Review - JW Marriott Macau

Rohit

04/12/2019

After spending a night at Conrad Hong Kong, I took the fast-ferry to Macau which deposited me at Macau Outer Harbour (MOH) Ferry terminal in 45 minutes flat. Once there, I jumped on the complimentary hotel shuttle which brought me to the JW Marriott Macau, Opal lobby Galaxy entrance.

JW Marriott Macau, Opal Lobby Entrance

Location & Classification

The hotel is located inside a massive casino resort called Galaxy Macau, on Cotai strip area of Macau. Galaxy Macau houses hundreds of high-end shops, a number of very large casinos and numerous 5 star hotels. Besides JW Marriott, the other Marriott Group hotel it hosts is The Ritz-Carlton Macau.

JW Marriott is a Category 5 hotel, with cash prices starting at $260+. A standard reward room will set you back 35,000 Marriott Bonvoy points per night, although with the peak/off-peak prices now in-place, expect to pay anywhere between 30,000 – 40,000 points per night, as shown below.

Marriott Award Chart
Award nights at JW Marriott Macau, costs between 30,000 and 40,000 points per night.

Arrival & Check-in

After a 5 minute walk from the main entrance, I arrived at the hotel. The entry gate looked suitably impressive.

JW Marriott Macau, Main Entry Gate

Once in, the reception area was to the right and featured several check-in desks.

JW Marriott Macau, Check-in Area

Unfortunately, the check-in process was anything but smooth. I stood there for about 15 minutes, totally unattended, before someone came up and moved me to the waiting bay, across from the desks.

JW Marriott Macau, Check-in waiting bay

It was another 5 minutes before I proceeded for check-in. I noticed that the staff working the desks appeared rushed and a little unsure. Anyhow, we went through the usual check-in process and I was handed in the welcome letter by the lady serving me, which detailed the perks and benefits I could take advantage of during my stay.

The lobby itself was very large and airy, with the high ceilings giving the whole place a lift. There were plenty of seating around, but the grand staircase and the massive chandelier was undoubtedly its defining feature.

JW Marriott Macau, Lobby

JW Marriott Macau Lobby

I thanked the staff serving me and headed for my suite, which was located on one of the top-three floors of the hotel.

JW Marriott Macau, Executive Floor Corridor

JW Marriott Macau, Executive Suite

For my stay, I had booked a standard room and then applied one of the Suite Night Upgrades (SNA’s), which luckily came through and saved me playing the upgrade lottery 🙂

Each of the standard suite at JW Marriott Macau measure 96 sq m in size and feature seperate sitting room and bedroom. As you step-in, there was a powder room to the right.

JW Marriott Macau, Executive Suite Powder Room

Across from the powder room, there was a wet-bar. It had a coffee-maker and some complimentary water bottles. Below that, there were drawers with tea-bags, coffee capsules, condiments & some snacks.

JW Marriott Macau, Executive Suite Wet bar

JW Marriott Macau, Executive Suite Snacka & Condiments

To the left of the drawers was a pull-out mini-bar, inside, there were small bottles of vodka & spirits.

JW Marriott Macau, Executive Suite Mini-bar

Then to the right, and along the wall, you had a good sized work desk & a chair. I was delighted to see a panel with all kinds of charging outlets including an international outlet and a USB port.

JW Marriott Macau, Executive Suite work desk

JW Marriott Macau, Charging stations
There were plenty of outlets to charge your devices

Further down was the sitting area, with a 3 seater sofa, couple of plus arm-chairs, 2 padded stools and a table. There was a welcome amenity of a fruit platter & a welcome note on the table.

JW Marriott Macau, Executive Suite Sitting Area

JW Marriott Macau, Welcome Amenity
Welcome Amenity

There was a wooden half-wall to the left, which separated the living room and the bedroom. It had a flat screen television and some Chinese art-work on the shelf below.

JW Marriott Macau, Living Room TV

JW Marriott Macau, Executive Suite Art work

Across from the wall on the other side was the bedroom with a massive king-bed as it’s centrepiece.

