Blue Bay Platinum Hotel

It is my second time staying here. Came back to this hotel as was bringing a child this time and before there were lots of kids so thought it’d be good for the child. The hotel has gone down hill in my opinion during the last two years. The restaurant food is not as good, less options. The pool restaurant however is still the same, plenty of fried chicken, fish, chips and pizza etc available all day. All inclusive is great but their alcoholic drinks are not very strong and possibly watered down. They have 4 pools, 2 big Pools, 1 small kids pool with slides and 1 small adults only pool. So many children (& adults) were slipping on the tiles around the pool area, the floor is lethal when wet, kids having bad bumps on the head and the even 1 with a cut foot. This was the same 2 years ago so nothing has changed here to make it a bit safer. We had to ask for a different room as they put us (family of 3) in a tiny room with no space for suitcases or to walk around-so cramped. But they moved us after 1 day to a slightly bigger room. The entertainment team around the pool is no where near as good as it was before. Mostly young English girls with miserable faces, not interacting with everyone, just choosing to talk to certain people close to their age range. The hotel is looking a bit shabby too, not looking like a 5 star. The shower temperature goes from hot to cold to hot and back to cold again and you can hear the people in the next room using the toilet and shower. Let’s talk about sunbeds… you need to wake up before 6am to get a good sunbed. So many are in shade and only get sun between 10am and 3-4pm. The rules are you cant reserve a sunbed before 7am but I was getting down there at 7am and they were practically all gone already. Never saw any staff removing towels as they advertise they would do. And you get the selfish people who put their towels down and you don’t see them at all all day! Nor do the staff do anything about this, they don’t remove towels if not used for 2 hours as the signs say they will. The pools are supposedly open until 6pm but the janitors start clearing away sunbeds from 4.30 onwards which was very annoying, stacking up sunbeds while youre still laying there. They even once asked us to move so they could put away our sunbeds at 5.30 but we said no, pool is open til 6pm so they just continued around us; stacking up sunbeds about 8feet high right next to us and cleaning the floor with the cleaning/buffer machine while we were still trying to relax! Every day they do this from early… just because they want to clear the space for the evening entertainment. They put something on every night which repeats weekly. The best night was the Michael Jackson impersonator, good dancers and music. Personally I think the shady sunbeds is the worst thing about this hotel - I go to Turkey for the sun and I want to have the sun on me all day, not just for a few hours! On the Plus side, the hotel is in a good location near to all the shops and beach and just a short bus ride to the marina where you can get a boat trip or go to the bazaar for some shopping.

We stayed for 10 nights at blue bay platinum. Upon arriving at 2340 hours we were told there was no food or drink available and we could order takeaway if we wanted or go out into town. Not ideal after one hours and 45 minutes transfer time! Would have been nice to get a drink upon arrival and even a small snack. You pay for your safety deposit box, no refundable deposit at the end. Taken to our room by a member of staff who showed us how to work air conditioning and set up safety deposit box for us, went out onto the balcony and showed us where things where, he was really helpful. Michelle the TUI rep gave us an oversight of the hotel and location the next morning and told us if there’s no sunbeds ask a member of staff who will get us some more, really useful to know as sunbeds were all taken by 830 each morning. Most people get up at 7am to reserve sunbeds so get up nice and early! Especially if you want one next to the pool, they’re reserved by 720 each morning. Pools have no shallow area, 150m all the way round, if you’re small or have children you cannot stand in the pools. They do get busy due to it being so hot but are really clean and plenty of room for everybody. Be mindful people can bring glass and plates around pool area. Hotel is immaculate and staff are going round constantly cleaning, collecting rubbish and the reusable cups. Rooms are cleaned daily and again, immaculate, so much care is taken into the cleanliness of all of the hotel. I never saw anything dirty, no insects in restaurant and no dirty plates or cups. Food choice is standard all inclusive but so much of it you could eat constantly between 7-630 if you wanted to. Ice creams are free and delicious. Burak in the restaurant is fantastic, great service and so friendly! He always accommodated us and brought drinks if we needed them, he is a great asset to the restaurant. Each day you have the spa staff, hairdresser and photographer going round the pool trying to sell you stuff which is annoying as you tell them no but they keep trying and you can see they are on the look out for the new people and target those first, you have to be quite firm with them if you don't want their services. Entertainment staff ask you if you want to join in the day time games and no pressure however one of the male entertainment staff constantly asks you to play bingo which is really annoying as he doesn’t leave you alone. I soon learnt what time he started coming round and when I saw him went for a walk or into the pool. Entertainment is really good, the staff work so hard to provide day and evening entertainment, if you want a quiet chill around the pool though you won’t get as the music is loud all day, I didn’t mind this but in case people do. There is an adults only pool but didn’t need to use this. The beach not as described, it’s crowded and jammed packed with sunbeds you cannot move and the sea is cloudy from all the boats and water sports surrounding. The sand is sharp on your feet. It’s so disappointing and if you want a beach holiday you won’t get it here. Walking down beach front is nice and it’s about 30 minutes walk to main town centre, be prepared though to be asked to go into every bar when you walk past them, some of them also follow you trying to get you into their bars and, they will have more than one member of staff trying to get you in so if the first one doesn’t manage the next ones will try too. It is really frustrating and you say no to them but they’re persistent. It’s the same with the shops selling the genuine fakes, they do not leave you alone and are always hassling you. Some have signs saying no hassle but it’s not true. There’s loads of bars and shops near the hotel and go to supermarkets outside the hotel if you want extras it’s so much cheaper.

Overall we had a fantastic time and would go back to this hotel. It just needs to be advertised better about the beach which was the biggest disappointment of the holiday for us all.

I would 100% recommend this hotel.