Marquis Dubai
 

Lounge is now open at Mariott Marquis Dubai.

It occupies the whole of the 37th floor. Obviously very spacious, large dining and separate seating areas. Plus meeting room and a few alcoves which could easily accommodate a meeting of 10.

Open 24 hours. Breakfast was very similar to that offered in the JW.

Do you know if there is free wireless or i-net terminals in the lounge? Please post & I'll update the exec lounge sticky.

Cheers.

Thanks. Do you know which restaurants are open?

I had a booking for later this month, but I've been put off by somebody saying that the pool is in the shade most of the day. It's a bit cool this time of year to be in the shade, especially after coming out of the pool.


So, switched to the JW.

I would have done the same, even though the pool area at the JW is small and can get crowded at least you get a good 8 hours of sun. What is the point of building a pool in the shade?

Marriott Marquis
 

There is free wifi in the Lounge and Internet terminals available.

Three of the restaurants are open (as of 7 Dec): Kitchen 6, La Farine and the Steakhouse. I was led to believe that the Thai, Indian & Arabian restaurants would be opening before Christmas. The Italian will not be open until February.

The pool bar/restaurant is open. Half of the pool area was in bright sunlight by noon on the day I had a look at it.

Thanks - I'll update the sticky.

Cheers.

Thanks for the update.

I got a message from the JW Marriott Marquis Dubai saying the pool area was completely in sunshine from 12 midday until 15:00. Not too bad as those are the times we are normally by the pool anyway.

Now considering changing back from the JW.

Problems, problems... :)

What is the evening food/alcohol situation at the new Marquis lounge? Thanks.

JW Marriott Marquis Dubai - Trip Report/Review
 

I've just returned from Dubai, and got the opportunity to try out the brand new JW Marriott Marquis Dubai. So, I thought I'd do a bit of a trip report. I'll add some photos when I get a chance.

I'd initially booked for 5 nights using points. However, there seemed to be some confusion on the number restaurants that would be open, and whether or not the lounge would be available. There was also a report that the pool was in shade most of the day (see more later). So, I cancelled the booking and went booked the older JW Marriott. After getting some assurances, I split it into 3 nights at the Marquis, and 2 nights at the original.

We arrived at around 20:30 after a flight from MAN. The taxi drivers now seem to be aware of the hotel, so we were there in around 15 minutes. For those who know Dubai, it's currently the last major building on Sheikh Zayed Road as you are leaving Dubai. It's about 10 minutes walk to the Business Bay Metro station (OK at this time of year).

We were met by the Front Desk Manager (by chance), and he checked us in. Initially he mentioned that we had a room upgrade, but shortly afterwards noticed my PP status and said he was upgrading us to a suite... :) As with every check-in (hotel or airport) I've ever experienced in Dubai, it took way too long. Constant tapping away at a terminal, before eventually handing over the keys. But it was well worth the wait.

A very nice porter helped us to our suite, and gave us the full tour. There was a dining area, a living area, the bedroom and the bathroom. There was also a smaller toilet. The bathroom has a big big free-standing bath tub, and a separate shower area with a rainfall shower. There were 2 wash basins. So, all in all, a very nice suite and well worth the £0 I'd spent :)

There were a few issues with the room. It was very techie focused, so the lights and AC were controlled by an iPad type gadget. At first, this appeared to be the only way to control the lights, and we had a few issues when needing to use the toilet during the night, as we only seemed to be able to switch all the lights on or off. We eventually found that we could use a wall switch, but these seemed very fiddly, and difficult to find.

After dumping our bags, we decided a few drinks were called for. The closest thing we could find to a traditional bar was Velocity. This needs to decide what it wants to be, as it seems to be somewhere in between a trendy cocktail bar and a sports bar, and wasn't particularly good at either. The place was empty, and we didn't feel comfortable with just the staff around. We had a bottle of wine, and some food (burgers/sandwiches), before deciding to call it a night. There are other bars, but they seem pretty similar, catering for the more trendy types, rather than those looking for more casual places like Champions or Hofbrauhaus in the original JW Marriott.

So, after a good nights sleep in the very comfortable bed, we decided to spend the following day by the pool. I'd been assured by the hotel (via twitter), that 12:00 noon until 15:00 was the best time for the sun.

The pool area is quite large, with a garden area taking around 70%, with the pool around 30%. When we arrived at 12:30, the whole pool area was in the shade. At around 13:00, the sun reached a small part of the pool garden area, and it eventually reached the pool at around 14:00. This is a huge design flaw... If they'd put the pool at the other end of the garden area, it would get at least another hours worth of sun.

And now the worst bit... at 14:00, they decided to close the pool for maintenance until 18:00 :( So, I never got a chance to use it in the end. This was extremely disappointing, and no notice was given.

We had some food at the pool, and this was very nice. There did seem to be a lot of wait staff around, but it seemed difficult to grab anyone's attention for some reason. So, I ended up going to the bar area to order.

In the evening we decided to stay at the hotel and try the lounge and a restaurant.

As for the lounge... well, I've never seen anything like it in a hotel. It takes up the whole of Floor 37 in tower A. It's huge! There are various open areas, with smaller meeting rooms and TV rooms (they had the English Premier League games on the in the TV rooms). There are great views out to Jumeirah, and you can see the Burj-Al-Arab and the Atlantis resort. It's open 24/7, and cocktails/canapes are served from 18:30 until 21:00. We didn't try it for breakfast unfortunately. The staff were very nice, and the bar service very efficient. The concierge staff made a restaurant reservation for us, and came and told us that it was confirmed.

Later, we went to the Rang Mahal Indian restaurant. Again, another very trendy place, but the food and service was great, and the price pretty reasonable. I had a beer that was 'off' (it tasted terrible), and they exchanged it immediately without question. The setting was very nice, and I'd definitely recommend it (and especially the Hyderabadi Biryani that I had).

There are two more negative aspects that I need to mention...

1. Noise. There is another hotel build just starting next door. This will be going on for a couple of years at least, and the sound of the pile driving can be heard in the rooms, as well as the pool area. It didn't bother me too much, but I know that these things can go on 24/7 in Dubai. Note that depending on how tall this new hotel is, it could completely block the sun from the pool for another hour or two when it is complete.

2. The taxi queue was absolute chaos. Due to its location, there aren't many taxis passing, so you just get a huge gaggle of people outside, with the bell hops promising that taxis are on the way. It took us around 30 minutes when we were transferring to the JW, and there were lots of people getting taxis who'd arrived after us.

So, all in all, it was pretty enjoyable. But... I've become quite attached to the original JW Marriott, and I'm not sure that I'd go back to the Marquis. I like the less flashy bars/restaurants of the JW, and the views over DXB airport are fantastic if you're a plane geek :)

Reserved for photos...

Reserved... for anything else I can think of :)

Thanks so much for the detailed trip report! Much appreciated!

Cheers.

Great review. I visited Dubai in 2011 and stayed in the hilton jumeirah beach residences, but I wanted to return to Dubai later this year since I absolutely loved it...Abu dhabi as well. I also want to check out the new Marriott marquis as well...I saw that its the tallest hotel in the world :)

I plan to use pts as well...what floor were you on? The location seems very close to the Dubai mall which is great.

We were on the 27th floor, and had a view of the artificial bay and the ocean. We were given the option of another suite on the 36th floor, but that had a view of a building site :)

Very close to the Burj Khaleefa and the Dubai mall.