Globales Palmanova Palace

I want to start by saying that the hotel isn’t terrible like some of the other reviews suggest. It’s just not amazing either. In my opinion, it is definitely not a 4-star hotel I’d say 2, 3 stars at a big push.

The pool

The pool is far too small for the size of the hotel. The hotel has replied to other reviews saying that the pool is an adequate size, which I completely disagree with.

With around 35 people in the pool, it already feels overcrowded, and the hotel holds around 600 guests. You simply can’t properly enjoy your time in there. It’s basically human soup you can float around in one tiny area until either you bump into someone or someone bumps into you.

The “children’s pool” is hilarious. I’ve seen bigger puddles. 😂 The strange thing is that it’s a complete suntrap, so the area is often taken over by adults, which is particularly odd considering it’s supposed to be the little kids’ area.

Animation team

The animation team work really hard and are genuinely great, but it feels like they don’t have enough backing from the hotel.

There are hardly any activities compared with other hotels I’ve stayed at. We were there for two weeks and did the same quiz four times. 😂

That’s absolutely nothing against the animation team themselves, they were fantastic. It just feels like they don’t have enough resources or variety to work with.

Evening entertainment

The evening entertainment is pretty average too. You get a different singer most nights, but they seem to sing the same songs, so after a while it becomes very repetitive.

There are a couple of exceptions though. Man of Mallorca and the soul guys were fantastic and were definitely highlights of the evening entertainment.

The bars

There is only one main bar, which becomes a problem when the hotel gets busy in the evening. You can end up queueing for quite a while for drinks, especially when there are only one or two people serving.

One of the bar staff also seems genuinely annoyed whenever you ask him for a drink, almost as if the drinks are coming out of his personal stash. 😂

They also advertise a pool bar during the day. I’m not entirely sure what happened to it, but judging by its appearance, I’m pretty sure it hasn’t been open since 1974.

Food

The food is average at best. The choice is quite limited and the food area itself is tiny.

The “hot” food is only hot if you time it perfectly. Otherwise, it’s mainly lukewarm, which isn’t exactly what you’re hoping for when you’ve gone to get a hot meal.

Fussy eaters are pretty much screwed. My son is a fussy eater and spent two weeks eating mainly chips and bread at the evening meal. Thankfully, there are plenty of great restaurants down by the beach, so there are alternatives.

The dining area itself is also far too small for the number of people using it. They’ve squeezed as many tables as possible into the space, meaning you’re constantly either in someone else’s way or having someone in yours. People are knocking into tables, knocking food around and generally trying to navigate what feels like an obstacle course.

The staff clearing tables also take up quite a lot of space and can be quite noisy, with cutlery crashing and plates banging. It all adds to an already cramped dining experience.

The shining light: the snack bar

The daytime snack bar is probably the shining light of the hotel.

They have burgers, hot dogs, pizza, chips and loads of other snacks, and everything is regularly replenished throughout the day. You can also help yourself to drinks, which is actually a much better option than using the main bar during the day.

This was easily one of the better parts of the all-inclusive offering.

The rooms

The rooms are tiny.

There were three of us in the room and, once you have the beds and suitcases in there, you can barely move. The wardrobe is actually very spacious, which is probably the one area of the room where they remembered people bring clothes on holiday. 😂

The bathroom is pretty average, although the positioning of the toilet is particularly bad. I’m 6’7” and have very long legs, so using it is incredibly awkward. You have to sit at an angle because the toilet is shoved into the corner with a bit of wall sticking out. Not exactly the luxury bathroom experience.

The air conditioning is also woeful. It spits out a small amount of cool air, and when you first walk into the room it feels nice for about 30 seconds. Then you’re hot again.

Maid service is hit and miss. Most of the time the rooms were cleaned well and towels were replenished, but on other days they weren’t. We were also regularly given only two towels for three people.

Our room card stopped working eight times during the stay, which is particularly frustrating when your room feels like it’s approximately three miles away from reception.

Wi-Fi

The free Wi-Fi is a nice touch, but it only seems to work properly in reception, which is rather frustrating.

Overall

The biggest issue with this hotel is that everything feels like it’s struggling to cope with the number of people it holds.

The corridors are tiny, the dining area is cramped, the pool is far too small, there’s only one main bar and everywhere just feels busy and overcrowded. You constantly feel like you’re either in someone else’s way or someone is in yours.

If you have children, I would seriously consider looking for another hotel that caters for them better. I was part of a group with children aged 4, 10 and 14, and there were very few activities for them. Combine that with the tiny, overcrowded pool and things become boring very quickly.

To me, this hotel feels like it was designed for people staying 3–5 nights, rather than for a two-week holiday. We stayed for two weeks and, unfortunately, it just wasn’t enjoyable for us.

There are definitely positives the snack bar, some of the entertainment and the hard-working animation team being the main ones but overall, it simply isn’t worth the money in my opinion.

