After our blissful stay at the Westin, a last-minute need to extend our trip meant seeking a more budget-friendly option for two extra nights. Enter the Centara Mirage Beach Resort Dubai. Located a little outside the main centre on the Dubai Islands waterfront, this resort is themed around mythical Thai and Arabian adventures and promised a lot of kid-friendly fun.

The verdict? While it doesn’t offer the same level of luxury and dining finesse as the Westin, it is a phenomenal family hotel that offers incredible value for money—and the kids absolutely loved it!

Check-in and Room Setup

We were lucky to snag a Mirage Superior Room with Bunk Beds last minute. Check-in was swift, and we were immediately impressed by how spacious the room and balcony were. The bunk beds are a brilliant feature, providing separate sleeping spaces for older kids. For our family setup, we successfully employed the same trick we used at the Westin: we put our daughter’s cot in the bathroom, allowing her to sleep soundly while giving us the freedom to chat and relax without waking her.

A major perk of the Mirage room booking was access to the Mirage Family Lounge. This provided a lovely, quiet spot for breakfast and was great for grabbing afternoon tea and snacks, with a small play area inside for the children to burn off some steam.

Aquatic Adventures: The Main Event

The Centara Mirage is truly a water wonderland for children. The resort setup is fantastic, dedicated entirely to family fun.

• Pools Galore: There are multiple pools, a fantastic splash pad area, and a large slide perfect for our children’s age group. The big slides looked thrilling for older kids and teens, too!
• The Lazy River: This was a huge hit for a relaxing, float-along break from the action.
• Bonus Treat: The free ice cream hut near the beach was a brilliant, simple perk that the kids utilized daily.

We spent our full day here simply rotating between the pools, the lazy river, and taking breaks in the air-conditioned Family Lounge.

The All-Inclusive Trade-Off

The dining experience here is where you notice the price difference most. While the Westin felt like a gourmet experience, the Centara is a solid, functional family feed.

• À La Carte Struggles: We found accessing the à la carte specialty restaurants (like Uno Mas or Sheesh) incredibly difficult. Despite the size of the hotel, these restaurants only offer about 60 covers and can only be booked the day before. We tried booking online before our arrival but failed, and when we complained upon check-in, the hotel was essentially unhelpful, citing the low cover limit. It was frustrating to sit in the main buffet next to the Argentinian restaurant and see half the tables empty while being told there was no availability. Due to this policy, we ate exclusively at the main buffet (Suan Bua).
• The Buffet: The buffet was perfectly good enough—it was fresh and filled the kids up, but wasn’t particularly exciting or varied.
• Dinner Timing & Logistics: A slight frustration was that the dinner buffet didn’t open until 6 pm, which felt a little late for tired, hungry little ones. While the Mirage Family Lounge offers snacks, it would benefit from more substantial options to cater for an earlier children’s dinner.
• The Drinks: The biggest downside was the drinks offering. The all-inclusive selection was quite limited (only one red and one white wine, neither of which were great) and the few available cocktails were also disappointing. My husband did manage to retrieve a drink for our balcony one evening via a long walk to the beach bar—it’s doable, but requires commitment!
• The In-Room Fridge Conundrum: A major point of inconvenience was discovering the in-room fridge is not a true refrigerator. After complaining, we were told to leave our daughter’s milk in the Family Lounge. Having to get everyone up, dressed, and walk to the lounge first thing in the morning just for milk was definitely not ideal for keeping a morning routine smooth.

Practical Tips & Final Verdict

The one major drawback we noted was the sun lounger situation. Looking out from our balcony, we noticed people queuing for towels well before 8 am to rush down and reserve beds around the main pool. If we were staying longer, this aggressive reserving of beds would be a real source of frustration.

Overall, our kids absolutely adored the Centara Mirage resort setup. The activities extend beyond the pools, with even more on offer for older kids, like movies on the beach at night. However, due to its out-of-the-way location on the Dubai Islands, getting out to explore the main sights of Dubai would be a significant effort. While it offers undeniable fun and great value, we aren’t sure we would book a return visit, primarily due to the trade-offs in dining quality, drinks selection, and resort logistics. It delivers happy, entertained children, but perhaps not a completely seamless experience for the parents!

Quick Verdict: Pros & Cons

Category	Pros	Cons
Value & Dining	Significantly cheaper than comparable resorts, offering great value for money.	Food is functional (not exciting), and the all-inclusive drinks menu is very basic.
Kids’ Activities	Fantastic waterpark setup, lazy river, splash area, and free ice cream hut. Great activities for older kids (e.g., beach movies).	The Family Lounge offers limited food variety for children needing an earlier, substantial dinner.
Accommodation	Spacious rooms with built-in bunk beds and generous balconies. Immediate check-in was appreciated.	The in-room “fridge” is not cold enough for essentials like baby milk, requiring inconvenient trips to the Family Lounge for storage.
Service & Access	Mirage Family Lounge access is a huge perk for quiet meals and afternoon tea breaks. Flexible security allowed for evening drinks retrieval (via a long walk to the beach bar).	Guests queue very early for towels/sunbeds, which would be frustrating for a longer stay. It is difficult to get evening drinks back to the room. The location is quite isolated from the main Dubai attractions.
Booking		Couldn’t book into the specialty restaurants on a short-notice all-inclusive stay.