there was only one machine to service everyone the slush had no chance to ice so it was mostly just liquid anyway,
All inclusive is not quite the case as there is an added extra charge to upgrade to Magnus to allow access to exclusive bars and queue jumping so you kind of feel like a second class citizen, being told this area in not for you and wait I need to serve this more important person who’s just arrived first, initially your not quite certain where you’re allowed or what is actually included in your pass, staff were pleasant on the whole but there was one young guy with glasses which was very surly and abrupt verging on being rude each time even when addressed in the most polite manner.
In some areas of the pool and sometimes outside the buffet restaurant a very foul unpleasant smell similar to sewer drain often whafted.
It was extremely noisy late at night with unruly kids running around shouting and screaming with no consideration for others and seemed no policing by their parents, which is not ideal for families with younger kids who retire to bed a bit sooner, as all could be heard from the room, not necessarily the hotels fault by worth mentioning none the less, our room was in the splash area which is where the stage is unfortunately so the noise from the stage shows and karaoke also were clearly and loudly heard from our room and we had trouble settling the kids, It seems the rooms in the quieter area on the other side with the fancy loungers and such is likely reserved for the Magnus residents which perpetuates the second class feeling.
I thought it was a no smoking hotel but some people were freely smoking even around the kiddies pool.
The ground is rough in and around the pools and both our sons had cuts or lesions as had many others as you could see the lifeguards often treating kids feet, we had our sons sandals taken from beside our loungers, which is a regular occurrence according to reception staff.
You are allowed one meal only (drinks not included) visit to Mckevitts bar, we tried to book on our third day which was a Thursday, but unfortunately Thursday and Friday were fully booked and we were told it was not open for food on the weekend so we missed out on this, so if you go book on your first day
On the whole we tried to make the most of our time here and create memories, I dont think I would rate it as 4 star as It is not on par with our 4 star resort in lanzarote last year and we wouldn’t go back"