I won’t be staying here again, and if you’re travelling with younger children, I would massively avoid this hotel. It just doesn’t seem equipped to properly cater for them, or for the number of guests it is trying to accommodate.

Stayed here for last 5 years and gradually got worse. Seems to be heading to be a 18/30 hotel. Lots of large groups men and women. Smoking around pool. Jumping on furniture when turns on. Vaping inside including restaurant. Loads of noise when returning from magalluf I presume. 4 star has gone to 2 star I reckon. Management don't care what people say on here looking at the answer to the reviews from them. Gradually running the place down and only interested in profit from groups. Staff try still but seem to be frustrated they have to put up with gangs as well with no backing from Management seem to have given up. We will not be returning which is a shame because hotel still has potential to be good. Location good and clean but needs a lot of updating now. Food not bad. Pool areas did not use because of smokers so not clean. Bar full a lot because of groups getting lots of drinks before going to magalluf so had to wait a while to be served.

Palma Nova Palace advertised as a **** 4 definitely not more like 1 to 2 at best.

Unfortunately, this was the worst hotel experience our family has ever had, and we feel that the holiday we paid for fell significantly below the standard that was advertised and reasonably expected.

Upon arrival at the hotel, our rooms were not ready. We were instructed to leave our luggage in a storage room, however it was already full, meaning we had to remain with our luggage for several hours. This resulted in us losing valuable holiday time. The air conditioning in the reception area was also performing very poorly, making the wait extremely uncomfortable in temperatures of around 34°C.

Before travelling, I specifically requested adjoining or family rooms and contacted both TUI and the hotel several months and again several weeks before departure. I was advised that availability would be checked upon arrival. However, when we checked in, we were informed that the hotel did not have family rooms or adjoining rooms at all, only standard twin rooms. As a family of four, this meant we were separated for the duration of our holiday, which was extremely disappointing.

The air conditioning in the hotel continued to perform poorly for the first four days of our stay. Reception advised us it was undergoing maintenance, but this offered little comfort given the extremely high temperatures. On one evening it failed completely, leaving guests in the lounge visibly uncomfortable and dripping with sweat.

The pool facilities were also very disappointing. The main pool was exceptionally deep, something that was not made clear in the hotel description. Three members of our family are non-swimmers, making the main pool unsuitable for us. We therefore had to use the smaller pool, which was dirty and had an unpleasant smell. The condition of this pool was so poor that we have since had to dispose of swimwear that retained the smell despite washing.

As a result, we chose to spend several days at the beach instead, paying €41 each time for four sunbeds. We visited the beach on four occasions, resulting in an additional cost that we had not budgeted for on an all-inclusive holiday.

The room itself was also below an acceptable standard. There was rust around bath plugs and in the bathroom, the sink leaked continuously leaving the bathroom floor wet throughout our stay, and there were only two electrical sockets available in the room, which was inadequate for a family. One of our plugs hung dangerously off the wall. (I have attached pictures).

The customer service from hotel staff was equally disappointing. Whenever concerns were raised, we were met with little interest or assistance, often receiving nothing more than a shrug of the shoulders. On one occasion the hotel had completely run out of ice creams, and on another occasion there was no bottled water available to purchase which i did report and again got the shrug of the shoulders . I find it unacceptable that an all-inclusive hotel could run out of such basic items, particularly bottled water, which was not included within the all-inclusive package. Reception showed no concern when this was reported, despite the nearest shops being approximately a ten-minute walk away.

The food was another major disappointment. Afternoon and evening meal choices were extremely limited and of poor quality. We regularly found ourselves choosing between chips or leaving the hotel to pay for meals elsewhere because the options available were simply not acceptable. This completely defeated the purpose of paying for an all-inclusive holiday.

The overall atmosphere at the hotel was poor, and many of the staff were unfriendly. Bar staff would often throw change or tokens back at guests rather than handing them over politely. Evening entertainment was mainly spoken in a foreign language so we could not engage in the entertainment. He did try really hard though and was very friendly.

During our stay we met the only four other English guests in the hotel, and all of them expressed similar dissatisfaction and stated they would not return.

Overall, we spent a considerable amount of additional money during our holiday on beach facilities and meals outside the hotel because the facilities included within our all-inclusive package were not fit for purpose. This was an expense we should never have had to incur.

We booked this holiday expecting a relaxing all-inclusive family break. Instead, we experienced poor accommodation, inadequate facilities, disappointing food, additional unexpected costs and consistently poor customer service. The holiday fell well below the standard we were promised and what we reasonably expected.

We have shared our concerns with TUI but their response was "nothing can be done as we did not complain whilst on our holiday". We only had 8 days and they expected us to take time out and fight with the terrible WiFi to get in touch. I got in contact as soon as I returned but that was their response. Absolutely shocking.

Would never return to this hotel and would definitely recommend say avoid if looking to book. Awful experience. Palma nova itself was fantastic and the beach is gorgeous.

It's a shame that a hotel quite close to the town centre and beach would not make the effort.