Daydream Island Resort — Hotel in Daydream Island

We stayed at the daydream island resort in late April, outside of school holidays. we'll start with the good things. I had read a lot of reviews prior to going, saying that service was slow and that the resort was understaffed. Luckily, we had very good service. we never had to wait long for food or drinks and we had no issues booking into any of the restaurants. We stayed in the Vista suite and it was beautiful. The bed was comfortable, the bathroom was lovely and the kitchen and living room were very comfortable. We had issues with our shower drain not draining and our microwave not working but these were fixed within hours of me advising the staff. We loved the visiting cockatoos and being able to see the kangaroos from our balcony. The living reef was beautiful, we could have sat in the viewing area all day. We participated in the fish feeding which was a lot of fun and very educational. The fact that it was run by a marine biologist was impressive. Because it was relatively quiet when we went, my 18 month old daughter was allowed into kids club for one session and she loved it. Now for the not so good things. Obviously I understand that I was lucky to have my daughter in kids club when it is for kids over 4, but there really is a need for some kind of care for smaller kids (maybe a creche for 1-2 hrs of care during the day?). Unfortunately it was not easy to get babysitting although it is advertised on the daydream resort site. I was told that sitters are really only available in the evening as they work the kids club during the day. We finally did get a sitter one evening but she told us that she is actually in the HR department and volunteered for the role when there was a call out for sitters. Luckily she was amazing but for a resort that is geared towards families, this was quite disappointing. Our room, as I said, was beautiful. It also came with a fully equipped kitchen including an oven and pots an pans. It didn't however have any tea towels which was inconvenient-we ended up using hand towels. There is no supermarket on the island or provision of any groceries. I thought maybe the restaurants offered meal kits or similar-but they didn't. Part of the reason we paid for the suite was for the kitchen and it seems very strange to have such a well equipped kitchen with no way to use it. there is no room service which is bizarre for a resort and house keeping doesn't start till 2 pm. juggling being out of the room in the afternoon was tricky, particularly with a small child. The pools on the resort, although beautiful, were basically unusable while we were there. we had warm but not hot weather and it was cloudy. the pool water was freezing, even in the kids pool and the spa. the ocean water was much warmer but off course because of the coral beach and stingers, it is not suitable for small children. the swim up bar was a bit sad. there was absolutely no atmosphere and often one of the shutters to the bar was closed, making it look forbidding. although you could get drinks at the swim up bar, you could not get any snacks (crisps, nuts) and had to walk all the way back to reception for that- a huge missed opportunity. The restaurants had pretty good food but again, atmosphere was greatly lacking. at lunch time, only Inkstone was open which made the menu quite repetitive considering there aren't a huge number of choices. Espresso coffee was only available after 8am which really is a disaster for anyone with small children who are up with the sun. If you want a club sandwich, you can't get it till after 3pm when the bar menu starts. Lover's cove was beautiful, but the bar there was only open for 2 hrs! when we went there was no music and again no atmosphere at all. luckily the view is gorgeous. There are absolutely no free activities on the resort- i did go to one session of yoga which was nice because it was in the reef observatory, but it cost $25! The gym was pretty good with machines and free weights. Overall, we had a good holiday however there really needs to be some heart and character put...

We had an absolutely fabulous week at Daydream Island resort! I love that right from the start you are welcomed with a friendly face, a cute shell necklace and a welcome drink (alcoholic and non-alcoholic options)

I had booked an accessible room, and a lovely staff member helped me to bring my suitcase up.

The room was great, and had been well designed for accessibility. There was plenty of room, and I very much liked the accessible level power points next to the bed. The couch and tables gave me plenty of room to lay out my things at accessible heights, and I liked the variety of chair options available. There was even a lovely private balcony overlooking the ocean!

The bathroom was spacious, and the floor was angled correctly so that the shower water stays in the shower corner! They'd remembered to add places to put things, with a good sized area next to the sink, and smaller shelves around the room as well. There was also a larger shelf above the toilet, though it's quite high and I didn't end up using it.

There was tea, coffee and milk provided, though the full sized kettle was awkward to fill in the bathroom. A half sized kettle would have been nice.

The door to get into the room was quite heavy, and the sliding door to the balcony quite difficult to open. And most of the mirrors were very high and behind furniture (along one side of the room). The only lower mirror was on the inside of one of the cupboard doors.

There were lifts and ramps to access almost the entire resort. Pretty much the only place we found couldn't be accessed without stairs was Lover's Cove, but considering the terrain, it would be difficult to provide alternative access. During our stay the lift down to the underwater viewing area was out of order, which was a bit disappointing, but these things happen, and they had people there trying to fix it.

It would have been nice if there had been a lift at the restaurant end of the resort, at the end of the wing we stayed in. It was a long walk to go back to the lobby to get the lift. Especially as there is signage indicating there Should be one up that end, but we couldn't find it, and were told by a staff member she didn't think there was one.

