Speaking of holidays how much research do folk actually input to find an acceptable package at a sensible price? We had to rebook ours this morning after our new lungs arrived in the post .. so we set off to work and boy oh boy was it time consuming.
We picked our dates scanning through TUI then read the reviews and scanned some more before it's Bot changed the price thrice over. Then we went onto Tripadvisor and onto google earth to assertain location and walk those mean streets .. then back onto TUI to see that the prices had changed again : /
Nothing of a decent nature in the Canaries below budget so we erred on safety and so off to the Dorm. Tui stood on changing our holiday paying the difference and so all is now good once more.
I have to say the operators are proper milking it compared to previous years but with the old Indian saying "it is what it is" and if we do not like the price then quite simply we do not have to book. Supply and demand and all that, but historically there should be some good deals coming through for late November into December with pricing in the pennies. However we shall see and the proof of the pudding will be in the eating.
When I was researching possibles I came across this review below from a lady from Gateshead which made us both grin a lot, cough a lot n' had us both in stiches. We have stayed at the Princessa twice and found the place OK .. but an opinion is an opinion and all opinions are subjective to the individual. We normally work on the assuption of following the herd and if the herd move West then West it shall be. You cannot please all of the people all of the time so carpe deium it shall be. Fancy there being Spanish people in Spain : /
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Hotel Princessa ... a couple of cliks north of the old town and just up the hill from Calle Gerona.
By KDibbers Gatehead.
Not At All Great
We booked a last minute 1 week, all Inc holiday for the end of September... Looking forward to a week in the sun chilling by the pool, drinking, eating good food. Not quite how things panned out.
FOOD:
On check in we were given a time slot for breakfast, dinner and tea, and told we had to go for meals at the exact same time each day. Well you see, I like to live on the edge, I don't want to be planning my days around our time slot for food, so most of the time ended up buying food when we were out. To be honest, it was a god send because dinner and evening meals were shocking. There was just half a meal every night, it was so mismatched.
Like pasta and sprouts, what's going on? There was never a good combination... everything was very much tailored for the Spanish guests (who were also always attended to first for drinks). I kid you not, I sat and watched an old Spanish bloke sit and eat a plate of green beans. Green beans on their own. This must be the type of people who gave good food reviews and fooled me into choosing this hotel.
Desserts were your standard cream cake type, was disappointed there was no chocolate fountain which I had seen reviews mentioning. Food was really poor....That being said, breakfast was actually really good, proper sausages, none of this thin little chipolata business. If it wasn't for breakfast I would have just died of starvation in the hotel. It wasn't until the last day we discovered that the toasties at the bar were quite decent so if you go down and the food is inedible, you can always grab a toastie... A toastie a day keeps the malnutrition away. Food, solid 3/10.
ROOM:
So the room wasn't initially terrible, however the wallpaper was hanging off as if it had been pasted on by Josés saliva. Definitely knocked the rating down. Beds were two singles together and were about and soft as a mortuary slab. I actually like a firm bed but my bloke was walking around like Frankenstein after day 4. The room was spacious, I liked the big balcony which was glass so you could get a good view of the skyline.
Our room was on the 14th floor... The lifts weren't too bad which was a god send because that toastie will not provide the level of energy you're going to need for the stairs. So room okay... until...
I woke up sweating like a fat lass in greggs. I fully understand now why the poor wallpaper was wilting. We had to get the aircon fixed on two separate days before they eventually realised that it was broken and I had to be moved to another room. It was the room next door so it was just a mirror image, including the weeping wallpaper but the telly only had one English channel. Yes, you don't go on holiday to watch telly but I like to watch it as I go to kip. There's only so much who wants to be a millionaire that a girl can watch. Overall though, room was 6/10 once it wasn't hotter the the depths of hell.
POOL:
Well, what can I say about the pool. So the actual pool wasn't bad... What was bad, was the INCREDIBLE AMOUNT OF NOISE coming from the building works next door. Honestly it's enough to drive you mad. No sitting by the pool reading Hemmingway if that's what you're expecting. It sounds like Demolishion Derby and it goes on from around 9am until 7pm. All... Day... Long. There's PLENTY of sunbeds but I'm not sure if that's just because people went out instead of staying to enjoy the construction work.
There's no floats allowed, although there is a lifeguard but I reckon you would probably have already drowned to death by the time he looks up from his phone. The pool bar was not open at all during our stay. To get to the bar you have to get dried, go up the stairs and into the hotel, it's a right faff on. They should have waiters coming down every so often to get drinks if they're not going to open the bar. Pool 3/10.
DRINKS:
We upgraded to gold for 6 Euro per person, per day as the drinks were very limited. It offered one type of beer, rola cola and other cheap types of soda and a few cocktails... the spirits were "am I going to go blind" spirits. For the upgrade you could get glass bottles drinks such as proper coke, fanta and spite. You could also get a number of bottled beers such as Heineken, Budwieser, Corona (just the beer, don't panic). Good selection of decent spirits too. The upgrade was worth it for us. The waiters could be a bit slow at times but overall service was good. Upgraded drinks 8/10.
AREA:
Well, let's just say if you're English, be prepared to feel somewhat isolated. Honestly we only met about 3 other English couples in the whole stay. There was just nobody at all to crack and pal onto. It's very much a Spanish hotel and English don't particularly seem that well liked by staff who at times were very abrupt.
It's quite a hill but otherwise a good location. Don't come here if you want good places to drink on a night time... the bars nearby are all local Spanish cafe types. The beach front bars again are mainly Spanish... although there are a couple of decent Irish Bars which do have a good atmosphere. When I say mainly Spanish, yes, we are in Spain... but I mean very few tourists if you like to chat to other English speakers.
Overall I personally wouldn't go back but if you are an antisocial, green bean eating, construction enthusiast... This is definitely the place for you : /
