This is the Waldorf Astoria Palm Jumeirah Dubai Hotel Review which is part of the Tahiti Triumph Trip Report. It covers the following cities:
- NYC JFK
- Dubai, UAE
- Shanghai, China
- Papeete, Tahiti
- Bora Bora, Tahiti
- Moorea, Tahiti
- Auckland, New Zealand
- Hong Kong Island
- Tokyo, Japan
- Dallas, Texas
See the Picture Preview here and see how this $60,000 trip cost $1999 here.
Getting There: It’s about 45 minutes from the airport. I took a taxi and it cost me $35 while an Uber on the way back was $30.
Going to Dubai is like a scene of out of Coming to America:
Taxi: Do you want to go to Queens? Rich fellows should be in Manhattan. Stay at the Waldorf or the Palace.
Me: Take us to the most common part.
Taxi: That’s easy. If there’s one thing Queens got a lot of, it’s common parts.
Only in Dubai the common parts are gaudy luxury and stupid man-made islands that serve no purpose. After an interminable journey, we finally arrived at the Waldorf Astoria Dubai which sits isolated at the very end of the Palm Jumeirah. I’ll be the first to admit that I made a mistake booking this hotel for the less than one day layover we had in Dubai. If you’re in Dubai for a short period of time, it makes more sense to stay in the city center so you can go see more of the absurdities of this desert playground for the wealthy. At the same time, there was nothing impressive about this hotel. It can’t be that old but somehow it looked dated. Unlike the Waldorf Shanghai or the Waldorf Chicago, this hotel had no charm. It felt like an impersonal JW Marriott.
The Hotel Itself
It’s not that the inside isn’t nice, it’s just that I wasn’t impressed. The words ‘too much’ comes to mind.
The Pool
The Beach
The beach was a joke. I get that’s it man-made but why make it at all if it’s going to be so crammed.
The Breakfast
I’ll continue my rant about Dubai by blasting the Waldorf’s breakfast. I understand that I’m in a Western hotel but why not have some Arabic choices in the buffet? At Le Meridien Pyramids, there was a great combination of Middle Eastern and Western cuisine. Countries like the UAE and Qatar have become so fixated on being ‘the biggest this’ that they have forgotten their identities. It wasn’t long ago that pearls were Dubai’s principal source of revenue.
The Room
The negativity ends here. The room was beautiful.
The Bathroom
The Extras
Overall
This is another Dubai inspired hotel for tourists. There’s nothing to see or do here.
