48 Degrees!(120 F) Enough said! Firstly just don't go there july and august when it is so hot and humid (not sunbathing weather without losing a stone in weight in half and hour!) We had 3 nights at the end of a weeks holiday in the Maldives. Absolutely gorgeous hotel at the Residence and Spa. Had a Prestige room. Extremely spacious and immaculate. Massive bathrooms and lots of Molton Brown bath goodies.
View of gardens on the ground floor and lots of tropical little birds everywhere which was nice. 1 minute walk to the lovely pool which was a must every 10 mins or so whilst sitting around the pool for 2hrs each afternoon! Service as expected-7star!!! Food in the Dining Room was out of this world. Lovely portions so could easily have 3 courses without feeling like keeling over! Service in there was excellent. Gorgeous room with very high ceilings. Breakfast was taken in here every morning too and the scrambled eggs and smoked salmon was absolutely perfect. The manager of the Residence & spa even came over to apologise he was away the previous 2 days and was the most polite frenchman i have ever had the pleasure in meeting.

The only mistake was going to the gold/spice souk at midday, nearly passed out getting out of the airconditioned taxi!! Couldnt breathe.
Being in the gardens was lovely as didnt have a view of 'The Palm' and all the construction on this man made island. It doesnt look very impressive at the moment. No one was on the beach maybe due to heat but due to view aswell. Around the pool and gardens you can hardly hear any construction going on. Dont get me started with that! There is just so much of that in Dubai its ridiculous. I dont think it will ever stop. My overall impression of 3 nights in Dubai that i was so excited about originally was 4/10. Gutted with most of it but can also see all the positives, be it in the future. I heard that 1/3rd of all cranes around the world are in Dubai so yes you can almost see that sadly! The hotel had no faults whatsoever so i give the hotel 10/10!. It was much smaller than The palace and the Arabian Court and felt much more intimate.

We did eat at Tagine (moroccan) restaurant at The Palace on the last night and have to say we enjoyed that immensly. The wine selection at The Dining Room and Tagine was incredible if you are into some classics and a good vintage.

Shopping at the Emirates Mall was great and to watch the skiing at the indoor skislope was a laugh. You needed to stay inside a mall pretty much all afternoon with the heat etc but it was immaculate. Wish the malls in london were like that!!

Lastly wish we were there October time when i hear they have blue skies and sunshine and not dust, humidity and constant heat and haze. So hope to persuade the other half to go back sometime but he just didnt take to Dubai whatsoever.

I spent there a week last year with my best friend. Having lived in Dubai for a while i had always been impressed by the grandiose of this hotel so i wanted to try it.

The decoration and the setting arereally good (although a bit too much on the gold & animals & paintings & high ceilings side) but the room was disapointing, we were at ground floor with access to the garden (very quiet, the other side of the pool) which was nice, but the flooring (big ugly tiles) and the old TV set looked really odd for a 5*, was more 4* than 5*, no specific effort on design. Bathroom was nice though.

The hotel itself is great: amazing swimming pool, fantastic services (wet towels, drinks etc...) really cool staff. The food is really good and there are enough restaurants to keep you busy during the stay. The one on the beach (in the big cabana/hut) was quite good.

The unexpected bad surpise was the beach: actually you have a view on the Palm construction site! All day & all night hords of workers and trucks work in front of you, it's noisy, dirty and really disturbing. Especially at night with all the lights and the noise. We went once to the beach and then stayed by the pool. Spa is great.

Overall a very very nice experience but the beach is useless...(i guess they have absolutely no control over it) and the room could benefit from a small refurbishment.

A wonderfull seven days stay.
Fantastic settings and refined decorum.
Fantastic staff and service.
Outstanding food & beverage outlets to suit everybodies' choice.

Stayed for 8 nights in July having stayed the previous year. All in all it was just as good as the first time, beautiful room excellent service. It's a much more intimate hotel than others in Dubai. I do think out of all the hotels in Dubai this is the best outside the Burj Al Arab ( READ SEPARATE REVIEW ). I look forward to returning again next year God willing.