Just back from a 10 day stay with the family. The two elephants who appear everyday are the stars of the hotel. The Kids Club appeared well organized with plenty of activities and the kids spent most days there.

Restaurants were nice, especially the Thai. Rooms were very large, but the beds were hard (problem solved after calling for help) . Staff always seemed to be smiling and helpful.

We arrived in Phuket on a Wednesday night, our transfer to the hotel was there waiting when we arrived and we had a pleasant drive in an air conditioned bus. When we arrived at the resort we were greeted by staff with beautiful flower braclets and shown to a seat and served with a cool refreshing drink and cold hand towels, while our paperwork was organised. We were then shown to our room which overlooked the lagoon which was beautiful, we were travelling with our 7 year old son and a bed was made up for him in an area overlooking the lagoon which he thought was fantastic, his own area (not a bed next his parents). Our room was serviced daily with new linen and cleaned and at night our beds were turned down and flowers placed on our beds. We were also provided with a plate of fresh fruit on our arrival in our room and then again a few days later.

We didn't eat at the resort as it was very expensive, except for a couple of breakfasts which weren't very expensive and nice, we were glad that we didn't get the breakfast included in our package as it would of been a waste of money. We went to the local mini market and bought our cereal etc and had brekky in our room and then for lunch and dinner we ate at Tom Yam Goong which was a lovely restaurant on the beach about 1 min down from the resort, the food was exceptional and cheap, beer was cheap and staff friendly. We usually had drinks either at the Sunset Bar or Lulu's which were both situated on the beach and less than half the price of the resort. But the resort did have happy hour drinks (2 for 1) at the pool bar from 5pm.

The elephants came around in the morning and afternoon, which was a delight to see, children are able to have a ride and feed them.

We found the resort staff very cheerful and happy to help. We did have a problem with our a/c a couple of nights before we left, but it was fixed in no time.

We will be definitely going back to this resort, our son had an absolute ball and so did his parents.

BY FAR THE WORST PLACE I HAVE EVER STAYED!!!!!!!!!! The A/C never worked!! We were dripping in our own steat, even after a cold shower. I was so disappointed and could not believe that we put up with such horrible customer service. Every time we brought up our discrepancy their solution was to just move us to a different room. Every room we went to seemed to have some issue with the A/C. We never had a good nights sleep in that hotel and it just ruined our trip. We are divers and when we came back in the evening to relax at our hotel all we seemed to accomplish was to sit in our own sweat. The only thing the staff did was shift us from room to room. It was just horrible!

The staff loved to give us the run around and it was like pulling teeth for them to even admit that the a/c was broken. They even sent out a letter stating that it was fixed, but it was a lie. We found out the hard way, by waking up in the middle of the night in a puddle of our own sweat. I could not even touch my fiance, we were both just miserable.

I will say that Thailand is beautiful and the people out in town were exceptionally kind. I loved the foot massages and the shopping. The diving was also awesome. Pretty much everything but the hotel rooms were wonderful. The hotels grounds were lovely but the staff could take some tips on telling the truth.

Oh one more thing, the view from the rooms were ruined by the vendors.

We stayed at the Laguna Beach Resort , last week in March,after having already spent 2 weeks in Phuket at 2 different,excellent, resorts.
Boy, did we ever regret booking here!

On arrival, lots of families sitting/standing around at reception, looking lost and waiting for attention.
Although eventually dealt with by a smiling woman, we were still hot, and kept waiting far longer than necessary.

On being shown our rooms, family of 5, 2 adult , 3 kids, we were horrified. Our request for an ocean view room, with if possible a pretty outlook, as it was our wedding anniversary whilst we were staying, was met with ground floor rooms facing..........a row of 33 in total beach shacks!
These are 5 large strides from your window!
Right in front of our window was the "Sunset Bar".

