Recent holiday the good and the bad
We chose Royal Wings to try a different 5 star hotel in Turkey. This review is based on our opinion and findings, which list good and bad. Some of the bad could be easily changed pretty quickly. Details in my full review below, along with photographs.
Good
Hotel is clean
Room
We had room 1411, which was a Superior Double seaview with a balcony. We had a seaview.
Sun pretty much all day in balcony which is great. Balcony has table and 2 chairs but is small.
Room had a double and single bed within it so would be good if you had a child with you or 3 adults could share.
Mini fridge with water, still and sparkling, 2 Efes beers, peach tea, Pepsi cola and fruit juice. Filled daily. No snacks.
Kettle with separate tea, coffee with a bottle of water to refill kettle, replaced everyday.
Shower, no bath with toiletries
Coded free safe for valuables
Air conditioning, which lowest setting was 19 degrees
There was no iron in the room
There were no dressing gowns, but there were 2 sets of slippers.
Wifi was ok came and went at times though
Mood lighting within room with reading lamps
Overall, the room was modern and clean
TV not many English channels, news ones mainly
See below in Bad on couple of frustrating issues we reported and did have
The hotel itself and pools - good
Large pool, which meanders throughout the hotel, separated into certain areas ie: activity, children's pools, with seperate pool and larger quieter area. You can swim throughout the whole pool from one end to the other, there are areas with steps allowing you to walk into the pool which is great. Water not heated and although was cold was ok when you were in. The hotel allowed floats.
Plenty sunbeds. However, these are far too cramped in together, so they are literally side by side!
No designated no smoking areas either or adults only areas which when ypu are that close it's not great.
There are some beds with space, but you need to be down sharp to get these. If you reserve these beds with towels before 9am, the guest relations will remove your towels and leave a note on the bed. If you do want to reserve beds, you need to sit on these until 9 am, then go for breakfast or a walk, that would be my advice.
You get towel cards and change these for fresh towels daily. One towel each. Activities throughout the day with full timetable.
There are fridges with free bottles of water at each bar, no cans of soft drinks though. Food corners are open at various times, so best to check. These should all be open from 11am to 4pm in my opinion everyday. Main buffet restaurant is large and offers breakfast, lunch and dinner. Breakfast and lunch ok, see below for bad points. Kids separate area within buffet, usually empty.
Patisserie opens from 4pm, always quiet which is a real shamevas cakes etc looked lovely.
Beach bar is great with nice views. Could be open longer though in evenings as s9 nice to sit there watching sun and the ocean.
Turkish Pide and Wrap restaurant open for lunch daily this was great.
Beach restaurant open for lunch daily, it was ok. Again only opens for a short time everyday, seemed a bit of a waste.
Pool drink service is available throughout the day, waiters on rollerskates, would be good to have more waitets though.
Kiddies club looked great.
Kiddies fun park, watermark etc looked great, this is out of the front if the hotel reception and within the grounds itself. Only open certain times. Bowling and amusement arcade open from 4pm daily.
Entertainment and shows
Variety of acts nightly was ok. Live singers, bands, bingo etc on in Piano bar and Pool bar area but this needs better advertising to guests daily on the activity or noticeboard. Attended white garden party which is on once per week, was good, very busy though. Hardly anyone in white.
Bad or poor OR needs improving
No segregated areas for adults within main restaurant, restaurants, the pools, all outside terraces, which is a shame. The Piano bar and Sky bar particularly, which share a terrace, could be easily divided into adults only or age 14 plus and over. Or even better smoking and non-smoking sections. We were not the only guests who commented on this. When the live music was on, it was always a strong smoke smell. Not great.
Drinks, they have house wines to include sparkling wine rose or white. However, this was a hit or miss if the sparkling wine actually was bubbly or not, the bar staff do not cap the bottles and it's left lying out sometimes so could be very flat. I returned several glasses for this reason.
