Our favourite brand and favourite hotel in Dubai - Madinat is Magical!
Jun 30, 2022 PhilL875 Lichfield, United Kingdom
Returning to Jumeriah Dar Al Masyaf after a longer gap than intended (due to COVID) still feels like ‘coming home’ to an exceptionally welcoming, familiar and desirable hotel. Arrival was very straightforward as we checked in beyond the timing which guaranteed immediate room availability. Arriving by private car to the main entrance of Al Qasr…
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Returning to Jumeriah Dar Al Masyaf after a longer gap than intended (due to COVID) still feels like ‘coming home’ to an exceptionally welcoming, familiar and desirable hotel. Arrival was very straightforward as we checked in beyond the timing which guaranteed immediate room availability. Arriving by private car to the main entrance of Al Qasr results a cursory check-in at the main reception before being transported by buggy to the allocated villa whereby the butler conducts a personalised check-in from the comfort of the summerhouse in which you will stay.
Madinat Jumeriah is a sprawling complex of luxury hotels, a shopping and dining destination, conference and event facility combined with 2km of pristine private beach and 3km of waterways. If you haven’t been here before you will likely be quite amazed by the sheer scale of what is on offer. What we love about staying at any of the hotels at Jumeirah Madinat is the feeling that you are staying at a small town within the city of Dubai. A town that requires the use of multiple modes of transport, such as Buggy and Boat, to get around but with a convenience and pleasure in doing so.
Dar Al Masyaf is one of the 5 (soon to be 6) hotels; not including Burj Al Arab, which are found at Jumeirah Madinat. Dar Al Masyaf just happens to be our favourite. Dar Al Masyaf is peaceful, elegant and intimate; it offers a nice balance of privacy and small group socialisation. Unlike our previous stay where our villa had direct beach access, this time we had direct pool access to a small but perfectly formed pool that was informally shared by the 3 villas / 24 rooms in the vicinity.
Each villa offers rooms which are either ground floor or first floor with terrace or balcony respectively. The summerhouses are two storey buildings with communal areas including interior courtyard, an air-conditioned majlis (sitting room) and upper floor outdoor seating. One of the perks for guests staying at Jumeirah Dar Al Masyaf is complimentary drinks in the evening from 6pm until 8pm. This is the perfect opportunity to meet other guests from your villa and compare stories from the day, plans for evening and beyond. As many guests will have already introduced themselves whilst at the poolside there is an instant community feel that comes with staying here.
A further perk of Dar Al Masyaf is that each Villa is hosted by a private butler, this helpful addition will aid with almost any aspect of your stay ranging from booking in-resort transportation, making dining reservations, excursions or any other hospitality related need. It is worth noting that this hotel (group) also offers a highly efficient service known as e-butler which is based on WhatsApp. This service means you may instant-message the butler and make request of them at any time day or night and from our experience this was always promptly handled.
The décor, presentation, quality and cleanliness of our villa was exceptional, during our stay we learned that refurbishment is already underway at this hotel for the next generation of rooms this will no doubt push the luxury even further but in the most part we saw no evidence of this being needed. The small exceptions to this would be the plumbing for the bathtub and also the in-room air-con which required maintenance team attention during our stay.
Standard rooms are generous but a suite would be beneficial for anyone hoping to have the feeling of multiple spaces to relax or dine. We stayed as a family of 3 with a 3yr old child, for our child the hotel permanently converted a sofa bed into a single bed. I am fairly certain that should we have asked the housekeeping team would have quite willingly converted the bed both morning and night but we made them aware that my son would be using it for afternoon naps also.
The master bed was comfortable but short, I am not especially tall but my feet would overhang the mattress, this was surprising and a Dubai first as in most stays the beds have been oversize. The ambience of the room can be adjusted by a touch panel controlling multiple lights around the room. The TV in the room supports casting from your own device, this has become more beneficial to us when travelling with a toddler as we can put on a familiar show/movie to keep him occupied while we get ready in the evening.
Madinat Jumeirah has a huge array of restaurant options ranging from stylish buffets to opulent and award-winning al a carte. This year’s half board was not as simple as before. On previous stays we have experienced the Jumeriah Flavours and Dine Around Half Board which was pretty much universal and whilst often aligned to ‘set menus’ at Al a Carte venues you would have complimentary access to 40+ dining options. This time ‘Invitation to Dine’ needed a cheat sheet and PDF brochure which sadly provided conflicting information on which restaurants you could dine at complimentary, which you would pay a supplement at and which you would receive a credit towards al a carte dining charges. Don’t read this criticism of complexity as meaning a lack of choice as with the exception of a few restaurants (including Bab Al Yam, a previous favourite of ours) you will still find a long list of dining options as a half board guest. It is a shame that Jumeirah have reduced the value of this important perk as it will likely mean that those booking will look at room-only or B&B rates and dine less routinely on-site.
