Check in was a breeze, there's parking out the front of reception so you can leave the car and pop…read morein to do it. Providing of course you can figure out how to get to the resort. My GPS was lost and we had to do a lap before we spotted the right place.
You use your room key for everything. You think I'm kidding but I'm not. Lifts, gym, sauna, pool, room, electricity, car park even the resort doors after hours. Carry it on you all the time or you'll end up stranded somewhere.
When you check in they give you a welcome pack that includes vouchers for a couple of local restaurants. Use them, the restaurants are great I especially like Hot Pipis, check my review on that one.
The smell when we got to our room was over powering. The cleaners must have dropped a bottle of deodorizer but even they knew it was to much the door to the balcony was left open.
I had ordered, and paid for, extra towels which weren't in the room when we arrived. On the way past the front desk I mentioned it and even though it was after hours and one of the reception girls had to sort it for me rather than housekeeping it was sorted right away with many apologies and another restaurant voucher. Hotel does only provide one towel per person so if you need more think about bringing them from home or ordering more. They aren't terribly pricey. You aren't allowed to take room towels to the pool, if you want a pool towel from the hotel there is a $15 deposit and a $5 cost to hire one. It is cheaper to just go buy a towel really K Mart sells them for $4 each in a range of pretty colors.
There's an overlook to the pool near the lift area, unfortunately this overlook provides a direct, close up line of sight to anyone who cares to look into our room.
Curtains did seal out most of the heat and all of the light on the stinking hot day we had while there allowing us to have a very tranquil afternoon siesta. Didn't get any hall traffic noise and what pool noise we got was drowned out by the white noise coming from the air con. Its a low grade constant rumble so if you have trouble sleeping with noise it could be a problem for you. Luckily I've had a snoring husband for twenty years so it didn't bother me once I adjusted and my husband doesn't hear a thing with his cpap on.
The room could do with some easier to reach power points especially near the beds for machines like this. We had to unplug the alarm clock so he could set it up. Having said that the kitchen is well appointed, they supply you with a limited amount of dish detergent and a cloth, scrubber, tea towel. They also give you a limited amount of laundry powder to use with the washer/dryer provided. I recommend bringing your own of both items if you plan on doing more than one load of laundry or dishes. Bring a spare bog roll too as you don't get a refill if you run out (this is not unusual for resorts just a warning for first timers)
Hot water is plentiful late at night when I wanted it, can't speak for the rest of the day as showers after pool/ocean were all cold on purpose.
This is a family resort, expect there to be kids in the pool all day, They clear out around 6pm presumably for dinner. That leaves the remaining three hours free for adult swim/spa time.
Don't expect to be able to talk to someone in the spa. The jets are strong and loud but they will pummel every bit of tension out of you.
Not the resorts fault but the whole town shuts down around 9pm even on Friday/Saturday, except the beach, the beach lights were still on and may remain on all night TBH I didn't go look. You are right across the road from the beach and right on the esplanade so if you want to shop during business hours you'll have plenty of options.
Like most resorts they expect you to take your rubbish with you when you leave. There is a rubbish shoot right near the lift to make this easy. Leave your rubbish and you risk an extra charge.
Check out was easy and they let us leave the car in the car park until we were ready to leave providing we made it back during reception hours so someone could let us down to the car.
