Before leaving the Middle East after our 1.5 months trip, we had one more night to spend in Dubai. We wanted to stay somewhere nice before the end of our trip even though we’ve already stayed in many amazing hotels like the W Muscat, Intercontinental Abu Dhabi and Intercontinental Muscat.
As a Hilton Diamond member, we tend to gravitate towards properties in within the Hilton portfolio, and there are plenty of them in Dubai! While doing our trip planning, we stumbled upon the Waldorf Astoria Palm Jumeirah Hotel, located deep within the Palm Jumeirah area.
Booking
We booked a night at the Waldorf Astoria Palm Jumeirah for 65,000 Hilton Honors Points. If we paid by cash, this would have cost us 1067 AED (US$290), making this redemption worth 0.44 US cents per point.
This isn’t a great redemption, falling short of the average 0.5 US cents per point valuation for Hilton Honors Points. Despite the poor redemption rate, we decided to go ahead with the booking as we wanted to experience staying at a Waldorf Astoria and we didn’t want to pay any cash at this point of our trip.
Location
The Waldorf Astoria Palm Jumeirah is located deep in the Palm Jumeirah. There is no public transport available to get you there, so the only way is to hire a public taxi or ride share. The nearest train station is the Nakheel Mall station which is still an 11-minute car ride from the hotel.
It will be a 30-minute car ride if you’re driving or taking a taxi from downtown Dubai.
Check-in
As soon as we walked into the property, a member of the Spa outlet gave us a promotional pamphlet on the spa packages offered. This was before we even got a chance to check into the property.
We arrived at the property at 12 pm, ahead of the standard check-in time of 3 pm. We didn’t have to wait for long as there wasn’t a long queue in front of us. There was also a dedicated elite members line which made our process a lot faster.
While checking in, the front desk staff told us we were upgraded from the King Superior Room to the King Deluxe Skyline View Room courtesy of our Hilton Diamond Elite Status. We were then offered a welcome juice which is always appreciated.
King Deluxe Room with Skyline View
The King Deluxe Room is 55 sq m large and features an attached balcony. There is a small lounging area with a sofa and a work desk.
The bedroom is reminiscent of our stay at Conrad Singapore. It has a very clean design with a slight touch of modernity.
There was a balcony attached to our bedroom which gave us an unparalleled view of the famous Al Arab hotel. On better days, we could have seen the entire downtown Dubai skyline in the background.
The window grills that led to the balcony had a very loud screeching sound whenever we pulled it. It probably required some servicing, but it was a small issue that we didn’t call the front desk about.
Even though there was a huge porch in front of the balcony, we were not allowed to go onto it. This felt like a missed opportunity for better views, but the property probably had security or safety concerns for enforcing it.
The mini-bar was well-stocked with beverages and snacks. Similar to other properties, only coffee capsules, tea bags and water are complimentary. Everything else is chargeable.
Bathroom
Similar to other Waldorf Astoria properties around the world, bathroom amenities are provided by the popular Aesop brand. We really liked the smell of the amenities, although the shampoo made both our hair really itchy afterwards.
There is a separate bathtub and shower area in the bathroom.
Wifi
The Wifi speed at the Waldorf Astoria Palm Jumeirah is decent, but not lightning-fast by any means. You should be able to take video calls or stream 4K movies without much of a problem here.
Breakfast
Breakfast at the Waldorf Astoria Palm Jumeirah is held at the Mezzerie restaurant daily from 6:30 am to 10:30 am. Mezzerie is in the lower lobby, beside the swimming pool exit.
We arrived at the restaurant at the very last hour, the busiest period of the breakfast session. Despite being the peak period, we had no trouble getting an available seat for ourselves.
The food options here at the Waldorf Astoria Palm Jumeirah are one of the better breakfasts throughout our stay in the Middle East. It ranges from international breakfast selections to local Arabic food.
The servers were very friendly too, striking conversations with us whenever we were waiting for our food to be ready.
Amenities
Swimming Pool
The main highlight of the property has to be the 2 swimming pools that face the Jumeirah Palm. There’s one larger pool and one smaller adults-only pool.
We avoided the larger pool altogether as it was mostly children playing in it, which came with significant noise and ruckus. The adults-only pool, in comparison, was a lot quieter and had plenty of sun-loungers available.
The adults-only pool is a lap pool, making it ideal if you want to clock in some laps after indulging in the sumptuous breakfast spread.
The pools connect directly to the beach, facing inwards of the Palm. This is an artificial beach, so the sand felt very different to what we were used to. As it was almost peak summer, the waters were warm and comfortable to swim in.
Gym
The Waldorf Astoria Palm Jumeirah comes with a full-featured Gym. It has more than enough equipment to do a full workout here.
The only downside to the gym was that it didn’t have any great views of its cardio machines unlike those we’ve experienced in Intercontinental Abu Dhabi.
The gym looks like something you’ll get if you’ve actually paid for a gym membership which is great.
The Pearl Club
The Pearl Club, located at level 18 of the property is an executive lounge of the hotel. The lounge serves daily high tea, evening cocktails, canapé dinner and breakfast. It also offers an unparalleled view of Palm Beach.
Despite being an executive lounge, access is not complimentary for Hilton Diamond Elite members. During check-in, the staff presented us with an offer of 673 AED (US$183) for 2 people per night.
We did not take up the offer as we did not think it was worth the money, given that we already have a complimentary breakfast courtesy of our Hilton Diamond status. Despite declining the offer, we were given a tour of the club by the welcome staff right after our check-in.
Even though it was high-tea time on a Saturday afternoon, we did not see any guests in the club. This would be great for people looking for a quiet place to hang out during their stay at the property.
Conclusion
The Waldorf Astoria Palm Jumeirah is our first time staying at the Waldorf Astoria brand. Despite being one of the top brands of the Hilton chain, it did not immediately give us the “wow” factor that other brands had in the past.
Do get us wrong, as both the “soft” and “hard’ products are amazing. We’ve experienced great customer service throughout our stay, and the entire property felt modern and luxurious. There wasn’t much to complain about. It just didn’t immediately give us the feeling that we’ve got to be back a second time. It might also be because of the high expectations we have for the property given that we’ve heard so much about the Waldorf Astoria brand.
Regardless, we think that it might still be worthwhile to stay here if you’re visiting Dubai and are able to score a good deal for your night here.