The restaurants are all exquisitely designed, fresh, modern, airy and appealing. The buffets are varied and offer high-quality food options, the Al a carte restaurants are perfectly authentic in their decoration and menus. We found that Arboretum for evening buffet was less child-friendly than those at the Al Nassem and Jumeirah Beach. We also found that Arboretum was too busy at breakfast and much preferred the atmosphere and service at French Riviera. Due to hotel occupancy levels taking breakfast at other venues was not possible and this impacted moderately on our experience versus previous stays. The dining experience for guests at Dar Al Masyef can start as soon as you leave your room as you can partake in pre-dinner drinks in the Majlis whilst your butler arranges a private boat to pick you up from outside and take you to the restaurant’s own pier, this is truly a unique lifestyle. Our favourite restaurants were The Palmery and Zheng He’s but I would also recommend Arboretum, Dhow and Anchor, Kitchen Connection and Trattoria. Superb options are available at sister hotels such as Zabeel Saray but we did make the trip this time with our young son.
Madinat Jumeirah is a hard to describe as it has such a diversity to it terms of modern and Arabian authenticate architecture. All I would say is that almost anywhere you look is picture-postcard worthy with a perfection and purity hard to find elsewhere. My earlier comment of Madinat being like visiting a small town in Dubai could be coupled with a statement suggesting it is also like being on a movie set with appropriate backdrops, props, outfits and experiences at every turn. You should sense that I love this place and it’s energy, it is infectious and I would encourage anyone to visit, stay, wonder around and would wager on your desire to return.
COVID has, in my opinion, impacted some of the impeccable levels of service that we have always experienced on previous visits. Staff on our most recent stay whilst evidently hard working and generally courteous lacked some of the passion, friendliness and ‘nothing is too much trouble’ attitude. Our best experiences were with the Butlers (both in person and via the e-Butler service), the staff at Sinbad’s Kid’s Club and those at the French Riviera and Palmery restaurants. Our worst experience by far was the rudeness, generally sluggish and unprofessional staff at Tortuga, the Mexican restaurant, to which we would unlikely return based on the dreadful experience which tainted one evening of our stay.
COVID procedures have removed most literature from the room and check-in process, aside for a cheat sheet on Half board supplements and restaurant opening times you will need to research and resource all other information through the TV, internet or e-Butler. We found out half way through our stay that Kids Under 4 Eat Free, we knew that our son could dine with us at the half board restaurants but were told nothing else about this additional benefit. For this reason we had coped in that whilst all restaurants offer exceptional food of wide variety many are not catering explicitly for young children and nor should they need to. Our son on occasion would have limited food of interest and we would have to supplement outside of the restaurant with locally purchased snacks etc. What compounded the issue was that staff are not appropriately trained/aware of the Kids Eat Free policy as on some occasions we were denied access to it and others it was facilitated. This level of inconsistency is unheard of at Jumeirah in the past and should not be occurring today. The fact that our son was eligible for complimentary childrens meal, drink and dessert by the pool or in our room made a huge difference to the second half of stay, delighting him with food he liked and enabling us to dine without guilt in the evenings.
The next statement is one which represents a very 1st world problem, but it is worth highlighting that a high proportion of buggy’s and abra’s were not operating at this hotel during our stay. During the first 24hrs we hadn’t even seen a single Abra on the water, leaving us to question whether they were running at all. The result of this is that whilst in the past you would never have waited longer than 5 minutes for transportation, on this visit the wait was typical 15 minutes sometimes longer which is noticeable when you are in mid-40 degree Celsius temperature range with evening humidity. Various Abra tours and personal walking adventures revealed various parts of the hotel which are currently not operating, Dar Al Masyaf villas 21-30 appear to be out of use leaving a sizeable proportion of the resort to be a ghost town. There is also a hopefully temporary graveyard of Abra’s and the buggy park is also overflowing with units not in operation. I sincerely hope that this amazing resort returns to its full operating potential in the not too distant future.
COVID measures at this hotel are impressively enforced and adhered to. The complimentary face masks (individually wrapped), hand-sanitiser as well as packs of anti-bacterial wipes are never far away from hotel entrances or restaurant facilities. I felt as though our bedroom was serviced more frequently with linen changes and deep cleaning that was before which would always have been deemed more than adequate.
Our 3yr old son enjoyed his time staying here immensely. The various child-friendly, perfectly temperate, spotlessly clean swimming pools made the ideal places for him to ‘learn to swim’ for the first time, make many young friends (from various countries) and generally love every minute of each day. He loved visiting the Wild Wadi Waterpark located a brief buggy ride away, the hotel’s own Splashpark and also taking part in the Sinbad’s Kid’s Club. He loved the kid’s corner in the Palmery Buffet restaurant, visiting the Turtle Rehabilitation centre and getting to witness turtles being released on the beach. This was a magical vacation catered for by this hotel and he, like ourselves cannot wait to return.
I would recommend the Dar Al Masyaf as offering the most tranquil setting within a magnificent complex of hotels with fabulous shared facilities and great memory making opportunities. We have stayed at many hotels throughout Dubai and whilst there are so many luxury options each with their own unique qualities we have always found that our heart lies here at DAM.
Despite some negative comments in this comprehensive review I am hopefully that it reflects positively on the hotel and their overarching ability to provide a perfect, luxury family holiday. The issues we faced during this stay specifically are forgivable and it is entirely likely they are down the impact of COVID with reduced / new staff and also remedial operational capacity. Jumeirah is our favourite brand of hotels in Dubai and Dar Al Masyaf is our favourite hotel to stay at.
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