Pickalbatros Jungle Aqua Park Resort - Neverland Hurghada — Hotel in Red Sea

A late review from last year but ultimately... this was possibly my favourite holiday I've ever been on !|I'm in my mid 40's, my wife is younger but it was just us that went. |The reviews are soo mixed it just felt like a gamble before thinking f'it lets just try.|I've only been on 1 prior all-inclusive holiday before but that was back in 2004, so quite some time has passed.||This was our first time to Egypt, we had booked this for 15 nights and on this occasion we basically just stayed in the resort, and the beach which you can get a minibus to (all inc), oh and a couple of visits to the shopping centre about 10 mins walk away.||Firstly this resort is absolutely gigantic, and I really mean it's nuts how large this place is (and will be expanding!). There are plenty of buses to shuttle you around the resort, I've no idea why people had previous said anything other than that, so I can only conclude they're total buffoons and completely impatient, or there really was some mechanical issue in that moment.||There are more pools than you could ever use!|Typically each apartmentlodge has it's own one but obviously you can use any of them.||There are slides for absolutely everyone, I will be the first to admit that as a child, I wasn't a fan of these things but my goodness that has changed now :D|There was only 1 slide I didn't go on (you face forwards) but all of the others were fantastic, and the queues ranged from seconds to at worst like 10 mins. Obviously that is solely depending on the time of year you can visit, ours was outside of most school holidays thankfully.|I can't fault just how many slides there were, it really was amazing fun even up to the last few days when sure, you aren't on them all day but just heading to them when you fancied it.||Next up - FOOD !||This is something where I cannot understand a single complaint, I really don't get it at all and unfortunately I can only guess the negativity is from some kind of spoilt, self entitled "£$%. There was soo much choice, its overwhelming. What we did is scout out the ones we really liked, either due to the food itself, atmosphere or how busy it was. ie use your brain, don't be lazy and explore a bit !|For example in regards to breakfast, I tried 4 of the restaurants to find one that served all of the things I liked, they were not the same at all. So once again, explore, go and look and chat to the wonderful staff.|A couple of the kitchens are open pretty late and served absolutely awesome stuff (one of them had really great IndianChinese late). |Even one of the nights we had Ostrich - yes the thigh of an ostrich had been prepared and it was truly delicious (although looked macabre heh). |So for me, food was beyond my expectations.||The staff.|Wow - I've not seen people working soo tirelessly (they literally work weeks and weeks without days off!), for probably not very much income, and be so polite and friendly, no matter whom it was. We genuinely made good friends with some of the chefs, slide attendants, our cleaning guy. |I seriously cannot praise the people working there high enough, I really can't - I genuinely hope that when we return that we meet them again.|Amazing people!||We did have one issue with our first room, it wasn't the hotels fault and they took it very seriously, more so than I imagined. However a very friendly and helpful lady (Rebecca), helped resolve this issue with the manager and promptly upgraded our room to a larger family room that was in a more convenient location too. No, I didn't throw a fit and shout about this issue, I just let them know and showed clear proof something was amiss to let them decide how to proceed, a bit of polite diplomacy :-)||One thing I did notice which was just an observation, there aren't any insects except for flies here and there - a good bonus but for some reason in my mind I was expecting mosquitos and random crazy bugs - but nope, none :D||Yep there are lots of cats and kittens about (in the evening), we both love cats so it's not a problem for us at all, most were very friendly and sweet.||The beach was really good, plenty of seating but you might catch the bus in the wrong moment for it to be overly busy, if that's the case, just get the next one if possible. The food at the beach was ok, so we'd usually eat before or after visiting it.|Swimming in this bay is good but as ever, be careful - there are some dangerous fish and life beneath the waves, so having a full snorkel mask is advisable, just so you can observe the beauty of it, as well as being mindful. ||Bottom line, would we return - 100% yes and it's probably caused an issue for future holidays now, because they'll all...

This hotel could be a 5 star if they really wanted it to be by doing the following…

The Alba kids club needs to be moved to another building. It’s not fit for purpose. The floor is unsafe, it’s a trip hazard, my child did actually trip on it as there is a big strip of vinyl that’s lifted. The programme is so repetitive. The only thing that’s ensured is decent is the t-shirt painting but that’s only because the hotel charge for this. We weren’t told that the club was extremely understaffed, the club still took children out which wasn’t safe as my child was found wandering on her own. Thankfully we were very close by as I knew the time they were taking the children out, so I walked to the area, hence why I knew my child was left unattended. Yes I am 1 of the parents that stand back to allow the children to enjoy themselves, to make them think that they are being independent but I would much rather be an over thinker & also I am so so glad that I did this as my child wasn’t safe. It is such a shame that the hotel management aren’t running the club to a safe standard as the animation team are absolutely amazing! They are the reason why that club is still open but they aren’t being treated fairly. 1 of the mornings there were 2 guys painting the alba club roof red as the children were walking into the kids club. The red paint was dripping everywhere!! All over the path, sand pit the little rocking horse, ours clothes & skin! A top & dress ruined. The hotel management have no respect for the animation team & the clubs building isn’t maintained at all, not where it’s needed anyways!

