Dreams Calvia Mallorca — Hotel in Calvià

Ok so there is a mix of reviews of this hotel. Some very unfair. So I'm going to do my best to keep this 100% honest.

The hotel itself is clean, tidy and welcoming. We had 2 rooms booked, a junior suite and double premium. I was chuffed when we arrived and what we were actually allocated was 2 junior suites. These were lovely. 3 of us in one, me my adult son and teenage daughter, my mom in her own room. The suites have this amazing dressing area, and we had 2 balconies. The air con wasn't strong, but was enough to be comfortable at night. We had a massive, I'm assuming king size bed, my son had a double pull out bed settee. He said this was uncomfortable, and could do with a thicker mattress, but I couldn't fault the bed we were in.

We were all inclusive and had a mini fridge, this was never explained, but it was part of the all inclusive we later discovered. If I could offer any advice to management, explain better to guests when they check in whats included.

Now, the food. I do not enjoy buffet food at all inclusives and go for all inclusive for the drinks. However, I did try the 2 buffet restaurants. Both I found repetitive and not to my taste. But not any worse or different from any other all-inclusive hotel. There was plenty of fresh fruit and salad though and a childrens section. But my preference is to eat out, that's on me, not the hotel. I will say the pool bar by the family pool has a limited but lovely menu open from 10 until 6pm. I much preferred food from here. Also the tapas bar opened half the week was lovely too. There is food on offer throughout the day and that can't be faulted. I had my birthday the day before we left, and it was a lovely surprise to return to the room and have a cake and bottle of wine waiting, thoughtful touch.

The beach is a short 5 min walk away down some steps/steep slope. Those with mobility issues may struggle. It is steps at the back of another hotel, but not some sort of dirty alleyway described by others. The strip is a 15 min walk away either along the beach or streets, however, in the 30° temps, its a sweaty walk lol

I didn't see much of the entertainment, what I did see was ok, nothing to complain about.

Staff all seemed friendly. Rooms were tidied some days, sheets were not changed at all in our weeks break. I did request this via an app you can download, but it never happened. Changing of towels was also hit and miss, but not in a way it affected my stay. I broke a glass in the room and called reception, a member of staff arrived within 30mins with a vacuum etc to clear it up which I was grateful for.

What I particularly liked about this hotel was there are lots of pockets of space to sit and relax when the sun is too hot.

Now what I view as the only real negative of the hotel... the sunbed wars. Honestly, it was a nightmare. The only was we were able to get a bed throughout the week stay was by paying €45 for a belinese bed for the day. Speaking to other guests, they were getting up at 5-6am to reserve beds. I went out twice at 9am and there was not a chance of getting 1 bed. On the odd occasion staff moved towels from beds that had no people on them it caused uproar, with the police been called on one occasion after a massive almost fight started, all over sunbeds. I don't know the answer, but I refuse to get up at those times for a sunbed, I'm on holiday. The hotel can not manage the issue, I'm not blaming them, but it was an awful situation that may put some off. Some guests are very selfish. I witnessed one family have 6-7 beds reserved, with 2 of them having just inflatables on all day, no actual people. I regularly seen beds with towels but no people for hours on end. Again, I don't know the answer.

Sunbeds aside, this was one of the best hotels I've stayed in. If you are not keen on typical European all-inclusive, just be prepared to eat out. The drinks package was fab. Premium spirits and nice wine on offer. I am knocking off a half star based on the sunbed situation, but I will still most definitely be returning. Thanks to...

Simply said: a disappointment by Dreams. We booked a front sea view, got a side view. The view was covered partly by trees, that's why we asked for a room on higher floor. The front desk agent promised to let us know. Nobody got back to us during our stay. Moreover, even though we asked at the front desk, the hotel staff was not able to deliver a "Do not disturb" sign to our room for our whole stay. We had to be creative and use pen&paper, brush up our Spanish and hang the note on the door handle. The evening entertainment takes place daily in the outside bar near the main pool. If you hope for some quiet evening on the balcony looking at the sea, forget it. You'll be a part of the loud music whether you want or not. The singers and dancers will be performing right under your balcony till late night. If you enjoy it, good for you, if not, you'll have to escape and go for a walk to explore the local cafes (10 minutes of walking on sidewalks by other hotels or 5 minutes taking a shortcut around the sand beach and you'll get there very easily).

