Mövenpick Resort Al Marjan Island 5 stars

We spent the last days of our one-week family holiday at this hotel, after staying in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, and these days turned out to be a real highlight of the trip. Very cozy atmosphere, all-inclusive comfort, and incredibly attentive staff. I would like to especially mention the team: Ajay at the reception, Saud who warmly welcomed us and upgraded our room as we hadn’t considered a child during booking, Jerun who helped with the luggage, Nikhil from housekeeping for the perfect cleanliness, Rakibul from the restaurant, and the restaurant floor manager, I have honestly never seen such well-coordinated and calm teamwork before. The spa and massage area is outstanding. Doris at the massage reception is wonderful, and the massage therapists are truly professional. All three of us had massages and every single one was excellent, from oil selection to atmosphere and technique. Rooms are spacious, very clean, with high-quality toiletries (we liked them so much that we later ordered the same products from the brand’s website). The beach is very clean, with comfortable loungers. It was windy during our stay, but the pools were warm and very pleasant. A big plus for families is the kids’ club: a huge variety of activities, very caring staff, Russian-speaking employees, and even movie screenings with Russian subtitles. We left our little sister there several times, and she absolutely loved it. The buffet deserves special mention, cuisines from all over the world, very tasty, well presented, clean, and always fresh. No complaints at all. One more experience you absolutely should not miss: there is an inflatable obstacle course in the sea. At first it looks like something just for kids, but don’t be fooled, it’s incredibly fun for adults too. If you had seen us there, you would have laughed out loud. Don’t forget to take life jackets on the shore, they are free and you will definitely need them. Huge thanks to the team there who keep everything safe and help you climb back after falling. If you want to go out, there is Salt cafe and a beautiful promenade just across the road, about a 5-minute walk. But honestly, we didn’t want to leave the hotel at all. Highly recommended for family holidays. Warm, comfortable, very well organized, with staff who truly care about guests.

