Отель разочаровал Hotel disappointed

Hello, dear friends, like-minded people and travelers!
I want to share my impressions about my 17th vacation in Egypt, the 8th in Marsa Alam.
We rested at the end of May with a large company with work colleagues and children: 16 adults and 5 children of various ages. I will write a review based on my impressions and experience.
I was very happy to learn that we will be in Marsa Alam, I just love this place for the sea and the service. Hotel Sunrise Marina Resort Port Ghalib 5 * was chosen by a very high rating on review sites. I was also seduced by the fact that the hotel is part of the solid Sunrise chain. Before you attack me with comments that if I didn’t like something, then it’s only about myself, and not about the hotel, please, look at my other reviews on Marsa Alam. On the contrary, I was accused of being too positive, despite the fact that I had a rest in 5 *, 4 * and even in 3 *. Impressions remained very good, regardless of the number of stars.

So, a review of the Sunrise Marina Resort Port Ghalib 5 *.
Transfer: Flight Kyiv - Hurghada, transfer to the hotel about 3 hours by bus.
The reception was greeted with cold drinks and wet towels, which is very nice. We were settled by a guide from the tour operator Mukhamed and a guest relations manager Irina. The rooms were already prepared, we settled in 2 people.
My colleague and I got a room on the second floor, with a balcony overlooking the courtyard with a swimming pool. We had 4 beds for two. The room is the most ordinary, everything works, the furniture is in good condition, there is a kettle, tea bags, coffee, sugar, cream. Water is replenished daily, 2 small bottles per room. On the balcony there are 2 chairs and a table, as standard. The bathroom is not big, sink, toilet, shower. Of the cosmetics in this 5 * hotel, only liquid soap in a dispenser on the wall and 1 for 2 people a shower cap and that's it. This was surprising, because in all 4 * hotels, not to mention 5 *, things are much better with cosmetics.
The tour guide said shampoo is only for guests in the superior category, and the guest relations manager said they can bring shampoo on request. Happiness is not in shampoo and other accessories, however, I think this saving is not appropriate for a hotel that claims to be a 5 * category.
Cleanliness and other problems in the rooms: two of our colleagues did not have half of the lighting when they checked in, the defect was eliminated only a day later. But they looked into the chandelier on the ceiling and were surprised at the abundance of dust and dead insects. In our room on the second day, the soap dispenser broke off the wall, and the water stopped heating normally, it was barely warm. We told the guide about it. When we returned to the room from the beach, we found that the dispenser was simply broken, and it was broken on the washbasin, and the water stopped heating at all and became ice cold.

The next day we told Irina about this, she promised that either the problem would be fixed or we would be relocated. When we returned from the beach, the dispenser was repaired, the water became hot, but for some reason they broke off the internal lock from the room door. We did not ask to be removed, suddenly they will break it off.
Room cleaning: cleaned daily, towels changed, it was relatively clean, we did not particularly check the quality, but the shoes on the floor did not move, not a millimeter. If there was a cleaning of the floor, then, most likely, the shoes would be raised. Tipping was left daily up to one occasion. We noticed that the figurines on the towel bed were damp. We thought it was condensation from the air conditioner. When we unfolded the figure, we found a dirty, used towel, which we put as a rug in front of the shower. It showed the imprint of my shoes. And out of this they twisted swans and crocodiles for us and put them on a clean bed! I have not seen this anywhere! Is it 5*?
Maybe it was revenge for the fact that we complained 2 times about problems in the room? But I believe that we have the right to wash ourselves with warm water and use soap and clean towels in a 5 * hotel. We tried not to pay attention and not spoil your holiday.
Territory of the hotel: the area is quite large, where the hotel ends and Port Ghalib begins is difficult to determine. Greenery is not much, but it is. There are 2 pools in the courtyards and a separate area of ​ ​ ​ ​ its own small water park. Slides are open until 17:00. The water park has several small but high-quality slides, a large pool, a towel dispenser, and a bar. During the day, the bar serves hamburgers, pizza and other fast food. There are shows in the evening. The undoubted advantage of the hotel for me is its location in the port of Ghalib, in the evening you can walk along the promenade, admire the yachts or sit in a cafe.
Food: the food at the hotel is normal, I have seen both better and worse.

