With the flights booked, there were 10 nights to fill. The original inspiration for the trip was driven by the Ritz Carlton Ras Al Khaimah, Al Wadi Desert resort. While this hotel is not one we’d normally look at staying in, there were a few things that made this a very attractive option for us.
First, it’s offering experiences that were completely unique to us. It’s a resort in the middle of the desert on a wildlife preserve. It’s got all the trappings of a 5 star resort (because it IS one) as well as unique (to us at least) things like a nightly falconry show, a kids club program with activities the kids would hopefully enjoy, and unique room configurations.
Each room comes with it’s own infinity pool. That’s pretty cool. Each room is at least 1800 square feet (including patio areas) and are housed in private villas. This is not the normal type of hotel room we’re used to. The kids were of course all in when they heard there was a pool IN our room! There are upgraded rooms which are close to 3000 square feel in size and have a larger pool and patio. Those rooms also have a canvas roof and it looks like you’re staying in a huge tent! Again, not your average hotel room!
This resort is not cheap to stay in. The cheapest I saw the room was over $600 per night with many nights closer to $1000/night. Fortunately it was available with points. Better yet, when we were looking to book it was just before the points price was going to increase.
There is another Marriott property that appears similar to this one that is an all-inclusive property that you can book on pints as well. The Al Maha resort has fantastic reviews, but it is an 18+ property so it wasn’t an option for us.
The Marriott Merger
Marriott was a hotel group consisting of three different programs they had acquired including Marriott Rewards, Ritz-Carlton Rewards, and SPG Preferred Guest. On August 18, 2018 they were going to merge the IT backends of those programs to create a single program.
As part of that change, which they announced much in advance, was that some properties were going to change the number of points they were going to cost. Some would cost more while others would cost less.
The property we were interested in was going to be one that would increase in price. Fortunately we were booking before the merger so we could take advantage of the lower price.
In addition, since we booked for 5 nights, we got the 5th night free. So instead of spending the new 60,000 points per night price we ended up spending 50,000 for 4 nights and got the 5th night free (averaging 40,000 points per night).
Booking Details
With the hotel booked, I noticed that the receipt with the estimated costs was charging us a significant “extra person fee”. Reading around it seemed that was was if an extra adult was staying in the room, but it was two adults and two kids, which matched what the stated room occupancy limit stated (2 adults and 2 kids under 12). I wanted to get clarification on that charge (which was almost $1000) so I found the resort’s email address on their website and emailed them.
They clarified that the charge did not apply to us and was a side effect of the IT backend merger that was happening with Marriott. The extra people that I had specified were not being registered as “kids” but as adults and hence the extra charge. It would not be charged during our visit.
I took the opportunity to also as questions about the restaurant menus and the activities offered. They kindly sent me copies of the Ritz Kids menu, the restaurant menus, and a price list of activities they offered.
It was definitely worthwhile to reach out to them. It doesn’t hurt to let them know how excited we are to go there and they can make notes in our record for things to make our visit go more smoothly.
Since we would be ending our Dubai trip (the second 5 nights) at this resort, next up was finding a place to stay for the first 5 nights in the city.
Tomatico Travels 
You must be logged in to post a comment.