me and my wife spent 1 week here between sept 4th to the 11th.on arrvial everything looked good,then things just went down hill.everything is geared to wards the guest that or staying half board, ie paying for drinks and extras. and no body is intrested in the all inc custermers.me and the wife thought we had turned invisable for the week as all the waiters just ignore you,when u do get a waiter by shouting or other means it took about 10 mins for him to come back with a drink,worst service i have ever come bye,food disguting,to many horrible russians,just a horrible holiday.never again will we travel to tunisia,please save your hard saved money and look at something different.just be warned

I have to admit that reading these reviews was one of the reasons I really decided to take this trip with my family. Expectations were great, I mean, 5 star hotel, and all inclusive service were typical for the places we have previously visited. So far I've traveled a lot of places, spend time in 3-4-5 star hotels from Turkey, Saudi Arabia, rest of the Europe but service I got and money worth in Movenpick Sousse were terrible.

The vacation took place from 01-09.09 this year and I (24) stayed with my sister(20) and parents for 7 days. I have to admit my parents stayed for 7 days more, since their package was for 15days.

I'll start with general positive things you expect from a 5 star hotel. The building is amazing, huge and really bright. Air condition is set to perfect temperature and the refreshing tea that you get at the entrance (upon check-in) is great. Lobby is huge, with various sculptures and comfortable chairs. Anyway things as there were suppose to be in a 5 star hotel. This also includes the rooms which here really cosy though we got a street view with some weird high wall on the terrace (to protect the women from the strangers views). The noises people and cars produced late in the night celebrating Libia's freedom were a bit disturbing, cause we were not able to sleep. But we didn't care much about that - let the people celebrate freedom.

Now the problems.

As some previous visitors stated, and as I have complained to the management in the hotel (which they tried to correct by bringing us a bottle of wine, and not improving the service) service for a 5star hotel is terrible. I really really didn't expect that. This was my 3rd time in Tunisia and 5th for my parents. They have stayed in Movenpick few months ago and they came back hoping our family would have amazing time not worrying about anything. Can you imagine how wrong we were?

We were all inclusive, and we really hoped to make most of it, specially me and my sister. The waiters were unbelievable, and lines for the "beach bar" where we could pick up drinks was almost all the time larger then 6-7 people. I mean, when you see 3 waiters standing and one working, you know that would lead to a problem. But not Tunisians which were obviously very lazy people and showed that multitasking as bringing 2 rounds of Soda with gin, was too much. We had to ask twice to get what we wanted. The food and beverages were great, I really cant complain on that. Most of the reasons people usually were complaining were the service, rudeness and statements as "You cant take 2-3-4 drinks !?!" although you're all inclusive.

First incident happened 2 days upon our arrival when there was a fight on the pool between Tunisan and Libian people, who even threw ashtrays from balcony, tried to get cutting knifes when the incident happend and nobody was there to prevent that. I know that the hotel is not responsible for the incident - logically but the fact that the security did not respond in time, and didnt manage to prevent that was a bit scary. It took them 30-40minutes to clear out problems which happened, to take the people away, although in that period they fought 3-4 times. Security low level so to say.

The second constant problem we had was with dirty tables in the kitchen, lack of napkins, coffee with milk, and waiters forgetting almost instantly things you ordered. They were also so creepy staring at my sister, almost leading me to verbally argue with them, just as if they never saw a women before. Waiting for 2 beers for 45 minutes was a regular thing. Like the guy below said, if you want to get a drink quickly you should probably just pick it yourself. Like it wasn't 5 star hotel with Movenpick name on it.

5star hotel means you get a 5star service, we expected that and we didn't get that.

The outdoor activities were a laugh. If we didnt persuade guys from the fitness center to give us the ball everyday and to show up (of course they didnt show up on time), the only activity hotel has beach volleyball, and some yoga/aqua exercises would probably be skipped.

For the Ala carte restaurant we had the same problem with the Sushi restaurant where they didn't give us a suitable time. They said that everything was full almost all the time. What is the point of giving dinner cards when you were not able to reserve the place. I mean sushi place is huge, and I can't believe that they are full almost 7 days while we were there.

At the end, after all complains we experienced another one, where we were not able to complain to anyone.

Our bus for Tunis airport was leaving at 4am. The kitchen opens at 3:30am. Guess what, traveling 2 hours to Tunis, then flying back home requires some food base at least to survive until 4pm. We hoped that we'll grab something to eat, walked down the kitchen at 3:45 and it was completely empty! People just like us were sitting there, waiting for at least something to eat, while all the area where food was suppose to be - was empty! I told receptionist about it, he just nodded his head, said that it was problem in the kitchen (probably lazy people) and when gave me an email from executive director when I decided to complain.

