90% восторга 90% delight

I'll start the story in order - from the moment of arrival. Therefore, in the beginning there will be a negative. I met a very friendly guide Alexander (works as a guide in Utopia). She explained everything, explained everything, answered all questions. She brought us to Doganay, told the receptionist our wishes for the room and went to deliver the rest. Here, as they say, I would know where you would fall... As soon as the guide left, we were told that there were no available rooms and we would be accommodated for one night in the nearby Blue Fish Hotel. To the question - what about the confirmation of the reservation, they received “a little bit in Russian”. As it turned out later, the girl at the reception that she understood Russian quit just on the day of our arrival. They immediately put bracelets on Doganai's hand, we could use all the services, but we could sleep in a nearby hotel. As it turned out later, we were still lucky. All the tourists with whom we spoke, who arrived there through the Tez-tour, spent one or two days in other hotels, and sometimes they were not located at all near Doganay and they used the service, respectively, already there. Only one couple from Ukraine was accommodated for a day on the 7th floor, in a tiny room-cage on the 7th floor of Doganai, and then moved to a normal room. However, the next morning we were already offered normal rooms. Moreover, at first they gave me in the second building overlooking the pool. I asked for a central and away from the pool and not on the road. As a result, we lived in room 5006 - just above the tennis court.
Further rest was almost completely positive, with a few rough edges. Having settled in, we found that the room, although with a bath, but there was no cork in it, so that we could dial it and lie in the water. Also, the shower did not switch to the faucet and the balcony door did not open very well. I went to the reception desk, they listened to me with an attentive look and at the end asked “Is there a problem in the room? ” I answered positively and as a result, the workers were sent almost before I took the elevator from the hall. The switch was fixed, the plug was brought in, and the door was replaced the next day - you see the one that was beyond repair. But the air conditioner was somehow located in such a way that you don’t set it as a mode - it still blew very strongly on the bed. Or turn off or wrap yourself in a blanket so that the wind does not walk on you. I also really did not like the lack of overhead light in the room. The lamps near the beds and the mirrors are very weak, and my husband and I love to read for an hour and a half before going to bed, so the lack of good lighting was a very significant minus for us. The safe in the room is not just small - it is tiny, even an e-book would not fit in there.
The room was cleaned daily and well. Swans with flowers, butterflies, hearts in rose petals were constantly turned to us, and not only in the room, but even in the bathroom. They left the cleaning lady a dollar each. Towels were changed as soon as you throw them on the floor, the bed - every other day. The beds are comfortable, moderately soft, but only if someone is over 180 cm tall, then they will either sleep obliquely or their legs will hang 

Food. Earlier, when I read people's delights about the abundance of buffets, I thought it was a sinful deed that they did not have very tasty and plentiful pickles at home, which is why they are so enthusiastic. When she came to the restaurant herself, she realized that yes, no matter how good she cooked at home, she couldn’t compare with that huge variety. And every day the dishes are different, and not as it was in Egypt - a lot, but every day the same thing. Food in Doganay can satisfy the most picky tastes from strict vegetarians to staunch meat eaters and incorrigible sweet tooth. The only thing that lacks variety is fish and seafood, but they are always there, just few species. And so, meat - 3-4 types of chicken and 1-2 lamb daily (lunch and dinner), every other day there was beef and once there was meat, very similar in taste to a young kid. Soups - mostly mashed potatoes, only 3 times were transparent. Of course, sweets are mostly biscuits and a la baklava, but there were also all kinds of puddings, mousses, jelly, and I also really liked something that looked like swollen layers of cardboard, but at the same time amazingly juicy with pistachio and lemon flavors. Through the guide, I learned from the chef that this cake is called “opened rose” and is made from very, very thin layers of dough soaked in syrup. Of fruits daily were watermelons, melons, plums, grapes, oranges with tangerines. Twice in 9 days there were peaches, once - pomegranates. True, after October 6, the menu slightly declined, but there was still plenty to choose from.
The only small minus for me is the lack of a place in the hotel where one could drink natural coffee. Only vending machines with Nescafe, which I don't drink. But, since there was a kettle in the room, I just bought myself a ground one and brewed it in a cup. Not ah, but better than what was offered.
Beach. Yes, there is a solid slab, which is chipped into parts of the beach so that you can enter the water not from the pontoon. It continues in the sea far, far away, so lovers of snorkeling are not very interested there, since even large algae do not grow on this plate. But, even in a small storm, the sea remains crystal clear. In general, from my point of view, a big plus is that there are only 3 hotels in this place, so there are not very many vacationers on the beach, which greatly contributes to the absence of all kinds of polyethylene-plastic products and cigarette butts in the sea. If you believe the hotel employee (the animators there speak excellent Russian), then the formation of this plate is not the result of volcanic manifestations, but because of the high salt content in the water in this particular part of the coast. I don’t know how true this is, but the salinity of the water there, according to my feelings, is much higher than in the Red Sea. Despite the occupancy of the hotel, there were always places on the beach. Yes, and near the pools, of which there are 4 (open, indoor, with large and small slides) - too. I don’t know where all this crowd of foreign citizens, of which there are about 80%, is going.
Staff. As I said, it is problematic to explain in Russian, but mutual understanding somehow manages to be achieved quite well. In extreme cases, you can always ask the guide to translate. The guide from the Tez-tour, Sheriff, was almost constantly at the hotel and always helped us with everything. I had a DR the day after I arrived and wanted to celebrate it at an Italian restaurant. The girl who writes down there categorically said that there were no places. He asks - why then did I bring an evening suit and shoes? However, after the Sheriff talked to her, they gave us places and even made a small gift - beautifully packaged fruits and wine in the room. A trifle, but nice. True, we did not find Italian dishes in the Italian restaurant. First we were asked what we would order. They don’t have pizza, and when asked about the availability of lasagna or cannelloni, we were asked “what is it”? Then a downpour poured, and since the restaurant was open-air, we went to the common room with peace of mind. But despite its size, it turned out that it was not able to accommodate all the vacationers. Usually, most of them prefer to eat outside, but the hurricane was such that even at the tables under the roof it was not realistic to have dinner. Since we had previously seen that people were going to their rooms with plates (and obviously not our CIS members), and champagne was waiting in our room, we decided that once it would not be shameful to take food with us. However, since there was a sign on the elevator in 4 languages ​ ​ that food and drinks were not allowed to be brought into the room (in Russian - only food is not allowed), we asked one of the animators near the exit of the restaurant - is it possible? The answer was awesome. In principle, it’s impossible, but you are Russians - you can do anything))) Although, that evening, besides us, a lot of people had dinner in the rooms, since even the coffee tables in the hall were occupied at the bottom, so my conscience is calm).

