Hi Gill

We are also flying from Gatwick booked through first choice.Think our flight does not arrive till late evening.Lets hope all the teething problems have settled by then.

Fiona

Hi Fiona , Gill,
There are 11 of us travelling to the Oceania on the 11th Aug (3 family's). We are flying from Man early morning, see you all there.

Nick

Hello to all the 11 August arrivals. We, Keith, Sheena, Alex (15) and Lara (13) are flying from Gatwick on 11/8. Look forward to meeting you all there.

Keith

We are going to the Oceania on 23rd July for 2 weeks, leaving from Gatwick. There is my husband and I, our son aged 14 and daughter aged 11. We are really looking forward to going and would love to hear from anyone going on or around these dates.

We are flying out on the 21/07/05 from manchester.there is a party of nine of us . In my family there are five of us myself,my husband ,my sons of 12 and 6 and a daughter of 1.I do hope when we get there ALL the problems will have been sorted out!!!

hi sue.
we are arriving at the oceania club on 28th july for two weeks. i am bringing 3 children: daughter- 17 and two sons- 15 and 11
they are pleased to hear that there appears to be several children their ages also going.
see you there
tina white

Hello
We are arriving on the 28th July for two weeks flying from Manchester, there is myself, my husband and 2 sons 7 and 21 months.

See you there

Evonne

hi,
my daughter-17 would like to know if there are any people around her age going to the oceania club at the same time as us. we are flying out on 28th july for two weeks.
tina

We're arriving on 14 Aug with two girls (13 & 10). Does anyone have children the same ages?

we go 14th july for 1 wk, we have girl 13,boy 8.

Hi Mandy

We have a daughter of 12 years old and will be looking for friends too! A
Arriving 11 Aug. Hopefully make friends. Please reply.

Gill

Hi to all the 11th Aug arrivals. We have a daughter 13 and son 15 who will be looking for buddies to keep them occupied for 2 weeks.

See you there

Kevin

Hi Mandy,
We arrive on the 11th Aug my two daughters(12+9) other family daughter - 12 11 of us all together fly 11th Aug staying 2 weeks .
Nick

Hi Nick

We have a daughter, Lily, of 12 who will be looking to make friends.
Arriving 11 Aug.

Gill

I have just read two horrendous reviews for the Oceania Club on Holiday-Truth.com. Has anyone heard any news from holidaymakers who have just arrived back?

Terry

...and another family for the 11th August - we arrive then with 2 sons aged 17 and 21.

Although I have been concerned about some of the threads, the lastest ones from people that have just returned on 2nd or 3rd June seem really positive. I am looking forward to it.

Are these the reviews you're talking about?

Having read them I'm more and more dismayed.

Reviews posted on Holiday-truths (3/6/05):

I have just returned today from the worst holiday of my life. Unfortunately there are no other words for it. The feeling of relief when we touched back down in the UK brought a smile to our faces.

These are our views and I will try to be diplomatic, I am telling you about our experience’s at the Oceania Club which I’m sure will differ from other peoples but this is based on our two weeks and the complaint form(s) we submitted to First choice while in resort, which resulted in ourselves (and about 10 other families from first choice that I know of) getting 30% back. Med Hotels and Thomas cook held there own customer meetings.

The hotel is built into the side of the cliff with the reception at road level on floor Six. Very bland decor 2 bars (1 function), Bars very rarely staffed usual guest relations desk etc but No library, Games room, Internet room or jewellery shop, normal shop still getting sorted although did have good stock by the time we left. There is a shoe shop!

Floor 5 is just toilets, yes a whole floor just for toilets!

Floor 4 is the restaurant (all meals buffet) free for all when we first arrived but now they actually take you to the seats and have a dress code and rules etc. The Italian was rubbish, 1 choice of fish, steak or veggie option that’s it! Did not try the Asian. These are just segregated areas of the main restaurant.

Floor 3 to block 2 rooms

Floor 2 to Crèche/kiddies club/night club/Cinema

Floor 1 ?? Maintenance I think

Floor 0 Pool/Spa/Block 3 & 4 rooms/Beach/Greek taverna

What’s still not open - Greek Taverna, Crèche, Spa (half done) Beach bar, Kids play area inside and play area outside not safe. There are also parts of the building not accessible due to being boarding up so don't know what they will be if anything. They were still trying to get alot of the rooms finished as late as last Friday, painting etc.

