Dreams Madeira Resort, Spa and Marina

"We stayed here for a couple nights on Hyatt points because it’s very close to the airport and was AI. The property seems worn out, including the rooms, pools, and common areas - it didn’t feel clean or well-kept. The service and quality of food was poor and not at all what we have come to expect from Hyatt. Would never stay here again."

"Beautiful island. Hotel was very clean and modern. A good choice of restaurants in addition. To a very good buffet. We particularly enjoyed the Asian and Carvao restaurants and the coffee bar. Staff were all very helpful. We had an Issue with our aircon but this was sorted by Arter Castro, the manager, who went on to be extremely helpful, he gave us great advice on where to visit. In Our hire car. It was the best day of the holiday. The pool bar could benefit from extra staff when it is busy. The resort is large and spread out and built on a hill. So would not be ideal if hills are an issue for you. We loved Madeira and the hotel and we will return"

"General Venue - you can see why it gets 5*s there are many facilities but these on their own are not enough. They need to be back up with excellent service, excellent food and an excellent experience and unfortunately that is where this resort fails. It’s designed to represent a village, with its own church, a square and marina so it does that to some extent. But whenever you want to go somewhere it’s either up or down, lots of steps and some steep slopes. Location It is remote on the far South East of the island. The island is very narrow here. A 20 minute uphill walk can take you to the windy, wavy north coast. We had 2 weeks here, the first 2 weeks in a June. It was an expensive holiday and we upgraded to a preferred club junior suite. An issue is that being only a 15 minute drive from the airport this is on the flight path. Most of the time you can hear and see the planes as they cross this end of the island and head out over the sea to swing back in and land. But unfortunately if the wind is in the other direction the fight path is directly over the resort and they are coming in low and noisy. Fortunately they only fly during the day. Before we came out here we were unaware that this was one of the more difficult airports to land at. Pointed out to us by our EJ captain while en route. Telling us that because of the wind we would be in a holding pattern waiting our turn to land. More investigation on arrival and we found out that being diverted to the Canaries or worse heading back to the UK were not uncommon occurrences. Luckily we landed just over an hour late. This meant an extra wait whilst they got us our prepaid transfer. Surely in this day and age of flight trackers these sorts of issues shouldn’t happen. Weather Generally over the 2 weeks we had warm weather. But because the island is so narrow here it is windy. We had rain on the first 2 days and then an odd shower. Check In As we had upgraded we had our own check in desk upstairs in the preferred club lounge. Upgrading was probably one of the best decisions we had made. There is an app you need to download to book restaurants and other items like the spa and wine tasting etc. We had already downloaded this thanks to someone’s suggestion on FB. However you can’t login until you have a room number. You can only book restaurants on the app and up to 7 days in advance the bookings become live from 8am. This meant we couldn’t get a restaurant booking for the first 3 days. But after that we booked a restaurant every night. There are 2 restaurants open each night and they rotate so you should get a good variety. Room The junior club suite was really big and spacious. Large super king bed, 2 balconies, 2 large TV’s plenty of wardrobe and storage space and sofa bed. A supposedly daily stocked mini fridge. Ours was located down on the sea front overlooking the sea with a view of the beach and the French restaurant. The room servicing was a bit haphazard. The mini bar was normally stocked in the morning but on day 6 we had to complain as ours hadn’t and we had run out of water. After that it did seem to happen every day. Room cleaning occurred sometime during the afternoon. Preferred club gives you a turn down service which happened between 17:30 and 18:30. Just when you are getting showered and ready to go out for the evening. If you asked them to come back they didn’t. One afternoon we got back and had no towels. It took 2 phone calls and an hour before they arrived so we were later getting out to our restaurant that night. Fortunately they still had a table. Pools One of the reasons we booked this resort was because it had an adult only pool that also had some heating. We weren’t told at check in that this had changed and there was no longer any adult only pool, we subsequently found out others had been told at check in. So initially we were quite fed up with the number of kids and flotation aids (there was a sign on the wall saying you weren’t allowed them at any of the pools). There are plenty of other pools for the kids. They have a fantastic splash park with slides and 2 designated 2 depth pools in the main pool area. There are plenty of sun beds round the main 3 level pool area. The prime beds get reserved early, although there are signs saying you can’t. Life Guards All the pools except the “adult only” one had visible lifeguards. Pool Towels One for each person available from the main pool area and the lifeguard area on the beach. You can change them daily if you want. Beach The beach is pebbles, not easy to get in or out and the water is cold, we are in the Atlantic. Water shoes are a great help. The area is quite protected from waves but when the tour speed boats go past the wake does cause a few bigger waves. There is also the sea pool which is well protected although at high tide some waves do wash over the edge. The water is very clear especially on sunny days. There are quite a few sun beds by the beach, most get reserved early in the morning although there are signs saying you can’t. There is a bar and the Voce snack bar here too, see later for review. There is some waiter service at quiet times. Harbour/marina Set under the cliffs you can walk right to the end on the inside. The outer harbour wall is not available to the public. There is the following here, general store, wine shop, coffee shop, souvenir shop, water tour booking, scuba and snorkelling booking. There is the ice