The ocean was nowhere to be seen!! A constant stream of people wandering around the shacks shopping, drinking in the bar would have been your view, with zero privacy on the little terrace. Horrible.
We asked to be moved at once,only to be told no rooms were available, everything was full.
Stood our ground and politely stated we were not going to accept these awful rooms(also very dark and dingy inside as shadowed by the shacks)
Several long phone calls later they do come up with 2 other rooms......... fine we thought, and went off to see them.

Seemed better. 2nd floor overlooking the pool area.
Kids and hubby go off to explore/swim i went to unpack a little.
Rooms seemed very hot, turned down A/C, went to join the family.
On our return, the room was still really hot and uncomfortable, called to reception who said they'd send a maintenance guy.
Ate lunch at pool-side bar, who's staff i have to say were lovely.
Again i went back to room to check A/C, still horribly hot. Whilst i sat on the bed to call reception again, i notice to my disgust a huge stream of ANTS, crawling along the back of the bed on a little ledge where the pillows rest!!! Uuuugghh.
Then start looking closely around, they are on the skirtings, on the TV, on the bedside cabinets. Grossed out, i call reception and ask to speak to a manager.
Meanwhile family arrives back.....husband and i really not happy, i am ready to check out!

Manageress appears and is very appologetic, but says A/C is as cold as it gets, all centrally controlled, so room controls useless!!
"What??"
Ants she promises will be dealt with, rooms deep cleaned, etc etc.
We ask to be moved (again, oh god) but zero rooms til 2 days time.Ask her to find us rooms in another hotel as we want out of here!
Not happy, to put it mildly, we leave for dinner, with a promise of the ants being dealt with and the A/C looked into.

We head of to the Dusit,in a lovely little water ferry boat, and ask if they have rooms available, no, sorry full for Easter.
Have a lovely evening there anyway and call the Sheraton, also full.

Return to the Laguna, to find, ants still there, room still hot, and when i go into the kids bathroom; ants in their toiletries bag!!
Freak!
Husband & I head off to reception, now 11.30pm.

I am really upset and close to tears and just want to leave the hotel, however remain polite and have to explain the whole days events to two front desk people, man & woman, totally unconcerned, offer to send cleaner (weren't the rooms supposed to have been "deep" cleaned hours ago???)
They then phone the manageress who dealt with us in the afternoon, at home, and let her deal with our complaint!! Unbelievable! Actually felt sorry for this woman, as she had tried to help.

Long and short, we couldn't find rooms for 5 at any other Laguna based resort. We were effectivley stuck there. Nightmare.

After a midnight clean and a sleepless night we got up and went straight to the Sheraton for the day to escape the place.

The nice manageress had somehow managed to have us moved to 3rd floor seaview suites on our return.
They proved to be, at least clean, cooler, and with a view over the tops of the beach shacks and a glimmer of ocean.
Out of all the staff she was the only one who even tried to help when we were so upset, she even sent flowers and wine on our anniversary, which was nice; but to be honest i wish we had been anywhere but at that hotel!!!

The hotel is seriously in need for re-furb. Rooms are dark, dingy and furniture scuffed and chipped.
Bathrooms , as mentioned in other reviews are a disaster, flooded after every shower, slippy and dangerous.
A/C pitiful. We used to live in Houston, so really appreciate a good A/C system!
The food is really "average" at best, we ate on the beach or other resorts around Laguna.
The indoor decorative pools, around the rooms, smelt gross, like your childs dirty goldfish bowl every afternoon/evening, really made you feel ill when the wind blew.

I had booked this hotel really for the kids, to enjoy the pool etc. I would strongly advise anyone thinking of going there to stay somewhere else, then use a water-ferry or resort bus to come and use the pool now and again. Really for the sake of a slide, it's just not worth the money to stay in this sub standard, tired hotel.
Management really needs to take a long look at the place and do something about it sooner rather than later.

The other 2 lovely resorts we stayed at in Phuket really made our holiday and i will over the next week or so get round to writing them up.