hi, well im back :-(

we had 10 nights booked all inclusive at the Ferrera Blanca in Cala D'or which is a 4* aparthotel. the holiday started out awful to be honest and consisted of me crying for a good couple of days but then massively improved and now im aching to be back, and have been since the minute i boarded the plane home!! lol

so, the hotel.... is in various blocks, the reception, a bar, internet, shop is all in one building, restaurants (2) are in another building and then the apartments are dotted all over, along with 5 pools makes it quite a large complex!




the ferrera blanca is a "mar hotel" they are a chain and have others dotted around the island, we have stayed with mar before and find them very similar regardless of which hotel. we travelled 1-11 may. when we arrived and got to our room, there was a knock at the door and we were presented with a bottle of champagne and a large fruit platter as it was our wedding anniversary, very sweet of them!!

the room we had booked was a suite.... one bedroom with twin beds pushed together, bug wardrobe, drawers and big window overlooking balcony, a living room with sofa that turned into two beds, flat screen tv, two tables, chairs, lamps, mini fridge, more storage, big bathroom, hydramassage shower, very modern bathroom..... the only problem was the smell!! because the hotel had just opened, we found the room smelled.... just a strange smell, it needed airing out, however when the rooms were cleaned, the windows and doors and shutters were all locked so the smell returned! we had problems with the shower but the hotel sent someone out on a regular basis.....had more than one problem with the shower ;-) lol







the reason for all the tears though was the lack of entertainment in those first couple of days. i know it was early in the season, but in my opinion once the hotel opens (28th april) then they should be ready to go, or advertise that there is limited entertainment. upon checking in, we were told by reception to expect a show every night and when i checked the board it was empty! a cd would be put on and that was it! my children who had been looking forward to the "party" on a night were so disappointed! so we called home, who then got in touch with our travel operator who called the hotel to be told by the management that there was a show on every night ... needless to say this is to be continued! i have video and photos proving this not to be the case......

anyway, moving on....on a more positive note, a few days in to our holiday and everything improved....we were getting champagne and strawberries for breakfast, and the food was really very good!! the hotel had two restaurants one was the main buffet restaurant, the other was an italian, reservations were not needed and you could visit the restaurant as many times as you want. the italian consisted of a salad and pizza buffet as a started, then you ordered your main off the a la carte menu (also chicken nuggets and spag bol for kids) and then buffet for desert. both restaurants were floor to ceiling glass and overlooked the pools and beach - stunning. all staff were soooo attentive and would do anything for you!







once the entertainment got going, the animacion team were fantastic and we made good friends with them, during the day there was t-shirt painting, face painting, bowling, crossbow, indian day, shell painting, darts for the children and for the adults, aerobics, darts, archery, bowling, french bowls, aqua fit for the adults and on a night a mini disco for the kids with a guest appearance from "coco" - the seahorse! who gave out certificates of the winners from the activities during the day, then bingo and then either a professional show, quiz or a show by the team (which was actually quite good!!), for us, the entertainment on a night was inside until the last night when they moved it outdoors. drinks are plentiful however they are watered down! but cocktails are included as all inclusive and again, the bar staff are very very good.






the resort of cala d'or itself is rather quiet. 2 streets down from the hotel was a strip of shops, bars and restaurants, though only small. thankfully we had hired a car though we did have a stroll into the strip quite a few times. the marina is beautiful with lots of restaurants and bars, but personally i would recommend car hire.

all in all, it was a fantastic holiday, it really was. just was a shaky start!! if i could pick the hotel up and move it, i would certainly stay there again!! i would just have gone maybe 4th may rather than 1st lol




anyway, il try and upload some pictures once i figure out how to do it lol anything you want to know, let me know xx

xx kate xx[img][/img]

Well a rep from me Katy, that was a fantastic read, sorry to hear the first couple of days were not what you expected and rightly so as well. But it does sound like a great hotel although dont like the sound of watered down drinks. Always wanted to visit Cala d'or the many photos Ive seen of it look lovely but maybe a bit quiet for me but for a day out looks really nice.

Look forward to your photos and thanks for telling us all about it.

