[Hotel Review] - Avillion Port Dickson (Premium Water Chalet), Port Dickson, Malaysia (14 - 16 Feb 14)

Location

Avillion Port Dickson is located on the beach of Port Dickson. There isn't much eateries or shopping around the resort. It is rather far away from everything else. The nearest town is some 20 mins drive away from the resort. There is a night market in the vicinity, however it would take at leaf 10 mins of drive to the night market. Guests without car will have to eat at the resort, which the price is a little on the high side. This will be a good place for those who wanted to cast away from the hustles of the city.

Water Chalets

View of the sea

Hardware

The room I got for this stay is the Premium Water Chalet, which is accommodation built over the sea, located at the far end. This category of room provides privacy to guests and comes with lounge access. The room is modelled after traditional Malaysian architecture with modern concretes as building material. The wooden based room is rustic but furnishings in the room shows signs of ageing and poor maintenance.

Once entering the room, a huge four posture king size bed greets guests. The room I have gotten has mosquito net set up around the bed. As the air conditioning in the room is rather week (signs of ageing and poor maintenance), I have called for the staff to have the net removed. The bed is huge and comfortable to sleep in, however the pillows are a tad too soft for my liking.

King bed

Next to the bed is a queen sized day bed, tucked into one inconspicuous corner of the room. The day bed is located next to 2 panels of windows with one looking out into the sea and the other facing the balcony. This is a good corner for one to laze in the day looking out at the sea relaxing. However the day bed feels a little dirty, I did not spend too much time on it during my stay.

Opposite the bed is the TV with a table extending from the minibar which is a short distance away from the door. There is a old wooden 2 door wardrobe. One of the door has a full length mirror that faces the bed. The placing of the mirror is rather weird and I used a towel to cover the mirror most of the time. The wardrobe looks a little run down and dirty, hence I did not use it at all. 

TV and the wardrobe

Far into the room, between the wardrobe and the queen bed is access to the balcony. The wooden furnished balcony faces the sea and is a great spot for some sea breeze or laze the day away in dry weather. As the balconies of the rooms are built next to each other, the designers of the resort installed a full length partition between the 2 balconies to provide privacy for occupants of both rooms.

Peeking into the balcony

Balcony

View of the day bed from the balcony

View from the balcony

Next to the entrance of the room is the entrance to the bath room. The bathtub and the showers are separated. Entering the bathroom, one would spot dual sink, catering for 2 guests in the room. There are no lack of storage space in the bathroom for one who opted to bring their own toiletries. There is also a shelf next to the sinks and this is where one would find bath towels and bathing amenities provided by the hotel. It is this area where one can store more items. There is a huge well opposite the sinks that allows guests to looking to the sea and allow occupants to enjoy the rhythm of the sea in the room as well. The open shower is located next to the sea well and a large bathtub is found next to the shower. A small room with the toilet bowl is found between the bathtub and the shelving where the towels are stowed.

Sink area

Bathing amenities

Tower rack

Bathtub

Toilet bowl

Open shower

Sea well

There are 2 swimming pools in the resort. One is located next to the restaurant where everyone congregates each morning for meal. This family friendly pool is always packed with laughter and joys of children playing in the pool. There is a jacuzzi section just behind this pool and another smaller pool with slides for children. For more tranquility, one can opt for the adults only pool a little further down from the restaurant (after the small farm area). Here is where one can relax and soak oneself in the rays of the sun.

Main pool

Adults only pool

Small gym

There is also a small petting farm, which the resort keeps farm animals (and more). One can find chickens, bunnies and parrots here. Peacocks and peahens are found roaming around the resort and not just confined to the petting farm. At certain times of the day, the resort organises feed the animals when one is able to get up close and personal with the animals.

Resident of the resort

I had the chance to utilise the lounge during evening cocktail time. The lounge is built over the waters and is located at the centre of the water chalets. There is outdoor seating where one can view the beautiful sunset from. The indoor section of the lounge welcomes a lot of natural light by using floor to ceiling glass in replacement of solid concrete walls, making the whole lounge look huge and bright. The cocktail selection is rather limited and the food is just decent. I enjoyed the ambience of the lounge more then I enjoyed the food.

Outdoor area of the lounge

Lounge

View from the lounge

View from the lounge

Sunset from the lounge

Sunset from the lounge

Heartware

Service in this resort is fair. One would be expected to wait for awhile (at least 30 mins) in the queue waiting for your check-in to be processed. The check-in is slow and sluggish as though the staffs at the check-in counter was dragging their feet to process your check-in. Smiles are rare at the check-in counter and most of the time the staffs are flustering around like headless chickens. Check-out is equally slow as well. The resort is rather stingy with providing more bathing amenities. When asked for more bathing amenities (their bath amenities are in miserable small bottles), the staffs is rather dodgy in providing more. The staff who delivers the extra amenities came with a long face.

The only places in the resort where one can find good service is at the adult pool. The Indian lady at the pool distributing towels is never stingy with smiles. She will also look out for ideal spots and recommends guests to occupy them. When leaving the pool, she will always smile and wished guests a good day. The other place one can find good service is at the lounge, where the staff greets every guest who walks through the door and immediately attends to the guests. They are also observant and clears up any empty plates conscientiously.

The resort manages the breakfast service quite well. The resort opens up another restaurant on the second level, which is not part of the main restaurant serving breakfast, and diverts any waiting guests there to minimise wait time for guests. Despite being at an annexed restaurant for breakfast, variety is still there and the food gets topped up frequently.

Overall

The resort, despite being a good place to relax in and the great view from the lounge, the facilities including the rooms are poorly maintained and shouts for a make over. The service varies depending on who one meets along the way. One thing for sure the service level for the staffs at the check-in counters needs immediate retraining.