Новый год в Regency Plaza New Year at Regency Plaza

To all readers, good afternoon.

We love the New Year because this holiday is a kind of starting point for a new life: every person, under the chimes, makes his most cherished wish and, leaving everything bad and unpleasant in the outgoing year, plans a new life, is charged with an atmosphere of magic. In addition to magic, the New Year is also dear to us because it provides for a large number of days off, which allows you to give yourself and your loved ones an unforgettable New Year's trip to the sea, so you should never miss such a chance. So, on December 27, the whole family went to see off the old year and meet the New 2013 in the Sharmelsheikh region, the Regency Plaza Aqua Park & ​ ​ Spa Resort hotel.

1. Hotel

The hotel is located 7 km from the airport (to go very close, the planes do not fly over the hotel, they fly on the sidelines and do not interfere), I really pleased with the large, beautiful, clean and well-groomed territory, nothing can be said - it pleases the eye. The residential area is divided into two zones, separated by the main building with the reception (the first in the form of a horseshoe from the reception is directed to the sea, the second in the form of a ring surrounding the water park is closer to the road), consists of three-story buildings of pleasant architecture, built in the style of a bungalow. The hotel has 4 large swimming pools for adults, plus 1 children's pool with its own mini-water park. Surprisingly, the children's pool was not heated, as indicated on the hotel's website, as a result of which the children simply could not stand it for more than 5 minutes, although it is, of course, coolly equipped.
However, all the water slides (both in the children's and adult pools of the water park) were turned on only 2 times a day: from 11:30 to 12:30 and from 15:30 to 16:30, so the main excitement of vacationers in the water park fell on these intervals. In general, of all the pools, only one was heated - for adults, in which people moved down the slides. There seems to be a considerable number of sun loungers, however, the habit of vacationers to “clog” places from the early morning is actively flourishing in the hotel, so there is a problem with free places.
A significant drawback of the territory is the disgusting smell that spreads during irrigation.
I believe that for most tourists it is not a secret that water for watering plants in hotels in Egypt is taken from the sewer; however, in most hotels it is well filtered and sometimes even deodorized, so there is no smell - water and water, but in Regency Plaza, I don’t know for what reasons, the owner decided not to bother with this topic - along the way, they put a fine mesh ( well, so that the paper is there, or something else that the pumps do not clog) and stopped there. As a result, while watering, it smelled like a self-respecting sewer should stink. Particularly cute after such watering were people who took pictures of themselves or photographed their children on beautiful soft green lawns - sitting / lying / hugging a palm tree / riding a cactus, etc.

2. Numbers

We arrived at the hotel at 8 am, immediately informing the Arab at the reception that we have $ 30, which we can share with him right now if he gives us a room right now. The Arab liked the idea, and 5 minutes after filling out the questionnaire, they gave us our passports and offered to choose one of two rooms - closer to the sea or in the water park area. We didn’t like the room closer to the sea: on the 3rd floor and some cramped, with a tiny shower, so we chose the second one - 7213, in the water park area on the second floor. I liked the room (see photo): cozy, spacious, normal furniture, spacious loggia. The room has: TV, normal air conditioning, hair dryer and safe, non-alcoholic minibar - refrigerator (filled daily free of charge with two bottles of drinking water), a normal bathroom with a bathtub.
Room cleaning is daily, of high quality (all left and scattered things are neatly folded, towels and rugs are changed every day, swans, flowers, elephants, etc. were laid out on the beds every day - the cleaner was left 100 rubles every other day). The room suited almost everything, a small drawback - a very good audibility between the rooms and the corridor.
There are no insects on the territory of the room, except for mosquitoes (the brought fumigator saved well, and then unexpectedly and second got hold of it); a cool transparent lizard came to the loggia a couple of times late in the evening.
Friends, remember: official check-in at hotels is from 2 pm, and no one owes you anything, despite the inscription in the voucher "all inclusive".
Therefore, you can spend 6 hours interestingly and fruitfully at the reception, sitting on your suitcases, angry at the whole world around you and “these are the bastards who came with us on the same bus, and they were immediately given a number, but they still haven’t given us” - Is it just necessary? And you can not pinch your beloved 10 bucks a couple of times a year, and not spoil your mood for even a minute of vacation.
3. Beach and sea.
The beach is private, sandy, spacious, clean enough. There are a lot of sun loungers, but due to the morning “clogging” of places by vacationers, it is quite problematic to find free ones in the place where you want to sunbathe, you have to look for free ones (I’ll make a reservation right away that my family needed 4 sun loungers in one place; it’s much easier to find one / two nearby) . Chaise lounges are ancient, wooden (probably, the definition of “beds” is more suitable for them), with mattresses. There is a bar on the beach, a paid fish restaurant, one toilet next to the fish restaurant.
The beach has several disadvantages:

- 200 meters long shallow water begins right from the water's edge. There is absolutely no way for adults to swim there normally (the depth is below the waist), the only thing you can do there is to walk in protective shoes and look at the few inhabitants of the sea.
- from the shore goes, respectively, a 200-meter wooden pontoon, ending with a platform with ladders, from where you can swim. Oh, and a long one, infection, by the time you get back, you'll already be dry! There are practically no corals near the bathing area, there are very few beautiful fish, so you won’t be able to enjoy the underwater beauty of the Red Sea.
- There are no changing rooms. Apparently, they are recognized as an unnecessary and unnecessary luxury.

