Hotels Jupiter and Saturno, Alcudia

...Saturno. But there were 3 hotels here, a smaller one in the middle called Marte if I remember correctly. You could see through the glass windows the entry to the dining hall and outside to the tables and entertainment stage.

STAFF
The friendly staff could speak a numerous amount of languages to cater for all the people that visit their complex. They gave us all colour coded wristbands - either for kids/adults which had to be ...
...whole complex has three large hotels on it, Jupiter, Saturno and Marte/Mars I can’t remember the name. Each with their own lounge and dining area, but you can use the facilities of the others if you wish, it doesn’t matter which hotel you are assigned to, they don’t mind. The entertainment is done by reps (Club Mac entertainments), which are family focused, keeping you entertained each night and throughout the day. I used two of the hotels for food, ... more

HOTEL JUPITER - ALCUDIA

-----------------------------------------------MY EXPERIENCE------------------------------------------------------------

Cor, this would have been years back but it was the greatest memory of a holiday that I’ve had. I am a big fan of visiting Spanish islands, especially Majorca in particular, the atmosphere is great, everyone is chilled, laid-back and friendly. What more could you want than sun, sea, sand and sangria. Hopefully the experience I write about will encourage you to go to this wonderful place. Being honest I visited there at least 5 years ago, and it definitely appears so much better when you are there, than in the magazine. There are more positive things to say than negative, so please carry on reading.

Just browsing through brochures of holidays this one immediately caught our eye, (look down for the picture of the resort/hotels). The water of the pool was clear blue, a hut sat in the middle of it, the buildings looked modern and clean white. The sky was pure blue and the sun was shining. But along with that, there was the picture of the interior which looked highly expensive, with marble floors. The outdoors to the side of the hotel was the lakes, surrounded by different bars which did fruit/hot food/cold food/snacks/ice cream. One thing I possibly can’t forget about this holiday, and neither can my grandparents, is infact the quality of the food, for all inclusive it was absolutely amazing. I’d never been to Alcudia before, but I’d heard great opinions on it, usually I’d stick to places like Cala D’or where most of my family would go to.

I’ve included lots of pictures so you can see how beautiful this place is, and why people love it so much.

PRICE
I knew it cost at least 800-900 for us each but that is because we went at peak time for two weeks. I believe if you go earlier than the summer period you will get cooler weather, and around 500-600, we went for two weeks, probably for one week it would be 300-400. I know they do kids at a great price, that always helps for families.

-------------------------------------------------------UPON ARRIVAL/ HOTEL------------------------------------------------------

VIEWS
Landing in Majorca is one of the fun things, the sun is shining everything looks vibrant, and you know where you are as you can see the windmills and the white houses in the distance. After a short two hour flight to Majorca, we landed at Palma airport and were promptly scooted off to our resort, after a few stops (which usually is tonnes for some coaches) we arrived there. Looking to the other side of the hotel around the corner there were shops, telephone boxes and even a supermarket further up the road (wouldn’t be needing this for ALL INCLUSIVE). The only off putting thing (which they might have sorted now) was the puddles and dusty road to the side, which was like a neglected piece of land or something. Turn to look at the hotel and everyone had their towels drying over their balconies, and I couldn’t help but notice how tall the hotel was, with floors it could surely accommodate a lot of families. We walked along the pathway, where trellis plants were over our heads, green leaves and vibrant pink - visually beautiful and made the place look welcoming and inviting. Upon entering there were already a few people waiting to be checked in, I looked around and there was a bar to the right, people just walking up and getting served, no queues - there were many staff washing the tables and the floors, it looked clean and inviting. I was a little nervous as we didn’t know if we were getting placed in Jupiter or Saturno. But there were 3 hotels here, a smaller one in the middle called Marte if I remember correctly. You could see through the glass windows the entry to the dining hall and outside to the tables and entertainment stage.

STAFF
The friendly staff could speak a numerous amount of languages to cater for all the people that visit their complex. They gave us all colour coded wristbands - either for kids/adults which had to be worn all times to prove you were in that hotel and were entitled to free food/drink. We were given a key card for our apartment that activates the electrics in our room, and lights as well as being the key for entry to the door. There were probably about 4 lifts if I remember correctly, we were going to be staying in the hotel Jupiter. The lifts were quite spacious and it didn’t take long to get to floor 8, it was pretty daunting being up that high, near the top floor but I thought it would be great for views, unfortunately we were right at the end of the corridor, but looking out we had the view of 2 huge mountains, and to the left the shops, and to the right around the corner the 2 lakes that were in the complex which had people kayaking in them. The complex was huge, there were water fountains, shaded seating area’s, flowers, tonnes of colourful things. There were phone booth’s downstairs (probably now they have internet access) locally as well they have phone booths, supermarkets for essential things you need.

