"A Holiday with Plenty of Entertainment
We had a really enjoyable stay overall, with plenty of positives, although there are definitely a few areas where the hotel could improve.
The positives
The rooms were nice and spacious, with a large balcony, and regular room service from friendly housekeeping staff. The hotel is also in a great location, close to the beach, Faliraki and the Rhodes Observatory.
A huge thank you toSam and Fero from the animation team. Their incredible energy, enthusiasm and positive attitude were truly infectious. They created such a fun and welcoming atmosphere, made everyone feel included and went above and beyond to make sure everyone had a great time. Their passion for entertaining guests was obvious every single day, and they are a real asset to the hotel.
Billy and Juliawere also amazing — very sociable and always happy to get involved. The activities and evening entertainment were excellent, with plenty to choose from, including darts, aqua aerobics, water polo, ping pong, aqua Zumba, White Night, live acoustic music, a fakir/fire show, Greek night, cinema and karaoke. There was rarely a dull moment.
The snack bar had a good choice of food, including pizza, hotdogs, burgers, gyros, salad, pasta, souvlaki and chicken or pork fillets but this option finished at 4pm.Breakfast and lunch in the main restaurant also offered plenty of choice. However, I do feel the lack of an omelette station lets breakfast down. There were always pancakes, but it would have been nice to have waffles and bagels as well.
The slides were good and provided plenty of fun, and the cats and peacocks around the hotel added to the atmosphere. Be warned, though — the peacocks can make a very loud, high-pitched "maow" in the morning, so you definitely don't need an alarm clock!
The negatives
The biggest issue is that the hotel feels too big for the facilities available. There simply aren't enough sunbeds for the number of guests, and there can be large queues at the bar in the evening.
The self-service drinks station broke on day four and wasn't repaired until around a week later. Fizzy drinks at breakfast were also frequently "out of order", meaning you had to buy them from the shop. The juices are from a bag-in-box system rather than being fresh, which was disappointing.
The main restaurant is generally very efficient and you can usually get seated quickly, unless you arrive during the final 15 minutes of service, when it becomes extremely busy. We also found only around seven toilets across the entire complex, which doesn't feel sufficient for the size of the hotel — two at each pool, one outside the kids' club and two in the main complex.
The hotel advertises an indoor lobby bar, but during our stay it was never open. This seems like a missed opportunity. Opening it would help reduce queues at the other bars and give guests another air-conditioned place to sit and enjoy a drink in a proper glass.
Evening meals were very hit and miss. It was very much geared towards French and German guests with limited options compared to other hotels of the same size weve been too. They do cater for children, but you have to ask for kids' food rather than having a dedicated children's area.
The pool areas also need more attention. They weren't cleaned until after around 8:15am on some mornings, so if you came down earlier there could still be bottles, glasses and rubbish around, with the floors needing cleaning. In a busy hotel like this, cleaning could be done much earlier, perhaps around 6am. Especially when the beds were dirty from the entertainment the night before as they were used as a overflow.The areas around the pool were jet-washed approximately once a week, but I feel this should be done more frequently given the number of guests.
The sunbed policy is understandable, but could be improved. You can't reserve a sunbed before 10am unless someone stays with it. I agree with preventing people from reserving beds all day, but the current system means families can't comfortably have breakfast together, or all leave the pool area at the same time to get a drink or use the toilet.
A system used at another hotel worked much better: a card was placed on the sunbed, and if nobody returned within 45 minutes, the towels were removed. Something similar here would allow families to have breakfast together while still preventing guests from claiming sunbeds for hours without using them.
Overall
Despite the negatives, we had areally enjoyable holiday. The animation team and entertainment were definitely highlights, and the location, rooms, food choices and slides were all good. Sam, Fero, Billy and Julia deserve particular recognition for making the holiday so enjoyable.
There is a lot of potential here, but the hotel needs to address the facilities and maintenance issues that come with having such a large number of guests. More sunbeds, better toilet provision, consistently working drinks facilities, an open lobby bar and earlier/more frequent cleaning would make a big difference.
Overall, a good holiday with fantastic entertainment, but there is room for improvement to make the hotel better suited to the number of guests it accommodates."
