Coral Sea Water World

I’m gonna write this review in two sections. 1st section will be brief, second section in more detail. We have stayed at this hotel numerous times and I can only say fantastic things about it, the staff, location. We have truly been made to feel like family.

Now in more detail. Location: only a short transfer from the airport and right in amongst great shops, restaurants, things to do. You will need to get a taxi to go to old market or Soho. Hotel: the staff are fantastic and it feels like they couldn’t do enough for you. The grounds are immaculate and everywhere feels super clean and tidy. The cleaners doing an amazing job as do the grounds staff. Pools; there are two main pools each serviced by a bar and waiters going round for drinks orders, there is also an aqua park with multiple slides and areas for big and little kids to keep them busy for hours. Some people have said the lifeguards can be strict but our experience is, if you follow the rules around safety then you will have no interaction with the lifeguards unless you want to and they are very friendly and just doing their job and keeping all of us safe. Food. There is a main buffet restaurant and various à la carte restaurants to chose from with great options and tastes to suit. If you can’t find anything to eat, speak to any of the restaurant team and they will always try to find something to suit you. Animation team. These guys do a great job at keeping everyone entertained throughout the day in the evening with various activities for grown-ups and kids, big shout to Tweety for keeping the kids entertained all day. From the moment you step off the bus and met with the porters to help with luggage, the reception team to check you in, the housekeepers keeping it clean The waiters looking after you, the chef cooking for you and the lifeguards keeping you safe you won’t be disappointed. We love this place and will continue to keep going back.

We’re coming towards the end of our stay at Coral Sea Water World and overall we’ve had a really good family holiday. It’s not a perfect hotel and there are definitely things that could be improved, but the positives have outweighed the negatives.

We arrived at around 11pm and check-in was smooth. The bell boys take your luggage and reception label the cases with your room number. Ours arrived promptly, which was appreciated as we wanted to get something to eat. The hotel keeps part of the buffet open until 1am for late arrivals – mainly sandwiches and cakes, but after a long day travelling it was absolutely fine.

Just don’t expect a lie-in…

Our first morning we came down at 7:30am and managed to get beds. We soon discovered that apparently constitutes a lie-in here.

Each day seemed to require getting up slightly earlier until I eventually admitted defeat and joined the 6:45am towel brigade. If you can’t beat them, join them!

There isn’t a mad rush when access to the pool area opens – the problem is simply how early people start reserving beds. If you have a particular spot in mind, prepare for an early start.

This is one area I really think the hotel needs to address. I’d like to see some sort of sunbed allocation system, with beds released if nobody has appeared for two hours. People obviously need to be able to go for breakfast or back to their room without losing their beds, but reserving them at dawn and appearing hours later is ridiculous.

The pool guys themselves are brilliant. They’re down there incredibly early sorting cushions, cleaning and preparing everything and seem to work extremely long days.

The main pool is huge and a lovely temperature. It varies in depth, with deeper sections around 1.5m before gradually shallowing as it bends around towards a beach-style entrance. Ropes clearly separate the different depths and I was impressed to see lifeguards actively stopping weaker swimmers from wandering into the deeper sections.

We have unfortunately experienced three separate Code Browns during our stay.

Yes. Three.

The staff reacted quickly each time and properly dealt with it, although the latest one resulted in the pool being closed for several hours. Obviously you can hardly blame the hotel for someone deciding the swimming pool is an appropriate place to empty their bowels, but three in one holiday feels like we’ve won some sort of terrible lottery.

Staff and drinks

Most of the staff have been really good, although we have encountered the occasional rude member of staff.

A special mention has to go to Ahmed at the pool bar, who has been fantastic throughout our stay. He works incredibly hard, constantly doing laps of the pool taking orders and delivering drinks, keeping our glasses topped up and making sure we have bottles of water. He’s been one of the standout members of staff during the holiday and deserves some recognition.

I’ve tipped throughout the holiday, usually every few drinks, so I can only comment on the service we’ve personally received, but Ahmed has been excellent.