COMPLEX INFORMATION
Infact the whole complex has three large hotels on it, Jupiter, Saturno and Marte/Mars I can’t remember the name. Each with their own lounge and dining area, but you can use the facilities of the others if you wish, it doesn’t matter which hotel you are assigned to, they don’t mind. The entertainment is done by reps (Club Mac entertainments), which are family focused, keeping you entertained each night and throughout the day. I used two of the hotels for food, and found the quality was just as good anywhere.

You’ll want to know, that its 1.5km from the beautiful sandy beach, which is surrounded by many hills, but is not too far, to walk to. Local shops near by, with trampolines, arcades, pool tables, everything you could possibly imagine. There are markets on, including Alcudia Town - which is about 20 mins walk from a hotel but I know there were local bus services, and there was the Pollensa town market on a Sunday. I recall something called INCA but I have no information on this, but there is lots to see and to do.

Another thing is if you want to book a room for a late-checkout they have no problem with that, they even have their own gift shop with bags and pens. Another thing I got a free welcome pack - with a lovely keepsake bag/rucksack, for absolutely free.

If you’d like to have a virtual tour of the hotel, whether it be pool, reception or lakes look on the MAC website: http://www.mac-hotels.com/hotel.php, where you can have a guided tour, look at features, find out the phone numbers and other hotels in the area.. I must say even though their hotels are expensive, they are top notch, I visited one of their Esmeralda ones, all their hotels are in nicely located areas.

CAPACITY
-Hotel Jupiter has 434 rooms ( 44 Family Suites and 390 standard )
-Hotel Saturno has 326 ( 9 Family-Rooms and 317 standard).
-Hotel Marte has 282 Rooms, which 4 of them are disabled rooms (the smaller hotel)

-A family suite consists of a room with 2 bedrooms, usually with bunk beds and sofa beds.

TYPE OF ROOM
-Standard Rooms (is what I stayed in)
-2 queen size beds (in my case we had three)
-Fully fitted bathroom with bath
-TV (I can‘t remember having to pay for it)
-Telephone, Air Conditioning Hot & Cold
-Balcony
-Safety Deposit Box, as mentioned before.

-Family Suite
-Room with two bedrooms.
-Same as a standard room, but beds and bunk beds.
-Play Station available with deposit in reception (according to their website)
-Keep the kids entertained?

----------------------------------------------------------FACILITIES-------------------------------------------------------------

Thought I’d give a list of the facilities to just summarise them.

Hotel Facilities

- Air Conditioned throughout - definitely essential, keeps you from being sticky/grumpy.
- Lifts - more than one, which means you don’t have to wait
- Reception Area - full of friendly staff that speak different languages
- Safe - to secure your items in your room
- Currency Exchange - so you don’t have to travel to town to change it
- Luggage Room - when you are waiting to leave
- Public Internet - I checked this, but it wasn’t there when I went
- Bar - tonnes of them
- Restaurant - absolutely fantastic selection
- Laundry Service - for you lazy people…
- Medical Service - which was always helpful especially for injuries I had.
- Swimming Pool - 7 of them in the complex. (new 80 metres one I didn’t see when I was there).
- Children's Pool - keeps the kids out of the bigger pools.
- Sun Terraces - nice and shady.
- Loungers - comfortable/free
- Parasols - free
- Playground - great for kids
- Wellness Zone - didn’t know what this was..
- Children's Club - good for entertainment
- Car Parking - not that you’d take your car abroad?

Room Facilities

- Air Conditioning - again essential.
- Central Heating - for those winter months!
- Bathroom - spacious.
- Shower & bath - choice or either.
- Telephone - incur a bill at the reception, but make calls from your room.
- Satellite Television - a good range of channels, music, cartoons, world news.
- Safety Deposit Box - recommend this.
- Disabled Rooms - this hotel caters for everyone.
- Terrace/Balcony - amazing views.

-------------------------------------------------------------ROOM----------------------------------------------------------------------

DESCRIPTION
It was spacious for the 3 of us, the bathroom was of average size, and had a hairdryer point, as well as lots of plugs around the room and lighting. There was a mirror and a TV, 2 spacious indoor wardrobes and drawers for clothes. The room was colourful, and there were bedside tables as well. There were 3 beds in the room, and the mattresses were comfortable, the sheets looked fairly new as well as the decorating. On the balcony there was a table and chairs as well as a washing line. The height of us being on floor 8 was daunting at first, but you get used to it - NEVER lean against a balcony pole - you never know where you might end up - it’s a long way down. The room was spotless, clean, not a dust mark, the mirror had no fingerprints on the toilet seat was marked with a sterile plastic you peeled off, and the bath was as good as new. Now when you pay for quality you certainly get it.

