Sensatori Hotel, Crete.
The flight from terminal 2 Manchester was a standard, cramped affair with the usual tasteless flight meal and rushing to get off the plane before it has even stopped moving.
Upon arrival at Crete, your luggage comes through fairly quickly. It is smallish airport with ... Read review
Advantages: Great for Families Disadvantages: Nothing to do at night.
Sensatori Hotel, Crete. ================== The flight from terminal 2 Manchester was a standard, cramped affair with the usual tasteless flight meal and rushing to get off the plane before it has even stopped moving.
Upon arrival at Crete, your luggage comes through fairly quickly. It is smallish airport with 4 small carousels. You will need to exit the terminal between carousels 1 and 2 because right outside of there are ... .../> Your cases are loaded onto the coach and the next time you see them is in your room. You will have to fill in a small form listing your full name and passport number and this will be taken from you at reception check in. 20 minutes later and the coach drops you right outside main reception. You are greeted with a soft drink or alcoholic cocktail. Check in takes 5 minutes and then you are left to find your own room.
Sensatori Hotel, Crete. ================== The flight from terminal 2 Manchester was a standard, cramped affair with the usual tasteless flight meal and rushing to get off the plane before it has even stopped moving.
Upon arrival at Crete, your luggage comes through fairly quickly. It is smallish airport with 4 small carousels. You will need to exit the terminal between carousels 1 and 2 because right outside of there are the 2 Thomson huts waiting to check off your name. Your cases are loaded onto the coach and the next time you see them is in your room. You will have to fill in a small form listing your full name and passport number and this will be taken from you at reception check in. 20 minutes later and the coach drops you right outside main reception. You are greeted with a soft drink or alcoholic cocktail. Check in takes 5 minutes and then you are left to find your own room.
The cash points are hit and miss and you may find yourself taking a trip into a near by village but don’t worry the people are friendly and we always felt very safe.
Extras; ====== Only real extras, apart from room upgrades (which are booked of course at time of booking), is an all inclusive option. This costs 20 Euros per person per day. And entitles you to up to all of your drinks free EXCLUDING any spirits, brand beers and brand wines, so just the cheap local stuff really. So a cocktail would still cost you 7 Euros. You will save in the long run but my wife and I and especially the 'Kids' where not really bothered with this so didn't take it up. You can buy a bottle of lager for 1 euro and even a bottle of Absolute Vodka for 12 Euros from the shop opposite.
ROOM. ====== The room had the biggest bed I have ever seen in my life. It was vast, at least fully 2 metres wide and the same length. One night I lost my wife but it was ok I found her next morning. You also get a long 4 seater couch and small drinks table. You have a dressing table with built in fridge. The fridge is small and free to use. (There are 2 small shops right outside the main entrance in which you can buy a few snacks, beer, water, cigarettes, etc. The hotel does not mind you bringing in the items. There is shop in the hotel but it is 1 to 2 Euros dearer on everything you can buy just outside the main entrance). You have in your room, an iron, an ironing table, wine glasses, glass tumblers, kettle, There are 4 milks, 4 tea bags, 4 Nescafe coffee sachets and 4 sugars all replenished daily. Cupboard space is limited to 6 hangers each for you and your partner and a small pull out drawer each. The obligatory safe is also in the cupboard and is very easy to use, pick a 4 digit number type it in and press the lock button. Simply retype the number in to unlock your safe, easy.
The TV can be a bit awkward to figure out and for the entire week we stayed we never figured out how to turn the damn sound off in the bathroom. Having a shower whilst my wife had animal planet on was at times weird and at others annoying. Even my techno son could not figure out how to switch it off. Asked the Thomson rep if she could sort it but no one ever turned up to fix it Sadly the finish in the room is substandard, the plug sockets stuck out from the wall a good inch, dangerous if you have kiddies. The flat screen TV up in the wall looks great but the unsightly plaster directly below it lets the side down badly. The constant gurgling of water above your room from the apartments above is also a pain.
Bathroom ======== Upon first appearances the bathroom looks luxurious. Large floor to ceiling tiles all looking very smart. There is a separate shower with multifunction shower heads and the piesta resistance, The Jacuzzi whirlpool bath. There is an annoying phone right by your elbow when you are perched on the loo and I must have knocked it off its cradle a dozen times, very aggravating. The towels, shampoos, and bedding are as usual, changed daily and the room cleanliness is very good, or seems so on first appearances.
Lets return to the whirlpool bath, we only tried it the once. My wife switched it on and got in. unfortunately the long brown hair floating in it was not hers. Hers is short and still growing from last year’s chemo. The bristles from someone shaving their legs in there where also not hers and the smell of bad eggs was awful My wife jumped in the shower instead. Yes she had to have a shower after the whirlpool bath not a recommendation of the 'top show' cleaning.
