Oct 07, 2008 07:44 PM
2950 Views
(Updated Oct 07, 2008 07:55 PM)
We landed in Port Blair to be warmly received by the hotel representatives. We were a group of 10 people with loads of luggage but surprisingly the hotel people had brought only one car. When I questioned, without hesitation a second car was brought within very few minutes and I was glad for the prompt service. We were give another warm reception and welcome drinks at the hotel lobby and were asked to check-in. When I started signing the papers, another guest was quizzing as to why he has not received sea-facing room. Hesitantly, I was trying to confirm if our rooms (we had booked 3 of them through MakeMyTrip.com) were sea-facing or not.
To our horror, they said NO! The printout that I carried in my hand from MMT clearly mentioned in 2 places that we would be given sea-facing rooms. After some heated exchange of words, it was evident that it was too late to figure what had gone wrong at that point of time. But to the hotel receptionists' credit, they kept their cool in handling us (particularly my wife) and promised to offer us sea-facing rooms at the earliest possible despite their hotel policy of not promising sea-facing rooms to guests. I signed on the dotted line merely mentioning that I just trusted the in-charge (Mrs. Chawla) that she would provide sea-facing rooms ASAP.
We were guided towards the restaurant for lunch where we had a sumptuous meal and the buffet meal had all courses starting from soup, salad (pretty simple - cut vegetables), many kinds of vegetable side dishes and multiple varieties of rice and a decent dessert. The meals during the next 7 days also were quite varied and hardly repeated. Although, only paranthas as kept as part of regular meals (lunch or dinner buffets), you can request for rotis or chappatis.
We were a bit tired and it started raining too. We had to decide to drop the local tour for that day and decided to relax in the room. The rooms were pretty neat but not giving an impression that they were worth the price we paid (about Rs 5000 per night - price of a 5 star hotel but the rooms hardly reflected the price). The bathrooms were too small but clean and tidy. Most facilities like TV, properly functioning AC, mini-fridge, multiple towels, required toileteries, clean and non-smelling blankets were available. We had a very tough time to get the flushes to work.
The room service also were quite responsive and effective. We in fact kept a key inside and got ourselves locked out ourselves in such a way (explaining this would be too complex & not very relevant) that using the master or duplicate key also would not have helped. But without any frowns, the room service broke the door open (rather only the safety chain). Water bottles were frequently but not always replaced with newer bottles everyday.
The travel desk at this hotel in my opinion should be avoided as much as possible, He charged us a hefty Rs 1100 per head to the Havelock island when actually he might have spent at a maximum of only Rs. 600 per head. He also demanded us a even more hefty Rs. 1250 to Mouaterra beach but this is way way over the actual expenses and his margins would be at least 150%. We decided to travel by bus to Wandoor, just to explore the country-side in a more relaxed fashion and from there we hired a private boat to Mouaterra beach. The experience was amazing and totally we spent Rs 2500 in total against the Rs. 12500 demanded by the travel agent to exactly the same place for 10 people. Bottom-line, if you think you can manage local travel by yourself and mind paying excessive margins to travel desk, avoid them. He anyway did not provide a very professional service to other locations like Ross Island, City tour and North Bay Coral Island which were part of the package.
The hotel has a patheitc TT table (completely worn out, I love TT and was very disappointed to see this one). They also have a swimming pool but again that is a salt-water pool and open only till 5PM. Yeah, thats right only till 5PM since thats when the sun sets. Having seen these facilities, I did not even venture out to find out how the gym was looking or what it had. I had imagined what it might look like. The hotel has a huge bar (aptly named Nico-bar) but was not crowded many times. Since I am a tee-totaler, I do not know if it was over-priced or the stuff was not good. Both the bar and the restaurant below had a nice big portion which was sea-facing. You could sit there facing the sea and sip your drink and munch your food at your own pace enjoying the vastness of the sea in front.
Another thing I was not very comfortable with this hotel, was the stairs. They were designed in a very odd fashion. For moving from basement to ground floor, you would have to go from basement to mezzanine and then come to ground floor. Also sometimes when conferences occur below, the kind of crowd can be really disturbing and you will feel like avoiding the crowd altogether totally.
I have purposely avoided writing about the various trips to Andaman islands since this review is about the hotel and not about Andaman. As a final conclusion, this hotel is good, decent hotel with clean and tidy rooms and bathrooms but not necessarily great value for money. Food is good but definitely not exquisite. Waiters can help get food packed for day long trips, they need to be informed well-in-advance (at least 8 hours before). Definitely not value for money but economics dictates that when demand outpaces supply, price should be on the rise.
