Second Visit To Atlantis returning with family…
May 2, 2024 mrs_z_grimshaw Leatherhead, United Kingdom
This was our second visit to the Atlantis Palm after staying as a family of 5 in May 2023.
We returned this time with family (10 of us in total) incl grandparents who have never travelled to Dubai. It was our idea to book a family holiday so we wanted to stay in an amazing place to show ‘Dubai’ off to my in laws and ensure everybody had an amazing…
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This was our second visit to the Atlantis Palm after staying as a family of 5 in May 2023.
We returned this time with family (10 of us in total) incl grandparents who have never travelled to Dubai. It was our idea to book a family holiday so we wanted to stay in an amazing place to show ‘Dubai’ off to my in laws and ensure everybody had an amazing time - the pressure was on us!
After being to several hotels in Dubai we felt The Atlantis was the hotel to stay at - it had the facilities, the food and WOW factor.
We booked 3 Queens rooms between us and upgraded to the Imperial Club tower so we could have access to the lounge throughout the day.
Upon arrival we were informed the HB option had changed since our last visit in May with restaurants now having a surcharge, thought this was both disappointing and frustrating. The Gordon Ramsay now had a 100AED surcharge per person - the reason for this was because Gordon Ramsay was a celebrity - despite the fact the previous year he was a celebrity too! We only ate at this restaurant once and it was nice and the service was good - exactly the same as the previous visit!
We did eat at the buffet most nights as it suited everyone and people could have and much or as little as they wanted. I wouldn’t say the food was amazing - not how I had remembered it. A little repetitive with the same type of foods served every night but with a theme station.
The other restaurants we did eat at unfortunately on this visit were OK - I wouldn’t say they were amazing (Ayamna was closed for refurbishment).
However our visit to the Wave House was absolutely awful!
The service was extremely slow and non existent! A salad had a bug/spider crawling around in it, which when reported to the waitress there was no apology, just a ‘oh, ok’. We waited over 30mins for the ice-cream which after us asking we were informed the machine was being re-filled. Once it finally came out, the ice-cream wasn’t ice-cream but in-fact sloshy milk! Again, no apology when questioning the waitress as to what was served - just ‘but you got the ice-cream you ordered!!’
We felt on this holiday the food was less than satisfactory compared to the price tag and the extra money we paid on arrival to ‘upgrade’ to half board! Given what we know, we probably wouldn’t go HB and pay the menu price or eat out as it wasn’t worth the extra £3000 for us to have dinner.
I’m not one to complain but did report this to the Club Lounge members, who were particularly interested (she checked both her watch and phone several times during our discussion!)
We were seen by a Manager, Storm, he was disappointed with what he heard and made a point of coming to see us the following morning at breakfast with a fruit platter but it didn’t change the situation or honestly make any difference to our experience. We chose to eat out of the hotel on the final two evenings.
The imperial lounge was less that satisfactory - again, an extra we paid for but it wasn’t worth it.
The rooms are located in a different tower, closer to the lounge but were otherwise exactly the same.
Upon arriving at the lounge (whether it was breakfast, afternoon tea or drinks), we were never seated, we found our own table and it took several attempts of eye contact and raised hands to get attention to place a drink order. The service was slow too with the hot drinks often being barely warm!
The breakfast menu was nice and not something offered in the buffets but the afternoon food served 3-5pm was the same daily - the only variation were what sweet or cake was on offer - otherwise the same sandwich’s and scones.
Happy hour was between 5-7pm which isn’t an ideal time as it means you need to leave the pool at 5 to get showered and ready to enjoy a drink or 2 before it stops at 7.
We were at the hotel over Easter and I was really surprised to see the effort to celebrate Easter (being a Muslim country and Easter being a Christian holiday).
The kids loved the water park and had access to it as much or as little as they wanted! It was brilliant for them.
On a plus side - the daytime entertainment team around the family pool were absolutely brilliant! They ensured everybody got involved and had an opportunity to play and win!
Shout out to the entertainment team around the family pool and Waterpark in particular - Carol, Riddhi, Dillon, Maddie & Mario! They were great fun and the kids had a brilliant time taking part in the wide variety of games - water basketball was a firm favourite! Always with a smile and always with enthusiasm.
Overall we enjoyed ourselves but I wouldn’t rush back and albeit it’s a 5star, world renowned hotel - I would re-think when recommending hotels in Dubai to others.
We have booked to go back in May half term but had booked this prior to the April trip - we did look at cancelling this but annoyingly we purchased the non re-fundable / transferable rate when booking. Shame, because it was such a great experience for us the first time we went last year.
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