There were safety deposit boxes if you worry about your money getting stolen, I recommend one as it wasn’t too expensive, and a crucial item to make sure your passports and money stays safe. Air conditioning, woah this was essential, the heat was unbearable at some points, reaching extremely high temperatures, if you needed to cool off and sleep peacefully then air con is in all of the hotel even the reception area.

--------------------------------------------------------FOOD and DRINK---------------------------------------------------------------
As long as you wear your wristband you can have as much food and drink as you want. I went up and ordered probably 10 drinks at once and they didn’t care, even alcoholic drinks were free - only up till about 1 in the morning where they charged for alcoholic drinks - not that I’d be drinking them. Every breakfast, lunch and dinner, there was access to fresh fruits, more than 5 types of meat, there was a vegetarian section, fish section, meat section, they had chips, pizza, salad - you name it they had it, whatever took your fancy you could have it. There was a great selection for kids as well, they had their own type of bar, and also there was dessert and to top it off there was a huge selection of ice-cream. You could go up as much as you wanted as well. The drinks were in machines for you to vend yourself. I can’t even describe how nice the food was, compared to other places I’d been, usually for all inclusive they buy all the cheap stuff, but for the price of going here for two weeks, it must have cost at least 3-4 grand

RULES
There was only one rule to go in the restaurant, no bikini tops or bottoms, no swimwear, not allowed to be wet, must be wearing shoes, so you have to get ready and wear clothes to go in there, only to respect others. Usually if you were early the staff would queue up, probably 20 of them and welcome you in, they’d be extremely greeting, smiling and polite.

BARS
There was a massive selection of drinks at the bars, pots of ice cream to take away, milkshakes, fruit drinks, slushies, fizzy - you name it again, they had it? They’d show off their bar skills of spinning to make cocktails on their menu. They even had kids cocktails. This was at the main bar near the entertainment stage.

Other bars around the lake were the:

-Fruit bar - Fresh fruit, in containers with a spoon, it had everything from watermelon, melon, pineapple, kiwi, strawberry - and the best thing you could take as much as you wanted! This was a great part of the holiday, around this area was grass area with tables, or even sun loungers where you could chill out in the shade.

-Chip bar - I didn’t use this much, but they did fresh chips and rolls, cold food in the refrigerator, again help yourself, drinks available there too. Tonnes of options again.

-Ice cream bar - Further towards the kids playing area, ice cream - all you can eat, tonnes of flavours. Definitely great for kids, keeps them quiet and happy.

-Poolside bar - I remember there being drinks and sandwiches, there were a few pool tables outside.

I can’t remember most of the bars, but I know there were tonnes of things for you to have free all throughout the day.

Local bars - did karaoke, served drinks but you had to pay at these, so why not stay in the complex unless you are going out for the night?

---------------------------------------------------------POOLS/LAKES-----------------------------------------------------------------

I used 2 pools and the lake as well, the lake had kayaks on and water pedal bikes. I think there was a low cost to hire these out for a bit, safety life jackets had to be worn however. The pools were clean, but mostly crowded, the one with the hut in the middle was extremely clean, changed in depths and you could just chill around in, lots of kiddies were in the child’s section. The other pool in the shape of a rectangle, was near the poolside bar, and had tonnes of sun beds around it, as well as tennis courts (at least 3), and was next to 2 bars, as well as the entertainment section. This pool was quite crowded at times, but it was okay to have a dip. I think after many people complaining about the inflatable dingy or rubber rings in the pool, the staff told people off for using them in there, as people couldn’t swim.

--------------------------------------HOTEL HAPPENINGS/ ENTERTAINMENT-----------------------------------------------

Every night there was local entertainment in the stage area next to the hotel, there were tonnes of tables, and on certain nights they had artists painting pictures, drawing cartoon versions of people for a reasonable price, as well as hair braiding, fake tattoo’s, henna tattoo’s, as well as grab machines for kids to play on (not for free, small price), there was a stall that sold sweets, a stall that sold nuts, there were watches to buy, game boy games to buy, jewellery, batteries and everything you could possibly need for a holiday.

