Some thoughts from me after staying there for a couple of nights.
The hotel itself is stunning. I know many (including myself) thought it was too similar to Bell Rock, but it does have a very different feel. The entrance is stunning, the staff uniforms looks great and it feels like a very sophisticated hotel. There's only three lifts in the hotel, it could've probably done with another one to improve wait times at busy periods.
Rooms
The rooms are HUGE, the biggest standard rooms at EP I'd say. We had one with two double beds (essentially two sets of single mattresses as is the way in Germany), with a bench at the end of each bed, a desk with a chair and a further reading chair. There's still space on top of that for two luggage stands and a wardrobe. The bathroom is great with a separate toilet - handy for groups!
Stupidly we left our window open and the lights on one night resulting in us returning from the bar to a rather large (yet hilarious) fly invasion into the room. So don't make the same mistake if you're staying yourself! We had a room in the main building where reception is, and despite the noise from downstairs could not hear a single thing with the huge room door shut. My only complaints would be that they need something on the walls above the beds. In the bunk/double rooms the Rulantica map is placed on that wall, but as ours was longer it was put on the opposite wall beside the desk. The solid headboards are a bit annoying if you want to sit up in bed too, although easily solved with a pillow against it I guess.
Food & Drink
We managed to try both of the hotel's restaurants on our trip. Tre Kronen was on our first night, and was absolutely brilliant. I was concerned the restaurant looked a little plain on photos, but on visiting it's much nicer in person. They've added some emblems to the walls since the preview opening pictures which help finish things off. The service was brilliant, nice and relaxed and didn't feel too "stuffy". There's option to sit outside in the Summer months too. An amuse bouche of breads and crab meat was served which was delicious. For starter I had pork belly with kohlrabi and beer mustard sauce, which was probably the best I've ever had:
For mains I had black angus flank steak with lentils and grilled cabbage. Again this was lovely, with the lentils especially being exceptionally tasty!
Dessert was vanilla panna cotta with strawberry sorbet and rhubarb compote. I'm normally not a huge rhubarb fan, but it was lovely, not bitter and the freeze dried strawberries provided a nice crunch
Onto Bubba Svens, and this is a huge restaurant of a similar size to the Harborside buffet in Bell Rock. However, unlike Bell Rock this is a la carte restaurant. Again this looks much nicer in person, and offers a nice casual atmosphere along with a bar if you just want to pop in for a drink. It has probably the best beer selection in the hotels on resort (even more than Bar Erikson), with plenty of bottled beer options. The menu again is predominately fish but there is some great alternative options too. Starters weren't great at this restaurant, so we skipped those and went straight for mains.
I went for a Danish burger which I was imagining would be a few slices of pork. But no, this was a MASSIVE slice from a pork roast with a ton of crackling and crispy onions on top. This was really nice, and I'd certainly have it again:
For dessert I had the ice cream waffle which was scoops of strawberry, stracciatella and vanilla ice cream with marshmallow on top. If you've got a sweet tooth this is absolutely amazing (I could eat a tank-load fo the marshmallow alone!). It's extremely filling though, I didn't manage to finish it!
There's also a late night offer between 10pm and 11pm of chicken wings if you're feeling hungry while having a drink.
Breakfast is also served here for most guests, with suites being in Tre Kronen. There's the usual selection from breakfast at the resort hotels, along with Scandinavia options such as a few additional salmon options, Kalles Kaviar and crackerbreads, meatballs and...mixed veg of all things. They also offer speciality coffees on request too, with our group happily grabbing a macchiato each morning.
Bar Erikson is the main bar for the hotel. It's split across two floors, with the top floor further split between bar seating and the cafe. Although it felt a little bigger than the photos, I still feel it's nowhere near big enough for the hotel. There's loads of outdoor seating, but during the winter months that's not going to be a very attractive option! The bar also seems way too small, meaning they can't really fit many staff behind there to keep up. We grabbed a cocktail after our meal in Tre Kronen and was informed there was a 20 minute wait for them to be made as they were so busy. Hopefully they'll work out a way of making this a little quicker in future by maybe utilising other bars too. It was first opening night after all, so teething problems were to be expected.
The outdoor seating areas are great, and there's a few seating areas with outdoor sofas which are very comfortable. There's no hiding the construction at Rulantica directly opposite during the day, but at night with the very nicely lit fountains on it's great. They're clearly making efforts to finish the area of Rulantica facing Kronosar as soon as possible, so in a month or two it'll likely not even be noticeable.
There's a few speciality cocktails offered. My favourite being the Nord/East Mule with a spicy ginger beer and aquavit. I'd quite happily drink these all night!
Location and Transport
So there's no hiding the fact that the hotel is far away from the theme park. However, the shuttle service seemed to be well operated and we saw no issues on our visit. The shuttle operates every 30 minutes throughout the day up until late at night, rising the every 15 minutes when the park opens and when it closes. We didn't find ourselves crammed onto a bus, and the bus stop is just to the left of the hotel as you exit.
My thoughts
So there are some faults with the new hotel, the bar being the main issue that we saw on our stay. As a group, I think it's safe to say we'd love to see the back of Bubba Svens developed into a further bar area to ease the problems with Bar Erikson. I wasn't keen on the cafe area upstairs, and I'd prefer this to just be converted into further extended space for the bar too. Not that I used them all that much, but it's a shame there's no hotel pool here too, hopefully this is something that'll be added in future.
That aside though, I absolutely loved the hotel and has my favourite rooms on resort. Overall though, it's probably my second favourite behind Bell Rock at the moment. With Rulantica being developed, and the future likely holding a second hotel I'd be tempted to say this would become my favourite area to stay, even with the location being further out.