My Long review

[efes shareholder]

Been back a week and should put my holiday in to text before it gets too distant!!

Onur air flight left Gatwick on schedule , cheap and cheerful way to travel but very shocked at the price of canned drinks £2.50 for a can of coca cola.

Arrived in to Dalaman , and worst fears looked likely – no board with our name!!
Sixteen of us sat kerbside unsure of what to do , eventually found our driver who had his clipboard back to front!!
Arrived at our non ICR apartments in the early hours of the morning to find that the rooms we had hand picked the year before were not allocated to us despite being told they were – As I had teenage daughters in one apartment , I waited in reception until the apartments had been changed so that I was next to the girls – this involved getting the head pool boy out of bed and was not what I wanted to deal with on arrival but I was not going to sort it out later as they requested!

Finally retired in to bed at about 7-30am , our holiday had begun!

Accomadation

We found our choice of accomadation , a bit too British for our liking and shared the apartments wwith many return guests. We did feel like we were intruding on their holiday and only spoke to a handful of guests , a couple told us that they had been going for 5 years and had only just started to feel accepted by the regular clan.
There was also pool antics which we considered OTT – I don’t mind a laugh but Brits turning the hose on EVERYONES sunbed when you have things like Ipods and cameras at the poolside was too much – On a particular day , the bar staff threw all the women in to the pool (even the elderly and slightly immobile) and then turned the hose on the beds – I complained and was told that there was a shout for people to remove their valuables , but would like to know how that is possible when you’ve been chucked in the pool.
On another occasion , I lay poolside sending a text and was hit by a waterbomb thrown by a waiter – I was lucky my phone wasn’t ruined and to top it all off it was painful , I don’t mind these games if your joining in but when your minding your own business!!
There seemed to be a set of rules for the regulars and a set of rules for us , one member of our party was told of for having a cup of tea in her hand when she reprimanded her son at the pool table although one regular refilled her cup all day.and sat with it on her sunbed Silly petty stuff but still annoying.
Great location for our stay and very cheap , but cheap apartments sometimes means cheap people and we did feel like we were on a sun holiday at times

Day trips

We booked a jeep safari , Surf and Turf trip and went independatly to the water park.
The surf and turf was great for food and drink but we were disappointed that we were told there was a maximun number allowed on the boat and that we would all get a sunbed , this wasn’t the case.
I did report this in resort and am currently waiting a response to an email I sent to the company I dealt with.
First time visit to the new water park , very impressed , much nicer than the small one.

Restuarants.

We visited all our favorites before promising ourselves to try some new ones.

Moonlight – Fantastic as always , Memhet is a perfect host who treat us very well with free drinks for us and ice cream for the kids and even a birthday cake when he mistook it for one of our parties birthdays – Casseroles here are too die for along with the Lamb.
Noel – Staff changeover this year but food and service as good as ever , Wonderful Chicken Korma but needs something to entertain the teenage boys whilst the girls are dancing.. Leon as ever the perfect host and good to see Ugur and Jusuf again.
Red lion – Ahmet begged us for a turn and we gave him a try , tried his steak special , nice enough but bill wasn’t as cheap as we expected and steak quite grizzly
Love Boat – Didn’t fail to impress , pay a little extra here but worth it – Had the best meal of my holiday very tasty Cajun Chicken.
Manadalin – First time we tried this year , Excellent Value , set chicken meal £5.99 a head for 3 courses and nice grub too
Romance – Again Excellent , we were there the night of a wedding and were pre warned that we may have a bit of a wait , Worth the wait though.
Sonys – Our one disappointment – This is the old Rainbow resturant , party of 14 , we were enticed by their ofefrs of free wine however all meals arrived at different times , my lasagne tasted like a ready meal , hubbies kebabs looked like they were bought in Iceland and Macaroni Cheese was served as plain spaghetti with grated cheese on top , we returned this only to be re served half an hour later as penne pasta with grated cheese , I demanded to see the chef and asked him if he knew what macaroni cheese was – He admitted he didn’t and that we were the first to complain all season – Don’t waste your time going to this novice outfit. Suggested to them that they remove macaroni from the menu until he has learnt to cook it
The Venice – As ever busy and good food – not to mention great entertainment.
Alvaro Lemon Tree – Ate here twice , overall very good however a couple of our party were disapoiunted with their Chicken Fajhita’s which were not served on the cast iron pan with the wraps separate like in other places , however first class service and excellent meze and Bread to start served off the Bread ladle to your table.
Amigos - Again , excellent friendly service , very amusing new dancer though – quite bizarre dance habits!

After Dinner

Although every year we say we won’t go to the same bar very night we still do it ,we tended to end up in the Lemon Tree. This was to revisit Romeo , Nico , Omer and Erkan from the Alvaro days and also where we re discovered our old friend Eddie from the Moonlight and Selen 2.
Spent many a great night in there dancing on the bars and let the guys escort my two teenagers to Eastenders on the basis that I would kick their A*** if they didn’t return safely. Girls hadn’t been before so grateful for a chaperone and I was grateful when the guys suggested the girls put longer bottoms on to avoid too much hassle – bless them.
The girls celebrated their GCSE results dressed as belly dancers and then changed in to normal evening wear to go to eastenders , I was a bit worried about letting them go to teastenders this night because they had a few cocktails and don’t normally drink but all the GCSE’ers were going so shame to miss out – Nico and Romeo acted the perfect gents in escorting them home (although new friends of theirs who didn’t know the guys wouldn’t let them!) and was re assured to hear that Eddie and ZAza had both gone along to oversee things once us old parents had left the Lemon Tree.
Made a new friend in Zaza this year , heard about him online but did not realise what a charming and courteous man he is. Spent time once people had gone home chatting with him and he told us about his daughter. What a lovely genuine man , very polite and knowledgable and one we will look up again.

I told Zaza all week that I would be winning open the box on my last night and guess what – I did !! The most nervous night I can remember and lots of pennies 1300 lira – after rejecting 500 to not open the box.
Our early last night went out of the window and we partied until the small hours of 4-30 , It was a pleasure to be able to leave these guys a nice generous tip , share my fortune with my 15 other travelling buddies with the drinks on us and have a few quid to put away for next year. What an end to a fantastic holiday , The adrenline was indescrtible although watching the video back , I was cool as a cucumber with my feet up on the bar stool , will try and you tube the footage so people can see it does happen!!!!!

Left Icmeler , the next day with a sore head , a dodgy stomach and a sad heart.

Roll on 2009