Further, although we booked the preferred club with unlimited luxury all inclusive, we would describe it as a/ limited, b/ not even near luxury. You can read on the dreamsresorts website that as a prefwrred club, you can enjoy 24hrs concierge service. We didn't get that. Nadia was there from 9am till 6pm. Period. As for Daily continental breakfast service (7:30 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.) in the preferred club lounge promised by the website- not true. The lounge opened at 9.00 am and sometimes there was no food till 9.15 am.

As for the meals generally, we did not like the food and ended up having dinner out after 2 days of our stay. We don't eat meat nor eggs & milk, and we were lacking proteins in our food. We found some good restaurants in Calvia, by the way. (However, Kudos to the waiters of the main buffet restaurant in Dreams Calvia who serve in such a crowded and noisy place during lunch and dinner😳😵‍💫).

Further, the restaurants open and close on a schedule, which you have to remember. It sometimes seems as if the rules changed daily so you might end up running from one side of the resort to another to find the right spot which is open to serve you.

Not to forget, when some guests were jumping over the fence to the preferred club pool, the staff did not say anything. When other guests settled by the preferred club pool even though the were not the preferred club, the staff did not care. Nobody checked it.

The Oceana bar and restaurant was supposed to open at 10 am. At 10.20 am we had to approach the front desk and ask for some staff to come. Then an annoyed member of the staff came to serve the guests.

One benefit of the resort- the location. It's 2 minutes from the beach by foot (if you take the stairs), but in a safe distance from the Magaluf's loud bars and clubs.

To sum up, we were disappointed by the hotel service and we would not return to Dreams Calvia despite its...

Let me start with the negative things (warning to families with toddlers).

We had a extremely negative experience with the hotel Reception staff and the management. I will explain it down below in more detail.

We stayed at the hotel for 7 days. As we were told, check-out should be until 12:00. On the second day of our stay (Thursday), we asked at the reception for a late check-out (also with the travel agency representative) because our daughter has her sleeping routine between 11:00 and 13:00, and we had a long journey ahead of us. We were told that they couldn't provide information about late check-out and advised us to come and ask on Tuesday, the day before our departure. So we went, but we were told to come the next day in the morning because they didn't know yet. Consequently, we came on the last day of our stay.

The lady at the reception informed us that the manager had not arrived yet but both rooms we were using were booked, so we couldn't request a late check-out. She mentioned that there was a chance to ask the manager to make an exception and change it for us. She assured us that she would call us and let us know. We even gave her our phone number that I wrote on piece of paper. However, to our surprise, 11:00 came and went, and we didn't receive any phone call. Frustrated, I went to inquire one last time. They informed me that a late check-out was not possible, but we could stay until 13:00. Furthermore, we were charged an additional 40 euros for the late check-out. This situation was unbelievable.

The late check-out should have been until 16:00, allowing us an extra three hours, yet we were charged the same amount of money for just one hour. I understand why this occurred: because we were desperate parents, and the management took advantage of our situation. The reception and management exploited our circumstances and charged us extra money without showing any willingness to assist us, despite being aware of our situation since the second day of our stay.

The second unpleasant thing was that the staff at the Family pool allowed people to smoke directly at the places where little children were playing.

Apart from this I must pinpoint the excellent things that we have enjoyed during our stay all the staff apart from the management and the Reception. Cleaing lady, guy at pool bar, waiters at restaurants were awesome, always helpfull and willing to help with anything the pool and bar areas availability, quality and quantity of food that was served at restaurants the proximity of beach and the city

To sum up I definitely recomend this hotel for families with older children or to couples without children. If you have a toddler be aware if you need to have the room available sooner or later than the usuall checkin / checkout times.

PS: We send the almost exact email to the hotel management at saturday 1.7. and we did not recieve any feedback. I will edit this review if we will recieve...