A big disappointment. Overpriced, over-rated and set up to cater exclusively to a Russian clientele, of which they make up well over 90% of fellow guests. We knew that our stay would be a let down from the time we landed at Dubai International following a night flight. We followed the instructions from Travco for our pickup to find nobody there. After several minutes of walking around a multi storey car park in the world’s busiest airport, having left my wife alone with our suitcases, I finally found a member of staff in a Travco top who made several phone calls. There followed a period of delay and we stood in a thoroughfare getting stepped around until we were directed to go down in the lift to another level with our suitcases. There were more Travco reps who appeared confused to see us. Our driver appeared and, with no apology or explanation, ushered us to an old Nissan Pathfinder. It smelled fusty inside and the heater was keeping the car hot. He didn’t seem to know how to pay and get out, leaving us in a live exit lane twice to go and find out. On leaving the car park, we asked for the aircon to be turned down to cooler which he did. On the freeway the speed limit was 120kph which he was constantly exceeding by 10-20kph. He didn’t seem that alert and I was watching him like a hawk in the mirror as he kept blinking his eyes as though tired or in discomfort. I tried to establish whether he worked for the hotel or Travco. It turns out he works for something called Gallopers Tourism - so neither! The car had clearly seen better days with a loud whine coming from the rear axle. We have been offered a bottle of water by other drivers. No such luck on this journey after a night flight. The hotel itself is very modern and stylish. They say beauty is only skin deep and that is very much the case here. I have stayed at many, many full service resort hotels and this one was a real disappointment. We booked 9 nights on an All Inclusive Dine Around package. It wasn’t cheap. Arriving at 10am, we were told that our room which was a sea/island view at the rear was not ready. We were offered another room with a pool and beach view and the agent described it as an upsell. It worked out around £180. We declined politely and he appeared disappointed with us. We were told to wait and that we could access our bags in the store room for anything we needed. No coffee or water provided and we had to purchase coffee from the Mocs bar in reception for about £4.90 each. Not even a bottle of water offered. We ate lunch in the Market buffet which we could not access until after 12 noon when our package kicked in, then tried to get our room around 1pm. Our room was not available at 1pm, not at 2pm and at 2.30 we asked again. It was finally ready just after 2.40pm and after almost 5 hours of sitting around in the lobby, exhausted and dirty from our night flight. You should be warned that like so many places in the UAE, All Inclusive isn’t always what it appears to be. We always book Dine Around to be sure of an upgraded experience, but in this case it backfired. Dining on our package was at Market buffet, ULA on the beach, the Beach House or Boons. The buffet is vast but barely caters to a capacity crowd. Tables are left dirty and ordering a coffee can be very hit and miss. The food is mostly beige and uninspiring. Cheaper options abound. One night only I saw green lip mussels and thought it would pick up. Sadly not. Not a prawn in sight. Dropped food was left where it fell and dishes would be left piled up and not cleared away. ULA is beyond a joke. An adult pool with a restaurant attached. The food is dire. The menu choices at all of the Dine Around options are extremely limited. ULA offers sea bream which was not available. Instead they offered a tiny cut of steak. The chicken souvlaki is so small that it was barely a child portion. Awful. Boons is a huge sports bar/restaurant/cabaret venue all in one room. If you want to be surrounded by mainly 98% Russians smoking constantly, kids running about on the banquet seating, music so loud that you cannot hear yourself think, and be treated to other people’s phones at full volume, then this is for you. One night I ordered Sea Bass at Boons. To be fair it was nicely cooked but came with the smallest slivers of carrot, half a tomato and a squeeze of lemon. I dared to ask for some mashed potato and was flatly refused and rebuked with a no! No other explanation. The silly thing is that on the A La Carte the short rib is 150AED. It’s available on Dine Around but you cannot order other items without paying full price for them even though many are significantly cheaper, like spaghetti with prawns at 95AED. No swaps! No deviation allowed from the fixed menu at all. The drinks package is massively limited. One choice of Spanish red, white or rose. Draft beer does not exist. It’s Lowenbrau or Becks from a can or nothing unless you pay extra for Draft Stella Artois or Peroni which are not on the package. To add insult, they will serve your can of beer in a Peroni glass to you. My wife was unable to drink any of her preferred beverages. Nobody will deviate even slightly from the package. The spirits are cheap local brands and just palatable, if acid reflux is something which you enjoy. If you wanted to escape the loud music and cigarette smoke in Boons, the staff insisted that you decant your drink into a paper coffee cup, even if you wanted to sit on the sofas behind reception. Not like any 5 star hotel I’ve experienced. On a positive, the Beach Bar serves great Tex Mex in good portion sizes and the service is good. It closes at sunset. You cannot get a meal or drink there in the evening. It’s just closed. Speaking of closures, one night staff removed half of the furniture from Boons for the upsell weekend brunch. 225 AED without alcohol or 325 AED with. Dine Around gets you 25% discount. There was a beautiful three day Indian wedding whilst we were there. Stunning outfits and a lovely event attended by very nice people who we got to chat to. It was evident that they were very well looked after and it was pleasing to hear that they all seemed to enjoy the events. However, the buffet was over-stretched for breakfast causing us to be diverted to Boons where the food in the steamer trays was stone cold and the staff were so clueless and over-stretched that it took 25 minutes to get one cup of coffee (they don’t like you making your own). When I did go to the one machine in frustration and try to figure it out for myself, the waiter just stared at me as if I was in his way. No offer to help at all. When I got back to my table another waiter had brought the coffees anyway. Zero communication between staff. The wedding also meant the closure of Neo Sky Bar one night and ULA on another. In other words, and with no disrespect intended towards the lovely wedding guests, this hotel is happy to limit an already limited package for the sake of upselling elsewhere. I think that this is really the crux of the matter here. They take your money for the package and then focus their attention on other ways to make more money whilst having your money in the bank already. We encountered pockets of kindness and helpfulness, but the general attitude here is that they’ve got your money so just accept what you’re given. We made our displeasure clear and were met a couple of times by Ahmed, the new Food and Beverage Manager who had only been in post just over a week. He was very concerned, very professional and listened intently to what we said. We have been told that Boons is being considered for a re-brand into a fine dining venue with outside smoking. As the only genuine alternative dining venue it really does need it. We have stayed at the Doubletree next door which has four alternative restaurants; Italian, French, Asian Fusion and Turkish. The Movenpick tries to compete on paper but does not have the staff training or infrastructure to compete properly. For three days, we skipped lunch and ate an early supper in the Beach House before it closed, effectively making the best of a bad situation. Make no mistake, this hotel tracks and profiles you by your room number and it was made very clear to us that if you booked into one venue in the evening then you would not be able to change your mind and go to another just in case we tried to have more than one meal. Last year we stayed at Fairmont The Palm. It was another world compared to this and we received a true 5 star experience for much less money. Our stay was so poor that on the third to last day we booked the QE2 in Port Rashid for our last two nights. We asked about a partial refund but we were referred to our travel agent. We asked if our return transfer could be moved to Port Rashid instead of the airport. We were actually doing them a favour by travelling on a Sunday instead of a weekday. They said we would have to go to the airport then pay for a taxi to take us back to the port. We spoke to reception and she was understanding, saying she would see what she could do. We received a telephone call from her in our room to say we would be taken directly to the QE2. About 7.30pm, a letter arrived stating we would be taken to the airport. During the evening, we went to the concierge and were told we would indeed have to go to the airport. When I pressed them, they called a supervisor twice who failed to attend despite being told the guest was waiting to see them, but apparently agreed on the telephone that we could be taken directly to the ship instead. This hotel is really chaotic and the lack of communication between staff coupled with an inability to do anything off script makes you feel like an inconvenience to them. On return, we had the same driver and car from Gallopers Tourism. Without a doubt this was one of the scariest journeys of our lives. The driver was again speeding. I had to tell him to stop texting on WhatsApp. He was drifting towards oncoming traffic. He then took a phone call before holding his phone to figure out directions to the QE2 using Google Maps. He randomly changed lanes whilst speeding, twice moving into the same lane as another car that was indicating and manoeuvring. He had no danger perception or observation skills or anticipation at all. He even drove with his hands off the wheel to drink his water. He was tailgating whilst reading his map onscreen and looking down at his phone. If you receive complimentary transfers from the hotel just make sure it’s not provided by Gallopers Tourism in a cream coloured Nissan Pathfinder. We could not wait to leave the Movenpick. Checking into the QE2 was like another world. I will review this later.

We celebrated birthday at Mövenpick Al Marjan Island, and everything was absolutely perfect. The setup was amazing and well organized, making the celebration feel truly special. The ambiance, service, and attention to detail were all excellent. A special thanks to Anita Masoma and Shine for their hospitality. They were incredibly helpful, professional, and made sure everything went smoothly. Their efforts really made the day memorable. Overall, everything was great, and I highly recommend Mövenpick Al Marjan Island for special occasions

Everything is literally perfect

It was short and wonderful stay, starting from reservation till check out everything was perfect, and recommendable. Mr. Sad is one of assets for the property who really takes care of the guest from his heart.