The Shangri-La’s Fijian Resort & Spa has a lot of good reviews and usually a Shangri-La is something you can count on, rarely spectacular but almost always satisfactory, a bit like a Toyota, you normally can rely on it. Not this one. Firstly, if you do manage to get a reply for any questions or requests, you’re lucky if you get one within a week. I know Fiji is the take it easy-relax-no-rush place, but come on, you still need to get in line with hospitality from around the world. Anyway, did get a reply for a transfer, but then they seemed to get it mixed up with my Mum and Dad’s transfer later that night. Just one of many things they made a mess off during the stay.
If you’re not the type to read and just want to know whether to stay at the Shangri-La’s Fijian Resort & Spa, the answer is NO, unless you’re going with kids, like to wait an hour for meals and want to wait on every single little staff interaction. Read on for more about why I’d never come to this Fiji resort. So, pre-booking experience was dine but where the real problems come is when you go to check-in. We arrived around 9a.m and didn’t expected to check-in, they mentioned something about a 12p.m check-in but officially 3p.m is check-in time. They said they’d try their best to get us in earlier, but we didn’t end up checking in until almost 4p.m. It wasn’t really the fact that we didn’t actually get a room until 4, it was the complete lack of communication and seemingly lack of effort to get us in.
They knew we had been there since 9a.m, after a crap 10 hour flight on Fiji Airways, you would think they’d make an effort to get a single Dad and his son earlier, but no. Anyway, first time we checked-in, there was no mentioned they’d come and find it, the attitude was it’ll be ready when it’s ready. We ended up carrying our 2 packs and large suitcase around the massive resort ourselves. Nobody bothered to help, which I don’t usually accept anyway, but even 3 star resorts at least offer if they see a guest with a child carrying around a large suitcase.
Anyway over the course of the day we asked about four times if the room was ready, each time having to line up and wait about 20-30 minutes. The check-in and front desk service is diabolical. Each time they just said not ready and didn’t give a care in the world. We ended up having to sleep on the lobby chairs for an hour as we were so exhausted. At 3p.m, the lobby was choker block full of people, I finally said enough is enough and that’d we’d be prepared to sleep in a closet or maintenance building, but needed to get in any room.
That seemed to get some results as one of the staff finally said something on the phone about getting a room ready. By this stage there was nothing they could do to make things better and ended up getting in the room about 4p.m, an hour after they say you can check-in. Again, it wasn’t the fact we couldn’t check-in early, although I think arriving at 9a.m, you’d think they would have done something to get us a room after lunch. It was more about the slowness and ineptness of the staff and lack of communication about when the room would be ready.
Anyway, got it, had a much needed sleep for a few hours, headed out for dinner, that was a Ribeye from Australia, about what you’d expect in Fiji, not bad, not great. Grobbler had a kids burger, that was alright. Oh, we put the Do Not Disturb sign on when we got back to the room but that means nothing and just as we were falling asleep for a nap, they knocked and knocked to give us some fruit, and a welcome card, which had the wrong name on it, like not misspelled, but completely the wrong name. That doesn’t matter at all but just goes to show the lack of organisation and general lack of awareness of what’s going on.
The Shangri-La’s Fijian Resort & Spa is extremely busy, families everywhere. I’d say this is the busiest hotel we’ve ever stayed in. Waits for breakfast, waits to get life jackets and for water activities, not my scene at all. If you have kids and are here with friends with kids, it’d be fine, but if you want a relaxing, quiet and private holiday, this is definitely NOT the place to go. There’s a couple of pools the main one at the beach is absolutely packed and good luck getting a chair there. There’s apparently an adults only pool, and another pool nearer our room (406 and 407), which is much quieter. The breakfast at the Asian restaurant is much less busy, although still busy. Basically it’s a massive resort with hundreds and hundreds of rooms, so if you’re like me and want something secluded and quiet, stay away from the Shangri-La’s Fijian Resort & Spa.
Some of the staff are friendly and what you expect in Fiji, but the front desk staff I thought were a bit arrogant and seemed like they didn’t give a shit. There’s loads of kids activities to do and they have something everyday and throughout the day for kids and adults. It’s a bit heidi-heidi-ho-ish for me, but if you want a break from your kids, you’ll appreciate it. The rooms are okay, we were in the Ocean Wing, near the sea, with a balcony and grass outside, sea is about 50 meters away but there’s rock and it’s not direct access where we were. You need to be at the opposite side of the resort (where the main pool is) to get to the beach. Beach isn’t great for swimming, lots of rock and grass and kelp and shit floating on the water. You can snorkel off the beach, but there’s very little coral so there’s not much. First time snorkellers might find it good but if you’ve done any decent snorkelling before it’s just ok.
You’re supposed to take a card and give it to the pool guys every time you take a towel, then get your card back when you return it, I presume because there are thousands of people and if everybody took one they’d be none left. Like everything else, you need to wait even to get towels. It’s a bit of a joke really. Overall, I’d definitely not come back and stay and can’t recommend the Shangri-La’s Fijian Resort & Spa to anybody wanting a nice and relaxing holiday. The check-in was a nightmare, service mediocre, food average and there’s not much that was great about it.
Dinner at the Asian restaurant is alright, breakfasts are average, nothing great but nothing too bad. Loads of frogs, lizards, so great for kids, there’s daily activities for kids and adult and you can find out more about those in our things to do with kids in Fiji and Things to do in Fiji guide. Wifi is a bit shit but that’s no uncommon at a place like Fiji so I give them a pass for that. If you’re trying to do any work or have anything urgent to send, good luck with that. The Shangri-La’s Fijian Resort & Spa is 65km from Nadi and most of the island tours leave from there or nearby hotels. So unless you plan on staying the entire time at the resort, you need to consider that. We went to the beach near the Intercontinental and that was way better as was the snorkelling there. Of course, it’s twice the price and the Shangri-La’s Fijian Resort & Spa is a perfect example of you get what you pay for.
Grobbler loved the whole stay because he went lizard hunting, toad hunting and did all this favourite things. But for me, I like peace and quiet and this is the furthest thing from peace and quiet you are going to get. Again, this would be the most people I’ve ever seen at any hotel in all the years I’ve been travelling. Checking out was also a nightmare, they charged me twice for the room rate, refunded some of it, charged me again for the incidentals and in the end I don’t have a clue what I’ve charged for, as I suspect the resort doesn’t either.
I’d spent the equivalent of about 2hrs waiting for front desk staff and at the final stage I would have actually paid the hotel to get me out off their property sooner so I didn’t care they most certainly charged me twice and for things that weren’t even mine. The efficiency here is, well there is none. It’s also just the little things, like forgetting to ask how I want my steak done, I really don’t care, but it’s a simple thing that is not difficult to remember but isn’t done. A guy said he’d look into the TV channels for Rugby, never heard back from him. Again, it’s small things like this that are lacking here, as well as some efficiency, and general care for hotel guests.
This is one of those resorts where they try and keep you inside the whole time. There’s a little shopping area with convenience store, a booze store, and a few other wee shops. There’s four different restaurants and with all the activities available, you could easily spend a week here, which we did, and not leave the hotel. We only ventured out after five days. Anyway, I wouldn’t go back to Fiji again based on this experience, and if I had to, even if the hotel comped my stay and I didn’t have to pay, I wouldn’t stay here, I’d rather pay more to stay at a decent hotel with less people and staff that can get things done in a reasonable amount of time. For more information about the Shangri-La’s Fijian Resort & Spa, feel free to contact us here or via Twitter.
