it was my first holiday and i can honestly say that the costa brava,lloret de mar was a lovely place and i would recommend it, but the hotel gran casino royal was terrible. there was 4 lifts to the whole of the building and allot of the time they were not working properly. we were on the 4th floor and i was with my mother in law and three children one aged 8 years one aged 2 years and the youngest is 9 months old, we were unable to walk down all the flights of stairs with the children and the pushchairs and felt like we had wasted our lives waiting for lifts. one morning we had to wait for 30 minutes for a lift so that we could go and get our breakfast, by the time the lift came(which by the way was the only one working that day) we were nearly late for our breakfasts.
the food was the same all the time and was cold alot of the time, my mother in law was fed up of eating pasta. and the kids lived of chips. we were all inclusive and we had to dine out a number of times because the food was not too pleasant. when we arrived at the hotel it was 3am and we had been dropped off at the side of the building no one bothered to come and help with the cases or the children and they were tired and upset we just wanted to get settled and sleep. one passenger and elderly gentleman came back to assist us, he was a star. when we finally got outside the hotel we had to carry all our luggage and the children up the stairs to the reception area. there was one man on reception and he was taking about 20 mins to sort out each person it was ridiculous. my mother in law asked if we could have the key for our room so that i could get the kids to bed and she would wait in line to sign us in, but instead the security man was blunt and stated that it was 1st come 1st serve. which was ridiculous cause it took us that long to get from the coach with the baggage and the children that we didnt stand a chance of getting in line 1st. by the time we got in the room it was 4am the children and ourselves were shattered. but before they allowed us the room we had to get our pictures taken for the card so that we could get all our meals and drinks, and of course at 4am you can imagine how happy we were having our pictures taken.
there is stairs everywhere in this building and the lifts dont reach every floor it is definatly not a place for children, we had to carry the kids in the pushchairs down stairs all day long which just made the holiday hell, even going to the bar or the pool there is more stairs. i was sick of seeing stairs. on a night you could not sleep for the noise, if it wasnt people in the building slamming doors or talking and running in the hallways it was people outside in the strreet and motorbikes and buses at all ours. i am so glad it was only one week that we went for because we could not of stuck it out for 2 weeks. the staff was not at all helpful, but the cleaners were lovely and came every morning to clean. snacks were supposed to be on allday but they were not they would break for hours and then come back. the pool was not heated and was bitterly cold all the time my 2 year old would not enter the pool because the water was way too cold. the rooms dont have air conditioning and you had to pay 20euro just for the remote control for your tv in your room and there is only 2 british channels on the tv(but you get the 20euro back its just a deposit).our balcony was tiny so we were un\able to sit outside on a night. it is in serious need of refurbishment if you ask me it needs knocking down and starting again. the toilets were smelly and horrid and there was never no soap or hand towels to wash and dry your hands. i met a couple who had a wheel chair and they had had a terrible time getting around too it was so hard even young couples had complained. i would not recommend this hotel to anyone and if you see pictures on the web please take no notice its not at all how it looks or sounds. there was supposed to be a kids club and we never seen or heard anything about it for the whole week that we were there. NOT RECOMMENDED. travelling from the hotel gto gerona airport the luggage bagan to fall out from the side of the coach which just topped off the holiday we had to travel back along the motorway for the luggage it was a nightmare.

