Hi Everyone, I have left a while between arriving back to UK and writing my review, to allow me to settle to enable me to write a more honest and not a hot headed review.
Initially I will tell you that we booked the hotel for our trip to the Special Olympics World Games, as I am a wheelchair user I wanted a hotel that advertised adapted accessable rooms, as we were staying for 13 nights and I was sharing with my son, who has learning disabilities and wanted to be reassured I would be able to manage myself. The full package, hotel flights and transfers, were booked via Thomsons in the UK, and 8 people all booked together - 2 x triple rooms and 1 x twin accesable.
On arrival at the hotel, we were impressed with the beautiful design, the cool refreshing air conditioning, and wow the beautiful smell! It was a moment of wow on all the senses.
At check in, the young lady took our names, and booked us in quite efficiantly and then handed over a range of keys to one of the men in the party, not making clear which of the rooms were triples or which was the accessable room, when I eventually managed to get her attention to ask her which room was mine she told me that they no longer have accessable rooms as people in wheelchairs do not visit China - Hello, I was sitting in my wheelchair and had emailed the hotel on several occasssions prior to us travelling to remind them about my request for the accessable room. The receptionist then just walked off, whilest I was in mid sentence to her.
At this point, remebering we had travelled via Dubai and had been traveling for approx 24 hours now, we requested to speak to some of authority who could inform me how I was to manage in a room I could not even get my wheelchair into, through the door.
Eventually, after a bit of explaining, the assistant manager came out and explained that the hotel was having a revamp in some of its rooms, and the accessable ones were under repair, that they were not being done away with, but just being upgraded but out of use for my stay. He negotiated with my friend and they then decided that a suite, being bigger, would accomodate me, and my chair better, so we were upgraded to the new tower and I was given a suite; this was lovely, spacious, bright and overlooked the bund, but I still had 2 little problems.
1) that the wheelchair could not get into the bathroom and 2) that my friend, who I was travelling with, were on another floor and around the corner from the lift, so if I needed help, it was quite a way for me to get to them or visca versa. Eventually, they were also moved up onto the 6th floor, with me and given rooms the same as mine, so although it took another 2 hours we did manage to stay together and on day 2 a joiner was sent to remove the offending roor - enabling me to get into the toilet with my chair.
The initial room was nice, but this new room was fantastic!
During our stay, we used the restaurants in the hotel quite often, the young people in our party loved the sweets available from the Yi Cafe, which became our most popular 'in house' venue because of the range of food available at every sitting, 10 open kitchens each offering a vast array of cuisine from throughout the world, and the most exquisit of delicate little deserts , of which you could choose as many, or as few as you liked. The chocolate fountain was also a favorite.
The bar on 36 is a must, a beautiful view, surrounding are great and drinks are delicious and some variations on traditional cocktails with a delicate oriental twist; delicious. Cost was no more than at other restaurants or bars either.
We had high tea in the lounge, which worked out a very reasonable option, but they do only have so many, so you need to get in early before they all go.
We also had room service on a couple of nights, the first one after the opening ceremony took about 45 minutes to deliver (they had told us 20 mins when we ordered) they appologised profoundly when they delivered it and gave it us for free!
On the second occasion, we half hoped that it would be late - but it arrived on time and was again delicous.
The cakes at Gourmet, are delicous, and at 7pm are reduced to half price - well worth the visit for a supper snack!
The pool is a nice bright area, and when we were ther we only ever saw one other couple. The jaccuzzi is briliant, however if you are travelling as a couple it would be dissappointing, as there is one in the ladies changing rooms and one in the mens - no comunal jaccuzi. Luckily I was travelling with three other women and their husbands minded my son, so we had a lovely time in there. It became a daily routine, after getting back from the games. In the changing rooms, there were chaise lounges a proper dressing room, with moisturisers, talcum powder, q tips etc, and the a lounge area with ginger tea - foc, and a nice relaxing area to get yourself reacclimatised to life after a wonderfully relaxing expeariance. Whilest we were there, there was 1 day when the jaccuzzi did not work, but the water was still lovely and warm and relaxing, it was fixed by the next day.
The pool/jaccuzzi area is down about 3 steps and then up another couple to get in to the jaccuzzi - luckily there are always staff around to help, but sometimes you have to actually ask them to help.
From the initial disturbance at check in, things had gone swimmingly and we had such a wonderful stay at the Shangri La, the next dissappointment came at check out when we were informed we needed to pay for our stay, as Thomsons had not paid them, and that previously they had not paid for stays made by other people, so we were to pay and then claim the money we had paid back from Thomson; We thought it may have been an error caused by the upgraded room, so got Mr Andy - as he had became known to us, to clarify the situation. He told us that it was correct, Thomsons had not paid them, that they were indeed not charging for the upgrade that was complimentry as they did not have the rooms I had booked, but that he would not charge us for the room again, but requested we chase their payment up from Thomons on our return.
On our return, Thomson said payment to the hotel had been made, and we emailed this info to Mr Andy, who promptly debited my friends credit card for the cost of all 3 rooms! After approx 4 months, Thomsons eventually paid up - and my friends card was re-embursed. Thomsons have since offered him compensation - but not actually paid it!!
All in all, a lovely hotel, fantastic service in the hotel, a bad time outside of the hotel if you have a disability, but if you do go from the UK please,please, please, dont use Thomsons!!
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC.
