Iberostar Waves Creta Panorama and Mare

We had 3 nights here and thoroughly enjoyed our stay. We'd moved here from the Marine Palace down the road and this was a big upgrade.

Room - lovely refurbished room in the main building. The room was spacious and with comfy beds. One issue is the lack of clothes storage - It would have been a real pain trying to store a weeks worth of clothes.

Pool - we mainly stayed around the main pool (saltwater) which really nice. Loungers were easy to get up until around 10 am so no issues there. The pool bar was good and with a decent selection of drinks, albeit the cocktails were from a machine but still fine. We spent an afternoon in the water park which was good - freshwater pool too so if you struggle with a salt pool then this is for you.

There is a re-use area by the main pool where people can leave toys / inflatables etc. for others to use which is quite useful.

Food - the food was good, not amazing, with a decent selection. Really easy to put together a proper meal. Most things generally hot which isn't always the case with all inclusive. They chips section next to the fish grill had proper chips made in house rather than frozen chips.

The lobby bar was lovely with great cocktails and proper pint glasses. We have a 3 year old so didn't stick around for the live music.

Entertainment. The animation team were amazing. Extremely friendly and spent a lot of time walking around the pools talking to guests and generally making sure people were having a good time. The amount of effort they put in is insane and they work tirelessly. They look after the kids disco and also produce the entertainment for the evening show and really make the holiday.

Hotel: We stayed in the main hotel on a high floor which was fairly quiet but there are also family bungalows around the hotel grounds. The main hotel building is new, immaculate and spotless with all areas constantly kept clean and the rooms are cleaned daily with towels replenished on request. Housekeeping was very good. Rooms have a fridge and a safe. The sea view rooms are north facing so if you want sun on the balcony you will need a pool view, although these can be noisy at certain times of the day as they overlook the main pool. Check-in was easy and our cases were taken to our room by a welcoming bell-boy and we were shown where everything was which was a nice touch. There is a large clean and comfortable reception area with a large lobby bar and jewellery shop on the ground floor with the restaurant at the bottom of the stairs on the lower level. The extensive grounds outside the hotel are very well kept with lots of lawn areas if not wanting to sit by the pools. By the main pool there is a small gift shop selling a selection of gifts and souvenirs and a clothes boutique. There is a spa offering treatments but we did not use this so cannot comment. It would benefit having some outside areas designated as no smoking areas.

Bars: There is a main bar in the lobby which overlooks the sea and has both inside and outside seating areas. It is a waitress service and has standard all-inclusive drinks and a variety of cocktails. There is occasional evening entertainment in the bar from local acts. There are smaller daytime bars by each pool area serving a reasonable variety of drinks.

Pool: There are four outside pools plus a kids’ waterpark. One of the pools is a salt water pool and a little on the cold side but very refreshing once you’re in. My only observation on this is that it allowed children with nappies on which doesn’t really sound right to me. I would like to have seen this pool as an adults-only pool. We did not go to the main pool as it was very busy and caters mostly for families with children. Pool towels can be replenished daily. The pool sun beds all have parasols which are reasonably plentiful in the morning but by the afternoon are mostly all taken, however, there are plenty on the many lawned areas in the hotel grounds.

Restaurant: The food in the buffet restaurant is well cooked with plenty of variety of speciality dishes, salads, soups, mains, cakes and a good selection of ice cream. There are four specialist restaurants which you can book once per stay with varied menus, although we didn’t try them as we were perfectly happy with the buffet choices. There is both indoor and outdoor seating if preferring to dine al-fresco. The drinks are help yourself – standard all-inclusive red & white wine (no rosé) , beer and soft drinks. Breakfast was rather chaotic with queues to be seated outside the restaurant entrance, however, these moved fairly quicky. The kitchen staff did not seem to be able to keep up with the demand with searches for spoons / bowls quite frequent. Lunch times and evening meal times are thankfully not so busy and rather more relaxed. Tip – if having pizza, delicious but cut it up whilst it’s still hot!

Entertainment: There is a very good variety of entertainment starting at 9.30 p.m. with some fantastic shows put on by the entertainment team – very professional and enthusiastic and plenty of seating for all in the outside theatre. This was a little tricky to find at first – at the main pool, hang a left and keep going! The entertainment team are on the go all day as well so where they get their energy from I have no idea! Staff: Some of the bar and restaurant staff are really friendly and attentive and nothing is too much trouble, particularly the staff in the restaurant setting and clearing the tables, however, there are some staff, in particular those directing restaurant traffic and some manning the food stations let the side down. It appeared they really did not want to be there with some being rude and moody which rather spoilt the experience for us. On a positive note, house-keeping was excellent.

Atmosphere: This is multi-national family hotel where there is not much interaction with other guests, which, as a retired couple, we found rather impersonal and not really our cup of tea.

Resort: There is not really much there. A couple of very small beaches in sheltered coves but hardly any sun loungers with parasols – you’d need to get up very early to get one – and not many sun loungers at all. People were carrying them to the beach from the hotel! The kiddies seemed to enjoy the sea though – sandcastles / crab-fishing etc. Beach shoes recommended for the pebbles. If you like long walks this resort is not for you – once you’ve gone 10 minutes in either direction there’s no-where else to go. The sea views are amazing though.

In summary: Somewhat disappointed really - great hotel but too far from the airport (took nearly 2 hours to get there). This is the first time we have been to Crete and we are unlikely to return, largely due to the impersonal feel of the hotel, lack of friendliness of some staff and the chaos and carnage at Heraklion airport both arriving and departing – very busy and not nearly big enough for the amount of people going through it with the toilet facilities being quite disgusting.

Freezing pools which spoilt my holiday. Other than that -great room, good food and a lovely well kept resort with friendly helpful staff. I would not go again though because of the pools.