We returned end of January and could not fault this hotel. I honestly don't know where some people usually eat - The Ivy?! We could not fault the food at all and it was some of the best food that we have experienced at an all inclusive resort.
We are a family of 4 - 2 adults and 2 kids (aged 4 years old and a 6 month old baby). Not 1 of us had a dicky tummy. The fact that you could get plenty of bottled water from all the restaurants and housekeeping stocked the fridge up daily made it easy to drink "safe" water. The hotel was spotless as were the rooms and all the staff worked tirelessly to endeavour that we had a brilliant time. All the staff were fantastic with the kids and always were friendly and called us "Boss". I agree with what other people have said that if you treat them with respect you will get it in return I never saw any staff member being less than civil even when some of the british were being with them. Yep Mohammed was a bit pushy with the trips but he was also helpful with the local information so cut him some slack he is just trying to make a living and a simple "no thanks" is suffice.
The top kiddies pool was quite cold so wasn't heated nor was the quiet pool by the 8 water bungalows but the rest of them were fine and the smaller kiddies pool at the main complex was lovely and warm.
We were upgraded to one of the water bungalows which was massive and stunning, we didn't have a cot in it when we first arrived but a call to reception and just ten minutes later a guy came with one with sheets and it wasn't just a travel cot it was a proper solid wood sturdy cot. Also there was no plug for the bath but again after asking at reception the next day we had one delivered, well it fit the sink but again after explaining ourselves again they returned promptly with a bath one. Like most places they do really well understanding and speaking English far better than my egyptian which does not exist so how can you have a go at them for not being fluent in English like some people have on this site. I also received a lovely chocolate cake in our room for my birthday and the bed had been scattered with flowers and a personalised scroll had been left for me, it was such a lovely touch. And no-one had prompted them to do it.
It is a bit scruffy just outside the hotel and on the way to the beach but again its Egypt so you have to expect it not to be as clean as England.
The shops just outside the hotel are great, really helpfull and not that expensive even for pampers nappies which were about £3 for 9, which was much better than what I had thought as I was running low the last couple of days.
The rose wine was nice and so was the beer and the coffee's and cakes at the coffee bar opposite the Asian restaurant were gorgeous, better than a Costa!
All in all we got a cheap late deal and I can honestly say that I would have quite happily paid brochure price for this hotel, its great for the kids and for us bigger kids!! Can't comment on the nightlife as after a full day on the slides we were all shattered by 9pm. We would be hard pushed to beat this holiday however our 4 year old might expect this standard of holiday everytime now!!

We stayed at Aqua Blu Sharm in February 2012 for 11 nights and it was even better than we expected. The room was spacious, clean and very comfortable. The food in all the restaurants was excellent. We especially liked the Indian / Chinese restaurant where the chefs were actually from India and China so the food was very authentic. I would even go as far as to say it was the best curry I had ever had and the tandoori chicken and shish kebabs were the best as well. Also the pizzas in the Italian restaurant were great. The staff were lovely and bent over backwards for us.
The water park is the best one we have ever been to and believe me we have been to ones all over the world. If I can pick one fault it would be that they were not all heated and it was a bit of a shock when you hit the water on a few of them but really it just added to the fun of it!
The kids pools and slides were brilliant. We took our 3 year old and he absolutely loved it.
We had one of the best holidays ever at this resort and we are looking to book again for later in the year. I would highly reccomend it to anyone but especially families with children.

Dont no why people go abroad and expect it to be like been in England,STAY AT HOME !!!! We are a family ov 12 from ages 11 months/ 43years n we all enjoyed every minute ov it .The cleanliness ov the hotel overall was to a very high standard.The staff through out the hotel were always very helpful and nothing was ever too much trouble for them .the animation team worked very hard all the time and always fun to be around .The food was always hot n fresh n well presented ( if u want english food everyday then stay in england )Their was always plenty ov selection ov salad,vegetables,meat,soups,rice,pasta,n puddings everyday ,my 13 year old daughter who is a very picky eater never went hungry and enjoyed it .
the water slides n pools n wave pool was good too with plenty ov lifeguards always keepin n eye on the swimmers ,
The rooms were always kept to n high standard n kept well clean .
The occasional tip is always welcome to bar n cleaning staff as they earn very little .
The is nothing i can fault this hotel for n WILL deffinatly be going back .
WELL DONE AQUA BLU for making our holiday pleasent n enjoyable xx

We have just returned from 2 weeks at Aqua Blu and had a fantastic time at this resort. We are a couple aged 31 and 32 and this was our first time in Sharm El Sheikh so were quite apprehensive of what to expect, but we need not have worried one bit, so if you are the same - stop worrying! You'll have a great time.

