フェニックス・シーガイア・オーシャン・タワー — Hotel in Miyazaki

Pros:||||1. Large rooms||||2. All rooms have the ocean view||||3. Free hot bath/onsen||||4. If you can find a good staff/concierge who can take ownership of making your stay comfortable, it can be quite pleasant. I had Alda who took care of us, and she was great once we found her.||||Cons:||||1. Hotel has a very few, if any, English-speaking staff. I've never been to a Marriott-branded hotel without English speaking staff. (I've been to Westin Kyoto, Sheraton Kobe, Sheraton Hiroshima, plus Rihga Royal, Granvia, ANA Crown Plaza, Prince Hotel, etc. in Japan). ||||2. Check-in was disorganized and the staff didn't speak English and didn't smile or try to show any hospitality or the prized Japanese trait "genki." He was one of the shockingly NOT-genki people I've encountered in Japan. He didn't care that I didn't speak Japanese or that he had the wrong reservation information. It was quite uncomfortable and irritating.||||3. Housekeeping was SLOW. Even after 2:30 p.m. nobody's come by. Contacting the Guest Service isn't always useful because every time I called, nobody spoke English. Or they didn't answer the call at all. It's like half the times, nobody mans the Guest Service phone line.||||4. During the breakfast buffet (Pine Terrace), the hotel staff didn't clear the table. Which means you have to buss the table yourself if you want to bring more food OR flag somebody if possible. This issue was pointed out more than 2x, but the management doesn't care because this was never fixed, even on our final day. (However, when you complain, they'll say sorry we'll do a better job, just to shut you up.)||||5. Their restaurants are overpriced and terrible. In particular, avoid their Italian restaurant. It was expensive, and the food was uninspired and tasteless. I've had better at less than half the cost elsewhere in Japan. Actually, I've never had a hotel restaurant meal this awful anywhere.||||6. Check-out was disorganized. When I arrived at the front desk and said I needed to check out, a clerk sent me to a long line for check-in instead, saying that was where I needed to go. (BTW - check-out and check-in are same in Japanese and English) Then another person came and said I needed to go to a different line.||||7. Their pool is small and shallow (comes to your waist at the most). If you want to sit by the pool, it's not possible because there's no shade. They have maybe like 3 shades and 4 bungalows. You must pay 3,000 yet for 80 minutes if you want to use one of the bungalows, and because they're closed off, it's like a sauna inside, even if a fan in there. It's pretty gross how much they're trying to squeeze money out of people. The least they can do is provide enough shades, especially when they're asking people to social distance due to Corona.||||8. Perfunctory staff. They just seem to be interested in doing bare minimum in most cases. Very disappointing.||||9. The property is far from the beach (at least 10 mins by their shuttle bus). Nothing's really walkable, especially in summer because it's too hot.||||10. The breakfast buffet has the exact same food every day. If you spent more than 3 days here, you'll be tired of their breakfast. Also, nobody speaks English at the buffet, so it can be tricky to order omelet. Omelets are cooked very runny, and I couldn't get the cook to cook it a bit longer and more thoroughly.||||11. The hotel is old, and carpet and furnishing show this. ||||12. The resort is basically designed to be a soulless vacation spot for families with small kids (under the age of 7). There's very little to do, and everything requires an extra fee (such as the use of the bungalow by the pool, their fitness center and indoor pool, morning yoga, etc.). It's shocking to see a resort charges what it does here and then nickel and dime its guests.||||This is my first time trying out a Japanese resort. (I generally prefer resorts overseas.) My expectations were set VERY LOW, but Sheraton failed to meet even my lowered expectations.||||Given my experience here, I doubt I'll ever opt for another resort in Japan for my next vacation. Nor do I plan to return to Sheraton Grande Ocean Resort. My vacation fund and time are too precious to be wasted on a...