I have to admin manager named Mohammed was the kindest person that understood problems we had (probably cause we weren't the ones mentioning them) though i'm not sure what he did to solve them.

My parents stayed in Movenpick 2 times, once 7 days, once 15days and it was their 5th time in Tunisia. My and my sister spend 7 days there which made this trip our 3rd time in Tunisia. So we managed to spend enormous amount of money in Movenpick just to say at the end - we'll never visit Tunisia again.

The service that for example Turkey offers for the same price, same 5star hotels and all inclusive cant be compared to Tunisia.

Me, my wife and three year old son have been in MOvenpick, sousse, from 01.09.2011. till 12.09.2011. on all inclusive concept.
Movenpick hotel is new luxurious looking hotel, with standard rooms that are not intended for families with children, but rather for business people who will stay for 3-4 nights. Queen size bed that are made of two beds put together, and small hard to lay on folding two seater. In room there are cups, glasses and kettle, but no water, tea or coffe (You may order tea or coffe but at extra cost). Bathroom is nice, though from time to time from sink and baththub coachroaches appear. At the end of our stay some bugs appeared in beds who bites and it itches a lot. Appart from that rooms are clean.
Food is great and cakes are even better. You are intended to be led to the table by the slow moving lazy girl, who will rarely be at the entrance when You arive. Regulary she will lead You to the table which is not ready, so You will have to chase the waiters to clean and prepare the table, and they will do that incompletely (missing napkins, forks, or something else). For breakfast they will bring You cups but no spoons, if they bring You coffe, rarely they bring milk too. At one occassion I made the waiter come 7 times to the table untill he brought everything needed for lunch. Ordering drink is another affair, sometimes needing up to an hour to bring 3 cokes to the table. It was couple of occassions when guests were helping them selfs. For dinner You have to follow dressing code ordering gentleman to wear long trousers and closed shoes, and for ladies skirts, dresses or stylish clothing. There were couple of occassions when guests were arguing with the managers about long trousers.
There is only one restaurant for all inclusive, but we recieved one voucher for dinner for Sendai sushi, Levant grill, and Tapeo restaurant with prior reservation. When we tried to make reservation for Sendai, they gave us reservation two days after our departure (14.) answering that there were no vacancies before. It happened to the others too. We never used our vouchers for any of the restaurants.
Movenpick advertised snacks from 11 am till 4 pm in the Wave bar on the beach but it didn't work, so there is only Levant bar on the beach for drinks and afternoon snacks. On two saturdays they were making weddings in Levant so the bar was closed at 5pm for guests (and it supposed to work till 12pm although they were closing it at 10pm), and waiters were taking away all the tables even with the guests still sitting with them. On the other saturday hotel repainted Levant bar and they haven't put any signs that it was fresh painted, so some guests ended with painted arms bodies and legs...
There is one nice big pool, another with sea water and kids pool. Kids playing area is tucked somwhere behind the hotel. Deck chairs are arranged all around the pools as much as there can be put. There were reports from other people that they got diarhea after beeing in the big pool. We were swimming in the sea only. On one occasion we waited for the towels hour and half.
In the evenings there isn't any kind of animation or music except piano in the lobby. On the terrace is dead silence with people looking at their laptops or tablets. If kids start running arround there are plenty protesting looks. Getting the drink on the terrace from two bars is same as in the restaurant. It takes from half an hour up to hour and the half, if the drink gets to You at all. The best way is to get it on Your own.
On couple occassions some dark looking criminal like men came to the terrace and part of the terrace was closed for guests.
After half of our vacation bad thing happend to us. 500 euros was stolen for our room safe. After reporting it, security came and they checked the safe and reported that it wasn't open by force, nor anyone was entering the room except cleaning stuff. So the investigation ended. No official reports or explanations or anything. When we started spreading the word that theft happened at our room, someone stealed 2 toy cars from our room, and next day someone used my wifes lipstick and 70e Givenchy No.5 and than puored water in it ruining it completely. We reported that too but it was the day before we left and it ended that we will comunicate via email with assistant of general manager.
In the city of Sousse You should look after Your bags and money and any price is not final, except in state shops. We went on pirate boat cruise and they asked 100 tunisian dinars (around 50e) but we negotiated for half the price. Females should dress from head to toe as guys like lookig at the breasts as they never seen it before. It also happened to us that one man kicked my sons stroley while he was sleeping in it. I didn't want to fight on the street with crazy man, as I presume there are some crazy people all around the world.
So at the end of this oddisey we will never go back to Tunisia or use any of the MOvenpick hotels again.