On arrival we were taken to our room in a golf cart - our room was situated in a small annexe at the very edge of the hotel complex. It was a 10-15 minute walk from our room to the other end of the resort so this may not suit everyone, however we found it ideal as the annexe was quiet and had it's own pool area and bar (open from 10am to sunset). This was vitually empty on most days and felt like we had our own private pool at times. For couples I would definitely recommend trying to get this area of the hotel as it was a nice, tranquil world away from the rest of the busy park. The hotel room itself was large with a comfortable kingsize bed. TV in room has BBC World News and Fox Movies in English, rest of channels in other languages. However you get live Premier League football matches on an Arabic sports station on channel 27 in your hotel room. In our part of the hotel we also heard the regular prayer calls from the many mosques in the area which we quite liked as it was a bit unique to hear that when lazing by the pool and reminded you that you weren't in the Canaries or on the Med. We did hear the morning one (at around 5am although this I think may change throughout the year based on the sunrise time?) a few times but you get used to it after a while.

Standard of cleanliness and attention to detail is really good at this hotel, with areas constantly being cleaned and maintained wherever you look. We found the cleaning and waiting staff to be really friendly and helpful. It really pays to show some small apprecation in the form of tips every so often - try to tip in small denomination of Egyptian pounds if you can, as staff find it difficult to exchange currency. As we became regulars at our poolside bar, the barman Mohammed would bring drinks all day unprompted as soon as he saw our glasses were empty. You can't get better than that! We also found the rep meeting on our first day to be quite informative and not at all a hard sell on trips or activities so I would recommend going along if like us, this is your first time in Sharm.

The food was one of the main things we were quite worried about but delighted to say we certainly didn't go hungry and remained tummy-trouble free. We took our own small bottles of sanitizer with us and cleaned our hands pretty religiously after handling money and especially before each trip up to the buffet so I would definitely recommend doing the same. There are four restaurants - Cave Du Roi is the main restuarant and is huge, with an amazing amount of choice. However as other reviews have said, it does get very busy and can sometimes be manic. If we fancied going here we would ordinarily leave it a bit later to let the crowds phase out. Generally though, we stuck to the Italian, Asian and Mediterranean restaurants. These are smaller but far less busy, and also closer to our end of the park. You can walk between the Asian and Med restaurants as they are basically the same building.

Overall we found the food to be cooked well and very tasty. Some things we found to be better than others - for breakfast, the omlettes and pastries are the best things to go for. You can also get fried eggs from the chefs at the omlette stations if you request it. Sausages are available but are chicken or frankfurter style and I didn't find them particularly nice. For lunch and dinner, generally the food stations operated by the chefs have the nicest food, especially the carvery (Cave Do Roi), pizza (Italian) and tandoori skewer (Asian) stations. Fast food options such as burgers and hot dogs are also tasty, and some of the different types of rice dishes are lovely. Desserts are also a highlight. Yes, it can all get a bit samey I suppose, but you can really say the same about all hotel buffets and when you compare it to the buffets in hotels in Majorca and the Canaries, the choice and quality is better in Aqua Blu in our opinion.

Now to the important bit - the drinks. Overall we found the spirits to be not as bad as some have suggested in these reviews and certainly are drinkable. Spirits we found are best taken as part of a cocktail. You will find the cocktail lists in the La Cannelle and Chaplin Lobby bar. However outside these two bars you may find that some of the barmen's knowledge of what goes into cocktails can be quite limited. Some times we just asked for a 'cocktail' and it was a roulette wheel as to what would be served which was quite fun! We found that the wine does have a bit of an aftertaste so is better taken as part of a spritzer. Beer is not particularly strong but is pleasant and refreshing, especially during the hot daytime.