Some nights there were karaoke, there was always good kids entertainment, where you could win prizes, I believe there were kids clubs during the day. The entertainment ranged from everything, there were so many activities to do, some of the things you could try were especially fun. The club mac reps, want to entertain you all through your stay, they have many activities throughout the day if you don’t want to just sunbathe all of the time like most parents, activities were things like archery, water polo, football, darts, rifle shooting, scuba diving - as well as you taking part they‘ll have a laugh with you and they were extremely friendly. You can win certificates, especially for the younger ones. There is a kids club for the younger ones, where you can trust them, so you can relax and chill out for a bit on your own. There was a play area as I mentioned towards the end of the lake, which had climbing frames in it.

In the evenings there was always a live show, each night for two weeks, so you don’t end up watching the same thing 10 times. There was tributes to bands and singers like Robbie Williams or Elvis, which is always good for the parents as well. There were about two stages, so you could go to the other one if you fancied watching something else instead.

-------------------------------------------------------EXPERIENCES/TRIPS-----------------------------------------------------------

Scuba diving is something I’d always wanted to pursue, being an avid swimmer. I took a short course that was in a hut before you walked to the other pool, which was filled full of snorkel masks, and scuba kits, you could take a full course, to learn and experience their seas. But I took one on the hotel ground where I got geared up into a kit with a led belt, and was hooked up with a mask and oxygen tank and went for a dive in the pool, getting used to the gear, learning to breathe, diving down and not floating up whilst using a led weight belt. I got hit when someone jumped in and wasn’t looking, as kids were impatient and were to lazy to read the sign that there was scuba classes going on. I didn’t pay much for it but I definitely learnt a thing or two, and I’d love to do it properly in the sea.

While I was there I went to the Caves Del Drac - which is an underground cave with thousands of stalagmites and stalactites, they were grown over thousands of years, it was all lit up in side, really pretty and beautiful. At the bottom where everyone sits, there is a beautiful show that goes on - now I won’t spoil it for you but this underground water bay is lit up, and something happens - so you have to go see for yourself. My grandparents had to take me here as they had been here years ago and they thought it was amazing. I must say there was so much visual things to take in, it was interesting and a great experience to talk about.

I went to the Aqua mar - I think it was called, one of the biggest water parks in Europe. But unfortunately we got there, hired a dingy, and about 20 minutes later after sun creaming up - a storm came in, man did it pelt it down, we only got to go on one ride. It was amazing there was so much to see and do, little huts, and sun beds, child’s pools, slides, dingy rides - you name it. Sadly the place started to flood, a tropical thunderstorm was coming in and we had to evacuate the water park, got on the coach to go back absolutely cold and drenched - Probably the wettest time they ever had in Spain, people were going down the main street in town in plastic trench coats and in inflatable boats. It was not too expensive to go here, but I’d like to go there again. Just a bad experience we had, unluckily we couldn’t get our money back. Shame about that really. When we got back to the apartment it was great to watch the tropical thunderstorm at night, which scared me a little, as it was so loud and echoed through the whole building, the lightning was purple and it just lit up the whole sky.

I also visited Manacor, for shops and this dinosaur park with models in it - pretty good for kids, but I was more interested in shopping and buying gifts. I also went to a pearl factory in Mallorca, where I saw how pearls were made, I also bought a bracelet from the factory.

I went out locally to rent-a-car place, near the local spar and phone boxes, which did rent a go-kart for the day, I think it was probably 5 euros for the day. I saw other people on them, so I was interested in trying one. People drove them into the hotel, they were pedal ones. I must say that Alcudia is a safe place, you can trust your kids to wander a little. I wandered only being a young teenager, but it was so fun to have a go kart, drive around the lakes in the complex, as well as around the local shops in Alcudia, and the paths into the hotel weren’t too narrow to handle. There were also family pedal carts to hire, fairly cheap which you’d see people going on - but many forgot to use the other side of the road, which was quite hilarious.

-------------------------------------------------------------HISTORY---------------------------------------------------------------------

It’s great to learn things when you visit a country, just take an interest, learn local phrases or even historic places. As well as the beautiful beaches, I found out that Alcudia meant mound - as its located on a hill between bays, it’s probably the best holiday I ever had and ever will have. Upon further research, much is uncovered about it’s history of being the ruins of a Roman city called Pollentia. There is a unique library. There is also huge amounts of sports to play, or practice of any sport.

-------------------------------------------------------------OVERALL---------------------------------------------------------------------

You’ll totally love this place you wont want to leave, I know its a lot of money to put into buying a holiday and you still need spending money, but a hole in your pocket for a while will leave you with a smile on your face, an all over gorgeous tan, which leaves you glowing, and when people say have you been on holiday, you can tell them all about your fantastic experience.

Over 3700 words, sorry if I bored you to death, but if you wanted to take a break in Alcudia, hopefully this information was helpful, even for couples or families. 

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