НАМ ОЧЕНЬ ПОНРАВИЛОСЬ! WE REALLY ENJOYED!

This year I had to strain again on the choice of which hotel to go to. There were no questions about the place - as always, our beloved Marsa was waiting for us! But which hotel to choose once again, I had to break my head and hard. Three Corners were planned, but, like last year, he went to STOP, only unlike 2011, he went there not in a month, but in two! I was forced to turn over the Internet once again and try people experienced in this region, i. e. "one-thinkers". As a result, adding up all the pros and cons, we settled on the Oriental. Before leaving, to be honest, I was strongly overcome by doubts, embarrassed by the relatively low price (after all, miracles do not happen, and we are realists) and the beach across the road. In the end, we were pleased with the realities - the second line, it seems to be there, but it didn’t bother us even once, thanks to our correct location. And the correct location in this hotel is buildings 1.2, 3. Unfortunately, we did not immediately find a comfortable accommodation, but the negotiations at the reception and the subsequent gratitude in the form of a green bill had such an effect, the result of which pleased us completely (more on that later).
1. ROAD
Booked with Pegasus. UIA, as always, worked well - at the appointed time we were at the Hurghada airport. Without problems and quickly we go through all the necessary formalities, and now a comfortable bus is rushing us to the goal (we arrived quickly in 3.15 hours with a regular stop in El Quseir). This time our hotel turned out to be extreme, but we had enough time for lunch.

2. SETTLEMENT
Knowing that Oriental is located on the second line, I understood that some buildings are located at a significant distance from the beach. And, since we have a strong appendage in the form of equipment that you need to carry with you every day to the sea and back, I decided to write a letter to the hotel manager at home so that we would be given a room in advance closer to the exit to the road to the beach (we there were good reasons). The letter has been written, the answer with assurances of the best possible meeting has been received. In reality, at the reception, no one "neither in sleep nor in spirit" knew about the preliminary agreement. Everything had to be decided on the spot from scratch.
In order. I will clarify that at the reception we were met by our good friend from past trips (a respectable man), who arrived at the hotel at night - the meeting was long-awaited and warm. Having received the keys and everything attached, our friend and I moved towards the room allocated to us, following the "special person". Seeing that we were clearly being led to the wrong place, we stopped this procession, saying that we were returning to the reception to change the room. We must pay tribute, there we were received quite friendly, with understanding and after lengthy negotiations they promised that the room suitable for us would be ready by 6 pm, but for now we can use the room that was allocated to us initially. What to do? Decided to stay in that room for the time being. Arriving there, we saw an interesting picture - the block consists of two bedrooms / rooms (having microscopic dimensions and even smaller bathrooms), a decent-sized common living room, combined with a kitchen through a bar counter and a balcony. As I understand it - a full-fledged "family room". I think that for a family with children, this option is an ideal accommodation! For us, this has no advantages, since it is not clear, what if tomorrow the second bedroom / room will be populated with more of the same and we will have to share “common areas” with strangers, namely, a living room with a kitchen and a balcony. But, even without sharing them, this number did not suit us in any way due to the distance from the sea.
But that's not all! As soon as we settled in the living room in order to celebrate the arrival and meeting, there was a knock on the door - it was the head of the cleaners. He told me that he was told by the worker who helped us get into the room that we were settled into it THREE! He began to tell me the rules of the hotel, etc. , in general - a whole lecture on the unacceptability of staying in a room for three. My poor eyes, unbearably longing for sleep (the second day on my feet had long gone), crawled first to my forehead, then to the top of my head. Gathering the rest of my strength, I tried to explain to the "boss" that we were just with our friend, who helped us carry our heavy luggage. I also presented a strong (in my concept) argument that our friend has his own hotel room, as well as a bracelet on his arm. The head of the cleaners listened to me, nodded with understanding, as it seemed to me, his head and, to our pleasure, left. Finally! We can raise glasses and clink glasses for the meeting - we were given peace.