The one thing that does let the hotel down is the nightlife - there isn't much really at all. This wasn't too much of an issue for us as it was nice just to chill out at one of the bars or go for a walk around the complex as the atmosphere is nice in the evening around the hotel. To be honest we found that our evenings were spent people-watching the Russians! However there really isn't much in terms of entertainment at night. There was sometimes a guitar act in the 'Island' in the middle of the complex, and in the Clubhouse bar there were childrens games and some limited karaoke. I think the Cowboy bar is where you would ordinarily get a bit of a disco but this bar was undergoing rennovation throughout our stay and still was when we left, so this may be why it was a bit lacking in something to do at night. The good news however is that you will get live Premier League games in the Billiards pub which overlooks the main road at the front of the complex, in the Clubhouse bar and also in the Champions Pub which is a great bar situated just outside the public entrance to the park. You can get brand drinks in Champions as well as access to their excellent free Wi-Fi. Generally though nightlife was a bit tame but we did take a trip into Naama Bay one night which we thoroughly enjoyed as a bit of change of pace.

During the day you cannot possibly get bored as the slides and pools are fantastic. Some of the slides don't actually look that bad when compared to some of the Florida waterparks however they are amazing fun and definitely raise the adrenaline levels once you get up there! There is also a family raft ride which will give you a pretty good workout to work off all that buffet food as you need to carry the heavy yellow raft up all the stairs to the top. Good fun though. Another good work out is the lazy river, which you go around on a raft with oars, which can be so tiring and create a bit of a domestic if you don't work in unison with your rowing technique....don't say I didn't warn you!

We also took the shuttle bus to the sister hotel and the beach a couple of times, after buying sea shoes and snorkels from the shop next to Alex's supermarket just outside the public entrance to the park (Go right as you leave the park and you will see the supermarket and then the snorkel shop). Speak to Luca in this shop and he will do you a deal for all your snorkelling needs after some fun haggling! We have never snorkelled before so don't have much of a frame of reference but we found the snorkelling amazing here. Again we had some trepidation about this but you really don't have to go in deep at all to see some really colourful fish swimming around your feet. And at any time you can just stand up and walk back out of the water so it is really safe, even if you are not the best swimmer. If you are feeling a bit more adventurous you can go out to the jetty and jump into the deeper water which has the fish in even more abundance but we didn't get around to doing that this time...maybe next year! There is an all-inclusive bar down on the beach that Aqua Blu guests can use but we found it a bit dissapointing as it only offered two choices of snacks, neither of which were that appealing on the day we went to the beach. You can get unlimited drinks as normal though here too. I would recommend buying the sea shoes early on in your holiday and using them around the complex during the day as going up and down the stairs to the slides can be very slippy but was a breeze when wearing these shoes, which you can wear going down the slides.

The only aspect of the hotel that left a bit of a sour taste was our taxi to Naama Bay that we arranged though the hotel (it was 120E round trip which we knew was expensive but we wanted to book our return journey for piece of mind as it was our first time in Naama Bay). The taxi was a private car operated by the hotel and I double checked with the driver that the price would be 60E one way and 60E back. However on checking my change after leaving the taxi, the driver had returned 25E change from 100E. I called him on this on the pick up and informed him that I would only be paying 45E on the way back. He responded with 'okay sir' and left it at that! Now he either made a genuine mistake, was trying to swizz me or (what I think is more likely) ensuring that we would show up for our return journey instead of jumping in a cheaper taxi at Naama bay at the end of the night. Which would be a fair enough arrangement if he had been up front about it. However, I found it a bit underhand. So if you do decide to book a taxi through the hotel, keep an eye on your change and definitely clarify prices at all times.

Lastly...a word about the Russians. If you've read the reviews on here you know what to expect and to stand your ground in queues for the food stations and bars. I would re-iterate that you definitely have to have your wits around you or you will lose your place so be firm and keep on your toes! Apart from that though, they certainly provided some top-notch people watching entertainment for us so there are definitely some positive aspects of the culture-clash too!

Overall, we had a five star holiday experience and wouldn't hesitate on returning to Aqua Blu again. Anyone looking for a fun base for their first time in Sharm couldn't do better than this hotel.

I have uploaded some photos but you can also see a few more at the link below -
http://photobucket.com/aquablu_kt