Views are very varied obviously depending upon your room choice but the veranda is clean, tidy and small with a drying rail for your towels and smalls. The air-con was thankfully quiet and super at getting the temps down in the room. For room to room telephoning just press 1 and then your friends room number and it’s free. Oh one final thing, all of the lighting, air-con etc is controlled from a small multifunction panel on the bedside cabinet which could be a problem if your not into your gadgets.
Room Summary; ============= Big, airy and fairly clean Poor finish, smelly bathroom and all ready beginning to show some wear and tear, which considering the hotel has only been open 2 years, is not good.
BREAKFAST. =========== The main restaurant in the morning is chaos.
We went instead to the Red Saffron which between 7-10 is adult only. A lot more peaceful and quiet. Getting tables at either of these restaurants is very easy as they are both quite large and have equal space outside.
Food; ==== This is where the restaurant falls down massively. This is where it really should be a 4 star and not called a 5 star. The food is rubbish. Bland, luke warm and repetitive. Many people, and I ended up copying them, would get a baguette cut it in halve a make sandwich. The menu for breakfast, lunch and dinner is again disappointing and never hot enough. Even the pastries tasted bland. They put out microwaves for those people who want their food a bit hotter, always a sign of a bad restaurant when they can’t serve hot, nourishing and tasty food.
Waiter service; =========== Tricky one this, Hit and miss would be a fair and honest opinion. It ranged from terrible when the restaurants where full, to keen and eager when they where quieter. Having said that when the service was awful you could see some waiters running around trying their best whilst others just swanned around doing absolutely nothing. Some of the staffs English is not too good so make sue you are sure they have the right order as it takes ages to arrive and then it might be wrong as happened to us. If you are upstairs in the main reception your order will be taken quickly, well you are paying but if you are in any of the restaurants you will not get a refill and if you do it will be ages coming.
You are entitled to all of your drinks free only during meal time. However the waiters are slow to give you refills, clearly they are under instructions not to give too much away. Booking for the other restaurants is an easy thing to do, however whether there will be any vacancies on the day and at the time you want is another hit and miss affair. There are 4 small consoles dotted around the 3 floors of the main reception building. You simply swipe your room key across the pad and then follow the easy instructions. You can book up to 4 days in advance and when finished you are dispensed a small ticket with your booking details printed on. Good luck getting the restaurant of your choice when and at the time you want it.
Other restaurants ============= Red Saffron Taverna; FREE - MUST PRE BOOK. Here you will be seated outside and once your drink order is taken you are free to help yourself to a decent buffet. This was our favourite places to eat and had a great outside grill that served some good food.
Five Flavour Thai; FREE - MUST PRE BOOK. Not entirely free, you can pay for a better bottle of wine or a few extras on your meal. The food was more like Chinese than Thai though but very tasty none the less.
Tex Mex; FREE - MUST PRE BOOK. Delicious and very filling. The starter I had was chili con with cheese in a wrap with side salad and boiled rice, I was full after that. The main was a steak with hot sauce, you could also get ribs, chicken or beef wraps etc. Pudding was ice cram or crème caramel. Add in the free rose wine and you will be stuffed.
Aroma Stone Grill; Expensive - MUST PRE BOOK. Basically you pay to cook your own food? You pick a steak of Your choice and YOU cook it at your own table to your liking and you even season it to your taste. Be prepared to spend at least 100 Euros for four people not including drinks
Al Dente; Very Expensive - MUST PRE BOOK. Very expensive and a bottle of house rose will set you back 22 Euros, a meal for four will set you back a minimum of 150 Euros. Pick your own lobster from the tank and they kill it and it is on your plate within minutes. Some other guests we spoke to said the food was very good but again very expensive.
THE POOL/ POOLS. ================= Spread through out the complex and all bar 1 are for kiddies. Being no deeper than 0.75 metres. The splash pool is hidden away at the back of the hotel and has an amazing gadget of a huge , HUGE, bucket which slowly fills with water and then tips at least a hundred gallons of water all over pipework and frames and tunnels and slides situated directly below it, the kids clearly loved it. There are a couple of slides here and bits of other pipework constantly spewing water all over the place. All of the other pools are as stated shallow and have easy access and egress. The only deep pool is the adults only pool situated on the lowest level, (I Will come back to the level later), and this also has a large Jacuzzi but with the poorest bubbles I have ever seen, virtually non existent. You will need to get up before you go to bed to get a sunbed here though! All of the pools and unheated and taste salty probably pumped in and through some treatment plant on site. And they are all very cold, even the Cretan sun fails to warm them up. Generally apart from the adult level sunbeds are plentiful and are easy to get. One problem though, if like me you like to nip in and out of the sun then this can be a problem. The parasols are bolted to the ground and so are immovable. When you put yours up the sunbed next to you goes into shade. And because they are all so packed in close together you can’t move around as you might like. For me this was a particular pain as I really do like to chill out in the shade and just nip out for a quick burn.