There were a couple of hours left before settling in the promised suitable room, tired from the road, we decided to lie down, at least for half an hour - the dream overcame instantly! I was awakened by a phone call, the voice in the receiver said that we urgently need to come to the reception. Without waiting for any explanation, despite 16.30, we rushed there, hoping that our coveted number was prepared much earlier - we must believe in miracles! Arriving at the reception, I almost fell under the weight of claims that fell on my head - I was honored to listen to a lecture (once again) about the UNACCEPTABILITY of three adults living in one room! My mother!! ! My sleepy body courageously gathered itself together in order to calmly, without barking, explain to the kind receptionist (once again) why, how and from what. As a result, we were already waiting for our home "on the spot" - we were tired of walking. We must give credit that the room was ready even before the appointed time and turned out to be more than wonderful and perfectly located! Despite our ordeals, the chief manager received from us sincere gratitude in the form of a rustling banknote.
3. HOTEL
I must say that the hotel is really simple and, of course, those who wish will find something to complain about. Therefore, the discerning public needs to keep this in mind. Although it has everything you need - clean pools, greenery, a playground, a gym, billiards, tennis, courts, big chess, shops, a beach (across the road), animation. The territory is well-planned, however, with lifts and stairs, quite well-groomed and clean, we don’t count cats (read more). The buildings are three-story, I note that the third floor is a bit high for frequent ascents.
Disadvantages:
1) When settling in distant buildings, you will have to walk a lot, including downhill and stairs.
2) Strangeness - the main restaurant on the second floor.
3) The hotel is densely populated with cats and kittens, who do what they want - sit, sleep on chairs at the tables of the open area of ​ ​ the restaurant, climb these tables, as well as on the terraces of the first floor rooms and the things that vacationers left there to dry, stick to everyone on the territory in order to grab food and shit everywhere. Personally, it bothered me, maybe someone finds it touching. Judging by the number of people who want to feed them with food taken out of the restaurant, there are quite a few of them.
4) In the second week of our stay, for some reason they stopped poisoning insects - on the one hand, it’s good, there was no need to run away from the balcony at that moment, on the other hand, these same insects immediately made themselves felt. Flies and mosquitoes have become kings of the air.
4. NUMBER

As such, there are no standards in this hotel - the bulk of the family rooms (described above) and the superior, which we eventually got. It consisted of a decent-sized bedroom with a comfortable large bed, a wardrobe with a built-in safe, bedside tables with lamps, a chest of drawers with a TV and a refrigerator (or rather a cooler). For the first time faced with the phenomenon of "bed with spools". It turned out - this is not a myth, it happens. The bedroom had a blank door that separated it from the rest. It (the rest) consisted of a living room (also of a decent size), combined with a kitchen through the bar, a balcony, a dressing room and a shared bathroom. Perhaps someone will consider it a disadvantage to have a shower with a curtain, but for us it is not. There is also a regular mirror in the bathroom, as well as a magnifying one, soap accessories (I won’t say about the quality - I didn’t even try it), a hair dryer, a stretching rope. Towels in sufficient quantity, changed without problems. In the living room there is a sofa, an armchair, a coffee table, a chest of drawers, a floor lamp, a carpet. In the kitchen there is a working sink, cabinets, a kettle with attached "accessories". On the balcony there is a table and chairs. The view from our room was great - the main pool, the road, the bay and the sea (far away). Don't let the proximity of the road scare you at all - there are no problems associated with this. Two air conditioners - work well if the batteries in the remote control are in order. Water is supplied by the cleaner - 1.5 liters per day per room, if you make friends with him, then there will be as much as you need. About the cleaner - he very efficiently and regularly twisted masterpieces of towels for us, which he generously decorated with flowers and petals, but, on another occasion, there was a desire that he should wash the floor in the bathroom better once again. This was not considered a special drawback - the little things in life. Once, our cleaner surprised us - when I opened the door for him, I saw him with an incomplete bottle of duty free rum in his hands. He explained to me that the guests left and left him this bottle, and since he does not drink, he brought it to us (smiley with bulging eyes). It remains a mystery what prompted him to such an act - it was the first time in our travel practice. Cleaners have never brought us booze - a memorable moment.
Disadvantages:
1) The absence of nets on the windows, as a result of which we had a problem with the presence of mosquitoes, moreover, our home fumigator turned out to be powerless (later we found out that we had to ask the cleaner to spray with special rubbish).
2) A non-working telephone (a trip to the reception on this occasion let us know that there was a problem in the 1st and 2nd buildings that could not be solved in any way, we felt that we should not bother with this topic).
5. FOOD
It is quite diverse in this hotel and, most importantly, of high quality! Everything is delicious, beautiful, clean, constantly changing - as for Egypt, then a solid five! I was pleased with the constantly present eggplants, and in different forms, as well as other vegetables. Grill, not burnt and not overdried, meat that is easy to chew and does not even get stuck in the teeth (for me, this is always an indicator). Potatoes in different forms and all edible. Naturally, all kinds of pasta, pates and salads. From the meat were chickens, ducks, turkey, quails, beef, lamb. There was always fish, seafood was also present regularly. Of the fruits were melons, watermelons, apples, oranges, grapefruits, pomegranates, dates, grapes, guava. There was a lot of sweets, but since I was not on these matters, I never got the chance to take a sample, however, the rest said that it was so-so, not wow. Ice cream is served in the main pool during the day.

