The Royal Blue Resort

3.5-4 stars overall 4 stars: restaurant food was very good and wait staff was fantastic. We especially enjoyed Alati. We arrived later in the evening near closing after a beach day and still received superb service and food was very good. 4 stars: views are stunning and resort is pretty 3.5 stars: Appearance/cleanliness. While the resort was beautiful, it just felt a bit grungy. Our room was lack luster and smelled musty. No mini bar, just water and a few tiny snacks like nuts. A bit dated. Roly-poly bugs in the bathroom. Do you research on where your room will be located and if you want an ocean view you really need to go with the ocean front rooms or you don’t see much from your room. (TBF this can be the case at most hotels and I should have looked into this more.) For a 5 star resort I would expect the place to be modern, gleaming clean and feel well… luxurious. 3.5 stars: overall service is not 5 star. Average at best. At other 5 star resorts you would expect over the top service especially at check in and check out, housekeeping twice a day, turndown service etc. Check in was very protracted and between check in and check out they took my credit card 6 times. Everything was broken down into different transactions. It was very confusing. Take my card number once and put everything on the one card. I’m still confused on the payment process… No valet parking. You’re told to park wherever you can find a spot. We did get a golf cart ride down to our room, however my husband was left behind parking the car and we where never told our room number at check-in so he had no idea where to find us!

Here’s my take on this resort, we noted the same staff from one restaurant to the next (they are not all open and available at the same time so limited food options.) While it was August the place still felt very sleepy. I don’t think they are operating at capacity or have the staff to accommodate a 5 star experience.

Was it awful? Not at all. Was it good. Yes. Was it a 5 star experience worth over $5000 for 5 nights? No way.

I went to Royal Blue with my son and spent over a week. We had a great time; the food is simply amazing with lots of options and great food quality. As other reviewers said, the drinks are not included even with half board and are a bit expensive but the food quality makes up for it! The staff is very friendly throughout. We had a room with a private pool that had an excellent sea view. The only issue was that it was located in front of the main air conditioning unit that powered the block so at night it could get a bit noisy. They very willingly showed us other rooms if we wanted to change but we decided to stay as that room was really best! The service at the beach is fantastic, Vlasis absolutely knows how to make guests feel comfortable and take care of every detail. The beach is so nice we spent a lot of time there. My son who is 9 also made friends and played quite a bit of a football in a small court they have (tennis/football), and maintenance even turned on the lights at night for us. It's located one hour from Heraklion airport so if you want to visit Crete more widely it's a bit far from main tourist attractions, but there's a lot to do in the area. If like us, you wanted to enjoy the resort, it has everything you need! We went to Panormo in the little train and the small town with a Marina has lots of nice restaurants (though we didn't eat there just did souvenir shopping). The atmosphere is great both for families and couples alike. One thing that wasn't an issue for us (but would be if I had gone with my daughter) is that all pools except the adults (+15) one are of salt water instead of fresh water, including the one in the room (I hadn't realized this). Cleanliness of the room could have been better but the staff was super friendly and always came in the evening to offer chocolates and extra towels. I will definitely consider going back!