Drinks are fine. Soft drinks include the usual Coke, Fanta and Sprite and the kids have enjoyed the sweeter drinks available.

I’ve mainly stuck to beer and gin and tonic. Spirits are local but they use Schweppes mixers.

One warning: if you ask for a strong gin and tonic, they take the request extremely seriously. You basically receive a glass of gin containing some ice, with tonic seemingly regarded as an optional extra.

Food

Breakfast has loads of choice. Fresh omelettes and fried eggs are cooked in front of you, plus waffles, pancakes and seemingly every cake and pastry known to mankind.

The beans and one type of sausage weren’t great, but the chicken sausages and beef bacon were pretty decent. There’s certainly enough choice to find something you like.

The main buffet was better than I expected initially. There’s plenty available and we’ve always found something to eat, but after about a week it definitely starts becoming repetitive.

Lunch around the pool is easy and convenient – burgers, hot dogs and chips alongside wraps, pasta dishes and other bits. Nothing particularly fancy, but absolutely fine for a poolside lunch.

We tried the Grill à la carte restaurant and the food was decent. You cook your own meat on a hot plate at the table, which is a nice idea.

The only slight design flaw is that you’re sitting outside near the beach, in Egypt, in August, with an extremely hot cooking plate directly in front of you.

There are fans, but my God it was baking. By the end I wasn’t sure whether the steak was cooking on the hot plate or I was.

Unfortunately we thought the Italian à la carte was poor. The kids’ pizza reminded me of a frozen Aldi pizza – and honestly, Aldi might have won that particular competition. The menu wasn’t particularly inspiring and I eventually ordered steak, which probably tells you everything you need to know about our visit to the Italian restaurant.

When steak becomes the most appealing option at an Italian restaurant, something has gone slightly wrong.

We also ventured outside the hotel and ate at Arab Bucks. There was a decent selection and four of us ate for around £40. Nothing particularly special, but reasonably priced and a nice change once the hotel buffet started feeling repetitive.

Waterpark

Considering the hotel is called Water World, this was probably a little underwhelming.

There are some decent rides and there were basically no queues when we visited, which was great. However, around half of the slides were closed. We were repeatedly told they would be opening shortly because staff were on lunch, but they remained closed for much of the time we were there.

The kids’ official review of the waterpark was simply: “pretty mid.”

I’d also strongly recommend beach/reef shoes. The ground gets hotter than a frying pan and walking around barefoot quickly becomes an endurance event.

Beach and snorkelling

We haven’t spent loads of time on the beach other than going down to snorkel. There always seemed to be plenty of sunbeds available, although some are looking tired and could do with replacing.

The sea is incredibly shallow for a long way out – probably at least 100 metres – and feels like getting into a warm bath.

The snorkelling, however, was excellent.

You can go out towards the end of the pier, but personally I thought there was actually more coral and better fish simply walking straight out into the water from the hotel beach. Definitely worth taking a mask and snorkel.

Rooms and grounds

The rooms are probably where the age of the hotel shows most. They’re dated and could do with modernising, although the beds are reasonably comfortable.

Our shower had very little water pressure, which could definitely be improved.

The air-conditioning, on the other hand, is superb. If you fancy turning your room into a walk-in fridge after spending the day in the Egyptian heat, it is more than capable of doing so.

Housekeeping has been consistently good and our room has been cleaned every day.

The hotel grounds are immaculate. The gardening and maintenance teams clearly work incredibly hard and the gardens always look excellent.

Entertainment

Evening entertainment is fairly basic.

There’s usually a kids’ party with dancing and singing to much the same music each night. It gets repetitive for adults, but in fairness the kids enjoy it, which is what matters.

That’s normally followed by a singer, dancing or karaoke. We don’t tend to hang around for karaoke, but if listening to holidaymakers murder perfectly respectable songs after several all-inclusive drinks is your thing, you’re covered.

The highlight by far was the weekly White Party on the beach.

It starts with the kids’ entertainment and is followed by a fire show, which we all thought was brilliant. Easily the best entertainment we’ve seen here and definitely worth watching.

Just be prepared to sweat because even at night it is absolutely roasting down on the beach.