In the main restaurant, the choice is not large, but you will not stay hungry. Breakfasts are standard: scrambled eggs and scrambled eggs are fried, there are vegetables, a lot of yoghurts, traditional tasteless sausages and sausages, but a very large selection of cheeses, pastries, toasts, fruits, etc. Lunches and dinners are more varied, there are meat and fish, various side dishes, 2 types of soups with various toppings, salads and chopped vegetables and herbs, a lot of sauces and dressings for salads and other dishes, 2 times there were crabs. Prepare pasta and pizza according to your taste. The choice of fruit is not large, but I enjoyed eating watermelon in the month of May. The dishes are all fresh, which is very important. There is a hardware coffee. The restaurant is big and there are plenty of seats. Tables are set and cleared fairly quickly. Drinks are brought by the waiters, you do not have to wait long.
Once in 7 days of rest, you can go to 1 of 2 Ala Carte restaurants, Oriental or Mediterranean free of charge.
We went with a large group, some took the oriental menu, some the Mediterranean, to try everything. The choice of dishes is more than in the main restaurant, but the taste and service were not impressive. I was not served fish soup at all, and desserts were brought, not those that were ordered.
Snacks: at the bar on the beach and at the bar in the aqua park at certain times. There are several salads to choose from, french fries, hot dog, hamburger, pasta, tuna sandwich, grilled chicken, pasta. Of the above delicious grilled chicken and pasta, salads are not bad. Almost no tuna was found in a tuna sandwich. There is ice cream. In the water park they took only pizza, delicious.
Beach: the hotel has its own beach, located next to the hotel. The beach is large, there is enough space for everyone, clean, there are fences from the wind. The entrance to the sea is sandy. You can get a towel on the beach in exchange for a card.
Sea: The Red Sea, as always, is magnificent. The water was quite warm.
I know and love this reef well, I am resting in Port Ghalib for the 5th time. The coral is especially beautiful if you swim across the bay. Corals are more diverse there, often there are turtles, rays, octopuses, hedgehog fish, surgeons, rhinoceroses, arotrons, boxfish, lionfish, flutes, butterflies, angels, cesium, a trifle and not list. On the last day of rest, we swam across the bay with a company and swam along the outer wall of the reef to the hotel
The Three Corners Fayrouz Plaza. This site is unusually beautiful in terms of coral and inhabitants. At a distance of 2 meters from me, for the second time in my life, I met a blacktip reef shark. Thank God, I didn’t interest the shark in anything, and she calmly swam past herself on her shark business.

Service: here the hotel surprised, and surprised very unpleasantly. It should be noted that most of the staff is just wonderful, the guys are very friendly and well-mannered. Thank you very much for their service! However, part of the staff greatly spoiled the impression of the hotel.
I will describe this topic in great detail so as not to undeservedly offend those who served excellently, but not to miss the problem areas:
1. Reception: the workers are trying, very friendly, but problems with breakdowns in the rooms were eliminated for a long time.
2. Lobby bar: good service. There were no problems.
3. Housekeeping: I have already described the situation with wet and dirty towels from which swans were spinning. I consider this unacceptable.
4. Main restaurant: served very well, tables were served quickly, drinks were brought quickly.
5. Ala carte restaurant: I described the situation, about the dish they forgot to bring and the desserts mixed up.
6. Beach: on the beach, a worker laid towels, he also moved the sunbeds into the shade. However, a colleague lost a card on a towel right from the sunbed when she walked away for 2 minutes. There were also cases of missing towels from the sunbed. I would not like to think that the workers did it.
7. Bar on the beach.
One worker in a white shirt served friendly, fast, with humor. Huge thanks to him. This is where the positive ends.
On the first day of rest in a bar on the beach, I saw an employee with a facial expression that I have not seen in any hotel in Egypt, and even more so Mars Alam. In fairness, it must be said that in Turkey and Sri Lanka, the personnel working with guests do not have such persons either. To say that this face was sad is to say nothing, he looked in such a way that it was not convenient and not pleasant to disturb him with his requests, his whole appearance spoke of how he does not like his work and guests.
As for the rest of the service at the beach bar, there were other cases. I wrote that our company was very large. We often ate lunch together at the beach bar. We waited a long time for our order to be accepted, and then we waited a very long time for the order to be brought.

