Club Dolphin Hotel

10 readers found this review helpful

My wife and i have just returned from a fantastic holiday at Club Dolphin. The staff are very friendly always willinmg to help especially the animation team who give 100 percent in your entertainment. The extensive renovation work is complete and the new resteraunt area is fantastic as are the new kabannas. I had three trips one by walkers tours and two by beachboy "Blackie" and for value for money i would use the beach boys every time. If you want a 4* holiday at 3* prices go here now because i know they are increasing the star rating which will increase the cost.
Im event thinking about a 2011 return and that is not me.........

14 readers found this review helpful

just come back best holiday we,ve had staff were really good and helpful if you want trips go with the Asda boy on beach he is really good only fault we had was certain gardeners coming all the time with flowers and giving you sob story,s made mistake of giving him money next minute there was 3 of them so watch out for them ,but would deffinately go back

13 readers found this review helpful

My wife and I spent 2 fantastic weeks at this hotel and found it to be perfect in every way.
Sam the tour rep for First Choice was one of the bet I have found in resorts all over the world.
The premium class seats on both flights were well worth the additional 230gbp each, and was a great start to the holiday.
We found Harold Tours to be of a very high standard and lower priced than the offical tours with First Choice.
The Hotel was in my opinion not a 3-4 star hotel but 5-6 stars service in all departments was perfect.The bungalow was first rate in all aspects.
We enjoyed this holiday so much we are going back next year for 4 weeks.

12 readers found this review helpful

Please take no notice of the previous report. This Hotel is wonderful. The staff are great and can't do enough to tend to your every whim. Even the chef offered to cook special meals every day for one of our party who only liked plain food. The pool boys do not put your sun beds away, once you have reserved them, they are put out every day in the same position for your use. Agreed you have to tip them but 50p a day is sufficient. As for the locals they were there for a few days whilst we were there and never caused us any problems. The Sri Lankan are the most pleasant people I've ever met, they are courteous and patient.
Now for the hotel itself. It is very clean with gardeners clearing away the leaves etc every morning. Please speak to them as they are lovely people and amongst the lowest paid workers. The room boys accomodate anything you wish and keep everything clean, we even left money on the side and they never touched it. The food is great with different themes most nights, and plenty of choice. The desserts are to die for. The animation team are brilliant you can join in the day time activities or just lay soaking up the sun. The night time shows are very basic and they try very hard but they do put a lot of effort into them. They even went out of their way to go into Columbo to get some special juice for one of our party. The choice of trips are extensive. Harold is getting a bit expensive now and if there are 4 or more of you you'll be better of arranging them with the Taxi drivers outside the hotel. They charge you by the taxi however many people there are, so £50 to the elephant orphanage is cheap if there are 4 of you whereas Harold will charge you £30 per person. Finally I can't recommend this hotel enough, please go you will never forget the experience.

1 reader found this review helpful

Since being back on the 1st oct 2008 I have sent an email of complaint to First choice regarding our honeymoon we booked with them that was totally ruined, Not only were first choice not honest but they have not even sent acknowledgement to my email that was sent to them 15 days ago, I've been on another web site where people writes complaints against first choice and this seems to be an on going problem where it has taken first choice 8 weeks to send a reply.
This is an hotel to book if you dont mind having to leave your lounger outside your room and go to the other side of the pool bar to get some peace and quiet and be able to sunbathe or you have to go right along the beach to the quiet pool, They have the locals in from fri to mon which first choice fails to tell you who completely take over the pool, restaurant and pool bar, they are rude arrogant and don't care about anyone feelings, they spit in the pool constantly and also blow their noses into the pool water.
They leave food exposed to flies, if you are waiting to be served drinks at the bar they will approach push in front of you and get served before you just for the fact they are paying and are locals.
They also have a really bad problem with crows who also poo in the pool, on your loungers and scrange for food.
The pool boys will constantly remove your lounger in the hope that you will ask for it back and tip them everytime.
This honeymoon was a complete disappointment and was not what we wanted at all and if first choice was honest enough to tell you all this we would have booked to go somewhere that would have suited what we wanted.

