Mabul Water Bungalows

Amazing location , beautiful setting , wonderful staff, great snorkelling, delicious food. We stayed in the bougain villa it was spacious and luxurious. We loved spotting turtles and other marine life from our balcony..we were well looked after also on our snorkeling trip- so much to see! Booking the trip through trip.com was great also, excelkent communication- thank you

Had a really good stay here!!! From the boat transfer from Semporna Jetty to the resort, the staff were very attentive and helpful. Upon arrival at the Water Bungalow, I was welcomed with a welcome drink and a brief introduction and orientation of the facilities and the amenities was given by Jasni. Loved the spacious room and the stay was very comfortable. Sea nomads come by daily and offer coconuts and fresh seafood. If you are willing to buy they will be very happy; if you are not keen, just decline politely and they will leave you alone. Meals here were great, there was a variety of mains, fruits and desserts available. The compound is also very beautiful and the view is breathtaking at every corner. Indeed more expensive, but you are paying for the resort being in one of the best locations. They also provide diving and snorkelling services. The Water Bungalow Housereef is a divers heaven and it has many interesting pelagic animals to see. Truly loved my stay here and I believe I will be back.

We had a great time diving Mabul, Kapalai, and Sipadan Islands. The bungalows are located on Mabul, so each boat ride to dive sites is five minutes or so. Kapalai is a 10-minute boat ride. Sipadan is a 30- to 45-minute ride and requires a permit, so be sure to book your dives there in advance. And since you'll only do two dives at Sipadan per day, consider getting a permit for two days and let your dive guide know that you want to visit different dive sites. Our guide -- Neneng -- was very good at showing us marine life and getting us to the least-populated dive sites. Keep in mind, however, that there are MANY divers visiting these islands (through overnight accommodations and day-trippers), so expect to see lots of divers even when you're trying to avoid them. The setup for divers is pretty good. Nitrox is available. The dive shop has storage space for each diver's gear and plenty of space for hanging gear to dry. They have a dedicated rinse tank for cameras. They have post-dive showers and towels. The boats were comfortable and provided shade, all more than enough for the relatively short boat rides. Three things keep us from giving five stars to MWB. The first thing is that the location is an attraction for throngs of day-trippers who walk around the facility and pose for photographs; it was quiet at night. We stayed there for a week, and every day we had HUNDREDS of visitors all over the paths creating scenes for taking photographs. Lots of "influencers" making Tik-Tok videos. Many groups walking around with selfie sticks and recording themselves, oblivious to the rest of us trying to get from our rooms to the dive shop or dining room. We even had people more than once posing at the front door to our room and, when we tried to enter or get out, acted rather offended that we were interrupting their sessions. It was truly bizarre, but in the end it was not really an imposition on us. It was just odd being around so many people posing and photographing/recording themselves. It made Disneyland seem rather banal. The second thing is that the food had a heavy Asian emphasis (not surprising given that you're in Asia), even when the kitchen is trying to accommodate American/European palates. For example, staff made custom omelettes for breakfast but the cooking oil (probably palm) did not sit well with most of the people in our group after a day or two; sauteed vegetables presented a similar issue; the margarine, peanut butter, and baked goods tasted like they too were made with palm oil. In addition, the protein options for those who don't eat red meat or seafood were limited and, at several dinners, non-existent. There was plenty of food, but not always enough in the categories that everyone would have liked or without the palm-oil taste and stomach effects. The third thing is that we are experienced divers who've been to many great destinations. Except on days when we went to Sipadan, our first dive each day was on Kapalai.

Beautiful villa, we stayed in the bougainvillea it was luxurious, spacious and so beautiful watching fish through the glass tiles on the floor in our room and seeing sea turtles swimming from our balcony each. Morning. We stayed for two nights, would have loved to have stayed longer! We snorkled, the coral and sea life was amazing! We felt very looked after and safe. The food was brilliant and the staff so friendly and helpful. We also enjoyed walking around the island

Overall experience I would personally rate 3.5 out of 5 🌟. To make it simple if you are looking for services you may go for it hence if you are looking for relaxing it’s a big no no. Ambiance: 200% Cleanliness : average Hospitality: 200% Friendly: 200% Basic supplies : very basic (Nil room sleepers, toilet is not even Up to the standard which comes with shower and slow water supply) Food: average (Will be better with the menu display as some of us may not be a meat eater/ vegetarian so instead of asking the staff each and every time we could pick and go) Personal advice : just pay and visit never worth the stay with that amount. Positive side : you will enjoy the sea creature such as starfish’s , turtles and others.

