TUI BLUE Lagoon Princess

I feel duty-bound to write this so that nobody else parts with their hard-earned money quite as enthusiastically as I did. Perhaps I’m being unfair. I’ve sailed around the Ionian Islands twice and visited plenty of the less touristy parts of Greece, so maybe my expectations are different. But having stayed at a fantastic 4-star TUI Blue in Crete last year, I expected even more for our 10-year wedding anniversary. Instead, I spent most of the week wondering whether I’d accidentally booked myself into a social experiment. Let’s start with the positives. The hotel staff are lovely. Polite, friendly, helpful and always smiling. The grounds are immaculate and clearly very well maintained. Everything is spotlessly clean. The bed was comfortable. There were plenty of sunbeds available (more on the quality of those later), and because we travelled during term time, finding one wasn’t a competitive sport. That’s pretty much the list. The beach became my sanctuary. The loungers are expensive to hire and look like they’ve survived several Greek economic crises, but the sea is beautiful. Every morning I walked along the shoreline with a coffee before the children and my husband woke up. Watching the sunrise and the early swimmers was genuinely the best part of the holiday. Now for the reality. If your idea of experiencing Greece is never leaving the hotel and later telling everyone you’ve “done Greece”, this place is perfect. If, however, you enjoy exploring, you’re in for a challenge. It’s a 25-minute walk in nearly 30-degree heat just to find somewhere that might sell a drink. A taxi to a larger town is around €50 each way. Thanks to another reviewer, we discovered a nearby town and the Fres.co ice cream parlour. That evening meal and ice cream quite possibly saved my sanity. For gym users: lower your expectations immediately. The climber machine is bordering on a health and safety demonstration, with a slipping belt that feels genuinely dangerous. The resistance machines are outdated and uninspiring. The entire gym desperately needs modernising. The food deserves its own section because, quite frankly, it was astonishingly bad. Everything felt tired, repetitive and often cold. The salads looked like they’d lost the will to live several days earlier. The chicken and seafood inspired the sort of fear usually reserved for Russian roulette. To test whether the food was genuinely cold or I was imagining things, I arrived at the buffet the moment it opened. Still cold. The “themed” evenings appeared to consist of taking yesterday’s meat, giving it a different sauce and a more exotic name. Breakfast was the same every day. Lunch was the same every day. Dinner was essentially the same every day wearing a different hat. However, I will say lunch at the grill was more pleasant. The buffet restaurant itself was chaos. We have young children, and the noise levels were biblical. At one point I escaped to the adults-only section simply because my ears were filing for divorce. It was marginally better. Arriving later only meant there was less food left and somehow even less edible. The children’s buffet was a masterclass in beige. Rock-hard chicken nuggets, fish fingers with the structural integrity of concrete, chips, mash, cold baked beans and bread rolls capable of causing dental injuries. I actually took some nuggets to reception and banged them on the desk to demonstrate their hardness. The receptionist looked horrified. The nuggets returned the following day just as hard. Our children survived almost entirely on pancakes and ice cream for seven days. Every mealtime felt like entering World War Three, and honestly, I couldn’t blame them. I wasn’t eating much either. The grill restaurant was acceptable. Not amazing, but edible, which by this point felt like fine dining. The taverna restaurant on our final night provided calamari so rubbery that chewing a tyre from my car may have offered a similar culinary experience. The kebab was dry. Dessert was nice. Now let’s talk about stars. Hotels earn 4 and 5-star ratings through attention to detail. The little touches matter. The sunbeds are cheap and some are breaking. The pool towels are of a quality I would normally reserve for drying the dog after a muddy walk. The plates, glasses and cutlery appear to have been sourced from the bargain aisle. The buffet restaurant resembles a school dining hall more than a premium resort. Our room also came with complimentary ants. Not the occasional ant. Hundreds. Sometimes thousands. Every evening we had to shake ants off our bathroom towels before using them. One morning I woke up to what can only be described as an organised ant invasion stretching through every room in a perfectly straight line towards the bathroom. After being upgraded to a suite for our anniversary, this wasn’t quite the luxury experience we’d imagined. It took four hours for someone to deal with the problem and nobody apologised. When I reported it to reception, the reaction suggested ants were simply another hotel amenity. I also complained to the TUI rep about the standards, misleading information on the website and the evening entertainment. I don’t expect West End productions. I don’t expect Cirque du Soleil. But every evening I experienced levels of second-hand embarrassment I didn’t know were possible. The website advertised activities and facilities for children that simply weren’t there. The kids club seemed aimed almost exclusively at toddlers. Our children, aged 8 and 5, had very little they could do together. My eldest joined an aqua-yoga session and played Jenga on the grass. That was about the extent of it. To compensate, the rep gave us passes to use the neighbouring water park facilities, which was appreciated. One thing that genuinely concerned me was the lifeguards. The number of times they sat staring at their phones while on duty was alarming. Of course parents should supervise their own children, and most did, but emergencies aren’t always predictable. Lifeguards shouldn’t be scrolling through their phones poolside. By midweek I wanted to move hotels. To be fair, TUI offered to help facilitate a move, although the nearest suitable alternative would have cost us thousands more. No realistic option was suggested. The rep also seemed genuinely shocked that anyone could possibly be unhappy here. Apparently I was the first person ever to complain. A quick glance at TripAdvisor suggests otherwise. Overall, I know there are far worse problems in the world than a disappointing holiday. But when you’ve spent £3,200 on a supposedly 5-star family holiday to celebrate your 10-year wedding anniversary, you’re entitled to expect decent food, decent facilities and a room that isn’t hosting its own ant civilisation. This is not a 5-star hotel. It’s barely a 3-star. We only spoke to two other couples during our stay, but both were experiencing similar issues and had made complaints of their own. Had we spoken to more guests, I suspect we’d have found many more feeling exactly the same way. The biggest disappointment isn’t the money. It’s the fact that we spent a year looking forward to this holiday. Please don’t waste yours. (I cannot seem to upload photos or add a video on the ant invasion!)