1 reader found this review helpful

We spent two weeks in club hotel dolphin in sept 08 we were very disappointed in the fact we upgraded to a deluxe room as it certainly wasn't no deluxe room like what you see on the net the bed was uncomfortable the air con wasn't up to scratch, we had our bath cleaned once in 2 weeks and that was because we asked.
the hotel entertainment i thought was brilliant it was so funny there was the odd night when it wan't so enjoyable but overall i enjoyed it and the animation staff were fantastic and always up for a laugh.
the food was very standard nothing special and alot was either left uncovered or cold, the waiters in the main restaurant and snack bar were great and always willing to help.
The disco was nothing to write home about it was over charging on its spirits and drinks are not included in the all inclusive,
The all inclusive drinks finished at 12 midnight and you were not allowed to buy drinks after 12 either which i found a great disappointment they would turn out bar lights by 12.30ish.
At weekends they allow all the locals in on day passes we had to put up with them partying outside our room using our balcony to put there empty alcohol bottles on taking our chairs using our towels to wipe themselves on, they were spitting and blowing their noses in the pool which im sorry but that is not acceptable we complained to staff members on several occassions but that didn't stop them, they took over the pool people were having to go over the other side away from there rooms and loungers to get away from the noise.
Their aren't a great deal of tours but the best people we found to do the tours was ASDA they are a fantastic family run business who were always there to help when it was needed, they made my clothes, jewery and took me to the outside doctor when i was really ill they opened there shop early and did all they could for me. You must do the river trip with asda and take sweets for the local kids.
I found harold wasn't all he made himself out to be he would say he would provide water etc when u took a trip with him he did this on the first trip then made u pay for it on any other trips..........
You have a lot of harrassment outside the resort from people begging and always after something, negombo market was over pricing on there clothes especially mens.
there are no other local bars outside the resort which was disappointing.
don't trust the hotel doctor under no circumstances as i paid 10,000 ruppees for a doctor to give me the wrong medication totally and if he was a doctor over in the uk he would have been struck off for what he did to me..............
local security and workers were caught at 1:30am looking through ground floor windows of peoples rooms which is disgraceful this was repoted to first choice but little was done,
The hotel did lay on a meal in the al lecarte restaurant to make up for what i went thru when i became very ill and on verge off passing out thru the pain, but for £2500 our holiday was a great disppointment i also advise that you dont upgrade your seats to premium as its not much better then standard its not worth the extra £300 per person.
I wouldn't go back there again which is a shame cos i got on so well with asda and will miss them greatly............
we could never go in the sea cos it was always very rough and the red flag was up for the whole 2 weeks which is bad considering you are right on the sea front..........
i was glad to come home i've never felt like this on a holiday meant to be an holiday of a lifetime it certainly wasn't this was our honeymoon.
p.s we did meet some fantastic people there which was the only thing i would say made it worth it.............

3 readers found this review helpful

super holiday for my family, 2 adults,3 teenage boys.we just relaxed, the boys had loads to do, using the facilites on site plus activities with the animation teams every day.
the food was of a good standard, plenty of choice, including a good choice for vegetarians.
the rooms were kept spotless, towels and bedding changed daily, with rooms made up again in the evening. the staff are super helpful and genuinely friendly.
there are 2 pools, we spent our time at the "quiet" pool where you can "chill" the boys at the main pool.
down sides, if any were, if you want to swim in the sea this is not a good site as the sea is very rough with a steeply sloping beach but the facilities on the complex make up for this.
1 thing to watch for: the prices for wine on the wine menus do not include the 10% service charge plus the 17% tax, making a bottle of wine 27% more expensive than you think its going to be. this is really my only problem with this hotel hence 9/10, otherwise it would be 10/10

super holiday for my family, 2 adults,3 teenage boys.we just relaxed, the boys had loads to do, using the facilites on site plus activities with the animation teams every day.
the food was of a good standard, plenty of choice, including a good choice for vegetarians.
the rooms were kept spotless, towels and bedding changed daily, with rooms made up again in the evening. the staff are super helpful and genuinely friendly.
there are 2 pools, we spent our time at the "quiet" pool where you can "chill" the boys at the main pool.
down sides, if any were, if you want to swim in the sea this is not a good site as the sea is very rough with a steeply sloping beach but the facilities on the complex make up for this.
1 thing to watch for: the prices for wine on the wine menus do not include the 10% service charge plus the 17% tax, making a bottle of wine 27% more expensive than you think its going to be. this is really my only problem with this hotel hence 9/10, otherwise it would be 10/10

1 reader found this review helpful

Loved this Hotel people are so friendly and the anamation team are the best they are all so nice and have made some lovely friends.
We stayed in the deluxe rooms and had a pool and sea view room which was great, the food was lovely and there was a lovely choice everyday, I will be going back to this hotel in july and am so looking forward to it.

To Everybody Who Will Visit This Reort
You Will Love It People Are So Friendly And You Are Welcomed As One Of There Own
When I Went To Sri Lanka I Had Such An Experence
I Got To Understand So Much When I Was There
My Little Sister Was 9 And On The Website It Said We Cant Go On The Tours
But We Went On The Elephants But Organised It With A Friend We Met There
Sri Lanka Is The Best Hoilday And You Should Go There Its A Whole New Experence
The Animation Team Are So Friendly
There Shows Were So Funny
Thank You So Much