Just back from a second visit to the Hilton on the Palm, last one being in October last year.
The hotel was packed and speaking with the Exec Lounge staff, they were surprised that they had approx. 85-90% occupancy at what is usually a quiet time of year, due to the heat. 42C wasn’t unusual most days.
This translated into everywhere being very busy, although the exec lounge wasn’t overcrowded any night. In the lounge they have a new rule that under 18s are not allowed in during happy hour, which has now changed from 6-8pm to 5-7pm. This seems to tie in with a few other lounges we’ve been in of late. This does seem too early, especially if you’re a business guest, you’d need to rush to get there in time. The silly thing with this rule is that Dubai has a legal drinking age of 21, so any older teens can get into the lounge but aren’t allowed to drink alcohol! There were several angry scenes when families with younger kids were turned away. This new rule doesn’t seem to have been communicated very well and it’s not mentioned on the hotel website. The exec lounge staff were great, really helpful and friendly. They also do an afternoon tea from 3-4 with finger sandwiches and cakes.
The pool area was packed every day and the pool was full of older kids (teens) playing at ball throwing, often joined in by parents who had little or no regard for others just looking for a quiet dip. Seems a lot of competitive dads like to show their athletic prowess to all in the pool. There are adult areas in the pool but these were largely overrun by kids, who were reluctant to move when requested by the pool staff. The beach area, which has cabanas and beds was very quiet, as the sea was very hot (37C) and had green algae growing close to the shore, which put a lot of people off using it. We saw this being cleared a few times during our stay but it seems it just grows back due to the heat. Because it’s part of the Palm, there are no waves, except when a boat passes by, which probably explains why it’s so hot all the time.
Breakfast in the exec lounge as “ok” but no better than that. If you ventured downstairs to Mowsem, it was queued and rammed every day but the choice was much better. As has been said earlier, they do a small gold and diamond menu, which we ordered from a few times, so you takes your pick, exec lounge is quiet but the choice is limited, or Mowsem, which has a much wider choice but much, much busier.
Half way through our stay, we noticed a distinct increase in the levels of service, which we found out was due to the Hilton standards inspectors doing their rounds. It soon went back to “normal” levels of service the days after they left.
Given how busy it was and having seen some definite drops on quality, I’m not sure we’d go back. Mrs Retringsoon liked the heat and the pool but wasn’t overly impressed with the overall standards of service.