The entire complex is spread over several levels and has some of the steepest stairways I have ever seen. They even throw the odd step in on a flat bit of ground just to keep you on your toes. The stairways only have handrails on one side which will add to the fun / danger if you are not to nimble on your toes. We saw several older people struggling up and down these stairs.
The floors everywhere become very 'Sippy when wet’ and boy do they like to mop them. From dusk till dawn they constantly mop. Depending where your room is you will here the mop buckets being dragged along the tiled floors from 6am.
SWIM UP ROOMS. =============== Not many but if you can afford it go for them. Some start in the Shade but after 1pm come into full sun and the others visa versa. They would be worth the extra cash because they also come with their own sunbeds. BUT beware some rooms have a pool not a swim up room but just a square block of water and some of these you could end up sharing with 1 or 2 other families and some also face the road. Failing that go for a top floor room with your own pool, great views, own sun beds and lots of privacy. Only down side of the swim up rooms are if you have small pre school kiddies, get those life jackets on them just to be safe.
Mosquito's ========= You are going to get bitten. They get in your room when the maid has the door open for the rooms daily clean. Other than your room we did not see them anywhere else and where not bothered by them.
TRIPS. ===== The trips are far too expensive and not worth bothering with. A 4x4 jeep safari is 75 Euros each and all you do is travel up and down back water dirt tracks. There is a sunset horse ride but again this is very expensive.
THE THOMSOM REPS; ================= Not too bad but it usually takes 2 days minimum for them to correct any problems you have. The information supplied by them on the hotel and trips and checkout was lacking, 'Could do better'.
THE BEACH. =========== This is a very clean sandy / shingly beach with a wicked current I never seen anything but the red flag flying the entire week e where there and with good reason. The tide was clearly strong and hidden beneath the water where some large flat rock shelves which could give you a nasty bruise or worse if you slipped whilst exiting the sea, if you ever got in there in the first place.
The sun beds where hard curved black plastic with no mattresses and cost you 2 Euros per bed and 2 Euros for the parasol. Your towel would be your only comfort. The parasol was a weather beaten umbrella made from what might have once been palm leaves but would really give you no shade at all. Activities to be hired where canoeing and Jet Ski’s but neither of these here ever seen in action.
Summary; ========= A nice clean stretch of beach but not worth bothering with, stick to the Hotels pools and lounges.
ENTERTAINMENT. ============== Kiddie’s show room is at 7.45pm nightly. It is loud and brash and therefore of course kids love it. There is also a crèche facility and some parents where unsuccessfully trying to drop in their under 3 year olds but where being told only 3 and over are applicable.
SHOPS OPPOSITE. ================ Sell pretty much everything and the staff there are very friendly. The 'Cafe Bar' is open nightly and has sky TV for those wanting too watch matches. The drinks are cheaper than the hotel and he will just keep on serving until the last person leave. More for the middle aged person and above. There was nowhere really for my two who are 18 and 21.THE HOTEL IN GENERAL. ====================== This is a 4 star hotel pretending to be a 5 star. It clearly had to tick a number of boxes to get its 5 star rating such as the sports facilities but these where put at the back of the resort as an after thought and information on there use and availability is hard to find. They include a five aside pitch, archery range, mini golf, basketball court, tennis court but apart from the five aside nothing was ever used?
There is a spa but again we did not see anyone using it; however the gym always had someone in it usually on the treadmill.
The mix of families and couples does not work. Far better to put couples in their own block and the families centered around the kiddy pools. There is no real evening entertainment and the 'Boardwalk' stage only seat around 100 and is very insufficient for the needs of the complex. If my kids where young again under say 14 then this hotel would be a great 4 star. But this hotel is not for adults and my advice is if you have a young family you will love it, just get the right room. If you are a couple don't bother you will be very disappointed
A 4 Star hotel not worthy of Thomson's claimed 5 stars
DEPARTURE. =========== Your case are picked up from your room and approximately an hour later you go to reception where there are 2 white lined tables with 2 check in people there you get your cases from reception check them in at theses tables, receive you seat numbers (all ready printed out) and take you case down to a waiting truck. It costs a whapping 65 Euros to hold your room if you have a late flight, we instead book a convenience room for free and you have a half hour slot where you can get showered before the coach arrives. Later you return to reception board your coach. At the airport, which is madness the Thomson rep just bypasses the queues outside and takes you in and you pass straight through to departure and bon voyage.
CONCLUSIONS; ============= • If you’re a couple go elsewhere. • If you are a young family you will love it. • The kids will love it. • Get a swim up room. • Take a few extra Euros for the shops.
If this review has come across, at times, a bit negative then that is down to my bad grammar and writing ability. Truthfully, we enjoyed the hotel but it really was for families and after all I have to be honest in a review?
