Отель не соответствует заявленным звёздам The hotel does not meet the stated stars

So another white spot on the world map has become smaller for me. Having traveled half the world, having visited both hemispheres, to the surprise of many, I have never been to Egypt, well, my soul did not lie to travel to this country, which our Russians so favor. And finally, it was decided - for the new year we will move to the Bedouins. As always, I chose a hotel on our favorite site for a long time, read reviews, looked at ratings, thanks to which I had never made a mistake in choosing a hotel before, but this time... Alas! After reading laudatory odes and enthusiastic responses, the choice fell on the Cleopatra Luxor hotel in Makadi Bay. Vouchers turned out to be not the cheapest, along with an additional payment for a room with a sea view and a New Year's dinner (mandatory), the tour from 12/29/2013 to 12/05/2014 for two cost 93.000 rubles. At the same time, no one warned us that alcohol was not included in the price of the New Year's dinner! But let's get back to this.
Accommodation. We arrived at the hotel early, around 9 am, but to the credit of the hotel administrator Krekova Elena, as was agreed between us in advance, we were settled right there, and after 10 minutes we were already in room 4101. It was the closest to the restaurant and reception, and the farthest room from the sea of ​ ​ the 4th building on the 2nd floor overlooking the cold pool, a cafe-bar could be seen a little further, then another pool, then the beach and only behind it was a strip of the sea visible. The room itself turned out to be quite clean, with a fresh renovation, nice decor, which could not be said about the bathroom - it has obviously not been renovated here for a long time. Of all the toiletries next to the sink, we found a small remnant, 4 quarter used tubes of gels and shampoos and 2 cups for toothbrushes, hair dryer... Everything! In the shower, an empty container for gel hung on the wall for all 8 days. The water was frankly rusty a couple of times. A lot of surprises were caused by the minibar, which, it turns out, was filled only ONCE!! ! Upon check-in, it is loaded with 2 juice bags, 2 cans of Coca-Cola and 2 bottles of drinking water. On all subsequent days, only drinking water is brought, everything else is for money! No bathrobes, slippers, kettles and irons. And you call this 5*?? ? At first, we didn’t attach any importance to all this, and we didn’t want to make a fuss about the number, but when, among other things, problems with plumbing began (at first, the water in the toilet murmured around the clock - it didn’t turn off, then the mixer tap in the shower broke off, and only hot and... very hot water flowed from the washbasin tap), a couple of days before departure, I asked Lena why the sea view room we paid for turned out to be the most common standard? This question clearly took her by surprise, she promised to figure everything out and disappeared for half an hour, after which her answer shocked me - it turns out that all the rooms, regardless of the distance to the sea, located on the second floor - these are the rooms with sea views , but exactly the same, but a floor below - these are standard, costing, by the way, 8 thousand rubles. cheaper than the second floor and with almost the same "visibility"! Bravo! 5 points. I just don’t understand one thing - the hotel was occupied by an average of 15-20%, next to the sea, literally in 5 steps, there were exactly the same COMPLETELY EMPTY buildings, from the rooms of which there really was a view of the sea, but we were sold the farthest from sea ​ ​ corps! Fine? For comparison, five years ago we flew to Turkey for a week, also out of season, mid-April, also a half-empty hotel, but upon registration, without any additional payments, we were given the keys to a large family room instead of the paid standard, the rooms were empty anyway! As they say - feel the difference!
Nutrition. Breakfast is something! Eggs, omelettes, scrambled eggs (you need to stand in line), dumb sausages of 2 types, unleavened pancakes (there are sweet toppings), muesli. A couple of types of cuts of sausage and cheese, half of the pieces of which are clearly of yesterday's origin, fruits - as many as 4 types! And, of course, semolina porridge... Every single day... Who ate it - I have never seen it, so it was unlikely that they cooked it every day a new one... A question for the chefs for backfilling - was it weak to cook oatmeal at least for a change? And about coffee - it is on the tables in liter thermos teapots, if you want fresh hot - come to the opening from 7-30 to 8-00. After 9-00, the coffee on the tables runs out or cools down, and they begin to drain the leftovers from thermoses from all free tables. Fine? Oh, and forget about teaspoons, we only saw them in a la carte restaurants.

