Gold Coast Morib Resort

Hey everyone, we just got back from our stay at the Gold Coast Morib Resort this afternoon. I feel a little tired, but I can't quite take a nap, so I decided to blog my experience before I get too lazy to do it later. But, before we go any further, I have to say that I'm not trying to be overly critical in this review, I'm just being honest.  I promise you, I'm not one of those difficult travellers who complain about every single thing and rubbish hotels on Trip Advisor. I'm as easy-going as they come! So alright, here we go!  

Here's the front of the place. GCM is about a 2-hour drive from Petaling Jaya, where we live. I guess this makes it popular with Klang Valley folk. We chose GCM because Amir loves to take a dip in the pool and they have a water park! We had to check it out!

We arrived at around noon and could check in right away. This was because we opted for a room that had a king-sized bed and didn't come with a water park view. Incidentally, they told us all water park-facing rooms come with two single beds.  

Christmas decor at the lobby, which also came with a dash of flies. I had read in other blog reviews that you can expect a foul odour and lots of flies while staying here. Some bloggers say there's a chicken farm or chicken feed factory in the area. But then I read this bit of news, which suggests there's a landfill in Hulu Langat. Anyway, more on that later.

There wasn't a bellboy to assist with our bags, so we hijacked one of the luggage trolleys in the lobby and took our bags up ourselves. Hey, everyone was doing it! I think it's ok that they don't have bellboys, I saw a lot of cleaners though, which is a good thing.

Here's the king-sized bed. The room is spacious and the decor is pleasing. I spent a lot of time in the room, while the boys were at the water park. One afternoon, my nap was rudely disturbed by the sound of grinding metal. Apparently workers were cutting steel railing near my room... how nice... Why the management thought it'd be a good idea to have noisy construction going on in a highly occupied area of the hotel, I will never understand.

The kitchenette and mini-fridge. I forgot to take a picture of the flat screen TV (be warned, there's no ASTRO) and writing desk. 

The balcony is quite large, but we didn't hang out here because it was too hot out here in the day and it rained at night. About the odour that other bloggers were complaining about, I did catch a whiff of it once in a while. Yes, it is rather unpleasant, but it wasn't constant, so I could tolerate it. It's the flies I couldn't stand and there's usually a lot of them when there's food around. Why don't they invest in those fly-zapping things? They need those desperately!

The balcony comes with a place to hang your wet clothes. I didn't like that our balcony had these weird wire things running across it. I didn't know if it was just plain wire for hanging decorations or what. Since they could have been electrical wire, I told Amir to keep well away from them.

Not all hotel rooms comes with a jacuzzi, but this one does. I would consider this a perk, since Amir loved it. I took a dip as well, but my would-be bliss was rudely interrupted by a foul smell. Upon investigation, I found that the odour came from the drainage hole next to the sink. The smell grossed me out enough that I sprayed perfume and placed deodorant at the corner of the sink to mask the smell! Oh, by the way, when I drained the jacuzzi, water seeped all over the bathroom floor. Not nice.

Here's the other side of the bathroom, which was clean, except for the smell I mentioned earlier. Also, the cover of the toilet tank was cracked and the soap dish in the shower stall was missing. Wish they'd replace those!

Here's a glimpse of the resort's restaurant. Pretty empty as you can see, so we were not expecting the snail-paced service that we got. We observed that other patrons had to wait a while for their food too. 

The food choices are rather limited, but the portions aren't bad. Considering that we paid RM18 for nasi goreng kampung, I suppose the portions had better be generous! The taste wasn't bad either, but one thing really annoyed me, it was pedas as heck! Seems the cook saw it fit to use finely chop cili padi as a main ingredient! We had to gingerly separate the cili padi from the rice, which wasn't easy because it resembled the equally finely-chopped kacang panjang! Adoih! 

Ok, enough ranting about food. Here's the walkway to the beach.

The Pier is a lounge/bar thing that's open only at night.

There was some construction going on, so perhaps it's being refurbished?

If you're familiar with Morib, then you know what to expect of the beach. It's by no means one of the best stretch of beaches in Malaysia, but it still makes for a nice for evening stroll.

We collected a few seashells and Amir liked looking at the tiny crabs.  

So, ok, the next day, we headed for breakfast. We were given coupons for 2 complimentary breakfasts and paid RM18 for Amir. They serve breakfast outdoors, under this huge canopy next to the beach. It would have been a pleasant experience except for 3 things: the seating, flies and the food.

The seating: As you can see, there are hundreds of people under this canopy. Upon arrival, you have to try and find a seat among these banquet tables that seat around 12 each. Such large numbers meant that the table cloth got dirty really fast, there were lots of spills and stains. The flies: Goodness me! It was horrible on our second day, but got a bit better on our third. You can't leave your food unattended for a second, or... hello food poisoning!

The food: The breakfast buffet consists of pretty much what you can come to expect from Malaysian hotels, but with one main difference - the food didn't taste particularly good. The quality could have been better. Plus, it wasn't being topped up in a timely fashion. 

A look at the back of the water park. Don't worry, I'll be mentioning it again shortly.

There are a few convenience stores near the entrance of the water park, but I think they close shop in the late afternoon. 

We received 2 complimentary tickets (or rather wrist bands) into the water park. My husband and son couldn't take the bands off for 3 days! If you don't have a wrist band, the fee is RM30 per entry for grown ups and RM20 per child. The park isn't very big and hardly caters for adults, so I think it's rather overpriced. Since the wrist bands couldn't come off, it made it hard for my husband and I to take turns watching Amir.

Despite the shortcomings, there's no doubt that Amir loved the water park.

When it was time for him to come upstairs to the room, he would resume his aquatic activities by taking a long dip in the jacuzzi :) So he was in the water like 80% of the time!

Did we enjoy our trip? Well, it's always nice to get away from it all with the family. Our 3-day, 2-nights stay costed around RM600++. Be warned that when you make an online booking, they will charge your credit card immediately! We booked our spot 6 months in advance, so were rather miffed that we had to pay for it in full up front. Thank goodness we didn't need to cancel!

PS: We did take a short drive down to Morib Beach, but I'll tell you all about that experience in another post - stay tuned!