The Hotel rooms are separate from the main complex, they are divided into 5 blocks with 3 floors in each block. You have a good sea view if you are in Block 1 (but not floor one) Block 2 all floors, Block 3 one and two look directly to block 4 so Rubbish unless you are on floor three and block 4 all floors good. Block 5 is the deluxe rooms and all have a good sea view over the private pool area.

The Double Rooms are very very small, we had to move to a junior suite which I considered to be a normal hotel room as we could not move in the double room with a cot in there as well. (and the noisy air conditioning kept us awake for two nights running)
The deluxe suites looked impressive.

This Hotel will never be a 4* plus, I have stayed in Hotels all over the world and at best when complete I would say this is a 3* it is not child or disabled friendly and never will be purely by design.

The town of Nea Moudania is a 15-20 min walk along the front away and is a small local working port/town and not geared up for tourists. You will walk round once for a morning then that’s it, it’s done. There’s a good Wednesday market in the town but that’s it, there's nothing else to do and I really mean nothing!!

Ultimately this Hotel is not finished and by Andreas's own admission (Sani marketing director) They have failed the customers expectations big time!!. The problem is the Hotel Owner's are vertually bankrupt; the builders have been given alot of rubber cheques so are refusing to do any more work. Meanwhile Sani (who manage the operation they do not own the hotel) are trying to run it the best they can.

Most of the staff are fantastic in the face of adversity (apart from the reception staff who just don't seem to give a toss) The restaurant is the hotels saving grace all though the food did get very samey after two weeks.

Our problems, without boring you with to much detail I will list in bullet form with brief explanation, if you want further info please contact me.

1. Tiled area around pool dangerously slippy when wet, saw so many people slip over including me. Lots of kids slipping and bashing heads etc.
2. No fire evacuation procedures/ extinguishers evident any where in hotel including rooms, some did go up in 2nd week.
3. Very poor/non existent entertainment program for children
4. Drilling in Restaurant (core floor drill) to relieve flood water (restaurant flooded 3 nights running when storms hit)
5. My son cut foot on marble shards in pool area from restaurant balcony drilling mess not cleared up properly from night before.
6. Main pool floor dangerously slippy, one guy taken to hospital last week came back with a neck brace one lady had to have pain killing injections from a hip injury.
7. Paint peeling off children’s pool base.
8. Fire alarm continually going off day and night, we counted 7 times on Wednesday.
9. This hotel is not child friendly at all.
10. Baby phones were personal home type so were useless.
11. No babysitting service, first nanny walked out after two days new one fell asleep while in charge of kids.
12. The lifts never work, 2 lifts in block four where we were, never worked always had to carry the pushchair and boy up and down the stairs, which restricted us immensely. The lifts in the hotel were always packing up as well mainly only 1 of the 3 was in operation caused alot of problems around dinner time etc. Also got stuck in the lifts twice when they broke down.
13. Fence near outside play area not complete, shear unguarded drop off cliff right next to swings etc.
14. Bare electrical wiring everywhere
15. Told workmen would be in restricted areas at restricted times they seemed to work as and when they pleased. Due to all the problems on site the hotel maintenance staff seemed to be everywhere all the time banging and drilling something.
16. Periodically no hot water
17. No air conditioning or very noisy when it did work.

These are some of our issues which basically spoilt the whole holiday for us, if I went on my own with the wife you could laugh most of this off, but not when you have a nine month old baby in what was supposed to be a child friendly hotel. It was very evident from the amount of under 5's there that's the impression that everyone else had too.

My advice is don’t go to this hotel - Yet! Go next year when it’s settled down a bit and don't take your kids (fit or disabled) or your granny in the wheelchair if you do you will be disappointed. They should re market this hotel for couples young and old who don't want to venture far and just want to sit by the pool and exercise their all inclusive card at the bar.
I think your expectations would then be met and they would not be dishing out refunds to alot of very p----d off customers.

If you have booked a holiday to this hotel its your choice what you do, these were our experience's with a 9 month old baby. I honestly wish I had not gone and got my money back. We are so disappointed read the website, look at the brochure you think it will be fantastic, its not. I will not get another holiday now this year that’s it for us I wish I had stayed at home.

PJD.