There is also a fish restaurant a la carte in this hotel (for an additional 35 EURO per person fee). By tradition, of course, we visited it, although it turned out to be not at all easy - two evenings of negotiations with managers, advance payment and "the key is in our pocket"! This restaurant is different from the Egyptian seafoods we are used to, where you come, see fish and seafood in ice, poke your finger at what you like, and then you get it all ready-made, paying for live weight. In Oriental, all this is a pleasure - a single price and a pre-planned (not by you) menu. True, when I told the general manager of the restaurant that this did not suit me and that I was going to Port Ghalib to celebrate my birthday, significant changes were immediately made to this "menu" to our taste. The result made us happy! I will not go into all the details, I will only say that the shrimp and lobsters were brought to us directly to the table on beautiful portable grills. The atmosphere was very pleasant and the service was top notch. True, we felt ourselves there, like fish in an aquarium or museum exhibits - we were even photographed by vacationers through glass. Affects the rarity of visitors to this institution. But this did not bother us, not how much - on the contrary, it brought some unusualness to our celebration, which pleased us. In general, we were satisfied.
I will note one more speaking fact in terms of nutrition. The hotel manager lives permanently with his family, they have a one-year-old child. His wife was regularly in a restaurant with a girl, sitting at an ordinary table and feeding her from a common boiler. Personally, I was impressed.
Drinks - a standard Egyptian set of local production. I saw what they were doing, but I tried it only once, when the bartender in the pool for some reason decided to make Pina Colada especially for our company. To be honest, it was high quality and tasty.
6. POOLS
They occupy almost the entire center of the hotel there, if anyone needs only pools, then especially with the settlement, and you should not worry, since there is normal accessibility to them from almost all buildings. The pools there are arranged in a cascade - it looks beautiful. Keep in mind that the bar and towel rack are located near the top of them. Who needs a party - go there, who needs relaxation - lower. Towels are issued without all sorts of cards, but simply by painting, also on the beach.
Once from the balcony we watched a funny picture - a young lady (not ours) late in the evening was diligently knitting towels on sunbeds, as we understood, in order to "reserve" trump places. Early in the morning they were absolutely free, apparently, the staff did their best. It was not possible to see the "joy" of the young lady, as they ran away, as usual, early to the sea.
7. BEACH