Lunches and dinners - mostly monotonous tasteless food, meat only beef and chicken, there was almost no choice of fish, a rather meager choice of vegetables and fruits, pizza of 2 varieties. Some dishes, it seems, wandered from lunch to dinner. The only thing that pleased me was the presence of first courses for lunch - either borscht would be cooked, then hodgepodge... There was also ice cream and sweet pastries (fitted on 2 tables). Wine and local beer are free, of extremely low quality, with some kind of aftertaste. Good only for money.
New Year's banquet. It was, perhaps, the only time when the quality and variety of dishes fully corresponded to the concept of a 5-star hotel. In addition to the bored beef, there was lamb and fish of several varieties, there were shrimp, strawberries were added to the fruit, and among the cold appetizers, we were pleasantly surprised by the presence of jelly, herring under a fur coat and capital salad.
A la carte restaurants. Italian - I didn’t understand, the choice on the menu is meager, like the names of the dishes are Italian, but the taste is like in an ordinary restaurant. Fish restaurant. The name contains the word lobster, but of course you will not find it on the menu. Seafood soup amazed with its tastelessness, fish platter - if not for 2 king prawns! The most delicious in the fish restaurant was stuffed tomato…
Beach and pools. There are no complaints here, a huge territory, 6 pools (one warm), a bunch of free sunbeds with "protection" from the wind, a diving center. Swimming in the sea right in front of the hotel is unlikely to please. Before lunch, a strong low tide exposes the rocky bottom, in the afternoon the water is knee-deep. Swimming and diving is good at the end of the pier on the right side. There are comfortable ladders-descents directly into the sea. The water is very clear, there is a beautiful reef with wonderful fish that you can feed, only it is quite deep here, you can’t get the bottom, there is nothing to do with children. But on the left side of Cleopatra, if you walk 300-500 meters, there will be a very good and smooth entrance to the sea.

Climate. The fact is that the Cleopatra Luxury Hotel is located in such a way that it is located in the middle of the bay on the path of the strongest winds blowing at this time of the year from the sea. Because the territory of the hotel is very large, without high-rise buildings with many pools and open space, lack of abundant vegetation, a very unpleasant strong cold wind blows everywhere, the strength of which is sometimes so strong that it easily carries away filled glasses from the cafe-bar tables. I had to put on sweaters and walk around in them all day, despite the hot sun and cloudless sky. Yes, and in the water once again because of this I did not want to climb. Of course, January is not the warmest month for a holiday in Egypt, but you could have been warned about this wind blower. We somehow decided to walk along the beach to neighboring hotels and see how they are. So, having walked somewhere about a kilometer, we found that there was no wind at all in those hotels, there was nowhere for an apple to fall on the beaches, and we looked like we were from another planet in sweaters.
Animation. Boris and Katya, cool dancing! Everything else is weak. During the day, the animators are not visible at all, however, during the day you will not meet anyone either on the territory or on the beach. In the evening, shows were held in the amphitheater. And here questions arise - why hold performances in the open air, with the wind blowing to the bones, even if warm blankets were given out, but they did not help? And this despite the fact that all these actions could be watched in a warm room to choose from: 4 conference rooms, a dance floor behind the lobby bar! Why was it necessary to freeze the people? As a result, at least half of the guests earned themselves a cold (a characteristic cough was heard in the restaurant from all sides).
Tours. Since we were only traveling for a week, we didn’t bother with excursions. They only went to the submarine. As it turned out - in vain. Diving to 25 meters was not memorable except for 2 sunken ancient ships. We never saw the promised beautiful fish and corals. By the way, next to Cleopatra, the coral reef and the variety of beautiful fish are much cooler! It is a pity spent 140$.
So, conclusion. This hotel absolutely does NOT correspond to its star rating, Cleopatra Luxury is a maximum 4 * hotel, not even 4+. The quality of equipment and room service, mediocre food, ill-conceived organization of entertainment programs - all this greatly reduces the overall rating. Yes, it is possible that in the high season it is very comfortable here, it is hot, the breeze is cool, but in winter I will not recommend this hotel to anyone.
This concludes the report. Ready to answer all questions.