Fantasia Bahia Principe Tenerife

We’re currently still at the hotel and are travelling as a family of 5 with my wife and our three children, aged 7, 5 and just 9 months old. What should have been an exciting start to our holiday quickly turned into a stressful nightmare when, after landing, we were told that all four of our suitcases were still in Birmingham and there was no ETA as to when they would arrive.

We had very little baby milk, baby food left, no spare clothes and no toiletries. We landed at around 11am and spent most of the day travelling around in taxis, going from shop to shop and pharmacy to pharmacy trying to find the correct baby milk, which was almost impossible to find, as well as buying swimming gear and essentials for the children.

By the time we finally returned to the hotel, we were exhausted.

We were allocated a room with an outside view which effectively looked straight out onto soil. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t be particularly bothered about the room or the view. I understand that rooms are allocated and that you don’t always get exactly what you want.

But this wasn’t really a normal circumstance.

The main reason we booked this hotel was because of the family facilities and, in particular, the castle, which our children were incredibly excited about. After everything they had already been through, my wife and I felt awful for them. Despite being tired, upset and without their belongings, they had actually been incredibly well behaved and handled the situation amazingly. All we wanted was for them to still have a good holiday.

We therefore went to reception and explained everything. We were told that all rooms had been allocated and to come back the following morning, which was fair enough. We understood that the hotel couldn’t simply move people around and were happy to wait.

We returned at around 9am the following morning and were told that they would let us know.

By 2pm, having heard absolutely nothing, we went back to reception ourselves. We were then told there was no room available.

I explained that check-in was from 3pm, so surely rooms would be becoming available, and given that we had no luggage with us, moving rooms wouldn’t exactly have been difficult or inconvenient from either side. We weren’t asking for an upgrade or anything unreasonable. We simply wanted a room that would make our children’s holiday a little more enjoyable after everything that had happened.

The response was essentially that it couldn’t be done and to come back tomorrow.

At this point, it genuinely felt like we were just being fobbed off.

“Come back tomorrow” seemed to be the hotel’s answer to everything, rather than anyone actually taking ownership of the situation and trying to help.

That’s what disappointed us the most.

We completely understand that the lost luggage was not the hotel’s fault. We weren’t expecting the hotel to somehow find our suitcases. What we did expect, however, was some level of empathy and customer service once they understood the circumstances we were dealing with.

Travelling with three children is difficult enough, especially with a 9month old. Arriving in another country with no luggage, spending hours in taxis trying to find the correct baby milk, having no spare clothes or toiletries, and then trying to keep three tired children entertained is stressful enough without feeling like the hotel simply doesn’t care.

What makes this even more disappointing is that this is a hotel that heavily promotes itself as a family resort and prides itself on its customer service.

We weren’t asking to be treated like VIPs. We weren’t demanding an upgrade. We weren’t expecting something for free.

We were simply asking for a little understanding and consideration in what was already a very difficult situation for our family.

Unfortunately, we didn’t get that.

The lost luggage was outside of the hotel’s control. The way we were treated afterwards wasn’t. And that’s the part that has left us genuinely disappointed.

The hotel was great for kids, lots of pools and entertainment in the day by the pools for kids. The sunbed situation is ridiculous though, if you don’t get up early to put a towel down, you won’t get one! The hotel shouldn’t allow guests to do this, other hotels ban it and remove the towels.

Food was ok, it got boring as it was basically the same everyday for lunch and dinner, a couple of meat dishes changed- quality isn’t great as it’s often chewy, the steaks were awful. Not many cooked vegetables either. Great for fussy kids though as it always had burgers, hot dogs, pizza and pasta (also a fast food restaurant under the castle that serves this in the day). Pancakes were awful, and the waffles often mushy, but good selection of pastries. Desserts were a bit disappointing and ice cream is cheap. Times are really limited for booking the à la cartes, we were told at check in they were nearly fully booked, which is bad and we struggled to book a child friendly time.

We saw two shows, the first one Circus Toys was good, with an amazing singer, the other one Carnival was a bit boring, saw quite a few people leave. It’s a good extra to have the shows, but you can only do 2 a week, and a live late band isn’t that entertaining for young kids.

The staff overall were quite friendly, but encountered a staff member in the restaurant at lunch a couple of days ago. I went up to one of the bars in the buffet and asked for a coke, the older gentleman was really rude, told me he wouldn’t serve me and pointed to go and sit down- I told him where I was sat and no one ever came over.

Also to mention how slippery the pool patios were! It’s so dangerous, we saw someone have a very bad accident because of it. They need to be more grippy like the splash pad. They’ve painted the main building white and it looks great, but all the other buildings need painting, and look dated.

It’s a good overall stay with kids but it is not a 5*, they don’t even top up your water each day in the room, you have take the bottle they provide and find the water fountain on your floor- says it all. Don’t think we’ll stay again but we still had a nice week, but a week was enough.