Never go to this hotel with this company! Food inedible, staff unhelpful, non existent activities. Complete rip off. Middle of nowhere so cannot escape. Spent heavily to make up for very disappointing experience. All queries were met with a NO, couldn’t eat in à la carte restaurant despite trying to book on arrival, apparently no space despite empty restaurants. Clearly trying to minimise cost at every turn. Cleaners entering rooms with children changing despite being told they couldn’t enter. It really was terrible and this was meant to be a 5T hotel…..pick a different hotel!

We’ve just arrived home after spending 6 nights all-inclusive at the TUI Blue Lagoon Princess Hotel, booked via the TUI App. We had the most wonderful time as a couple and, although we do not have children, I would without a doubt recommend this hotel to anyone with a young family or anyone looking for a ‘fly and flop’ break. We had 5 glorious days of sun 🌞 ⭐️I’ve rated this hotel and our stay 4* as I feel there are only minor things stopping it being 5*. The hotel and grounds are very well laid out, with enough space between buildings so you don’t feel on top of one another. We were given a map on arrival and taken to our room with our luggage in an electric golf buggy, which was a lovely touch. We were then shown where we could have lunch on the map. The grounds of the hotel are home to three cats — that we saw — and they were really lovely. One morning someone had left them some cat kibble 🥹 We’re a couple and paid for a standard room, however if you are a family/couple and have the funds available I think a swim-up room is very special. Had we seen better pics of this we would have probably booked one. There are two swim-up options: the private one with your own pool about 3x3m, or the 3-pool communal swim-up ones. Our room was cleaned daily and housekeeping were really lovely, along with all the staff who worked tirelessly to make our holiday special and memorable. The pools were lovely. We spent the best part of a day at each one working out which was our favourite. The Plaza pool, the long slimmer one, was perfect and I felt an adults-only rule may have been nice, however we appreciate this is a family hotel so there will be children. There are three pools together which form a communal swim-up area, and then the main pool which we made our home mostly at umbrella 71. The lifeguards around the pools were extremely diligent and called out any unsafe behaviour immediately. I really enjoyed the aqua fitness classes held at 12 noon. The snack bar was wonderful — the crêpes and ice creams were delicious. I do feel that because we did not stay in a commercialised town or neighbourhood, we discovered authentic Greek food, people and culture🇬🇷🏛️ The buffet breakfast, lunch and dinner did not disappoint. For some reason there are some bad reviews about the food on here, however I feel that if you go to a foreign country you need to be willing to try their food and cuisine. I’ve included some photos — all the food I had was delicious. The theme nights could do with more dishes from the specific country’s cuisine, but other than that we tried most things. We were lucky enough to get booked into the Tavern Restaurant, which was incredible — a truly wonderful experience of authentic Greek culture and food. If you stay longer than 6 nights you get a meal in both restaurants included in the package. I’ve rated this hotel and our stay 4* as I feel there are only minor things stopping it being 5*. I’m looking forward to my next adventure with TUI and exploring more of the world. *Some points to consider:* - We booked this holiday to do nothing, so the fact it’s in the middle of nowhere suited us. - Signs around the pool say no inflatables, yet the mini market sells every inflatable under the sun, so basically it’s a free-for-all and the signs aren’t enforced. - The rooms are extremely small, and the bathrooms are an odd shape leaving little to no room if you like to have the door open. If you can afford a larger room, I would go for it. - 80% of the time the staff drive the electric golf carts around like it’s F1 — too fast and unsafe. - We booked all-inclusive through the TUI app as above, and got the bus with everyone else from the airport going to roughly the same area. We got the 06:10 flight from Gatwick and arrived at the hotel at 14:05. If you have the funds I’d probably get private transfers to/from the airport. - Sun creams and generally all items in the shop are very overpriced — take all you need and more. We gifted the remainder of ours to a family at breakfast. - The pedestrian road you need to cross to get to the beach isn’t just for pedestrians — cars do drive up and down - There are some tiles missing from the pool on the steps, not something I would expect to see and all in all the whole place could do with a spring clean and lick of paint. - 1 beach/pool towel per person per day, so once your towel is wet, it is WET

The princess had everything we could need as a family, beautiful food, fantastic friendly staff, spotless clean resort and gorgeous comfortable rooms. Our holiday was wonderful and complimented by the beach with stunning blue waters, water sports available, brillant cabana service. 5* resort for a 5* holiday. Well done blue lagoon Princess and Tui Blue. We will be back.

Clean hotel with friendly staff. Rooms are perfectly adequate and resemble what you get at Premier Inns. Drinks are okay (albeit no fresh orange juice and you have to pay for branded alcoholic drinks). The dood in the main buffet restaurant is appalling. If you like food smothered in rich sauces you will be fine here. If you want plain food (save for the salads which are good) then this hotel is not for you. You can book into other restaurants in the evening where the food is better but you have to pay at those (despite booking all inclusive). The hotel complex is very remote. Fortunately we had hired a car and could get to shops (and edible food). The evening entertainment was mixed. Shame that the food is so bad - so bad in fact I will be wary of going all inclusive again.