This might help you with putting your photos on ,I recommend you join photobucket as its great for storing them photos and much easier to get them on this forum afterwards. Also if you want to put your photos on your first post just look at your post then click on edited top right and then you can put all your photos on, before you press send to save it you can also click on preview to see what it looks like first. Good luck and if you need help gave us a shout.

https://majorcaforum.forumotion.com/t6011-question-1dhow-can-i-add-pictures-and-photos-to-my-post-using-my-photo-s-on-photobucket

thanks for the review Katy, sounds like those annoying teething problems of a hotel not properly geared up to start. Glad it got better for you in the end. Rep from me

love to see the pics, let us know if you have any problems to upload them. You can even do them from your pc to here, a bit slower but just let us know if you need help

Thanks for the review and in depth description Katy, rep from me

Sounds like alls well that ends well anyway

eee its been a while since ive been on here lol and i have exciting news but first i want to get my photos of my holiday on and i have no idea how to do it i have all my photos stored on this lap top in my pictures so what do i do lol?

xx kate xx

That's cruel to tease us Kate !

Looking forward to your news - and pics ..............

Someone will be on really soon to point you in the right direction - I can do it, but am no good at explaining !


I think the way I do it is a VERY long-winded way.....and there is a better way !

The best way to add them that I find is to join photobucket and store your photos on there, its much faster that way to transfer them on the forum, if you want to add them to your first post then all you have to do is click on the edit button on your post which will open it up so you can add your photos. Here is a how too, using photobucket, click on this link https://majorcaforum.forumotion.com/t6011-question-1dhow-can-i-add-pictures-and-photos-to-my-post-using-my-photo-s-on-photobucket

Look forward to seeing your photo's Katy.

oh yikes the pics are pretty big lol, anyway - im not as good as all of you who take so many great pics of the hotel i kinda take more of us lol

so..... the news!!!!


we had been home just under three weeks when i find out that through completing a survey and something else id done online i had entered into a sweepstake.... and.....
id won!!

ive won 3 nights all inclusive back at the same hotel. i cant believe it and we have decided to up it to seven nights... well, cos it would be rude not to wouldn't it?!

but we have decided not to tell the kids.....

its always been a dream of mine to surprise them with something like that now i can
so the plan is this.... take them to a toby carvery the night before (just as we did for this trip) and say eeee the last time we did this was the night before majorca! then, when the waitress asks us about drinks, il follow her and ask her to say are your names gracie and thomas? ooh, well this came in the post this morning and hand them a letter.

the letter will say - gracie and thomas, thank you for being my new special friends. i miss you here at the ferrera blanca and so do my friends aline, zehra, ciprian, veronica and john. infact, we all miss you so much that we wish you were here. guess what? me and your mammy and daddy have been keeping a big BIG secret. you need to be very good going to bed tonight because tomorrow your getting up very early and getting back on the aeroplane and coming to see me for a week. i can't wait to see you both tomorrow, lots of love and cuddles and kisses, coco. xxxx

basically, coco is the hotel's sea horse (apparently lol) and they both got a certificate for being his new special friends (your supposed to get them for winning games but they never won anything lol). they both love coco so much i thought it would be an excellent way to surprise them. ive been in touch with the head of animacion who has arranged for coco to be at the front of the hotel for us arriving to welcome the kids back!!

we dont go til september but im so so excited!! - im a big kid as you can probably tell.

now the hardest part is keeping quiet! lol

xx kate xx

That's fab Kate - a well deserved rep from me for a great post !

What a great surprise for them !

OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH well done on the win, wow wish I could win something like that and what a great idea and surprise for the littlins. Also well done on the photos, it didnt take you much to sus out how to do it. Have another rep.

Adding pictures to the review brings it to life Katy! Well done, and a rep from me.

We also like happy stories on here, and your follow up tale is also worth a rep!

Fantastic story to surprise your kids Katy, what a great idea, & a rep from me. As Mark has said, your photo's really bring your very honest review to life. Shame the start was a little bit upsetting for you. I would love to see the look on the kids faces when the letter from "Coco" is read about.

aww thank you everyone!!

i never win anything so i was over the moon lol.

ooo il be there with my camera when they read the letter so don't worry i will post the pics but its not for 13wk 6 days - not that im counting !!

xx kate xx

And how many hours & minutes Katy?

well its precisely 7.01pm so..... 8hrs 29 minutes!!

katy341 wrote:

well its precisely 7.01pm so..... 8hrs 29 minutes!!