It happened that our tables were served after all the other guests were served, including those guests who came after us. We noticed all this and made the appropriate conclusions about the service.
8. Aqua Park: This is the icing on the cake. Roller coaster, good service and joking all the time. He even provided us with minor medical assistance in the treatment of wounds on the leg (accidentally injured on the coral).
The bartender at the water park served well. But there was a very unpleasant incident with his participation, which cannot be ignored. One evening, leaving the women's room, my colleague met this bartender at the door of her booth. He followed her into the ladies' room and waited by the door for her to come out. In the women's room, he asked her for a kiss. Naturally, he received a specific refusal, then asked for forgiveness. Since then, we have been calling the restroom a "kissing place".
Represented by several Russian-speaking girls. If there are still some activities on the beach in the form of yoga, exercises and oriental dances, then in the evening there is absolutely nothing to do. Yes, there are shows like laser or light, once a week they bring an oriental show, but it's all short and not very professional. I liked only the dance with skirts, but this show is imported and the animators have nothing to do with it. I do not even compare with Turkish animation (this is no comparison), but with animators in other hotels in Egypt and Marsa Alam in particular. Even in hotels oriented towards pensioners, the evenings are much more interesting due to the fact that the animators try to involve guests in dances and competitions (best couple, Mr. Hotel, Miss Hotel, music quiz, bingo, karaoke, etc. ) or show funny scenes, dance show, etc.

In other hotels, even the language barrier (often Egyptian or Italian animators) is not an obstacle to having fun. They look closely at the guests and try to arrange for them what will interest them. But not in this hotel. Here, the wait for the show often lasts much longer than the show itself, and guests have to entertain themselves with a cocktail menu. Begged once to have karaoke. Further, the animator decided that it would be better for her to sing, and not the guests, and sang. We have not heard such a collection of weeping-howling songs in one collection before. From the first minute of the performance of the song, a table with German guests ran away. The rest of the guests followed. But this did not stop the animator at all. She continued to torment us with her talent until we were the last to escape. The average age of our company, not including children, is about 33. We were forced to spend our evenings playing cards, like pensioners
. I wanted to at least move a little, laugh, dance. The children also complained that they were bored. On the last day of our stay, the manager Irina asked our opinion about the animation, we said what we thought. As a result, to our restaurant during lunch, as soon as we sat down at the table, the animator ran in and obsessively began to find out which shows we want. Thank you, but during lunch, and even more so on the last day of rest, there are no more.
Overall impression of the hotel: the hotel has a great advantageous location in the heart of Port Ghalib near the waterfront, yachts, restaurants. The territory is also not bad, the beach is excellent, the coral is one of the best in the Red Sea, a completely closed bay allows you to swim in any weather, there is a sandy entrance to the sea. The hotel has great prospects to become one of the best, and it does not require large investments.
It is necessary to give the interior of the rooms a little style, color and comfort, otherwise they are completely faceless. You need to clean it more carefully, in a la carte I would like more variety and taste. Saving on shampoo is not appropriate for such a hotel. In addition, the bar has only draft beer, no beer at all, and bottled local "Stela" is only for money. For example, I will say that this is the most beer in neighboring hotels Port Ghalib 4 * and even 3 * included. But this is not the main thing. The cheapest and most expensive thing in any hotel is the service. And here something went wrong, the management missed something most important. It feels like some hotel workers have been recruited from the worst hotels in Hurghada and they have no idea how to work in Marsa Alam 5* hotels.
But in general, the holiday was a success thanks to a cheerful company, a professional and friendly part of the staff, a wonderful reef, turtles and a beautiful shark.
Have a good rest, if you have any questions, write, I will answer!