Gran Casino Hotel, I think not! These people should be done under the trade descriptions act as there is nothing grand about this hotel and I don't think a Royal has ever been here nor will they ever. It does have a casino attached but getting into Bank of England would be easier than getting into here.I don't think James Bond would ever consider going to this casino.
The staff at the hotel are very ignorant and rude, they speak excellent French and German but finding someone who could say more than "What" was a problem, they either don't speak much English or choose to prentend they don't, at times I thought I may have been speaking alien! We estimated that this hotel must have upwards of 350 rooms spanning six floors all of which were serviced by 4 lifts only and at any given time there was only 3 lifts working. You can imagine how long you would have to wait for a lift a during the breakfast and Tea time periods.We arrived at the hotel at about 7pm and had to wait almost 15mins for the lift, it would have been quicker to drag the cases up the six flights of stairs to my room.
When we did finaly get to our room I had to fumble around trying to work out how to get some ligjhts on,no one told us that you had to put your pass in a plastice holder on the wall to get some electricity on.The door on the balcony rattled evertime a car went past or even when some one else on our side of the hotel shut their door.We were six floors up and got woke up every morning at 6am by the door and windows rattling as the road sweeper came out at that time everyday, so god knows what it must have been like for the people who were closer to ground level, they must have thought a hurracaine was on it's way.The beds were very uncomfortable and lumpy, they creaked everytime you moved and basically looked like camp beds. I thought at first we had a nice peaceful view from our balconay as we over looked a small sporrts stadium and a small school. How wrong I could be, the children from the school could not be heard nor could much noise from the sports stadium, but for starange reason there were concerts and kareoke nights held outside at the school, These normally started about 3pm and went onto around 12.15 at night, even with the rattling doors shut you could still hear the dulcet tones of the spaniards.If they have an X Factor type of programme in spain it is safe to safe these people would not get through!
When you go to the resturant apparantly you had to take the glass from your table to the bar if you wanted a drink, again something we were not advised of at reception or by our rep.Food was limited to a verity of greasy bacon, greasy sausages and beans most mornings for breakfast, with a limited choice of cereals and hard buns/baps, but one morning we had a treat as they put some coisants out!! Lunch was basically the same every day, chips with a some sort of minced up pork or chicken in bread crumbs, but if they hadn't have been labbled up you would not have known what they were.You could have pasta but that looked awful and was rubbery aswell.They had a good range of salad but that was about it.Evening meal was just as bad again with more chips, more strange bland tasting chicken and pork, they did push the boat out twice though and gave us Veal in breadcrumb and rabbit in gravy.Pudding was the same virtually every night aswell with some sort of sponge cake covered in jam or lemon curd, cold rice pudding and plenty of ice cream, most of the time though they only had Strawberry ice cream. We went all inclusive and expected to come back a few pounds heavier after numerous helping of fine food, we came back a few pounds lighter in weight and in the pocket as we ate out 3 nights and 2 lunch times as the food was that rubbish, prision food must be better.
Being all inclusive you would think that the beers would be flowing freely, again WRONG. You were only allowed 2 drinks per person at any trip to the bar, and these came in glasses smaller than 1/2 pint size, the only thing the beer had going for it was it was cold, tasteless but cold, the range of spirits was limited and wine was non existant. There was only ever 2 bar staff on at any time aswell so at times you had to wait ages for your 2 samll drinks.The night time entertainment was rubbish aswell, the singers they had on weren't as good as those we could hear from our balcony at night, and all they could sing were country and western songs or songs from the 60's or 70's.You could always go out onto the patio and share a drink with the older Geraman people who liked to sing German folk songs or the Spanish with there drums,trumpets and anything else they could find tio make a noise with.
The swimming was poorley situated (next to a building site, which was nice) surrounded by buildiings and high walls on all 4 sides so at any point during the day there was numerous shade to sit in.The French people seemed to like to drink all day and by lunch times became rather loud and roudy and liked to chant French football songs and insult people around the pool, but ofcourse they did this in French and swore blind they could only speak limited English and couldn't understand you when you asked them to be a bit quieter and more considerate to others. Numerous people complained to reception about them but were told there were never any male members of satff on to speak to them and the Manager wasn't available, how they managed to find some one on reception who could speak English was beyond me.
My opinion on this hotel is that is was shocking and I wouldn't advise any one to go to this hotel or any of the H-TOP hotels.

Hotel Gran Casino Royal stuck between a football pitch and a building site.Where do I begin the good points or the bad? The bad i suppose as this will take me the longest. End of may begining of june this hotel hosts 200+ teenagers for some football camp. Reason there is a football pitch right next door to this hotel. There is nothing wrong with 200+ German teenagers at all, but when every one of them are hell bent on getting as pissed as they can and sing till four it tends to get on your --. Its also amazing that they can get there voice so low and deep after only two beers. By the way allinclusive means if any of your party has an adult card for drinks and food this then can be used by the under aged German teenagers to get drink. I witnessed this a few times, photo id is not working here.
The food, well limited but nice apart from the snack bar the food there had been kicking around a while.
The hotel itself, old , run down and things hanging off. But Clean.The staff where the only redeeming thing about tis place, they where very good. Big thanks there.
Last but not east the entertainment, first of all the kids club, well easy one there DON'T bother they counld not run a bath. Both my son and daughter on tree different times where just given pens and paper to draw with while the entertainers had a chat, one time they even asked my son to sit still with arms and legs folded while they went for a chat.
DO NOT COME HERE

Simon

Big up to ricky and the familiy up there in Scotland

My friend and i went to this hotel worried after reading the reviews here, but you know i think its what you make of it. Ok maybe the food doesnt suit everyone but there was plenty of choice and lots of salad and fruit. the rooms were clean but basic. but all you need is some where to sleep. we went full board but changed to inclusive as it costs a lot for drinks there. the staff were very helpful and friendly. there was some noise in the mornings from building that was going on across the street but its didnt disturb us at all. we over looked a football stadium which would suit guys that like football 2-3 games a day. The night life was great. the only nagative thing i will say about the hotel was the lifts were a curse you waited for ages on them. but over all a nice place and we will go back again.