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duchatel
New User...



Joined: 03 May 2004
Posts: 8

4 HTPoints

Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2005 5:07 pm Post subject: oceania club

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We returned yesterday and i have to sat that everything mr Dowding has said is spot on,i wouldnt disagree with anything,this hotel is not now,nor will never be a 5 star hotel.Anyone going with kids,forget it,the kids club is poor,they will not show any qualifications and dont even sign children in or out,they have no idea where to find parents as you are not even asked where you will be,oh and kids wonder around unsupervised whilst they chat,it is awful.The playground at present has a 30ft drop that is protected by a 2 ft fence,dont let your kids go there on their own.Babysitting,there isnt any.The cinema still isnt open,built but not open.As for the entertainment,well bingo isnt 5 star nor is a music quiz,there literallly is nothing to do.My advice,if you can cancel or rebook ealsewhere then doso,everyone we met wished they had and so do we,i feel that i wish someone had said this to us before we went,maybe we could have listened and acted.Oh and any info from sani is rubbish,it is not ready,trust us we know.Ihope peter will post this on halkidiki .com also,as will i,and thanks peter for what you did for the rest of us,at least we can have another holiday of some sort,maybe the bbc are still worth trying.

Mike B .

Are these the reviews you're talking about?

Having read them I'm more and more dismayed.

Reviews posted on Holiday-truths (3/6/05):

I have just returned today from the worst holiday of my life. Unfortunately there are no other words for it. The feeling of relief when we touched back down in the UK brought a smile to our faces.

These are our views and I will try to be diplomatic, I am telling you about our experience’s at the Oceania Club which I’m sure will differ from other peoples but this is based on our two weeks and the complaint form(s) we submitted to First choice while in resort, which resulted in ourselves (and about 10 other families from first choice that I know of) getting 30% back. Med Hotels and Thomas cook held there own customer meetings.

The hotel is built into the side of the cliff with the reception at road level on floor Six. Very bland decor 2 bars (1 function), Bars very rarely staffed usual guest relations desk etc but No library, Games room, Internet room or jewellery shop, normal shop still getting sorted although did have good stock by the time we left. There is a shoe shop!

Floor 5 is just toilets, yes a whole floor just for toilets!

Floor 4 is the restaurant (all meals buffet) free for all when we first arrived but now they actually take you to the seats and have a dress code and rules etc. The Italian was rubbish, 1 choice of fish, steak or veggie option that’s it! Did not try the Asian. These are just segregated areas of the main restaurant.

Floor 3 to block 2 rooms

Floor 2 to Crèche/kiddies club/night club/Cinema

Floor 1 ?? Maintenance I think

Floor 0 Pool/Spa/Block 3 & 4 rooms/Beach/Greek taverna

What’s still not open - Greek Taverna, Crèche, Spa (half done) Beach bar, Kids play area inside and play area outside not safe. There are also parts of the building not accessible due to being boarding up so don't know what they will be if anything. They were still trying to get alot of the rooms finished as late as last Friday, painting etc.

The Hotel rooms are separate from the main complex, they are divided into 5 blocks with 3 floors in each block. You have a good sea view if you are in Block 1 (but not floor one) Block 2 all floors, Block 3 one and two look directly to block 4 so Rubbish unless you are on floor three and block 4 all floors good. Block 5 is the deluxe rooms and all have a good sea view over the private pool area.

The Double Rooms are very very small, we had to move to a junior suite which I considered to be a normal hotel room as we could not move in the double room with a cot in there as well. (and the noisy air conditioning kept us awake for two nights running)
The deluxe suites looked impressive.

This Hotel will never be a 4* plus, I have stayed in Hotels all over the world and at best when complete I would say this is a 3* it is not child or disabled friendly and never will be purely by design.

The town of Nea Moudania is a 15-20 min walk along the front away and is a small local working port/town and not geared up for tourists. You will walk round once for a morning then that’s it, it’s done. There’s a good Wednesday market in the town but that’s it, there's nothing else to do and I really mean nothing!!

Ultimately this Hotel is not finished and by Andreas's own admission (Sani marketing director) They have failed the customers expectations big time!!. The problem is the Hotel Owner's are vertually bankrupt; the builders have been given alot of rubber cheques so are refusing to do any more work. Meanwhile Sani (who manage the operation they do not own the hotel) are trying to run it the best they can.