The mini Miami is unsafe! My 2 children were on it as well as other children. The guy started the ride without pulling down their guards & fastening their seatbelts. All parents were screaming as you can imagine. A child fell of it, it was awful! This ride is very unsafe, even though the start button was pressed the ride should not have started. It is missing the safety mechanism of knowing that the guards & seatbelts weren’t in the correct, safety position.

A lot of staff who wore gloves for hygiene reasons whilst making & serving food, 1 evening & 1 staff member in particular, outside reception making waffles, using his phone with his gloves still on, not changing them & then serving waffles. Although he may have cleaned his phone in-between having his cigarette & putting his gloves on to make waffles.

The pirate ship/jungle aqua park toilets were always filthy & always running out of toilet roll. Needs to be maintained throughout the day, if outside grids can get cleaned I’m sure they can stretch to keeping toilets clean & replenishing toilet roll.

Few rude staff members, 1 in particular not being happy that we wanted fresh towels of a morning. We were told no, fresh towels in the evening. We said no we would like fresh towels this morning please, we had 4 towels thrown at us.

The room cleaning, maybe only our experience is very very basic. I wiped down 1 of the tops as it was very sticky, the wipe was black! The room needed a good deep clean & then cleaners just needed to wipe/dust/damp clean tops on a regular basis. Overall the room size was fab but the shower water is dangerous with the change of temperature from warm to scorching hot without warning.

The no decent cocktails was a let down.

Majority of staff are fabulous, so helpful, kind, courteous & work so hard!

Food hit & miss but could always get a meal & even if the fussiest of eaters went here they would be able to eat fine.

To see lighter fluid being squirted onto the BBQ coals was disappointing, well for me anyways, I didn’t fancy eating meat cooked on lighter fluid.

Fantastic place for children apart from the unsafe ride & the alba kids club being understaffed, floor lifted & red paint outside of it everywhere!

If staying for 2 weeks the evening shows are repetitive, same for the music for the kids disco too.

Would have been lovely to have had a bigger sandy area of the beach. Snack bar fab though for a beach but food service with a smile...

We had a great 10 night stay. It's huge, so I wanted to provide a detailed description for others heading there. But first a couple of things that need improving.

Firstly the alcohol. Apparently the beer was nice. I found the vodka and gin undrinkable. They tasted like raw spirits. The all inclusive offer is beer, wine and a few spirits. Cocktails are simply spirit and juice, e.g. vodka and orange was called sex on the beach. It's strange because they have invested in branded coke, fanta etc but not in decent spirits.

Secondly, and far more importantly to us, the kids club was completely unsafe. We couldn't leave our daughter with the staff as we weren't confident she would be there when we returned! The issues were: 1) the building is at the front of the site with an unlockable gate, 2) children were playing in the front (a tiny patch of dirt) with no supervision, 3) my husband was able to walk in and talk to our daughter without anyone challenging him, 4) the children were taken from kids club for ice cream even though we had stated on the form that she wasn't to leave kids club. There was limited monitoring of the group when they left, thankfully we were with our daughter. In the end the hotel was still worth it for us we our daughter is just about old enough to play in the shallow pools alone but we did expect to be able to use the kids club. Neverland needs to move the building, have a secure gate, establish who everyone that enters is, have an ID check or password for collection and stop taking the kids for ice cream. Otherwise they are at serious risk of an incident.

With the bad stuff out of the way, here is a description of the site. Once you've been there a few days you can understand the site is split into four areas with pools everywhere. The Leila part has a small kids waterpark and 4 restaurants (including veggie!). The midway and lagoon pool area has the rides, bikes, spa and 4 restaurants (including the only one you have to pay for and an Italian). The reception area has the bakery, ice cream, 4 restaurants (including a burger place and an Indian), a waterpark for kids and slides for older kids / adults. At the rear is the biggest waterpark area (absolutely massive) and snack bars.

Food - we generally found the food quality to be good but not five star dining of course. Breakfast is the same in all the restaurants I think; pancakes, omelettes, breads, cheeses etc. I'm vegetarian and found the evening offer to be much better than expected as there is a veggie restaurant! The Indian also always had great options and the others were as expected with one or two offers. Lunch I struggled with more and I had pizza / pasta most days. More choice if you're a carnivore of course. I would have appreciated better labelling of food.

Staff - staff are friendly and helpful. There are loads but they're still busy and getting drinks in restaurants can sometimes take a while. It's easier to just help yourself. One thing we forgot is how much Egyptian culture relies on tipping. It is expected (think USA culture) so best to have some change to tip drivers (airport transfers and excursions), cleaners and others. If you plan on visiting the spa then tipping is expected. Waiters didn't seem to expect tips as much in our experience but I'm sure they are appreciated. They're generally happy with Egyptian pounds, british pounds, euros or dollars.

Standard - the hotel is probably a little lower than a 4 star in terms of finish. Nothing awful just peeling paint in high traffic areas like near the pools and things like cots and beds left outside rooms. The rooms themselves are of high quality and well cleaned daily. It's not of the standard where staff work in the shadows and you don't see the inner workings, however, luxury is not really what you're coming to this hotel for and in terms of facilities it has more than I've ever experienced so warrants the 4 stars. It's a kids wonderland and happy kids means happy parents who get...