I feel it is my duty as a loyal Father and Son to do this blog post. It wouldn’t be fair to get Catherine to talk about the week we have just spent in Mallorca… with my Mum.
Last September I lost my Father and one of the follow on topics was holidays. Both may parents used to travel abroad 3 or 4 times a year. Cruising and 5 star luxury resorts. Without my father by her side, my Mum said that she would never be able to go on holiday again. To which the family all said that wouldn’t be the case we would go with her.
Mallorca – Puerto Pollensa
As there were five of us travelling, we had to spread over 2 rooms. The resort we chose, Fergus Style Pollensa Park, didn’t offer adjoining rooms and seemed to mainly offer rooms designed for 2 adults and one child. So offered to share a room with my mum. Last time I shared a room was probably 25 years ago.
As we opened the door to the first room there were 3 single beds pushed together, so I handed the key to Catherine to let them in. The next room, had a double bed…
The sleeping arrangements quickly changed to Me, Abigail and my Mother in the 3 single beds. Actually sharing a bed with my mum would just be too awkward. After a quick un packing of the cases, we were ready for lunch.
The Pollensa Park & Spa was an all-inclusive resort, which was our first experience of this kind of holiday. We were certainly up for including it all as well.
All inclusive Food & Drink
The hotel had two restaurant options. The main restaurant which had a large buffet with 2 live cooking stations. One cooking fresh pasta, the other grilling meat and fish. At least 3 times over the 7 days the meat option was beef steaks on the griddle.
The second food option was from the pool bar area, where it was more of a snack option. Burgers, Hot dogs, salads and cakes. In the afternoon they also changed out the snacks for ham and cheese sandwiches and more cakes.
The was also the option to use the pool bar restaurant on an evening for an alternative Mexican night.
As we settled into our routine of buffet dining the first thing that tickled us was that you helped your self to drinks. Fanta Lemon, Orange, Coke, Fruit juices, Beer and Wine. Yes that’s right you simple topped up your glass of white, red or rose as you liked. So, we tried all four alcoholic options and decided the Rose was best.
The main restaurant always served at least one soup option. A choice of three salads of varying ingredients. Fish or meat cooked on the grill, A large rice dish (paella, risotto, pilau etc) fresh pizza, pasta and some hot plate offerings including veg and chips.
Desserts were fresh fruit, ice cream and about 5 or 6 cake or custard options. Cream Caramel, rice pudding, cold custard with cinnamon on the top. I tried them all and they were all tasty (if you like cold custard).
Entertainment
Our first experience of the entertainment was Michael Jackson, a Tribute Dance act. As far as entertainment at hotels goes, it wasn’t that bad. Not as good as the Butlin’s acts we’ve seen, but still good. It may have been the cocktails, the wine and beer mixture or the rum and coke, but Michael had the moves and the show had some clever twists in it.
Early in the evening was a kids disco, which always followed a set routine of Superman, Gangnam style and a collection of spanish songs we’d never heard. That was until the last night when we just couldn’t get the songs out of our heads.
To share the track I’d located the on You tube for you.
Soca Soca Baci Baci Vira
There was the option to buy the official Fergus Style CD from reception, but we politely declined.
The All Inclusive Routine
It didn’t take long for us to get stuck in to the routine of pool, drinks, swim, drinks, food, ice cream, sunbathe, drinks, food, watch Entertainment and drink some more. The one thing that we did try to avoid was going to bed too early. Opposite our hotel were 2 small bars, also with entertainment. If you went to bed too early you were kept awake by Scottish Elvis or Cockney Abba.
In an attempt to break from the routine we opted to cross the street and visit one of the bars. It just seemed a waste of money as the entertainment in the bar wasn’t any better than that of our hotel. Plus we were having to pay for our drinks. at 4 euros a pint or 25 euros for a round of 5 drinks it didn’t seem to be worth venturing beyond the walls of our compound resort.
Spa
The hotel offered a spa, with treatment rooms. In the Spa, there was a swimming pool, Jacuzzi, steam room and sauna. This was an adult only area most of the time, except between 12:30pm and 3:30pm. Imogen and Abigail joined Catherine for some “relaxation” time. Which in reality was time well spent. The swimming pool was too deep for Abigail to touch the floor, which meant that she pushed her self harder to learn to swim. By the end of the holiday she was able to swim lengths of that pool in a doggy paddle / breast stroke fashion.
The only thing that I didn’t understand about the spa was the stone walk. Imogen completed it several time and made me join in once. The Stone walk was a corridor of pebbles, that had powerful jets of water pointed at around ankle height. Some were hot some where colder. As you entered the stone walk you pressed the jet button and completed your walk. I’m guessing that I’m missing the point of the luxury of sore feet here, but several people did it. Yes it hurt.
Trips and Excursions
To avoid cabin fever, we did push to do 2 trips. One was a shopping trip into Palma, the other was a Pirates adventure dinner show. (Separate posts to follow on them).
One thing that me and Imogen did over the week was Geocaching. Oh yes it was there too. and we found four different ones over the week. The first one was about 50 Meters from our hotel, but others were miles away. Catherine also joined us and she found her first Geocache at a nature park. She was actually quite chuffed with herself (Well done Cat!).
Finally as a beach resort, we walked to the beach several times. My mother isn’t the best at walking so just stayed around the pool area.
Pollensa Park and Spa Review
Generally we enjoyed our stay at the resort, but don’t feel we could have stayed there for 2 weeks. One week was enough for us to exhaust its facilities. The staff are extremely friendly and the bar was offered in decent portions. Certain spirits were included with the package, so we discovered a new favourite Bacardi and Fanta Limon cocktail. You could also get Cava by the glass free.
The rooms were small and ideally our room would have been just a double. With 3 beds in it the beds literally touched the curtains and stopped 2 feet from the sliding wardrobe. The furniture was minimal, but modern in style. We found that there wasn’t enough space to store clothes or toiletries and ended up storing shampoo, toothpaste on the floor (in a bag).
We read on a trip advisor review that people were putting towels on the sunbeds at 6:30 in the morning and we can confirm this was happening. So by the 4th day we couldn’t beat them, so we joined them in this bizarre land grabbing ritual. It was the strangest routine I’ve ever partaken in. A stream of guests with towels staking the prime spots, without acknowledging each other. No one would look you in the eye, even though we were all doing the same. One family we saw hogged beds all day long to only use them for the last hour of the day. Personally I feel that was selfish as by 4pm there were lots of beds available. If we towelled a bed we displayed our all you can eat bellies from 9am.
If I was going back to Peurto Pollensa, I would stop at the Fergus Style, it was the largest hotel in the area and visible from the next resort along the bay. But I don’t feel Puerto Pollensa has a lot offer young families for a second trip. If your after a food, drink and pool holiday, then it was perfect.
Leave a Reply