JW Marriott Macau, Executive Suite Bedroom

JW Marriott Macau, Executive Suite King Bed

The bed was firm enough to be extremely comfy and I had a great night’s sleep. To the right of the bed and along the floor to ceiling glass window, there were 2 day-beds to take in the surrounding views.

JW Marriott Macauu, Executive Suite Day-beds

Views from the bed room
There were nice views of surrounding resorts and casinos from the bedroom

The bathroom was to the left of the bed and was separated from the bedroom through a large sliding door. It was as big as the bedroom itself, if not bigger, and had a rather luxurious feel to it.

JW Marriott Macau, Executive Suite Bathroom

The marble vanity featured double sinks for washing, hand-towels, a set of drinking cups and some bottled water.

JW Marriott Macau, Executive Suite Bathroom

Across from it, there was a good sized, stand-alone deep-soaking tub with soaps and bath salts. There was a towel stand next to it.

JW Marriott Macau, Executive Suite bath tub

JW Marriott Macau, Executive Suite bath salts and soaps

I did not get a chance to try it, but everything appeared to be of very high quality.

Further down, and to the left was the shower chamber which was extremely spacious. It had the regular shower head and the monsoon rain-water shower head suspended high from the ceiling. That made showering a real joy and I made sure I took full advantage of it 🙂

JW Marriott Macau, Executive Suite, Shower

If you wanted to take a break from the showering and sit-down somewhere, there was a large marble bench to do so, the bath amenities were from Aromatherapy which were once again, very good.

JW Marriott Macau, Executive Suite, Shower bench

JW Marriott Macau, Executive Suite, Bath products

The toilet was located on the other end of the bathroom as a separate unit, which is how I prefer these to be laid-out. It’s a complete waste of resources if the massive bathroom could only be used by 1 person at a time.

JW Marriott Macau, Executive Suite Toilet

The suite also featured a massive walk-in-robe with plenty of storage space. There were hangers, an electronic safe, umbrella and few drawers.

JW Marriott Macau, Executive Suite Walk-in-robe

Then, opposite the robe was a well appointed dresser and a stool. There was an illuminated mirror on the wall to ensure you did not miss any details as you dressed up for work or pleasure.

JW Marriott Macau, Executive Suite Dresser

Overall, this was a fantastic suite to relax-in and get recharged for the journey ahead, whatever that may be. Ideally, it needed more than just an overnight stay to fully enjoy the space and appreciate the in-suite amenities. Sadly, I was only here for a night 🙁

At this point, I was hungry and keen to check-out the Executive Lounge, so I took the lifts down to level 2.

Executive Lounge

The lounge, or Executive Club as they call it is located on the 2nd floor, and like the rest of the property is enormous. The Happy Hour is between 5-7 pm each evening when they serve drinks and canapes. Guests staying in club rooms and/or suites are given complimentary access to the lounge. I had access to the facility, thanks to my status as a Marriott Bonvoy Platinum member.

JW Marriott Macau, Executive Lounge

The lounge was fairly empty when I got there but slowly started filling up. There were lots and lots of seating around.

JW Marriott Macau, Executive Lounge Sitting Area

The dining section was towards the rear and featured restaurant style seating.

JW Marriott Macau, Executive Lounge Dining Area

The offering was quite good, but perhaps not substantial enough to skip dinner. I was told that the menu is refreshed daily and reflects food from around the world, and that it was ‘German Night’ on the night of my visit 🙂

There were a few hot dishes, some salads, cold cuts and so on. There was some pork-schnitzel on offer too, although I later realised I didn’t take any photos for the review.

JW Marriott Macau, Executive Lounge Happy Hour Food

There were plenty of bakery items on the bench along the wall.

JW Marriott Macau, Executive Lounge Happy Hour Food

The drinks were on the adjacent wall which you could pour yourself or get one of the roving staff members to bring to your table. There were spirits, vodka, wine, beer and whisky on offer. Next to the alcoholic drinks, there was a DIY coffee machine.

JW Marriott Macau, Executive Lounge, Happy Hour Drinks

JW Marriott Macau, Executive Lounge Happy Hour Coffee Machine

Overall, I thought this was a nice place to sit-back and relax over a few drinks and get a bite to eat.

