This is my second visit to this resort with my last visit in 2009. First impression of this place is that nothing much has changed, except for the relocation of the Spice Restaurant from the beach to the main building. Previous stay was at Dolphin which was a chalet that is sea facing. Decided to try out garden view chalets this time round and got black ant, which was situated in between the sea facing chalets and the road. Checking in was relatively smooth though slow, took around over 10 minutes to get the process done. This is probably because there were a couple of other guests in front of me in the line, nothing to complain about. Upon stepping into the chalet, realized that room wise, nothing has changed over the past 3 years; tiny CRT, rickety bed, broken furniture, etc. Floor was extremely dusty. Minimum bathroom amenities were provided, no floor mat and hand towels. I had to inform reception on these while I popped by Spice Restaurant for lunch. Pleasantly, the room was swept and mopped when I returned after 2 hours, and floor mat added. However, floor still feels dusty and sandy, probably because the sand left by previously occupants were wedged between the grooves on the flooring. Base for the fridge was broken but doesn’t really affect me in any way. After a while, I’d received a call from reception that the resort will be giving me a birthday cake, since my stay coincides with my birthday, which was a pleasant surprise. The beach was relatively pristine, calm and shallow waters. However, the negative point is that the beach hut closes at 5:30pm which was like duh, the sun is still up! Dinner at Kelong was surprising good, took a set dinner for two at SGD98++ which consist of crab, prawn, poultry, sharks fin, etc. I was originally planning to take the resort’s shuttle to the restaurant but the person did not announce the bus has arrived and went without us. Instead, the resort called in their buggy driver to send us to the restaurant which was 5 minutes away, another pleasant surprise. Return trip from restaurant to resort was horrendous; spent 45 minutes riding and waiting to get back to Mayang Sari when its only a 10 to 15 minutes walk. The bus from Kelong goes back to main resort lobby and from there, another 15 minutes wait for the next bus to come along and pick us up back to the resort. In all, I echo what the others have mentioned about this resort; facilities are close to run down and cleanliness is an issue, but besides these, the environment and the staff certainly make up for these shortcomings. Besides these, the rest of the stay at Mayang Sari was quite pleasant and I’ll look forward to my next stay at this resort.

We paid 340 sing $ a night for two nights. In return we provided with accomadation that had last been upgraded, it would seem in the '80s. Paint peeling from the woodwork, bathrooms that make you shudder at the prospect of using them, cockroach central. All the elecetrical appliances have two pin plugs that are jammed into three pin sockets by electricians using a screwdriver. Staff who politely laugh when you point all this out to them.

A pity since the one attribute that is untouched by the management, the beach and the surrounding sea are first class, and the people runing the place are in general friendly aqnd try quite hard. Nevertheless the sucking sound you hear is the sound of your money being syphoned away into the pockets of resort owners who could care less about value for money. Shame...

Very disappointed with the accommodation. We paid £120 a night to stay here for 2 nights. Beach huts were incredibly basic, almost hostel like. They had stains on the walls and floors. Ours was home to lots of insects too. It seemed as though we had an ant colony in our bathroom.
The beach view (if you have a beach front hut) is lovely. The resort itself is nice especially the hotel pool. I wish we had stayed in the hotel but didn't want to be surrounded by kids. The best thing we did was visit the island proper and meet locals and eat their inexpensive food. Money can be changed much cheaper in the towns than the resort.
If I was to visit again I'd stay at Banyan Tree or Nikoi Island. If you can tolerate children then stay in the resort hotel here. Just give Mayang Sari a wide bearth. Service was good but they forgot our towels too and we had to wait a few hours before getting them.
I will try and upload some photos.

I booked Mayang Sari because I had already been to Bintan Lagoon Resort and Nirwana Gardens resort and was tired of being surrounded by crowds all the time. Mayang Sari gave me the holiday that I was looking for, laid back and carefree. The beach is one of the best things about the resort. The waters are clear and shallow and you can simply sit in the water with the waves lapping up to your shoulders and kick back to relax. I didn't have to snorkel to see fishes either. If you are looking for sea sports, there is a small sea sports centre that offers jet skis, banana boat rides, wind surfing, body boogie boards, kayaking and more.

Rentals are expensive though. The cost is perhaps the greatest drawback of this place. For the price of the room (which included breakfast), I would rate this as expensive. The entire hotel is in need of upgrading and a fresh coat of paint. While the room is very spacious, the pillows were lumpy and gave me a serious back ache and the bath tub had a large crack at the bottom. The breakfast buffet is nothing to shout about although the both times I had lunch at the Spice Restaurant, the food was great and service warm and friendly. The food is generally not cheap because of the high service charge plus taxes so if you want to drink alcohol, it's better to bring your own. We took a shuttle bus to the nearby Kelong Seafood Restaurant one night and enjoyed a wonderful dinner of crab and squid, albeit at rather steep prices after taxes.

Service was uneven at Mayang Sari. I went to the front desk to ask for extra pillows and told them to deliver them 'later'. When I returned to the room much later, the pillows were still not delivered. But when we called, they arrived promptly within minutes. The towel station is often unmanned and they do not open at the stipulated time. On the first day we were asked to sign out for our towels, but on all subsequent ocassions, that was done away with. Deck chairs were few and really hard to come by. We had to drag our own chairs when we found them, to our preferred spots and even when staff saw us (two girls) dragging them, no one offered to help. There are no beach umbrellas and really minimal shade at the beach and when the sun is out, it can be scorching.

All these were to me, just little hiccups. They did not ruin my holiday and I intend to return to Mayang Sari, just for the beach. Hopefully when I do return, the hotel would have been refurbished!