Cocktails were disappointing and made with syrups, no visible blenders on bars. They don't have a great choice and won't make you any classic cocktails, if they are not on the coctail list. I asked for an Espresso Martini, bearing in mind, they had all the ingredients to make this at hand, as you could visibly see them but I was told no. I asked for a frozen Margarita and was told no. Think this needs addressed and pretty poor for a 5 star resort.
The beer on tap is Efes only.
You are offered crisps and nuts, but not everytime.
The soft drinks and mixers are all from a gun.
Spirits are non-branded local spirits unless you pay.
The food places are open at various times and there is : pizza, sandwich, dessert and fruit station, doner kebab, baked potato, ice cream stations but doner kebab is open until 2pm then closes, baked potato opens at 2pm etc so best check. All beside each other. Can't understand why they all don't open from 11am to 4pm as mentioned above. Snack bar is next to the late bar opens at midnight for food, can't comment as didn't try it. There is a disco but didn't venture in there.
Main buffet restaurant is large but for evening dinner is like a school dinner hall! Absolutely horrendous, way too busy and pretty awful. Kids everywhere, noisy, like M6! We ate there once at night.
Food was tepid unless it was being cooked fresh, then queues are long for this too.
If you eat outside lots of smokers, no non smoking areas and no adult only inside or outside.
Breakfast - fresh squeezed orange juice is chargeable at 2 euros each! You need to ask for this at the bar. One toaster which for the size of the restaurant is not enough. One egg and omelette station which was too busy, should have 2 areas for this, to ease congestion and queues.
A la cartes my total biggest bugbear! The claim to have Steakhouse, Italian, Chinese, Mediterranean, Turkish and Seafood. The reality is that the Steakhouse and Italian are same restaurants so not open same nights, same for others. They don't allow you to book them if they have no bookings! They need a minimum of 6 people to open them! It's a very stupid system as I'm sure they would get bookings if they just opened the bookings for all of them. I wanted to book the Seafood to be told by Guest Relations that the chances of eating there was unlikely, as never really open as its the least popular and also the chinese! We did eat at the Chinese but only once as not open again for bookings! We passed one night and the seafood was open after we had been told at 9am it wasn't! Annoyed at this.
The a la carte restaurants are all chargeable however, they are all worth going too and are great value for money, pleasant, peaceful vs buffet and service is excellent.
Issue with safe in room not working, reported everyday for 4 days. Was told fixed and replaced, still didn't work. Told to contact reception on return to room after allegedly they had replaced the full safe. Safe didn't work, went to call reception, phone didn't work! Had to walk down. After waiting 2 hours and several people looked at it, no luck, we got a new safe!
It was our wedding anniversary whilst there so I had emailed hotel in advance of arrival. We received a card, fruit plate and bottle red wine on the day. Lovely. However the bottle seal was broken and you could see drip marks on the label like it had been refilled! Smelt awful too like sherry, so didn't drunk this.
Pavilions and cabanas on beach
These can be booked and are 30 euros or 45 euros if you wish drinks and food included. I had pre reserved a front line bed for our anniversary, however once we arrived and went down and saw them, we cancelled thus booking. These are literally 30 euros for a mattress, cushions and curtains on the cabana. There is no fridge in them at all. Waiters will bring you food and drinks I gather throughout the day but you could just go to the bar on the beach and get these yourself, unsure on how many times you would see waiters too.
Guest Relations did walk round asking for feedback which we shared, they generally agreed especially on a la cartes, but they always advised it was higher management who didn't listen to them either. What is the point of asking for feedback if it isn't discussed and taken on board
Overall I would compare it to a Spanish all inclusive and not the 5 star we expected next to others we have stayed at in Turkey. I knew it would not be the same as others before we travelled but did expect a bit more.
We travelled with Tui, we did ask to move hotels which for various reasons as above however this didn't happen. Mainly Tui slow to offer a move and it would be 6 days into holiday which wasn't ok. We talked to many other UK guests who mentioned all of the above as well as simple changes.
We enjoyed our stay and just got on with it, we didn't slum it by any means! The hotel is clean, the decor is lovely, the weather was amazing however, just little changes could make this resort so much better. Sadly we wouldn't return.
4.5 (3000) atsauksmes 
