Warner Bros Hotel Abu Dhabi Review: A Fanboys Dream
May 29, 2023
We stayed a couple of nights at the WB Abu Dhabi, Curio Collection by Hilton hotel. The ultimate hotel stay over for every movie and superhero fan out there. Here’s our Warner Bros Hotel Abu Dhabi review.
(C) Miral
The first ever Warner Brothers hotel opened in Abu Dhabi back in 2021 and is situated opposite of Warner Bros World which is currently the biggest indoor theme park in the world. With the entrance of the hotel being just metres from one of the world’s best indoor theme parks is an exciting thought, you can read our full review of Warner Bros World HERE.
Guests enter a lobby where the Looney Toons logo adorns the ceiling in a beautiful lighting fixture and huge screens showcase various animations and videos that play throughout the day.
(C) Miral
There are plenty of places to sit and the space is open, classy and rather regal and immediately looks worlds apart from the usual Hilton Curio Collection offering.
Stepping into movie heaven you’ll notice a spiral staircase that is littered with film and TV props including cowboy boots worn by James Dean in the 1956 film Giant, you’ll find Wonder Woman’s armour, Michael Keaton’s batman cowl from the 1989 Batman movie, an alien gun from Mars Attacks and before you even step foot inside the hotel there’s a full size Batmobile from the Robert Pattison movie The Batman just parked outside!
I was adamant that things within the museum could have been replicas but after some research I was completely wrong. Everything within the hotel is used in TV and film production unless otherwise stated on the item cards displayed next to the pieces.
Located on Yas Island the hotel is surrounded with world class attractions such as Ferrari World, SeaWorld Abu Dhabi, Yas Waterworld, Yas Mall and the aforementioned Warner Bros World. It’s the attraction hub of Abu Dhabi and is a tourist hotspot filled full of restaurants and things to do!
Character meets are a regular thing at the Warner Bros hotel as Looney Tunes characters gather in the lobby, superheroes greet you at breakfast time and you can even have room service hand delivered by Bugs Bunny himself!
I thought the subtle costume changes were a great touch because all the Looney Tunes characters have day and night costumes. When we stepped into the hotel to check in quite late in the evening Bugs and Daffy were wearing their pyjamas!
Check in was an easy process and we headed up to the 6th floor of the hotel to see our room for the first time.
WB Hotel Rooms
Ranging from studio suites to small quaint rooms each space within the WB hotel is spacious and themed around a certain film with little posters and film related additions dotted around the standard Hilton hotel room space.
Once you traverse the winding corridors of the hotel with a carpet that reminds me instantly of the hotel room carpet from Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining with a colour change you’ll spot artwork down every corridor relating to a Warner Bros property.
There is film and TV history all around you and then we arrived at room 627 and inside we went.
Two double beds greeted us with a retro blue phone and some Sherlock Holmes artwork above us with a copy of a scene from the script and the images depicting what that scene was visualised as within the film.
From a Smeg mini-fridge to Warner Bros mugs and cups the room came with complimentary water and the option of room service where characters will deliver food to your door. Room service pricing was a little steep but this is to be expected from any hotel room in the world but it certainly wasn’t as bad as I was expecting with main meals around the £15-£20 mark.
The bathroom is adorned with the glamorous Hollywood makeup artist style mirror and the design is simple and effective. One issue that I always have with Hilton hotels is their awful bathtubs. It doesn’t matter where you are in the world the baths are so slow to fill that it took around 30 minutes for the entire bath to fill to the point where it would cover my body. That’s an issue that is slapped across every Hilton hotel I’ve ever stayed at. You need the patience of a saint before stepping into the tub.
Our room was one of the cheapest (a two double bed artist room) in the Warner Bros hotel line up and every hotel stay comes with a complimentary Yas Island attraction. For every night you stay in the hotel you are gifted a free entry to a Yas Island attraction (WB World, SeaWorld, Ferrari World and Yas Waterworld). Given that the attractions on their own individually are around £81-£82 per entry you are saving an absolute fortune when you factor this into your accommodation stay.