The restaurants themselves were fantastic! Even being there a week and having multiple food allergies I was able to have a variety of meals. The breakfast buffet had a good range of options, including a dedicated gluten free toaster, well away from the gluten products, and clear labels on other options. They had so many milk choices too! The staff were all very well trained too, including being knowledgeable about celiac and they were really good at making modifications to meals as needed! The prices were pretty reasonable too, for an island with a captive audience!

There were plenty of things to do, with a few free options each day, and a number of paid activities too. We did the free meditation sessions and one of the bingo sessions and enjoyed them. And paid to do the Paint and Sip watercolour session and Living Reef Snorkeling (an absolute highlight of our holiday!) The snorkeling did require being able to manage a few steps (I had a friend help me!) but they do have a couple of pool noodles for support if needed once you're in the water.

The pools all have zero step entries, which is fabulous! And they're laid out so that there are lots of seperate areas, which was nice. And going outside of school holidays, they were pretty quiet.

We were extremely impressed with the staff when one of my friends hurt her ankle. A first aid person came to the room and provided treatment. And they lent her crutches and a wheelchair so she could still enjoy herself! They also moved them from their poolside room to another accessible room, which while not as fancy as mine, was comfortable and much more suitable as the shower wasn't over a bathtub.

The local wildlife were a fun bonus to the trip too! We especially loved the Kerlews, which hang out hoping to get snacks anywhere there's food!

Overall it was a fabulous week away and I hope to...

From reading below reviews, I have similar complaints. Therefore management really doesn’t care and isn’t taking initiative to fix these problems. Don’t stay at Daydream Island.

We came here for 4 nights for our honeymoon. Our flight arrived at hamilton island airport at 2.30pm so the next ferry available to us wasn’t until 4pm so we didn’t arrive until 4.30pm.

The good: Staff were friendly, particularly (can’t remember her name but I think) Victoria at lovers cove, Adam at water sports, the nurse, and jay at the tour desk Lots to explore around the island: a few beaches, rainforest walk, living reef with underwater observatory Lots of activities to choose from, we enjoyed the sparkling kayak tour Nice view from our room Lots of wallaroos that were friendly and funny to interact with We loved the nasi goreng from Infinity Huge breakfast selection. Basically anything you could ever want for breakfast was available. The quality of the food wasn’t amazing, the eggs were bland and watery but again the selection was impressive. Towels available pretty much everywhere My wife had a lovely massage at the spa.

The bad: Nowhere obvious/easy to drop off soggy towels. People would leave them on seats. There should be baskets around the resort. Breakfast doesn’t begin until 7am so if you have an early start because of a day trip, or would like to do one of the early activities, there’s no time/you need to rush. There’s no room service. Because we arrived later in the day we figured room service would be the way to go for the first night. No room service available so had to get take out from inkstone which was basically just pizzas, at the same (overpriced) price as if we were seated. It was $25 for a pepperoni pizza. The mini bar isn’t stocked There is only one bubbler/water fountain in the whole resort and we had to ask where it is. For reference, it’s located in the transit lounge. there was never anyone else there. This makes me think everyone else is paying the $4 per bottle from vending machines. All activities and tour desk etc close early. we arrived at 4.30pm and couldn’t actually book into activities or massages until the following day which meant that day was missed. The only two restaurants open were inkstone and infinity. While the quality of food was good, it was extremely overpriced and these are your only options for food on the island. We saw the menu online for inkstone and while flicking through we saw burgers etc so were looking forward to that for our second dinner. Turns out that’s only for lunch. Dinner is steaks, seafood or pizza so we again had pizza. Not a huge selection and over multiple nights it can be boring. I believe there is usually a buffet restaurant open but not while we were here. If it had been open it would have helped with congestion in the other restaurants and offered more variety (and probably a slightly lower price point.) Hostile lady to welcome your ferry group as you arrive in the resort. She rushed us into the transit lounge and spoke in a very rushed/annoyed manner such as “here’s what’s gonna happen.” Felt quite prison like and set the tone for our stay. I’m sure she does this speech all day every day but for us, we were excited and ready to relax. One of the friendlier staff members would probably be a better option to greet new arrivals.

The ugly: Once we made it to our room, we were disappointed to find the bathtub really dirty and gross. Having a relaxing bath was now out of the question. The design of the shower is stupid, there is glass by the shower head so you can’t get in/access the taps to adjust the water temp from there, so you need to reach all the way from the front. And when you do, it’s not just a flip/turn handle, it’s two separate taps that operate on wildly different heat scales. Once we got the temp sorted out, we found the drain was clogged with hair and so the tub fills up around your ankles while you shower. All of this to say we really did not look forward to shower time.

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