Most of the staff are fantastic in the face of adversity (apart from the reception staff who just don't seem to give a toss) The restaurant is the hotels saving grace all though the food did get very samey after two weeks.

Our problems, without boring you with to much detail I will list in bullet form with brief explanation, if you want further info please contact me.

1. Tiled area around pool dangerously slippy when wet, saw so many people slip over including me. Lots of kids slipping and bashing heads etc.
2. No fire evacuation procedures/ extinguishers evident any where in hotel including rooms, some did go up in 2nd week.
3. Very poor/non existent entertainment program for children
4. Drilling in Restaurant (core floor drill) to relieve flood water (restaurant flooded 3 nights running when storms hit)
5. My son cut foot on marble shards in pool area from restaurant balcony drilling mess not cleared up properly from night before.
6. Main pool floor dangerously slippy, one guy taken to hospital last week came back with a neck brace one lady had to have pain killing injections from a hip injury.
7. Paint peeling off children’s pool base.
8. Fire alarm continually going off day and night, we counted 7 times on Wednesday.
9. This hotel is not child friendly at all.
10. Baby phones were personal home type so were useless.
11. No babysitting service, first nanny walked out after two days new one fell asleep while in charge of kids.
12. The lifts never work, 2 lifts in block four where we were, never worked always had to carry the pushchair and boy up and down the stairs, which restricted us immensely. The lifts in the hotel were always packing up as well mainly only 1 of the 3 was in operation caused alot of problems around dinner time etc. Also got stuck in the lifts twice when they broke down.
13. Fence near outside play area not complete, shear unguarded drop off cliff right next to swings etc.
14. Bare electrical wiring everywhere
15. Told workmen would be in restricted areas at restricted times they seemed to work as and when they pleased. Due to all the problems on site the hotel maintenance staff seemed to be everywhere all the time banging and drilling something.
16. Periodically no hot water
17. No air conditioning or very noisy when it did work.

These are some of our issues which basically spoilt the whole holiday for us, if I went on my own with the wife you could laugh most of this off, but not when you have a nine month old baby in what was supposed to be a child friendly hotel. It was very evident from the amount of under 5's there that's the impression that everyone else had too.

My advice is don’t go to this hotel - Yet! Go next year when it’s settled down a bit and don't take your kids (fit or disabled) or your granny in the wheelchair if you do you will be disappointed. They should re market this hotel for couples young and old who don't want to venture far and just want to sit by the pool and exercise their all inclusive card at the bar.
I think your expectations would then be met and they would not be dishing out refunds to alot of very p----d off customers.

If you have booked a holiday to this hotel its your choice what you do, these were our experience's with a 9 month old baby. I honestly wish I had not gone and got my money back. We are so disappointed read the website, look at the brochure you think it will be fantastic, its not. I will not get another holiday now this year that’s it for us I wish I had stayed at home.

PJD.

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duchatel
New User...



Joined: 03 May 2004
Posts: 8

4 HTPoints

Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2005 5:07 pm Post subject: oceania club

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We returned yesterday and i have to sat that everything mr Dowding has said is spot on,i wouldnt disagree with anything,this hotel is not now,nor will never be a 5 star hotel.Anyone going with kids,forget it,the kids club is poor,they will not show any qualifications and dont even sign children in or out,they have no idea where to find parents as you are not even asked where you will be,oh and kids wonder around unsupervised whilst they chat,it is awful.The playground at present has a 30ft drop that is protected by a 2 ft fence,d

we returned 13th May, see our previous message on our worst holiday ever. We offered 25% comp on site which we refused we waiting reply from ourn tour operator as this was a miserble experience & they knew it would be as their reps were telling them it not ready. They have pulled this holiday from sale (first choice) a bit late in my book & we should receive full comp as this was to be our only holiday this year we will fight on for full comp, hazel & vic (another victim of the slippy pool area)

Hi,

PLEASE has anyone returned RECENTLY (late May/early June)from the Oceania?? My husband and two children are due to go out in August and we pay our balance on the 10th of this month.

We understand a new hotel will have teething problems initially, but is it more than that? We have read things like health and safety issues, possible closure, people having partial refunds etc. Is it really that bad or has it improved over the last few weeks?

Can anybody help. We would love to hear from you.

Vicky