If you could post some info on the gold club it would be appreciated. There was a question about this a few days or so ago.

Glad to hear that you had such a great visit and enjoyed the O&O - it's a great hotel.

Glad that you had a great time :-)

Welcome to a pretty expesnive addiction ;-)

UCC

Hi there,

Just wondering if there was any construction work going on at all (noise, polluted sea, etc) around the hotel.

Also, how far was the hotel from Dubai City?

Cheers,

Flo

We dont get a lot of reports on the one and only, so quick bullets points would be good esp on the service and what you receive at the gold room, also service etc around the pool etc and facilities in general.

No problems:

- Gold club rooms - all seem to have sea view - obviously this is onto the palm construction but this really was not a problem, at night it is quite spectacular. Noise is not too bad either, it is worse at the Arabian Court.

- Breakfast could be taken in olives, celebrities or gold club lounge - we preferred celebrities (which is closed for refurb in the eve) - all excellent though

Afternoon tea from 3pm excellent, lots of canapes/snacks/desserts/drinks - also the 2 hrs of drinks in the eve were great - good selection of most drinks free between 6pm - 8pm.

- Service was fantastic, never expereinced this high level of service before, it wasn't for tips either. We tipped a few times but the hotel staff were often embarrassed to accept.

- Pool was excellent, always a lounger available, daily activities but not in your face. Beach was great, we went in most days, so warm. We wandered from our beach to the marina also, didn't seem to be a problem crossing beaches.

- Restaurants great - did Olives and Beach BBQ/Grill, we wanted to fit in Eau Zone but not enough time.

- Kasbar nightclub was cool, very chilled out. Also the rooftop bar at Arabian Court was excellent too, good music and drinks fair prices (for a hotel) - cocktails 40 AED

- It's about 10/15 min taxi/shuttle to Mall of Emirates, which was great - went skiing there.

- Did the Planet Tours desert safari - really good fun.

Hi Patrick,

I have booked the One and Only Arabian Court for September on line through Expedia but they did not offer half board. Can you suggest an agent who might offer a half board package and how much did you pay to upgrade to the gold club? What are the chances of the hotel giving us a free upgrade at check in??

Many thanks Sharon

Shasam, I would e-mail the hotel directly re free half board as I think they are offering it as standard. We are going Back to The Residence (our 3rd visit) in October and free half board was included this time and last time (last November). It saves a fortune as you have a credit to eat in any of the restaurants or each restaurant had a set menu where the 3 courses were free.

Yeah I agree with the person above, e mail the hotel. I cant remember how much I paid for gold club upgrade but was def worth it, it was almost like all inclusive, we didnt need to buy lunch as the afternoon tea was sufficinet! Enjoy! Think we will be going back in June again next year.

Patmanuk

Glad you enjoyed the O & O it is a fantastic hotel, and the service is first class, I think gold club is worth paying for, we haved always stayed in a gold club room in the Royal Mirage, its a hotel within a hotel.

We got the free half board package for August, which we booked about 9 months ago for The Arabian Court. I have just booked today for our son and g/friend to go too and they also got the free half board. Most operators are doing the free half board, with a very minimal amount of agents not doing it. We found that was the case yesterday when we went through many operators to find the best deal. I would e-mail them to check if they do it or not. If they don't, are you able to cancel without penalty?