The daytime music around the pool could also be improved. It feels like the same playlist is repeated throughout the day and after a week you definitely notice it. A much bigger variety would make a difference.

I also think the hotel is missing a trick by not having a games area near the main pool. A couple of pool tables, table tennis and some games for the kids would give them something different to do when they want a break from swimming.

Spa and watersports

You do get approached regularly around the pool by the spa and watersports teams. “Badgered” is probably fair, although we found a polite “no thanks” generally worked and they weren’t rude about it.

We booked a full-body massage and I’m glad we did because it was very reasonably priced and genuinely excellent. I’d definitely recommend it.

We also booked a watersports package including the banana boat, sofa ride and snorkelling. The banana boat and sofa were great fun and reasonably priced.

We didn’t end up doing the snorkelling part of the package, but rather than making an issue of it the captain let the kids have a go at driving the boat instead, which they absolutely loved. That was a really nice touch.

Wi-Fi and location

You get 9GB of Wi-Fi included and then it costs around £10 for the remainder of your stay. With teenagers, 9GB obviously has approximately the same life expectancy as an ice cube beside the pool.

There isn’t loads immediately outside the hotel, so this isn’t somewhere I’d choose if your priority is walking out every evening into an area full of restaurants, shops and bars.

However, the other areas of Sharm are easily reached and taxis are cheap, so getting out isn’t difficult. Realistically, if you’re booking a large all-inclusive resort, you’re probably planning to spend most of your time there anyway.

Overall

We’ve genuinely had a really enjoyable family holiday, and I think that’s important to say before giving my final opinion of the hotel.

There are lots of positives. The main pool is excellent, the grounds are immaculate, housekeeping has been good, breakfast has loads of choice and the majority of the staff work incredibly hard. Ahmed at the pool bar in particular has been brilliant.

The spa and watersports were good value, the snorkelling was excellent and the White Party/fire show was easily the highlight of the evening entertainment.

But there are also quite a few areas where the hotel falls short. The rooms need modernising, our shower pressure was poor, the buffet becomes repetitive, the Italian restaurant was disappointing, the waterpark could be much better managed and the sunbed situation desperately needs sorting out. The daytime and evening entertainment could also do with more variety.

So, would I recommend it? For the money we paid, probably not.

That’s not the same as saying we’ve had a bad holiday – because we absolutely haven’t. We’ve had a great time. I just don’t think the overall standard of the hotel quite matches the price being charged. If I found the same holiday considerably cheaper, my answer might be completely different.

There are plenty of good things here and some genuinely excellent, hardworking staff, but at the price we paid I’d expect the rooms, food, waterpark and entertainment to be a level above where they currently are.

So we’ve had a great family holiday, but I don’t think it represents particularly good value for money.

Pack some reef shoes, set your alarm earlier than you’d ideally like to on holiday, and don’t ask for a strong gin unless you really mean it.

And if we make it to checkout without Code Brown number four, I’ll consider that a successful ending.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Absolutely Perfect — Coral Sea Water World Resort is a Dream Destination!

We just returned home from an incredible stay at Coral Sea Water World Resort in Sharm El Sheikh, and we cannot recommend it highly enough! From the moment we arrived until we sadly departed, everything was flawless — beautiful, clean facilities, stunning pools, amazing views, delicious food, and the warmest, most welcoming staff you could ever wish to meet.

A special huge thank you goes to the entertainment team — Lilly, Karyss, and Budda — who were simply EXCELLENT from start to finish! They brought so much energy, fun, laughter, and warmth to every single day, making sure every guest felt included, happy, and having the best time. Whether it was daytime activities, poolside fun, or wonderful evening shows, they were brilliant — so talented, friendly, and truly went above and beyond to keep everyone entertained and smiling. They made our holiday extra special and memorable!

If you’re looking for paradise, great service, and fantastic entertainment, this is the place to be. We’re already planning our return visit! 💯☀️🌊

10/10 — Outstanding in every way! Would you like a shorter version or one that sounds more casual, like it was written on your phone while still on holiday?