As I said, the beach is located across the road, where "regulators" sit, who monitor the safety of vacationers and do not allow them to enter the track at the wrong time. I must say that the movement there is not particularly active, so we did not feel any inconvenience in this regard. Further, down the beautiful path and we are by the sea. The beach is normally equipped - sun loungers with mattresses, umbrellas, shower, toilet, towel rack, playground, bar. The bar has a snack, and they also prepare pizza - edible, but not fashionable. The disadvantage is that the mattresses are always dirty, it is impossible to clean. But since all this is not so important for us, because we came, put on our equipment, went to sea, returned, washed our suits and small things, knocked over a couple of glasses of beer and left, we tried not to be impressed about unwashed mattresses. Of course, "offers" of their services regularly walk along the beach - you can't get anywhere, everyone wants to earn money.
We had fun and here from a cool moment. It has always been believed that only ours take places on the beach in the morning, but some guests of this hotel have gone much further. Namely, one pair of Englishmen stocked up with laminated plates with their surname and on the day of their arrival with a solemn look attached one of them with plastic latches to the umbrella they liked (I attach the photo). The next morning there was no sign, I suspect that the whip boy cut it off. The next tablet was affixed by the English couple, which met the same fate. I don’t know if there were any proceedings on this topic, but we didn’t see any more signs. Naturally, everyone laughed at such a device.
The hotel's beach is on the north side of Marsa Gabel el Rosas, and on the south side is the dive center and their beach (use costs $5). The entrance to the water is quite comfortable on the sand, but this does not mean that you can roam barefoot there. She herself watched how the aunt stomped on the stone with bare feet, under which we filmed the poisonous stone fish yesterday. Swimming is possible in the bay for lovers of any level. There you can see the beauty in shallow water, and on the reefs of the bay, and on the outer walls outside it, as well as just swim. Quite suitable for children too. I will write more about the bay in the story of our trips, which we still could not help but make (as usual). Here I can only say that the set of living creatures in the bay is magnificent, the reef is excellent, and its "multi-storey" makes this place "long-playing", so you can spend a lot of time there!
8. ANIMATION

It is clearly there, I don’t presume to judge its level, since this is not our interest in Mars. I will say that in the pool there was water polo and water aerobics, on the beach, too, animators were inviting people somewhere. Once a week there was even a beach party at 23.00 (for a fee), but since we went to bed early, we never reached it. There were also performances on the site at the main entrance to the main building of the hotel.
9. STAFF
He (the staff) made us very happy here - courteous, amiable, without prejudice and obsceneness. Again, I think, the constant presence of the manager, who monitors everything, regularly builds everyone and keeps his finger on the pulse, affects. In general - the big five with a tiny minus (there were minor moments, but where without them).
10. DEPARTURE
Information about the departure was brought to our room in an envelope. Everything was organized clearly and harmoniously. It should be noted that it is still more comfortable to ride in a big bus than in a minibus.
On the way back, there was also a moment that I remember. In Resta, a couple sat down with us and told a curious story. It turns out that they were forcibly moved to Resta from Crown, as there was a staff strike there. In general, in connection with the strike, nothing worked in Krowny - vacationers spent the whole day hosting themselves and saving themselves as best they could. The Italians cooked pasta in their kitchen and fried everything that was in the bins. The Germans smashed all the bars and drank all the supplies in them. By evening, the electricity was also turned off, even the locks on the doors did not work, and we had to pack things for relocation in the dark, it seems that not everyone collected their belongings in the end completely. Waking up in the morning in Rest, our new acquaintances found a mass of sleeping people near the pool, which they never brought to the ill-fated Crowns. Sad story - I wouldn't want to be like that.
And our vacation was so successful that we still cannot come to our senses - thoughts in the sea!
* * *
I tried to describe everything in as much detail as possible, but I do not exclude that I forgot something. If you have any questions, I will definitely answer. In general, we really liked the hotel, I do not rule out returning there, which is rare for us. Again, its location provokes many interesting trips, which we did, but that's another story.

If the sea is a priority for you, then you can safely plan a trip there. I am sure that all the petty flaws will be more than covered by the charms of the local bay and its inhabitants.
TO FANS OF THE RED SEA I RECOMMEND ESPECIALLY!! !