Jupiter/Saturno/Martes Club Mac Alcudia (Hotel Jupiter-Saturno-Marte Complex (Alcudia))

Member Name: Ian Sheffield

Product:	Hotel Jupiter-Saturno-Marte Complex (Alcudia)
Date:	26/09/08 (444 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: None

Disadvantages: Too long to list

his is a copy of my letter sent to First Choice.

To Whom It May Concern:

I am writing you this letter after returning from holiday today which was a disaster from start to finish. It was not just one thing, but a number of issues and I'm sure I'm not the first or the last that has complained about the poor accommodation. The hotel that is in question is the Hotel Jupiter in Alcudia north Majorca.

My family's holiday got off to an instant bad start after arriving at Palma airport only to discover that one of our cases had been tampered with. The case was my case and after examining it I discovered that my brand new Kodak M893 camera with new case and 1 GB SD card had gone missing and my Tom Tom 720T Satellite Navigation System had also gone. I took this expensive item of kit because I and my family wanted to take a few trips around the island using the European maps on the system. I also discovered later that two brand new t-shirts had gone missing. I found this out after a thorough investigation of the contents of my case. The plans that we had for our holiday were now in ruins because I did not have the confidence to drive around the island because I feared that I may get lost. I hold First Choice Airways responsible for the security of my luggage after I had taken the steps that were possible by me by putting a padlock and luggage strap on the case. The rep at the resort filled in a form on the 9th September, but that is the only help that she gave me. I was told by the rep at Palma airport that the rep at the resort would help me make the report. She did not and in fact a rep from Monarch got a friend of his to translate a letter into Spanish for me to take to the Guardia Civil.

On arrival at the resort we were allocated a room on the 9th floor of the Jupiter block. I was shocked that we were put so high and when I asked staff if they were other rooms available I was told that they were not. I did not want such a high room because I have osteo arthritis and I find it difficult to negotiate stairs should the lifts fail. They were quite rude and dismissive. I paid 36 Euros for a safe deposit box and 5 Euros deposit for the key and then I went to my allocated room. I opened the door and I was shocked how small it was it had two double beds in it and I was led to believe that it was a double family room when I booked it (Double meaning two rooms). I did not consider this suitable for myself and my wife and my son of nearly 20 years old to have to share. There was no possibility of any privacy. I could not open the safe and I tried to get through to reception on the room's telephone. It rang and rang and it was not answered. I decided that I would have to go down to reception. It was then that I realised that it was normal to have a long wait for the lifts and when they did arrive they were always full. It was like this all holiday and I feel the situation would have been alleviated had all the lifts worked. A member of the staff came up from reception took a look at the safe and said that she would send somebody to look at it and fix the problem. I agreed with this and left it at that. A few days had passed and I tried to call reception because the safe was not still working (I was unable to open it). The staff did not answer the telephone again so I had to go to reception again. They were quite rude when I told them that I had paid for something that I could not use. I was told to practically go away and the man from the safe company would get there when he could. This never happened and I paid for a safe which I did not use. This made me feel very insecure after what had happened on the way to our holiday and I had to carry money and passports on my person everywhere I went. This was not a very sensible thing to do, but I was left with no choice. The beds had sheets on them which were torn and full of cigarette burns and the only good point about them I could say is that they looked clean (Although that this was the only area of the room that was clean). We could not walk on the floor bare footed because it was full of dirt and grit. The bathroom was not much better the sink was full of soap scum and the floor was in the same condition as the bedroom. The bin in the bathroom had items of food stuck in the bottom of it that looked as though they had been stuck there for some while because they were going mouldy. All it would have took the maids to do would be to put on a pair of rubber gloves and physically remove the rubbish and mouldy food from the bin. The towels however were clean as was the bedding and this is the only good point about the room that I can make. The balcony was dirty and had we wanted to go out and sit in the fresh air we could not have done.

