Review - Azulor Resort
Note - this resort now seems to be shut
The Azulor is a brand new "galactic underwater resort", which as the name suggests mixes a space and aquatic theme. It's a closed sim, meaning that entry is for group members only, with you getting your membership on check-in. Bookings are done via the website.
We (Camille (Muti) Milos & myself) went to visit in the week after it opened, to stay and review it.
Overall look and feel
The arrival and check-in routine starts with a 45 minute shuttle, where you are accompanied by a flight attendant.
The shuttle has TV screens, a seating area and a bar. Even though it doesn't actually move (it remains stationary throughout), the owners recorded a soundtrack that mixes music and space-travel type announcements to put you in the right frame of mind.
You are then taken to the check-in desk, which is next to the lobby and restaurant, given a tour and taken to your room.
The resort itself has a both group and couples suites, a restaurant, a bar, a large underwater area, a fitness studio, and a pole dancing studio.
As mentioned, the resort tries to blend space and underwater elements.
Some of it we really liked, such as the scuba diving area, but at other times we wondered how well the two parts fitted together. For example, there are military figures in space suits in reception. Why? It's never really explained.
I wonder if whether they wouldn't have been better to concentrate on one, but not the other element (e.g. create an underwater or a space resort).
Also, some areas were really well designed, especially the underwater zone and the rooms. But other areas had a much lower quality feel (for instance the bar). It almost looked as if several different people had been working on this.
Overall - 3 / 5
The rooms
We stayed in a couple's suite, which I'd rate as one of the better hotel rooms we've been in. It included a bedroom, bathroom with bath and large walk-in shower, a living room and a small dining and bar area. It's really well decorated with a lot of attention to detail.
The suite itself is underwater, though not in the main underwater area. Instead a box seems to have been built around each suite, and filled with water and a few jellyfish. I personally wonder if it wouldn't have been better to put the suites right by the main underwater attraction.
The group suites (we zoomed in) we didn't like so much, for me these aren't decorated to the same standard as the couples suites. It also has a random balcony looking out into space, but no furniture.
Overall - 3.5 / 5
The facilities
As mentioned, the facilities include a restaurant and a bar. Then there's a fitness studio and a pole dancing room, which is decorated out in Tron (the movie) style.
The fitness studio is a stand alone skybox in 'space', with milky way type stars surrounding it, and strangely - some fish.
The bar we didn't rate so much, it's not as well designed as other elements of the resort. There is also a massive lamp in the middle of the bar, which obscures the view of the underwater area and a mermaid.
We did however really like the underwater area. This is detailed, creative (as well as sharks, you have sea creatures such as sea cows floating past) and big - you can easily spend an hour or two exploring this part.
The hidden treasure chests placed around are a nice touch, find them to get gatcha items.
Overall - 3.5 / 5
The animations
The rooms have full adult animations, including the chairs and sofa. The bed was customised and came from Darkfold Productions. From what we could see, it had MF (and group) animations only, not FF or MM.
Personally, I'm not a fan of this bed. For one thing the anims are named after women (Zoe, Maria and so on).
Leaving aside the appropriateness of that, it doesn't actually give any clue as to what those anims do. It also follows the pattern you see in a lot of SL adult beds in having what you could call 'jackhammer' style animations.
Overall - 3 / 5
Other considerations
Check-in is at 4pm SLT, but the resort kindly allowed us to check in two hours earlier as we are on European time zones.
The resort packages come with dinner included, but due to those time zone differences we couldn't take advantage of it. Ditto the RP tours and activities we were offered at a discount. I wonder if there shouldn't be a cheaper package you can book with no RP?
The resort was still fairly new when we arrived, but other than the first day we saw no one. Nobody checked in on us, while we were there, something which has happened at most places we've been in (such as the Savasdee and Serena Zanzibar).
Is the resort adult? Mature, but there are plenty of adult anims
Privacy? You get a four digit code for your room door, which was actually quite a nice touch (it's on your reservation card if you forget it)
Lag? I experienced a little, on a 2016 Macbook Pro running Firestorm in high graphics
Prices? There are a range of packages covering singles, couples and groups starting at 4500 for two nights / three days
Overall
The underwater area is really special, and had they centred the resort around this, then they could have created something really unique. As it is, some of the other elements detract rather than add to the overall experience.
Of course the resort is still new, and much of it will be work in progress. The website does say that other features and attractions will be added over the coming months..