Pros:||||1. Large rooms||||2. All rooms have the ocean view||||3. Free hot bath/onsen||||4. If you can find a good staff/concierge who can take ownership of making your stay comfortable, it can be quite pleasant. I had Alda who took care of us, and she was great once we found her.||||Cons:||||1. Hotel has a very few, if any, English-speaking staff. I've never been to a Marriott-branded hotel without English speaking staff. (I've been to Westin Kyoto, Sheraton Kobe, Sheraton Hiroshima, plus Rihga Royal, Granvia, ANA Crown Plaza, Prince Hotel, etc. in Japan). ||||2. Check-in was disorganized and the staff didn't speak English and didn't smile or try to show any hospitality or the prized Japanese trait "genki." He was one of the shockingly NOT-genki people I've encountered in Japan. He didn't care that I didn't speak Japanese or that he had the wrong reservation information. It was quite uncomfortable and irritating.||||3. Housekeeping was SLOW. Even after 2:30 p.m. nobody's come by. Contacting the Guest Service isn't always useful because every time I called, nobody spoke English. Or they didn't answer the call at all. It's like half the times, nobody mans the Guest Service phone line.||||4. During the breakfast buffet (Pine Terrace), the hotel staff didn't clear the table. Which means you have to buss the table yourself if you want to bring more food OR flag somebody if possible. This issue was pointed out more than 2x, but the management doesn't care because this was never fixed, even on our final day. (However, when you complain, they'll say sorry we'll do a better job, just to shut you up.)||||5. Their restaurants are overpriced and terrible. In particular, avoid their Italian restaurant. It was expensive, and the food was uninspired and tasteless. I've had better at less than half the cost elsewhere in Japan. Actually, I've never had a hotel restaurant meal this awful anywhere.||||6. Check-out was disorganized. When I arrived at the front desk and said I needed to check out, a clerk sent me to a long line for check-in instead, saying that was where I needed to go. (BTW - check-out and check-in are same in Japanese and English) Then another person came and said I needed to go to a different line.||||7. Their pool is small and shallow (comes to your waist at the most). If you want to sit by the pool, it's not possible because there's no shade. They have maybe like 3 shades and 4 bungalows. You must pay 3,000 yet for 80 minutes if you want to use one of the bungalows, and because they're closed off, it's like a sauna inside, even if a fan in there. It's pretty gross how much they're trying to squeeze money out of people. The least they can do is provide enough shades, especially when they're asking people to social distance due to Corona.||||8. Perfunctory staff. They just seem to be interested in doing bare minimum in most cases. Very disappointing.||||9. The property is far from the beach (at least 10 mins by their shuttle bus). Nothing's really walkable, especially in summer because it's too hot.||||10. The breakfast buffet has the exact same food every day. If you spent more than 3 days here, you'll be tired of their breakfast. Also, nobody speaks English at the buffet, so it can be tricky to order omelet. Omelets are cooked very runny, and I couldn't get the cook to cook it a bit longer and more thoroughly.||||11. The hotel is old, and carpet and furnishing show this. ||||12. The resort is basically designed to be a soulless vacation spot for families with small kids (under the age of 7). There's very little to do, and everything requires an extra fee (such as the use of the bungalow by the pool, their fitness center and indoor pool, morning yoga, etc.). It's shocking to see a resort charges what it does here and then nickel and dime its guests.||||This is my first time trying out a Japanese resort. (I generally prefer resorts overseas.) My expectations were set VERY LOW, but Sheraton failed to meet even my lowered expectations.||||Given my experience here, I doubt I'll ever opt for another resort in Japan for my next vacation. Nor do I plan to return to Sheraton Grande Ocean Resort. My vacation fund and time are too precious to be wasted on a...

havent stayed here for 24hrs yet and i feel there are many things to be improved at this hotel. firstly, the distance of the hotel is pretty far from the miyazaki station and being a ocean resort, there should be a shuttle bus service provided to guests between the station and the hotel. it is important to note that the local bus services are VERY infrequent. so we have to take a taxi everywhere we go because the location is far from the city centre and inconvenient to get to places. secondly, the staff is not up to date with the bus timings! we arrived at the hotel via bus 18 if im not wrong and the staff was shocked and informed that the buses came her on weekdays as the information they had was the buses only operates on the weekends. thirdly, the hot springs are far from the hotel. noting that this is supposedly a resort, i would expect FAR BETTER ammenities. there are lockers provided for your slippers but for your belongings its in a basket!! why is that so? i find it so ironic that our slippers are locked up and our valuables are not?!? the hot spring water is lukewarm and the shingetsu hot spring is really dark at night. shingetsu hotspring overlooking the pond outside is really really dark at night. there was this woman who thought the pond was a part of the hot spring and she wanted to go into the pond as there was no warning signs or bright lights or anything to indicate that its a pond! do not enter! she was also dipping her hand into the pond on the other side to indicate how close n misleading it is!! also, as a resort i would expect a better water cooler but its the mouth piece water cooler type and its rusty at the side and its really unhygienic. just yesterday i stayed at Sheraton Kagoshima for 5 days and the amenities, services and staff service are WAY BETTER than this “grande ocean RESORT”. another point is that there is no onsen clothing to wear to the hotsprings! u have to purchase a yukata to wear there?? the staff are not very fluent in english or any staff who is comfortable speaking in english. they had to translate from japanese to english when we enquired about something over the phone we could here the man speaking to the translator in japanese and she had to translate back in english however she still had difficulty understanding what we were asking. lastly, the rooms are FILTHY. i have attached some photos to this review which u can refer to. the carpets, walls and sofas are filthy and stained. i dont even dare to walk bare footed on this filthy carpets. the walls are stained with chilli oil?? so now, im having second thoughts on how clean this hotel is. our family suite room only had 2 usb ports and one of them was spoiled too. i dont understand how you can check in guests to such a filthy room with spoiled ammenities. very disappointed with this hotel would not recommend anyone to stay here...