Grupotel Alcudia Pins

Travelling as a family of four—my husband, our two boys and me—this was supposed to be a holiday full of memories, especially as it was our first time staying abroad for nearly two weeks. We’ve stayed all-inclusive during school holidays in Majorca and travelled to many other countries, so we had high expectations when booking with a TUI Blue. We were led to believe the hotel offered plenty of variety restaurants, a beachfront location, great entertainment and lovely spacious rooms.

On arrival, our room was ready, which was a bonus as we arrived at 1pm. After a 45-minute wait for the coach, because I couple decided to get food before the transfer, we eventually arrived and were allocated Block E, Room 401. Getting through the pool area with our suitcases was difficult as it was absolutely rammed.

Our room was extremely disappointing. It was tiny, the air conditioning barely worked and the small vent seemed completely inadequate. There was a double bed (two singles pushed together) and a tiny sofa bed. I initially thought we had been given the wrong room, as it appeared to sleep only three people. I returned to reception and explained that we had two children and had requested bunk beds, but was told the room was correct and that the sofa bed slept two and needed properly making up.

In the end, my husband had to share the sofa bed with our six-year-old, while I separated the main bed into two singles so our teenage son could sleep separately, he was not happy. Not exactly the start to the holiday we had hoped for.

Unfortunately, things didn’t improve. Most evenings there was a strong sewage smell in both the room and on the balcony, and the pools were closed on at least six occasions during our stay. Housekeeping also used my personal perfume while cleaning our room, which I found slightly inappropriate. It was very strong smelling on returning.

Storage was another issue. There was just one shelf above the hanging space, two small drawers and a few tiny spaces, so we were unable to properly unpack during our stay. The shower gel was empty throughout the whole stay in the bath.

There was also an unpleasant incident around the sun-beds. After asking two people if they were leaving and then sitting on the beds for around four hours, another guest returned, took our sun-beds and threw our belongings aside. She then claimed the towels were hers and refused to let me have them, despite me having seen the previous guests leave.

We also upgraded from Half Board Plus to All Inclusive a couple of weeks before arrival, and unfortunately this was another disappointment. The ice cream selection was very limited and often out of stock, meaning we spent a small fortune buying ice creams from the on-site shop. Snacks around the pool also had to be purchased from Thea’s Coffee Shop or the shop, despite being All Inclusive.

The pool bar regularly had extremely long queues, sometimes with only one person serving. On one occasion, I was also told I couldn’t refill my insulated water bottle at The Green & Grill.

The advertised five restaurants were also somewhat misleading. One was chargeable, another could only be visited once during our 13-night stay, and the remaining three served virtually the same food in different surroundings. The children’s buffet was particularly repetitive, and the same food served from lunch through to dinner. No choices of sandwiches, wraps or paninis/toasties for lunch, which we have had in previous hotels. After nearly two weeks, we were incredibly bored with the limited choice.

That said, there were some real positives. The main staff were lovely, and the TUI reps were very accommodating when it came to my autistic son’s needs. The restaurant staff were particularly wonderful, with one member of staff remembering my six-year-old’s name and greeting him every time we visited. My son called him his “friend”, which was lovely to see. We think his name was Asam?!? The desserts in the evening were a highlight for my teenager.

The location of the hotel was beautiful, with gorgeous views. One of my personal highlights was getting up at 5:30am to watch the sunrise. We also visited Alcudia three times by bus and C’an Picafort twice, and most importantly, the children had a fantastic time overall.

For us, though, the biggest disappointment was the price of the holiday compared with what we actually received. There were some lovely moments and wonderful staff, but overall, the experience fell well short of what we expected from the holiday we had booked.

I’m sorry but I wouldn’t recommend or return anytime soon.

Little bit worried especially as the days leading up to arriving there were loads of posts about poos in the pool, but this didn’t happen whilst we were here and to be fair this has happened in a number of places I’ve stayed across Europe. Never the hotels fault anyway.

Flew with Tui never had a bad holiday with them. Long queues at both airports but to be expected in the summer holidays. Transfer time about 50 minutes, we were 4th hotel on the drop off.

Room ready on arrival which was great as we got here at 1pm and sometimes rooms aren’t ready at that time.

Pools great, plenty of sunbeds. Prime spots go by about 9am then other areas fill up by 10, but there was no getting up at the crack of dawn to secure beds as they do remove towels off reserved sunbeds if no one is with them, this was up to 9am when the pool opens. They don’t just remove towels, they take all your belongings so beware if you are someone who reserves a spot then goes back to bed! They also do this again after 6pm so if you’re off to the beach and leaving belongings at the pool be aware they could be removed.

Food was ok but very samey, there is a themed area every night which was ok some nights. The sushi was the best night. Italian the worst. My kids moaned that everything looked like dog sick but I found it mainly OK. There wasn’t much choice of daytime snacks, Bambola restaurant and Green & Grill mainly the same food as at tea time in the main restaurant. I was very surprised at the amount of families that leave food all over the floors and tables. Dirty behaviour, but I’ve always cleaned up after my children, maybe others just don’t and expect staff to clean the mess their children make. Drinks ok and like you would get in most all inclusive but as this hotel is also self catering, then you can’t just help yourself to soft drinks. The queues can be very long. The pool bar closes at 5pm for AI even though the pool is open until 7. The stage bar then opens until midnight but extremely long queues especially at night, and sometimes only 1 or 2 staff serving and it can be slow as they are taking payments.

Can’t comment on the entertainment as I have teens so we didn’t tend to watch the shows but the area was very busy with shows on up until around 11pm.

Bikes and e-scooters for rent which were a big hit with my boys. Remote location but bus stops outside the hotel 5/10 mins to other towns.

I wasn’t looking forward to the sea with all the reports of sea weed but it wasn’t that bad. It’s not like sea weed in the UK, you can walk/swim through it no problem, it’s more like small wood chippings. I’m not a big fan of swimming in the sea but I loved it here, so warm and you can go quite far out and still touch the shore. Swim to the jetty and there are plenty of fish swimming around.

Took the glass bottom boat trips from the end of the jetty. Adult and 2 kids was around 70 EUR. Good trip but not really worth the money, about 45 mins was spent dropping people off at their disembarkation points. Pins was the final pick up so no seats left when we got on.

Rooms cleaned 5 times a week. We had a 1 bedroom apartment which was spacious with a bunk bed, twin beds and 2 chairs. Very loud German family next door that had no volume control so I did bang on the walls a few times when it got to after midnight! Hairdryer, kettle, toaster, microwave, hob and coffee maker in room.

I’d read that people were having to go to the doctors with mosquito bites. I bought the repellent spray and wore the bracelets and not one bite between us.

Tips D block - ice lollies from 11:30-17:30 for AI To the left of E block - wheelie bin with disregarded inflatables To the left of reception - book swap (mainly German) No sunbeds around the main pool after 10am but plenty stacked up by the grass on the other pool. Big queue for the hair braid lady but if you go out of the hotel turn right, past the pony rides towards the shops there was another lady there with no queue.

Generally a good hotel for a 3 star, but probably wouldn’t return.