After we had unpacked and decided to leave the room we went to the dining area to see what times the meals were served and if anything was available at that time. The time was approx 2.00pm local time. We entered the dining room and we were seated. We went up to the buffet and found a selection of food and returned to our allocated table. We started to eat and then we looked at each other. The food was awful, it was poorly cooked, cold and the vegetables were raw and hard. We left the meal and the dining room and went outside to the bar area for a drink. We ordered our drinks and these were OK, but they were served in plastic glasses and small glasses at that. We can understand the need for plastic at the pool bars for safety reasons, but at night time when the pools are closed I would have preferred my drinks in a glass. We thought that the food may have been a one off, but after several visits to the dining room in the Jupiter we found that this was the norm. The staff was rude and the hygiene was something left to be desired. I actually witnessed a chef behind the counter putting food back into the containers that had been dropped on the floor. I also noticed that a few members of staff that were cooking wore dirty uniforms and were handling both several different meats and vegetables and then wiping their hands on a single cloth. It does not take a genius to work out that this is a recipe for disaster with the issue of cross contamination raising its ugly head.

We struggled on through the holiday not enjoying our experience. I then got sick on the third or fourth day of our holiday and I had severe stomach pains, vomiting and diahorrea. I was not even able to leave our room because I was that ill. The next day my wife came down with the same symptoms and then later that day my son started. It was around 36 hours from the start of our symptoms to us starting to feel better. This had ruined 3 days of our holiday. We are not sure if this was food poisoning or it was a bug, but the whole hotel seemed to be suffering or had suffered from it. This included my daughter her partner and their two young children. I discovered that the sickness and diahorrea had been in the complex for months. Myself and my wife then came down with the symptoms again 3 days later. All we wanted to do at this point was go home. We have never been sick on holiday before. We stayed away from all the restaurants after this (What little we did use them) because we felt it was a strong possibility that this was the source of our illnesses along with other guests. I hold my hands up and admit that this may not be the source, but food and cleanliness was poor. The fact remains that a bug is doing the rounds in the hotel and people are getting ill. Why are you still sending people there?

In addition to this every night from around 11.45pm to around 1.30am staff used to place bottles into the bottle bank just below our room. They made one hell of a noise doing this. I appreciate that jobs have to be done, but can't the bottle bank be placed away from the hotel so they do not disturb guests? In addition to the noise they used to laugh and joke with each other loudly as they were working. When the noise of the bottle bank had stopped the lorry used to turn up every night to collect them, this lasted for around 20 minutes. How do you expect people to sleep through this noise and don't you think that families with young children may find this distressing? I think that this again shows a total lack of consideration to the hotel's guests.

We booked this holiday on the recommendation of the staff at the First Choice store and we raised the issue of we may not like the food, but were told that the complex has 6 restaurants on it. We were happy with their answer because we felt if something was not to our taste we could always float between the restaurants and we were sure to get something to eat. What we were not told is that all the restaurants serve the same food and it was all poor and of the same low standard.

The entertainment at night consisted of bingo (Where the tickets cost extra) and a few children's shows. I hardly would call this quality entertainment. I have been on all inclusive holidays in the past and the entertainment on the whole has been very good as had the food and accommodation. I would not rate this hotel, accommodation or its staff customer friendly and at times damn right rude.

To summarise I believe that First Choice must be aware of the problems at the resort and in my opinion are verging on the criminal by sending families and their children to a complex where it is almost certain to get sick. A very poor holiday, food terrible accommodation mediocre, staff rude and unhelpful and very boring due to lack of entertainment. I laugh at the description of all inclusive. We had to pay to eat because the food was so poor and find our entertainment in bars around Alcudia so we did not benefit from our all inclusive drinks at night. Our holiday has been very expensive as it now stands with all our extra costs and it would have been cheaper for us to have gone to a 5 star hotel. This is a 3 star hotel in your opinion, but I strongly disagree. It would be more appropriate to down grade it to a 1 or borderline 2 stars.

I look forward to your response and your proposals to make amends to me and my family and indeed your proposals to improve things at the Jupiter and indeed the whole Club Mac resort if you carry sending guest there.. I will consider taking this further if a reply is not received.

Summary: If you want illness, poor food, service and rude staff go there.