Atlantica Aqua Blue Hotel

Before our stay in Atlantica's Aqua Blue hotel in Cyprus, I wrote them with a few small questions regarding our upcoming stay. They didn't respond. Over time, I tried contacting them via the form on their Web-site, E-mail, Facebook and Trip advisor but was ignored on all fronts, so that started our visit with a few concerns.

The resort can be a bit overwhelming at first, as no explanations or welcoming guides are given upon check-in, so you have to learn what to expect as well as the rules (such as where to collect towels from, that you need to stand first in a line to get a order paper and only then stand in the actual food line in the snacks bar to get the food) and opening hours of the pools, restaurants, activities, etc. as you go. This could have been improved upon greatly without much effort.

Our only request when booking our reservation was a quiet room. We were placed in a room right opposite the elevator, so we would hear the elevator as well as people using it and walking down the hall all throughout the day through the closed door. Also, each night had a different activity in the evening - for some reason, those activities all took place in the main building, so that the music there would be felt all throughout the building. The worst case was on our first night - tired from an early flight and a day of travel, we wished only for a quiet night and sleep. Instead, loud bass noise from music playing on the rooftop bar shook our beds at night. When I went to ask for them to possibly lower the bass they said they will try, but the music kept on depraving us of sleep until well after midnight. When I asked them about it, they said they have a special celebration that day and can't do anything to help. They also asked for my room number, so I thought that maybe they are at least planning some sort of compensation, but none was offered.

The room was basic, fairly clean, but large enough. We had a balcony, which had glass partitions separating it from the neighbors, so no real privacy as anyone could see into other's balconies. There were 2 TV sets and one remote, which seemed to randomly affect each TV (would always turn on/off the TV we didn't want to affect) with a few basic channels and basically not much to see. No Netflix, Disney+ or any streaming content.

Our room had a facility missing, which we noticed right away and mentioned to the reception. They said it would be fixed and added to our room, but it never did. On our fourth reminder of this missing facility, the reception person stated he didn't believe us and told us to wait for a staff member to come and check our room. After about 20 minutes, a staff member arrived, saw the facility was indeed missing and reported it back to the reception, which again promised us it would be given to us and again - it never was. It was around this that we lost faith in the service and helpfulness of the reception. Another issue brought up to them (the Safe in the room wasn't working) was also left unresolved, so eventually we just gave up on any assistance from them.

The pool, which was the main attraction for us, had 3 levels as well as a small waterpark with some slides. The waterpark's pool water was always extremely cold for some reason, which turned us away from it. The other pools had warmer water. For some reason all pool levels had the same water height of 140 cm. We would have preferred at least one pool level with a shorter height for smaller children. The pools shut down daily at 18. There were about 2 or 3 lifeguards during the pool active hours, but didn't seem there were many limits or restrictions, as people were allowed to jump in the water, bring in large floats, balls, water guns, etc. even when disturbing others in that.

One thing that I found definitely needs improvement is the floor area around the pools which was very slippery. I've seen people and children slipping on the floors around the pool often. Some, no doubt, got hurt, others slipped right into the pool water. Instead of trying to make it less slippery, like cover it with a non-slip plastic, the staff just placed 'beware' cones around. Another thing that was odd is that all the pools had no shade and there was no visible clock around to allow telling the time while in the water. There were also no markings regarding smoking areas, so guests basically smoke wherever they felt like it.

The kids club, which we were hopeful for, was very disappointing - small and unattractive. it didn't offer much entertainment for older children and the activities which were offered were unexciting and as a result, usually empty.

The main restaurant, which offered buffet meals, had a large variety of offerings, but we felt it was definitely a matter of quantity over quality, as nothing really tasted too well. Despite eating there daily, we did not feel sickness or had any stomach issues, so that is a definite pro.

During lunch and dinner, you had to get a waiter take your drinks order. This usually took a long time, since it was hard to get the attention of one and thus limited the availability of drinks we had with our meals. There were "themed" dinners daily, but we didn't find much of a correlation between the supposed theme of the evening and the offered dishes. Each stay over 5 days entitled you to one dinner in another of their hotel restaurants, if you find a free spot to reserve a room for in advance. As such, we had dinner there once, but found the experience lacking and less appealing than the main restaurant which had better variety.

Overall, we did enjoy our stay, but felt like the experience could have been greatly improved had they offered a bit more service and attention to their guests. As such, I'd give our stay 3 stars for an Ok stay, but with another star off for ignoring all of our contact attempts before arriving, it comes down to 2 stars.

The location wasn’t as great as I’d have hoped, there wasn’t a lot of an atmosphere at night, there wasn’t a show area or anything.

Our room however was fantastic, a great size for 5 of us and a fabulous balcony big enough for 6 sun loungers.

The holiday was 7k so not cheap. The drinks weren’t fantastic and bottle drinks or premium were chargeable.

The rooms and hotel were kept immaculate.

There was no issue with noise, they do play music around the pool but we enjoyed that.

There is minimal entertainment for children through out the day however a lady named Deborah has just been brought to the hotel to inject some energy. Although I had only met her a few days prior to us leaving she was engaging, asked for suggestions on improvements and went out of her way to chat every day.

Lastly we had the pleasure of meeting a lovely manager named Anna, she was extremely friendly and helpful. My daughter fell over and she was with us within minutes, had called a doctor and sat with us checking on my daughter. She came to us at breakfast the next morning and asked specifically by name how my daughter was. I really enjoyed talking to Anna and learning about her children and things she has planned for her future. A lovely down to earth lady.