Just had a long weekend at the Blue Palace. It's a nice hotel, but I think it's a bit over-sold by the photos and somewhat overpriced.
I booked a bungalow with pool and was upgraded to a heated pool which I didn't know was a separate category, but was a semi-private pool area and much nicer than the "row pools" which most of the bungalows appeared to be.
Service was friendly, but a bit Greek. Our forums friends on the Luxury forum would have been aghast at some of the little things that were missing. Personally I found them more amusing than anything else, but at 500EUR+ a night rates, it felt a bit inappropriate:
- As a Plat I got a free buffet breakfast or continental breakfast in the room. I was told at reception that the buffet was to 10:30 and the room service "Probably until later, you'll have to call room service to find out"
- I ordered a large bottle of water and an ice tea from the beach bar. With two glasses with ice that made 3 glasses and a bottle. I had to point out that I was going to struggle to take it all back to my sunbed myself
- The dive centre associated with the hotel is somewhat cowboyish. Our Divemaster led a group including a relatively inexperienced Open Water qualified diver to 27 metres (when he was only trained to go 18m). Somewhat unsafe, and the hotel could be looking at associated lawsuits in case anything happens to any overly litiguous American families.
The area around the beach is like a typical resort, but the swimming pool upstairs by the bar is actually quite nice. I used to think those who were calling for it to be made adult-only were being a bit anti-social, but I'm now on their side...