everything in it is good except the part where we found two lizards in the villa we stayed in

On arrival the staff were friendly especially the bell boy. We soon discovered though that this place really was lacking many things. The children's pool was out of service and after a week it still had no one there fixing it, we then used the hotel complex next door which had a good warm pool.

The gate that leads to the lagoon from the resort is closed so you now have to walk all the way around the resort as its fenced off. This was not a big issue for us though, I was just surprised as I had read on one website that it had private lagoon access.

We then had food in the cafe with coutyard, it was empty and we now know why, I ordered a breakfast for our kids, sent the eggs back as the egg whites were still runny. A beef and chicken salad arrives with corn beef in chunks & processed chicken in chunks with a tiny bit of salad. For my sins I ate the shrimp cocktail five warm shrimps stuck onto a wine glass with three leaves in the centre! I'm not a fussy eater it was just really bad. We had one nice meal at the resturant at the entrance to the resort, would eat there. Don't order room service, did it once must have been made by the same chef. We did complain about the food but were not given a discount.

Rooms are great, big spacious, they don't always top up the shampoo etc each day, and the only uncomfortable thing was we could hear the people next door. They have a door between the suites which means that we were woken at 5am with a couple packing for the airport. Then the next guests asked us to be quiet as our kids get up at 7am, its a bit of a pain to be whispering whilst you are on holiday.

I would not go again, I think it has so much potential and as we tend to use Dubai frequently as a stop over, it is a great location but I enjoy eating out for the break so it's useful having places on the resort to go to which are nice. After the first welcoming check in the staff at the check in desk were rather grumpy. The resort has four stars but this really should only be two possibily three at the most.

Also be aware that if you catch taxis from this area it's worth taking a map and phone number. We found that many drivers did not know the local attractions especially if they travel into Dubai.

Unusual location for a modern busy developing city. A bit of olde world refuge from the express speed of the city. We did have doubts initially but after first night settled in and enjoyed the experience - a bit of deja vue from way back in our much travelled past.