just returned from the palace. 2 adults, 2 kids, we had a brilliant time there. luckily none of us had ear infections or cut feet or tummy bugs.
the hotel inself was kept spotlessly clean the whole time despite people leaving plates of leftover food and glasses lying around everywhere. there always seemed to be staff sweeping or polishing the floors, picking up rubbish in the gardens and also weeding and cutting grass.
we had a family room, there was no 5th bed which gave us a bit more space, we had a look in a room for 5 and it was more squashed. i asked the maid for an extra blanket as they were quite small and she got one from her store cupboard straight away for us. we always had 4 bath towels and 4 hand towels left so although we took our own towels just in case we never used them.
the pools were brilliant, we usually sat at the pool where the slides were, this was 120cm deep which was ok for my 2 (just). the daytime activities are around the main lagoon pool which starts off really shallow and gradually goes to 140cm deep. the are also shallow pools with smaller slides for little ones. the slides are open from 10-12 and from 2-4 but most days were open until 5. as all the school holidays were nearly over when we went (12th) we never had a problem getting sunbeds, even by lunchtime there were always at least a dozen or so empty sunbeds. we were never at the pool before 10am and we were still able to pick where we wanted to sit.
food- this was my only let down. the food was ok but nothing to really look forward to. as others have said the food being cold was the main problem, i nearly always put it in the microwave for a few minutes. i agree that unsupervised children was annoying as they were dropping things and leaving the lids off. at breakfast there was always freshly cooked fried eggs and ommeletes, there was also always frosties, corn flakes, sugar puffs, coco pops, museli. there was lots of different breads and croissants. there was scrambled eggs, beans, tomatoes and fried bread in the hot plates and these were the things that never seemed very hot, my daughter had to heat her scrambled eggs every time.
lunch and dinner always had plenty salad and fruit and there was vegetables and chicken and rice and chips all the time so anyone who could not find something they liked from the selection available(usually around 7 or 8 dishes) could always find something to eat.
we walked into sarigerme and it only took around 20 mins. there is a street with some shops, mainly clothes, jewellers, resteraunts. looking at the early pictures of sarigerme it seemed to be a dirt track but when we went the street had been laid with little terrecota and grey slabs- is this new? got some bargains at the market but got fed up with being pulled into their stalls and grabbed by the hand or arm to buy something.
the beach party was fantastic, no foam party or lasers the first week but there was the second, the fireworks were great too.
the entertainment was good some nights and rubbish some nights, there was a hypnotist one night which was hilarious, and a few good singers, the first choice entertainers were ok for younger children but teenagers would find it boring.
on the subject of teenagers, we didn't see any gangs of teenagers, or drunk ones around the complex but the games room was always full of teenagers on the internet or playstation. the bowling was 4 pounds per person. pool 2, for half hour, internet 2 for half hour (pound sign isn,t working ).
i think thats everything but feel free to ask if i've missed anything out
