My wife and I spent six days at the Arabian Court of Royal Mirage, our third time in a One and Only resort, after Mauritius and Maldives.
I must confirm all the good things I wrote about the other resort: nice location, comfortable rooms, lovely pool (but maybe with too much screaming little children), very good selection of restaurants.
The food is exellent in every restaurant we tasted, Eauzone, Celebrities but i think the best was Nina, a romantic place with warm light and deco, superb indian food.
Nice nights at the Rooftop place, a place were to meet people or to stay hand in hand with your love watchig the stars..yes there is a lot of building work going on, but this didn't bother us particularly.
Only one thing disappointed me..it is necessary in such a resort to give a card to the guests to have the beach towels?

We stayed at the Arabian Court for 4 nights and everything about the hotel was up to expectations. The staff were courteous, helpful and efficient. Food (half board buffet basis) in the Rotisserie was varied and well prepared, the room clean and comfortable. In general, everything you would expect of a 5-star hotel. Previous reviewers have described it well. But, restful it was not. Firstly, we were surprised at the number of pre-school children that were at the hotel; not least for the fact that Dubai was registering 35 plus degrees during our stay. We do have to acknowledge, however, that the majority of the children were well controlled and knew how to behave in the dining room (well done, those parents). But. there's always going to be the ones who's parents think it infringes their human rights to stop them running up and down through the tables stamping their size five feet on the marble floor whilst the rest of us are trying to enjoy our meal. No we are not "child Zealots" - we have brought four into this world.

Secondly, there didn't seem to be much choice of any bar or restaurant in the hotel where you could just go for a quiet glass of wine or a peaceful, undisturbed meal without music or tv. Even reception couldn't come up with any suggestions.

On the subject of noise, Dubai is presently one huge building site with literally hundreds of building sites and tower cranes working through the day and night. But, we know that and in the Arabian Court it is not as intrusive as that which we've related to above. The grounds are well established and the work is successfully shielded in most parts.

The beach at the back of the hotel is at the base of the Palm and consequently not the most picturesque of outlooks.

To summerize, a clean comfortable and well run five star hotel, typical of Dubai. Probably good then for young families (but beware of the fiercely strong sun on young skin) and those not necessarily seeking peace and quiet.

Booked early through Kuoni (who were fantastic) and got the half board offer which was really good. Found the best food in the Rotisserie. Hotel beautiful, service good, room lovely. Very hot - too hot for me, the sea was a warm 32 degrees in May so watch out any later than this. I love the sun and couldn't sit in it. Spent the week in the shade most of the time.

Downside - everywhere you look there are RESERVED signs for the people staying in the Residence Spa which I would imagine are the expensive suites. One evening we were asked to move seats as they were reserved for people (in the rooftop bar) the people did not turn up for the hour that we were there and 5 other guests were also moved after us. The afternoon tea couches were also RESERVED and we were not allowed to use those either, we were only offered the normal chairs to sit in around the outside, needless to say we didn't bother. Reserved sun beds all around the pool for the elite guests. Not for me I'm afraid, we felt a bit like second class citizens. The One and Only are the elite guests without a doubt.

Nice - but won't be going back.

normally stay at the madinet or jbh on plc basis however we booked this last minute and could not get in the our usual choice however agent assured us this would be good alternative.
was offered the free half board which is excellent at the one and only resort. you can eat in the buffet ( at the arabian court and the palace) or the other rests with a 120 dirham credit per person. At these restaurants they also have a three cousre meal with a small selection on each course menu included in the free half board. This really is excellent as the restaurants are among the best in dubai, far better than the jbh and madinet.
The hotel is beautiful and the pool area has activities for both kids and adults can be quite fun.
rooms are lovely ground floor are great as you can easliy access your room from pool if you want
For me this was equally as good as madinet but in a diffent way. more personal and friendly. The watesports staff were great , the kids club staff actually came and found my son on the first day by the pool and intrduced themselves!