4. Animation.
There are several animators (Italians), with the exception of organizing sports and entertainment events in the morning on the beach, they don’t bother themselves.
Almost every evening, on a spacious open area next to the reception, “half-life” music plays from 20 to 23 hours - sometimes they sing along with backing tracks / sometimes they don’t sing, to which everyone dances, from 23 to 02 at night - a disco in a neighboring building. For those who want to relax - paid sauna, Turkish bath and hookah. For children, evening discos are held in the amphitheater next to the main building.

5 Food.
The food is quite decent, you just need to know WHERE to eat. There is a main restaurant in the main building - here you should eat only if you are a true masochist.

Crowds of people, queues, battles with compatriots for a piece of chicken, a difficult choice of three types of potatoes (boiled, mashed or baked in foil), dirty glasses, no forks / spoons / knives, in the morning - an 80-liter aluminum tank with a terrible inscription " coffee" and a light brown liquid - in short, all the negative reviews of vacationers about poor food in Regency Plaza absolutely rightly refer to the main restaurant. If you are not a masochist, but, on the contrary, a true epicurean, then you should not even look into the main restaurant for breakfast / lunch / dinner. The recipe for proper nutrition is as follows: from the reception, go along the corridor towards the main restaurant, pass it to the very end of the corridor, and turn left - in front of you is another restaurant that mainly eats Italians, and the menu differs from the main restaurant in a better way. side.
Due to the fact that the restaurant is small, the number of dishes is less than in the main one - you will not be offered a choice of 3 types of potatoes - but all the dishes are chosen wisely: for example, dine with pasta cooked right in front of you by an Italian chef under basil sauce with boiled tongue or squid rings in addition - in my opinion, very good. There are practically no queues, there is a coffee machine for lovers of cappuccino or just normal coffee, the same as the one at the reception bar. Beer, unlike the main restaurant, bottled. In the morning, feeding a child with porridge or cereal with milk, and in the afternoon with a normal soup is also not a problem. The four of us ate at this restaurant for the entire vacation - in the end they were full and satisfied, plus no one was poisoned by anything.
You can also dine at the pizzeria on the beach and at the restaurant in the water park - they serve light versions of lunch such as hamburgers and hot dogs.
Free alcoholic drinks with a strength of around 40º in taste and color belong to paint and varnish products, so I recommend buying as much as possible in duty free - definitely, it will not be superfluous, especially since the waiters do not mind the appearance of bottles on the tables. From soft drinks - 2 types of chemistry. With fruit as a dessert - a big problem, they are rarely available. On site there is a fruit shop where you can buy something to your liking, there is also a good supermarket 50 meters from the hotel (as you exit the gate - to the right), where you can also buy strawberries, various juices and soft drinks at reasonable prices.
Now, as for the "a la carte" restaurants - there were Italian, Chinese and Oriental ones. You can sign up for them near the entrance to the main restaurant, where there is a special table.

Of all the above, I recommend an Italian restaurant where you can really have a good dinner by candlelight with decent service. The other two are an improved version of the self-service buffet, in a Chinese restaurant it is generally very difficult to eat anything from the dishes offered. In a la carte restaurants, paid drinks - a bottle of dry wine will cost about $ 30, a glass of juice - $ 2.

6. Sports.
On the beach there is a volleyball and bocca playground, various water sports are presented in abundance. 2 tennis courts with equipment - paid, you need to sign up in advance for a certain time. Free gym.

7. New Year.
There is not much to write about the celebration of the New Year in the hotel.
A very large tent with a stage was built next to the main building, an Arab sat opposite the reception desk, who began to sign everyone up for the holiday, giving out papers with the table number and agitating to buy from him alcohol of a local spill of filthy quality and at cosmic prices, which would then have to materialize on the table buyer. At 18:30, all the people gathered in the main restaurant for a gala dinner (it must be admitted that the restaurant was well decorated, and the choice of dishes was very decent). After dinner, the people were left to their own devices for some time (as a result of which they saw people who were so overwhelmed that they obviously didn’t get to the New Year), and somewhere from 22 o’clock they began to launch the tent. There were bare tables covered with tablecloths in the tent, food warmers with potatoes (!!! ) and some canapes stood along the walls. The waiters served drinks and grimaced at the sight of normal bottles brought with them, but did not say anything.
On the stage there was some purely national Egyptian show with songs and dances, at 12 o'clock they made a countdown, after which the disco began. We were lucky with adequate neighbors at the table, so we organized our own holiday for ourselves, which ended somewhere around 2 am in the hookah bar (there was nothing to do in the tent by that time).

8. Moral atmosphere in the hotel.
Felt comfortable. There is absolutely no negativity on the part of the staff (once my daughter, going to the room, complained to the cleaner about mosquitoes, after 10 minutes - a knock on the door. I open it - the cleaner brought a fumigator for free and did not ask for money for it. Nice?

In fact, it’s nice), children are generally enthusiastic (the increased attention of Arabs in Egypt to children can be understood - most of them do not have their own children and, perhaps, will not: in order to marry and support a family, an Arab must earn at least $500 per month, and most service personnel are paid less than $300). Vacationers: 50 percent - Italians, 10 - countries of Eastern Europe, the remaining 40 - Russia, Ukraine and other CIS countries.

Summing up, the hotel can be characterized as follows: if you have already bought a ticket to it, there is nothing to worry about, knowing the above nuances will turn out to be quite good; If you haven't bought it yet, it's better to look at other offers.

I wish you all a pleasant and magical holiday,
Sincerely, Alexander

P. S. As always, I will be happy to answer any questions regarding the hotel, so if you have any, do not hesitate to ask.