Wow!!
Just returned from Dubai on a weeks family holiday. We chose this hotel having read many reviews and also followed some advice from my sister who is a Dubai regular.

From the moment we arrived, we knew that this was going to be a great holiday.

We got a two-bedroom marina facing apartment and it was fantastic. In fact, we had a third bedroom which we didnt need.
This was more than home and the well thought out interior throughout the apartment added to the comfort and luxury. These are fairly new apartments and everything from towels to kitchen appliances were top notch.

The staff - what a pleasure coming to a resort where staff fall over backwards for you. They certainly added to our fantastic experience.

The area is great. Situated in the heart of the newly developing marina. Two minutes away youw ill find Spinnys, a well stocked supermarket and many many many fast-food and restaurants.
Food quality in Dubai is of the highest, probably because of the Halal food requirements on freshness and hygene.
The area around the hotel is being developed with huge cranes and 24 hour construction but after a day you're already used to it.
Views from the balconies are breathtaking.

Breakfast was included and it too was something to beat.
Not much beats this hotel.

I would highly recommend this hotel/resort.Infact its a must!

Stayed here twice during May. The first time was with my family and it was excellent. The two bedroom suites are beautiful. The second time I stayed on business with a collegue and was given a smaller suite that was not nearly as awesome as my first stay. Booking thru Expedia was effortless. If you want high quality space: this new new property is a good choice.

We stayed in a 3 bed family Palm View apartment on the 42nd floor, which also had excellent views over the marina to the side.

It was enormous and was both comfortably and stylishly appointed. The bathrooms, though, were a bit of a let down in terms of fit out for a 5* apartment, in particular the showers were very ordinary, though quite serviceable..

Dubai Marina is a 24 hour construction site, so there is always noise and dust around, even on the 42nd floor! I guess that is Dubai for you. The marina has a supermarket less than 5 mins walk from the hotel so if you were looking to save money, self-catering was easily achievable from the apartment.

The hotel arrangement for beach access with the Meridien down the road worked just fine, but obviously isn't the same feeling as staying on the beach.

Breakfast was truly excellent and staff service generally was friendly and interested.

Unfortunately, the hotel was designed as an apartment block. There are 6 lifts. 1 has been skillfully screened off on the ground floor, presumably for staff access. The 2 other lifts in that bank of 3 were out of order during our stay. This meant that we often had to wait 10-15 minutes for a lift and over a 3 day stay wasted maybe 2 hours overall! We began to learn to adjust our usage of the lifts. I assume that lift usage patterns for an apartment block are probably quite different from those of a hotel and perhaps another 2 lifts might have been added for a hotel design.

I was given a decent discount on account of the lifts, so service recovery was fine.

Overall, this is a nice place. Great views from the apartment which was as advertised on the website. If you adjust your expectations for the noise and lifts accordingly, you will be pleasantly satisfied by the hotel.

We went to the Harbour for a three-night getaway from neighboring Oman. We arrived to a pleasant surprise: an upgrade to a seaview two-bedroom at what had already been a very good rate (and was now just this side of a steal).

While in some ways it is clear that the Harbour was originally designed as an apartment building, most of those details work in favor of the hotel-staying traveler. The Harbour's flats comfortably straddle the line between an extremely luxuriously furnished serviced flat and an extremely generously sized hotel suite. A few, admittedly, don't: the bathrooms are definitely more residential than the palatial mini-spas some hotels now feature, and the corridors are stark stone-and-tile.

These, though, are quibbles in comparison to the large, well-equipped kitchens, the huge and beautifully decorated living area, and the thoughtful touches like Frette sheets and towels, l'Occitane amenities, and the range of books and magazines provided. And that's on top of having four bathrooms, a maid's room, and hall/entrance space alone that's larger than some hotel rooms.

As the still-new property evolves, one thing looks to set it ahead of its competition: the food. We arrived late, and ordered in from room service, expecting the usual good-enough, slightly tired meal one would get even at many five-star places. Instead, already impressed by the lively and inventive menu, we got a deliciously , carefully prepared, and very reasonably priced meal that ranged from prawn salad to spectacular Singapore noodles to a "side salad" that would feed three. The next night we ate at the new Mediterranean restaurant, Az.u.r., on the fifth floor, and had a meal that could have come from a leading kitchen in New York or London - a great combination of fresh, organic produce, extraordinary meat and seafood, and careful preparation. I can only imagine how good the soon-to-open Observatory on the 50-somethingth floor will turn out to be. Even the groundfloor deli, Counter Culture, has fun dishes beautifully prepared (I especially enjoyed a design-your-own sandwich choice that featured roast lamb, red peppers, and carmelized onions). Dubai has no shortage of good food, but even so the Harbour could well become a standout.

We did a spa morning, and while the facilities are small (even, in the case of the locker area, cramped), they are well designed and nicely appointed. The massages were excellent, and while the pool area is small, it makes a nice place to unwind in tandem with using the sauna, steam, and jacuzzi.

I cannot say enough good things, too, about the staff - from the valets and bellmen who greet you, to the front desk staff who handle every request with aplomb and smiles, to the room service and housekeeping attendants (are you listening, Emirates? Maybelle is a flatout treasure - ditto Stephane in guest relations and all the staff in Az.u.r.).

In short, especially given the way that hotel rates at most five-star properties in Dubai are rocketing up, the Harbour is definitely worth a look from travelers seeking a (luxurious) homebase from which to explore.