Atlantis The Royal gives a reason to return to Dubai. It opened in February, but Robb Report Hong Kong had a quick look before that, precisely a week before Houston’s best-known songster was similarly welcomed.
You know this place is going to be special long before you arrive on the emirate’s justly lauded, man-made Palm Jumeirah. Dominating the skyline is what looks like a 43-floor sculpture at 178 metres high, perhaps likened to an oversized mass of building blocks deliberately askew so that, in many instances, there are large gaps, feng shui-style. On outside terraces at various levels, there are a total of 90 significant swimming pools—and at one level, there are plunge pools for 30 cabanas.
To get other figures out of the way, inside are 795 rooms and suites, smallest at 58 square metres, all designed by GA. There are also 231 serviced residences (designed by Sybille de Margerie and now all sold). As you might—rightly—expect, there’s statement fitness and top-of-the-range retail. All glass boutiques include Graff, the marque which has deployed botanicals from Laurence Graff’s Franschhoek estate to devise and produce toiletries in diamond-shaped bottles that suitably accompany the bedrooms’ gold toothbrushes and razors.
Honestly, The Royal’s glitter doesn’t seem overdone. What’s dominant is space, with acres of Carrera and soaring windows, which one assumes are self-cleaning. Enter through a front door flanked by 20-metre water curtains and significant firepits. Ahead is a shiny steel 10-metre-tall sculpture, in Jeff Koons style, just one of hundreds around the hotel by American Mike McLeod. Look up from the lobby to two glass-walled restaurants—Dinner by Heston Blumenthal and La Mar by Gaston Acurio. Inside and on the beach, there are 17 eating places, all operated by the hotel.
Interestingly, it could well be that the most successful eating place, from a business viewpoint, is not Dinner, Hakkasan, La Mar, Milos, et al, but the anonymous Gastronomy, an ultimate food hall that will cause foodies to wake up in the night salivating. Gastronomy’s 960 seats, over 250 switched-on team members, 18 integral food concepts, a walk-in meat ageing room, and a wall of do-it-yourself vinaigrette compilations seals the deal.
Will there be competition between Royal and its older sibling, Atlantis The Palm, a mere 600 metres away? Tom Roelens, general manager and SVP of operations, says not at all. He, like many of the 8,000-plus Atlantis team members, work both properties. All are ready, set, go for The Royal’s first check-ins in February.
But before that, a reveal weekend for 1,200 lucky invitees from around the world included The Palm’s three-bedroom, 924-square-metre Bridge Suite, spanning the building’s two towers, launched as yet another Nobu restaurant. The following night, an outdoor gala on The Royal’s beach featured Houston-born Beyoncé for even more star power.
Atlantis The Royal
Crescent Road, Palm Jumeirah, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Tel: (+971) 4 426 3000
All images courtesy of Atlantis The Royal and Getty.