Service. It was a little strange to find out that the gym is open until 19.00, and the free sauna is open until 18.00. Somehow, just before going to bed, it is more convenient to work out and take a steam bath. The sauna is tiny, close to the sunbeds there is a brazier with a very low side. So if after steaming up you are greatly shaken, the consequences can be very deplorable. In order to rinse in the shower after it, you need to stomp through the Turkish bath to the only shower that pours in all directions, but not down. If you want to cool off in the pool - also go through the entire basement of the building and climb the stairs. You can rest and lie down after it only in the corridor through which everyone runs. The Turkish bath did not impress me. Although we had one visit with peeling for free, I did not use it. Well, I don’t like that there is only one plate, on which, like sprats in a jar, people of all ages and genders were mixed up.
On one of the sites I read laudatory reviews about the masseuse in this hotel. Her name is Emine, she does not understand Russian at all (well, 2-3 words) and you can communicate with her through an employee of the spa center - Ruslan. He speaks Russian perfectly. One general massage, for 15 minutes - they do it for free, as a test (like it - don't like it). I booked a therapeutic foot massage ($30 for 30 minutes). I only had enough money for 3 sessions, but I was very pleased with the result. If I had ordered 5, then I would have received as a gift one common and one with volcanic stones. So if I go to this hotel again, I will purposefully set aside the money for the full course.
And finally, a little about alcohol. I don’t know, maybe there are imported drinks in the high season, but with us everything was only Turkish. Although, we must pay tribute - Baileys there was very close to the original, though they only served coffee. Alcoholic cocktails. There are about 10 of them on the menu, but you can also order to mix what you want. If they were made by a permanent bartender, a very courteous and smiling guy, then they had at least some taste, taste, and if those who replaced him, it turned out to be something incomprehensible and tasteless. I tried 4 pieces, assessed the quality of the dyes included in the juice syrups and abandoned this idea. According to her husband, the beer there was very good, and the cognac tasted like 2 times diluted Henessy. There were no half-hour queues for alcohol, which my husband was told about at work by employees who had been in Turkey. Maximum - 4 people in the evenings, when the peak of consumption. Well, you can also order Irish coffee, from the same instant Nescafe.
Shopping. We only went to a textile store, and even then, because pomegranate wine was sold there on the 3rd floor, where souvenirs and other things were sold. When we arrived, it turned out that all the pomegranate wine had already been sold out before us, so we bought a couple of bottles of blackberry. The guide warned us that good wine cannot cost less than $15. They called us a price of 10 and said that now there is a 50% discount on everything. True, at the checkout it was first counted at 15, and when we said that we were told the price at 10, the seller grabbed the microphone and very emotionally expressed something to the whole store about the wine seller : ) But they sold it to us at 10 : ) Textiles - 70% the same as the one that was sold in our hotel shops. Since we didn’t want to wait 2 hours for the Tez-tour bus to come for us, we went outside and got into a very comfortable local bus (travel for $ 2).

A small minus was that we were not woken up at the check-out, although we were promised. Of course, we already set alarms, but somehow it would not hurt to make sure.
Well, like everything. Sorry if this review is too long. If you have any questions about this hotel, I will try to answer. I can only say that if I go with a child, we will most likely return to this hotel. The stove, of course, is not a very pleasant thing, but there were so many people with children there, no one had any problems in the form of injuries. The crystal clear sea is much more pleasant to me.