cream parlour and sports snack bar (see later for review). Food/drinks/snacks Cocoa Cafe - Coffee shop One of the best features, great coffee and good selection of cakes which changes as the day progresses. There can be queues at busy times but well worth the wait. Flip Flop - Ice Cream Parlour Located in the harbour. There is a good selection of flavours. Can be busy. It’s a shame the staff here don’t smile. The Desire - Sports Snack Bar Located next to the ice cream parlour. Limited number of snacks. We did try this 3 times but service is terrible. Sometimes your food comes out before your drink other busy times you can wait an hour for food which isn’t that brilliantly cooked. Voce - Beach bar Good selection of drinks and they will give you almost any variation you ask for if they have it. But it does get busy as they provide the drinks for the Beach snack restaurant, Voce, so waits can be long. Sometimes when they are quiet they will wander around the sun beds taking orders. Voce - beach snack restaurant. Opens 12 till 17. A selection of bbq styled kebabs and skewers plus other snacks. The wait here can be over an hour but they do normally tell you before you sit down, unlike the sports bar. We ate here a few times and food was ok. Main pool bar We didn’t use this so can’t comment. Sugar Reef - “adults only” pool bar. It’s small so limited on what you can get but it saves a long walk elsewhere. World Cafe - International Buffet I must admit we tried to avoid eating here at all costs. It was busy and noisy. The food was luke warm unless you were lucky that it had only just been brought out. The fresh grill area meant getting hot meat of fish but you would have to queue and you would then eat that with cold veg and potatoes. The tables are too close together with people squeezing down the isles between the tables. Sabor - Mediterranean Cuisine We ate here once, then cancelled our next booking there. Once again tables are squeezed in quite tightly. We had just finished our starter and the mains were put on the table as they cleared the plates away. You could tell they had been waiting to bring these out as the food was dry round the edges. My main course was so overdone it was inedible. I mentioned it to the waiter who cleared the table and just shrugged. Fortunately as we left the maître de asked how our meal was so I told him. He at least apologised and said he would pass the comments along. Nouvelle Brasserie - French restaurant We only got to eat in here once as it hadn’t been open in our first week. Excellent food and excellent service. We would have eaten here again given the chance Club de Fado - Portuguese Gastronomy This is served in the same restaurant as Sabor where the tables are close together. We didn’t enjoy the food and there wasn’t enough on the menu to come back and try it so we didn’t. Service wasn’t brilliant either. Carvao - grilled BBQ meats. Probably one of our top restaurants with Oishii. Food was excellent, if you are a meat lover. The mixed grill and Iberico dishes were excellent. We ate here 3 times. Our only negative is that on the 3rd occasion we didn’t want a starter, as we had tried all the ones we liked and just went for a main course. Then waited over an hour for it. Having mentioned it to the staff we were told that was because we didn’t have a starter. They wouldn’t move it up the service so we had to wait as if we had a starter….bizarre. Oishii - Asian Cuisine As mentioned one of our favourites, ate here 3 times. Again food was excellent, service was the best we had had. One minor negative is that you can hear the metal tapping noise from the Teppanyaki show. Oishii Teppanyaki Show Excellent entertainment and the main course being cooked in front of you was an experience. We did this twice as we enjoyed the food. The entertainment the second time was a bit much, but that was probably because we had heard it before. Portuguese wine tasting event. This was a very informative event leaning about and tasting 4 Portuguese wines and 1 fortified wine. The presenter was very knowledgeable and passionate about the wine. At 40 euros each we and the others on our table thought it was a bit expensive. But we did get a board full of charcuterie meat and cheese and the pairing was an eye opener. Trips We took the hotel shuttle bus in to Funchal. It’s 10E each way per person and the drop off and pick up by CR7 museum on the front. My only comment about the journey was that I felt we were on a race track. We went to the fruit and fish market which is near the lower station of the cable car. We took this up to the top and then took the other cable car across to the botanical gardens. Warning if pre booking tickets make sure you’re getting the right cable car as they are different companies. The gardens are excellent but they are built into the side of the hill so once you have made your way to the bottom you can either leave through the lower exit or go back to the top, which we did as we were planning on a wicker sledge ride. Unfortunately the queue was extremely long and so we got cable car back down instead. We also did the Green Devil 4x4 trip around the island which includes an off road section. For those of a nervous disposition don’t do these trips as the drivers do like to show off their driving skills and vehicle capabilities. We saw some lovely parts of the island but overall we were a bit disappointed with the tourist places we stopped at. Walks For our first walk we came out of the hotel and tuned right. We had seen how lots of cars travelled this road and a lot parked along the road side. We eventually came across a car park and then a sign which designated a particular walk that you had to pay for. There was no mobile signal to buy a ticket online and no ticket booth so thought we would check it out. About 100m into the walk you meet a guy checking tickets and turning walkers back. So we walked around a small area nearby and returned. High above the harbour is what appears to be a lookout area. So we headed up there. It is quite a trek uphill but the view is wonderful. While up there we spotted the sandy beach next door. So that was our next walk. Only took about 30 mins to get there and there is a black sand beach with a restaurant and bar and sun beds you can rent. For our final walk we turned left out of the hotel and headed up to the roundabout. We then explored the cliffs on the north facing slopes. Quite spectacular but a bit windy."