Had a really good stay here. From the boat transfer from Semporna Jetty to the hotel, the staff were very attentive and helpful. Upon arrival at the Water Bungalow, I was welcomed with a welcome drink and a brief introduction and orientation of the facilities and the amenities was given by Jasni. Loved the spacious room and the stay was very comfortable. Sea nomads come by daily and offer coconuts and fresh seafood, if you are willing to buy they will be very happy. If you are not keen, just decline politely and they will leave you alone. Meals here were great, there was a variety of mains, fruits and desserts available. The compound is also very beautiful and the view is breathtaking at every corner. Indeed more expensive, but you are paying for the location being in one of the best locations. They also provide diving and snorkelling services. The Water Bungalow Housereef is a divers heaven and it has many interesting pelagic animals to see. Truly loved my stay here and I believe I will be back.

Mabul Water Bungalows is advertised as a “luxury resort” however, it was the worst resort experience of our lives! We paid over RM6,000 for 3 nights. In our opinion the resort is price gouging massively. This resort does not provide value for money! The resort is advertised as “exclusively luxurious” which we feel is misleading considering that the resort is open to day trip tourists taking photos and making a lot of noises. Reviews on the website appear to be cherrypicked and were definitely not representative of the actual experience that we had. Upon arrival at the Semporna jetty, the boat that took us to the resort was packed with mattresses, making it difficult for us to enter and exit the boat. Kyna greeted us upon arrival and took us through the orientation for the resort. We were told “not to interrupt” her until her speech was complete. She acted as if she was talking to children with a condescending tone and laughed when we asked reasonable questions about the resort. In general, all the resort staff appeared to lack any type of training in customer service. Many were busybodies, asking inappropriate questions and had a lack of basic etiquette. The general attitude of the staff was unaccommodating and there was limited flexibility provided. It was as if we were the ones that needed to accommodate the resort staff. For example, we were informed that during dinner each day the staff would need to talk to us about the next day’s activities. This interrupted our dining experience. One night one of the staff rudely knocked on our door many times to see why we had not yet come for dinner. Random people that were not staying at the resort were hanging around, smoking, shouting, riding bikes and gawking at us which made us feel so uncomfortable. Some were spitting and throwing rubbish into the seawater. The food provided was buffet style and very basic. It was not what you would expect of a “luxury resort” and did not match the price that we paid. One night we were shocked to discover that a man standing in the water below our room was staring at us through the glass floor. There was no way to cover the glass floor to prevent this. This was particularly concerning and scary for us. Every time we walked around the resort and when we used our balcony we were harassed to buy things from people in wooden boats that were not from the resort. We were taken via boat for snorkeling around the resort. Unfortunately, the seawater at the locations we were taken to was filthy with floating rubbish (including nappies, sanitary pads and, masks). We were close to the water villages where sewage contaminates the seawater and many people were spitting into the seawater including the boat operators from the resort. We therefore decided not to snorkel around the resort. Other issues noted include: • There was no telephone in the room so we were told that we would need to walk to the public relations office for any assistance. This was not convenient at all.

It's definitely not a 5star resort, but 4stars is fine. The bungalows & plants/flowers is nice set up, very beautiful. Staff is nice. 80% of the people who come here are Chinese and mostly for taking pictures. If you reserved a bungalow (and not the luxury vilas in front) you have to walk 10min to the restaurant or free buggy shuttle available. Food is very good. Alcohol is expensive and not included. Dissapointed about the loud noise from the generators close to the bungalows (they are working on it day and night). Also there is a SMALL beach (you can't swim really, because of the low tide). Perfect for chilling, but owner and staff....come on, PLEASE CLEAN THE BEACH FROM PLASTIC! We saw the local people throwing all kinds of plastic in the water... Location very close to Sipadan, worth it for snorkling or diving. Okay to stay just a few days for relaxing and snorkling.

I won’t totally slam MBW because ultimately we enjoyed ourselves. But we won’t be returning. The positive aspects first. We went there to dive and the dive crew were fantastic - particularly Arif and Fahad - and it was fun to spend a week with all the crew. The hotel staff were charming and the senior members were very friendly and efficient. Sadly that’s where the positives end. We decided to pay (a lot of) extra money to treat ourselves to the “luxury” of MBW and we naturally had high expectations. What a disappointment. The accommodation - which wasn’t actually a water bungalow, we were put in a villa on the island, 8 minutes walk to the hotel facilities - is 3-star at best. The food is shockingly atrocious. The only upside was that I lost some weight. What you are not told amongst the glossy pics that lure you in to treat yourself to something that promises to be a magical experience is that hordes of Chinese day-trippers come every day and swarm over the resort. For about 5 hours a day the resort erupts into a frenzy of selfie-snappers and rampaging kids. Mayhem. As for the diving - other than Sipadan - this too failed to live up to the hype. To go to Sipadan you have to pay £80 additional to your already expensive dive package. And if you want to go a second time that’ll be £130 per person thank you very much! The diving at Sipadan is the best we’ve ever experienced but we hate being ripped off so we only went there once. The rest of the diving was meh! In conclusion, the staff and the people we met made it an enjoyable week, but MWB is over-priced and over-hyped and that’s a shame as it could be wonderful.