Hotel Okura is an excellent hotel. I can only guess that the negative reviews come from people who don't travel much. We had a great check in experience especially given our arrival was after 11pm. This was a big plus as we had travelled 24hrs from the US east coast. The gentleman at the front desk explained our club level service and gave us a letter further explaining the service.
We stayed in a suite on the 27th floor, corner room great views. The two room suite had a great living area and small kitchen set up. The bedroom was spacious with plenty of closet room. We were packed for a 10 day journey and had plenty of room to store our belongings.
The bathroom had everything. Shower with steam room option, extra large soaking tub and sauna with tinted window for a view outside. Two large sinks and great storage space for toiletries. The WC was incredible Toto washlet toilet with auto lift/flush/close and heated seat. [ I know the name because I've got to have one for my house now]. I've stayed in over 50 4star and 5star hotels around the world and hands down this was one of the top 5 bathrooms.
The beds where really comfortable, and the turn down service added an extra touch, slippers at the side of the etc......
Only room negative was we needed a few extra power outlets as we had 6 items that needed charging every night and not enough available outlets.
The club level breakfast was great far more than most places and well worth it. There were at least 50 items on offer for breakfast. [A review below states that breakfast was bad, but I'm thinking this is a person who has never been to NYC, LA, or London and seen a really bad breakfast.] Several daily papers available each day we arrived for breakfast.
We ate at several restaurants within the complex, Thai, Indian and Chinese, all really good. Our favorite was having sushi at Sakezuki Sake Bar after having the sake tasting experience. We got a real education on sake from Timothy [Chen, Chien Wei] our sake expert. One of our best nights out!!! We each tasted 5 sakes and learned the differences, and then ordered dinner at the bar to try on our new knowledge.
The Galaxy complex is nice and very new. Even though we knew very limited Chinese it was very easy to get around. In the casino all the machines have an English option, most times it was under the Australian flag button. [I had read many gaming reviews and no one mentioned this] The table games are the same in any language. The casino was a nice size with many tables and machines. One bonus was not having to walk through the casino to get everywhere, which is normally the layout in Vegas.
The Galaxy had a great shuttle bus service taking you to 10 different places on either part of Macau, including a stop near the old city. We took the shuttle to and from the Macau Ferry Terminal and never waited more than 10 minutes on either side. Though it was right next door we took the shuttle to the Venetian as right next door is still a 10 min walk in the blazing heat.
We had a great massage experience at the Banyan Tree Spa. The service was excellent, the treatment rooms where first class, and every detail was covered. It was a very peaceful environment.
The pool deck was really cool, lots of space and a separate adult area as well. Plenty of bench areas for a quiet sit as well.
I can only imagine the negative reviews had something the do with the reviewers. This place was amazing. If you are looking for a place to stay in Macau try Hotel Okura. We travelled to Hong Kong several times while staying in Macau, and were always happy to return to Okura after the hustle and bustle of the big city.
******* Big Travel Tip******* Exchange money at the casino, the rate is far better than the airport. At the casino the rate was $1USD = HK7.75 at the airport it was $1USD = HK6.89 big difference
