Grupotel Orquidea

Before I start, I just want to say that I think we were just unlucky with our holiday here and that the problems we did encounter were treated seriously by the hotel staff. We arrived around 11pm ish on a Friday night. The flight and transfer from the hotel has been fine. The hotel had left a very simple cold buffet out for late arrivals. Our room was on the fifth floor and had a beautiful view of the coast. Unfortunately my daughter had an accident in the bed and the following morning, we informed the reception team who said they'd fix it straight away. The first day was very windy and the pool was cold. We went down to dinner on either the first or second night of our stay and the dining room was chaos. It was exceptionally busy, I'd never seen anything so manic in my life. We tried to find a table and eventually did. I went into the buffet area and struggled to get any food. Queues were being ignored, kids just wandering aimlessly dropping food and pushing in front of people. Even some of the adults did not have any common sense or manners. The kitchen and waiting staff were understaffed and stressed. I managed to get two slices of pizza and took them back to the table but by that point the pizza was cold and I was very reluctant to 'go back into' the bedlam in the restaurant. My son, aged 9, has autism and the noise, atmosphere and chaos were quickly having an effect on him. So we left the cold pizza and went to a restaurant in the square across the road. When we complained to the reception staff we were told that it was peak season and it was a crossover evening between guests leaving and arriving. Either way, it was utter bedlam, bordering on dangerous. My husband spoke to Ulrica the following day and she offered for us to eat in the à la carte restaurant next door, which was far quieter. We still ate from the buffet restaurant but carried our food through. It was much better and far quieter. To be honest, the restaurant was never quite that busy again but mealtimes were causing a lot of anxiety for my son so we stuck to the alternative plan. The restaurant staff worked hard but just couldn't keep up with cleaning the tables to make space. The following day we noticed a leak from the ceiling of the area just outside the shower. Water was just streaming down the ceiling, past the fuse box, creating a puddle on the floor. While I took the kids to eat in the restaurant, my husband spoke to the reception team. Naomi, the TUI rep did a fab job of getting us moved. David, the hotel manager was happy for us to move the following morning but we did not think it was safe. When we returned to the room to pack up our things, there was a maintenance guy fixing the issue. Apparently the air conditioning unit had leaked. He wasn't too worried about the safety but we were. We were moved to a junior suite which was a nice upgrade, now with a view over the main part of the hotel. It was a little noisy when the show was on but we weren't that fussed. W

Hotel rooms are ok, love the split level its gives the feeling of being separate rooms but the air conditioning, although cool, doesn't hit the beds & can cause a difficult nights sleep. The restaurants are okay if a little repetitive, I was fine but some members of my family were hoping for a bit more variety. They had an Italian night & an Asian night in the main dining room. I had a prawn cracker that almost choked me! It had a piece of what appeared to be plastic around 2.5cm round embedded inside it. My wife found a chef to complain to but he seemed to just shrug his shoulders & point her to reception. They were of little help too. A TUI rep was nearby & said that she'd sort it out. Sadly that came to nothing too. The morale of the incident is just your food in the main restaurant, just in case you have a child who likes prawn crackers! Le Tavern restaurant should only be eaten at if you're starving. The Sultan restaurant is well worth a visit with goid service & excellent food. There are always plenty of sunbeds around the pool, even if the water is a bit cool for my liking! The entertainment staff are highly talented & energetic. The evening shows are quite good. On the whole its a nice hotel but we felt let down by our treatment over the prawn cracker!

Overall great hotel. We bought booked as 2 adults and one 5 year old child. The reason for booking was for all the reviews raving about the kids club and all the activities for kids, and they did not disappoint. My child loved the kids club, the staff were amazing. He enjoyed every time he went, the activities were well planned, the staff knew his name by the third visit and the way you have to create an account on the app, add pictures of the parents so they can check it’s the correct person collecting them, and sign them in and out every time makes you feel like they are really safe. Cannot praise the kids club and staff enough. They don’t let you put towels on sunbeds before 8 when they open the entrances to the pools, but there’s are quite a lot of people queuing up from 7:15! There are plenty of sunbeds as there are a lot on the grass near the sea, but not enough parasols in general. The kids pool was great, perfect size, depth and slide and our 5 year old could play by himself while we watched. The pool that allowed floats got very busy in the afternoons. The deeper pool was mostly ok, few occasions of not being able to move much due to the amount of people. The rooms are clean and kept nice. The floors mopped every day. We didn’t have enough towels on arrival for the three of us, but by the end of the holiday we had an abundance of towels! For some reason our shower would run ok at some points in the day, but most of the time it would go through a cycle of being ok, getting cold, then boiling hot and repeat this every minute or so. Not worth complaining about though. Overall cleanliness is ok in the public areas. We stayed on the top floor, as we had requested, and the music from the evening entertainment didn’t bother us at night. Yes you could hear it a bit on occasion, but we could sleep through it. The food… this was mainly the only let down. Breakfast was great, best meal of the day. We mainly had lunch from the snack bar and the selection was fine for a quick lunch which is all we wanted. Dinner however, we thought it started off alright as there was always something that our child would eat, but this then became very repetitive. There is always a spaghetti, a pasta and two sauces. Chips and then two meats such as chicken drumsticks and pork. Pizza in the middle and then a few veggie dishes, rice, salad and meats and cheeses. It got very same-y and even our little boy got bored of having similar things every night. In busy times the food wasn’t getting replenished quick enough which meant people started queuing and when something was brought out, it was quickly empty again. My pet peeve was the desserts section though… large selection which was great and always plenty of selections, but no idea what each item was as there was just a collection of name cards at the top that didn’t correspond to the dessert below. Not great for anyone with allergies. You wouldn’t know which one contains what, which isn’t very safe. On one n