Dining

The property features a few different dining venues, although due to the nature of my stay, I could only check out Urban Kitchen, which is where they serve breakfast each morning.

JW Marriott Macau, Urban Kitchen

The staff checking me in never explained whether I had the option of having breakfast at the restaurant. Luckily, just before heading down next morning, I made a quick call to the Guest Services and was advised that I could choose between the restaurant or the lounge breakfast. Needless to say, I opted for the former 🙂

The ‘extra-large’ theme extended to the restaurant and there were loads of seating around.

JW Marriott Macau, Urban Kitchen Seating

The breakfast was extensive and featured all kinds of options. There was the usual bacon and eggs fare, cooked-to-order noodle dishes and some fried food.

JW Marriott Macau, Urban Kitchen Breakfast

JW Marriott Macau, UIrban Kitchen Breakfast
JW Marriott Macau, Urban Kitchen Breakfast

JW Marriott Macau, Urban Kitchen Breakfast

There was a live egg station where you could order eggs cooked your style.

JW Marriott Macau, Urban Kitchen Egg Station

For those looking to start their day with something light and healthy, there were salads, whole and sliced fruits, variety of breakfast yogurt, and selection of cheese and crackers.

JW Marriott Macau, Urban Kitchen Breakfast

Then you had the pastry items away from the main buffet section, in the far corner.

JW Marriott Macau, Urban Kitchen Breakfast

Lastly, the cold beverages were inside the refrigerated cabinets which you could help yourself to, while hot beverages were served on the table.

JW Marriott Macau, Urban Kitchen Breakfast

I sampled the omelette and some yogurt which was delicious.

JW Marriott Macau, Urban Kitchen Breakfast
This is what I had

Other Resort Facilities

The property has a very well equipped gym which is open 24/7.

JW Marriott Macau, Health Club

There were numerous cardio machines, free weights, plus come medicine balls and yoga mats in a corner for toning, stretching and recovery.

JW Marriott Macau, Health Club

Each of the machine had a bottle of water and a towel which were replenished after each use. This I thought was very kind and thoughtful. The gym was staffed with 2 attendants during my visit who were more than happy to have a chat and a laugh with the guests.

Next door from the gym, there is a kids club to keep the little one’s entertained. As I was visiting these facilities early in the morning, the Kids club was not yet open.

JW Marriott Macau, Kids Club

A small set of stairs next to the gym led to the Grand Resort Deck. There are two outdoor pools here, one for JW Marriott Guests and the other owned by Galaxy Macau, which is shared with other hotels in the complex.

JW Marriott Macau, Grand Resort Deck, Image: courtesy Marriott.com

The pools were quite big, but were not heated.

JW Marriott Macau, Swimming Pool

Besides the usual day beds and sunloungers, there were private cabana’s which you could reserve on a first come first serve basis. There was a bar where to buy soft drinks, cocktails, ice creams etc.

JW Marriott Macau, Poolside cabana’s

JW Marriott Macau, Pool bar

The property doesn’t have it’s own spa, although guests are welcome to use the one next door at The Ritz Carlton. It is open daily from 10 am – 11 pm. I usually do not get any spa treatments so can’t say how it was, but if you are keen, do check out the full spa menu over here.

In Conclusion

JW Marriott Macau is one of the 6 hotels housed inside the massive Galaxy Macau complex. The property first opened doors in 2015, and 4 years on still retains the freshness and the chic look. My suite was comfortable and very well appointed, the other facilities I experienced in the hotel were also top notch.

The only slight let-down was with the arrival and check-in experience. However, as this was my first time at the property, and considering that we can all have an off day at work, I am prepared to consider that as an aberration and don’t wish to extrapolate it into anything dire.

To sum up, I was happy with my stay at JW Marriott Macau and the property will certainly be in contention if I was considering any future Marriott Group stays in the city.

Have you stayed at JW Marriott Macau? Leave a comment below.

Review – Conrad Hong Kong

Virgin Australia’s Brisbane – Tokyo flight now on sale