Serenity Alma Heights

I felt the need to write a review as I genuinely don’t understand how they’re so high on TA and wanted to share my experience for balance. I'm referring to 'Alma' but understand it's right in the middle of a rebrand to Sun Ray I believe.

I want to be as factual as possible because there were a lot of negative points. For 6 adults and one 14 year old across three rooms, including 1 family/doubled room, the holiday cost just shy of 12 grand as a packaged holiday.

On arrival the lobby felt a little off (sparse, dated and bulbs missing in light fixtures), and looking down into the main atrium the Alma has a very airport/food-court feel to it. The check-in desk mentioned we had ‘deluxe’ family rooms (this will be relevant later), the check-in noticed one of our party was struggling mobility wise but there is no transport around the large resort so offered to upgrade our wrist bands for access to the ‘VIP’ restaurant which is next door to the furthest building we were allocated. If you do have reduced mobility I would say consider very carefully if this resort is for you. There are steep bridges over pools and the crazy river, as well as slopes, steps and steeper gradients to the grounds.

We were escorted to the building at the very back of the resort to a very derelict looking lift, which despite the staffs insistence couldn’t manage more than 4 of us for it to then break down. We had rooms on the 2nd and 4th floor so had to take the stairs. Getting into the room we were pretty horrified given how it was described at reception, wondering if ours in particular not being a ‘family’ room wasn’t ‘deluxe’. It was so so dated, shabby and unclean. The mattresses were hard, the bed base draping hanging off with a staple sticking out that cut my husband’s foot. There was a greasy hand print on the wardrobe door and grease marks on the voile curtain. Splatters on the dark red wood trim around the room and doors, with smears and stains/splatters on the mirror and TV. There were loose floor tiles that were shedding grout, mismatching bulbs which were deep yellow and white, and worse over, was the bathroom. No shaving/magnifier mirror (not the be-all to be fair), no hand towel, no shower tray to put products on and just filthy looking grout and sealant absolutely everywhere. Even the painted walls were stained.

We were moved to what was a massive improvement in regard to decor, condition and facilities, however, the bathroom still very much needed a lot of work with dirty/stained grout and sealant throughout. A single drawer managed to drop off the unit and was ignored by the housekeeping until we reported it.

This level of care and the overall standard extended to the majority of the resort. Almost everything was tired, shabby, sun-bleached or lacking upkeep. There’s so much potential, but, it was just really sad. I appreciate with the climate it takes a lot of maintenance but everything was so sun-bleached including the fairground and buildings it looked like it could be used as a film set for an abandoned town. For the entirety of our stay there was crockery and cutlery abandoned (and I mean the exact same plate, bowl and cutlery set in the exact same spot), and deflated abandoned pool floats around the halls and window sills on the stair way. The public toilets next to the Star Dust snack bar felt pretty mucky, always puddles of liquid in the cubicles, and at one point, a member of staff washing themselves at the basin throwing water absolutely everywhere to not clean up after themselves.

We had blackouts most nights, some nights several times over albeit mostly short lived. The only time this felt a particular issue was when I fell particularly ill so during the night there was no lights, aircon or phone. On this note, of the 7 of us 6 had been ill with gastric issues almost consistently. From what, we’re not sure. It made me very paranoid despite taking every precaution possible. Having been to Egypt 5 times, I’ve never experienced the extent of being so unwell in a resort.

The Alma is very much geared towards younger families. There are numerous fairground rides, child friendly pools and facilities for younger kids. We had a mix of ages but if you’re an adult travelling with family members and children, it’s loud and busy. There’s no adults area or escape bar maybe the beach. This was brought into focus more than ever in the Aurora buffet restaurant at night. It was, to be frank, horrific. It was overwhelmingly overcrowded, the staff were literally running around to keep up with turning round tables. They ran out of glasses at one point to self-serve soft drinks so people mobbed the staff just to grab takeaway cups. I managed to get one bottle of water and had to just walk away. Despite Aurora being quite massive it felt like it actually wasn’t large enough to accommodate everyone during peak time. We later witnessed what may be similar over at Alpha from the Moroccan A’La Carte. Buffet users were trying to sit in the Moroccan due to lack of seating in that buffet.

There is an online booking portal for a’la carte. It’s horrible if you are a group of more than 2 people or more than one room. You don’t know if you’ll all be able to book when you want it and likely have to defer to try book with guest services. You have to select what you want to eat for each person in advance, which may be several days ahead, and then there would be errors online not allowing you to add enough food. The restaurant service itself didn’t feel particularly special or elevated. Wait staff struggled with understanding an order for ‘Diet Coke’ let alone the request for cocktails so we just gave up and had soft drinks. What’s odd is, none of the a’la carte’s were half full and I suspect a lack of staffing was the issue pretty much everywhere. You can pay out of pocket for them if you use up your allowance, so as a money-maker, it’s odd they aren’t easier to book and busier.

The ‘VIP’ restaurant is basically just a smaller and quieter buffet restaurant for breakfast and dinner with a smaller choice. The bar is still very basic and when asking for an iced coffee such a strange fuss was made about it that they got the rest of the order wrong. It was very inconsistent across restaurants and the service by the wait staff pretty lacking given the pretence of VIP. I believe this access can be paid for as an extra and maybe for the hellscape that can be Aurora buffet in the evening it could be worth it.

Just a note on the beach, it’s really oddly landscaped with the sunbeds on an incline that I found really uncomfortable to lounge on. There was a mix of parasols, wooden loungers and wind breakers. Again, super tatty and sad looking.

Alpha’s reception when visiting for the restaurants was significantly more impressive. It looked very luxe, inviting and like a holiday resort versus the conference centre feel at the Alma.

There were some truly lovely staff including Fatima on guest services who was very professional and helpful with Jonny in the animation team being so friendly and funny despite us being highly lazy! On the other side of this, the upsell around the pool and beach is relentless. The same person will approach throughout the day despite declining but it gets really grating. I believe there is the spa, the foot spa, tattooing, taxi services(?!), smoothies & coffees, actives like dune buggies and I still don’t think that covers all of them.

Of the 3 rooms (4 including the split family room), 2 were allowed late checkout at varying times. Very reasonable fee of £5 per hour. 5 minutes before our taxi arrived we were questioned about the paper feedback forms we had to complete on check out. There was a slight insinuation that we should have fed back sooner, however, when reporting the initial room complaints at the start of the stay there was zero apology or acknowledgement other than seemingly being unsurprised we were unhappy with the first room. Offers of making it ‘right’ were implied, but, we were literally leaving to go home and absolutely wouldn’t come again.

Wanted to share the amazing experience we had SRNTY. We stayed for a week and what made the holiday was how the Animation staff made our children feel safe and included. They staff were kind and friendly, but Tilly was especially kind to our little girl who was wary about joining in. Tilly made our daughter feel special and we therfore enjoyed our holiday even more x