If you want to splash the cash you can stay in the studio suite which is a 1646 square foot space with a park view, living area with dining table, 2 bedrooms and a balcony. The room features two corner bedrooms, including one king size bed and two twin beds.
It really is a beautiful space but it doesn’t matter what room you stay in those Hilton pillows will be the death of me. They’re rock solid and you need to perform some serious wrestling moves on them to contort them into some level of comfortable bed wear.
The WB Hotel Abu Dhabi Restaurants
There are five restaurants in the hotel, and in one, diners are accompanied by piano music from the score of ‘Westworld,’ the HBO science-fiction TV show.
An international menu is served at the family-friendly restaurant Sidekicks, and guests can enjoy a Mediterranean meal at The Matinee pool restaurant – which boasts a ‘dive-in pool theatre’.
Those hoping for an ‘elegant dining experience’ can venture into ‘The Director’s Club’, where charcoal ovens are used for cooking ‘perfectly aged cuts’. The decor aims to ‘reflect the movie scene setting’.
The hotel also features ‘The Overlook’ – a lounge with an infinity pool and 360-degree views of the city and the sea.
The hotel’s Kids’ Club is ‘a vibrant and playful space designed to bring Warner Bros.’ characters to life’. There, characters such as Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck will be tasked to keep the little ones entertained.
Out of the selection of restaurants we experienced Sidekicks for breakfast which was a simple buffet offering the standard English breakfast with a halal twist including turkey bacon and chicken sausages but the star of the show was The Directors Club.
The Directors Club is a fine fining steakhouse that delivered one of the best steaks I’ve had in my life but be prepared to spend, it’s not cheap. For a 350g Wagyu Steak with a drink and a side of creamy garlic mash potato I paid around £74 for the pleasure but it was worth every penny.
Staff members came over to our table with a selection of knives from around the world to choose from to cut our steak, I went with a Japanese samurai blade knife that cut through my steak like butter and with a red wine sauce it was the best cut of meat I’ve ever experienced.
Director’s Club also sells aged cuts for quite the price and the ultimate in steakhouse cuisine, Kobe Beef, Japanese steak which is the most expensive steak in the world costing a solid £170 for 120g. Don’t get me wrong, I was tempted but I decided against it. I’ll be back in the future to try it, that’s a promise!
Drinks in the Director’s Club are actually cheaper than that of the rooftop bar at WB Abu Dhabi with prices ranging from £8-£10 a pint as opposed to £12-£13 a pint on the roof.
WB Hotel Abu Dhabi Review
From the epic Friends photo op at the front of house to the incredible staff members that no matter where you are in the hotel made you feel welcome and accepted I absolutely fell in love with the WB Hotel.
It has a movie fandom air about it and the characters and staff were so warm and kind that I felt right at home. Even in the Director’s Club, anywhere else in the world I’ve been there has been an air of arrogance when it comes to fine dining restaurants. We were welcomed inside in a sports top and shorts, sat down and spoken to like humans. We had a laugh and joke with staff members, the chefs waved hello and goodbye to us and I couldn’t have felt more relaxed if I tried.
The Overlook rooftop bar is a wonderful space with an infinity pool, the outdoor pool within the hotel has a movie screen playing cartoons in the day and films at night and being surrounded by movie and TV props is like staying over in a museum right next to one of the best (if not THE) best theme park in the world.
You’re a minutes walk away from Yas Mall and Ferrari World, a 5 minute taxi ride away from SeaWorld and a 10 minute walk from the Yas Marina F1 circuit and a 5 minute taxi ride from Etihad Arena home to some incredible concerts and events. Everything you need is within 10 minutes of you, it’s perfectly located (a 15 minute drive from Abu Dhabi Airport too) and the hotel is perfectly executed.
If I had one gripe it would be to theme some hotel rooms to specific franchises. The rooms are very basic Hilton stylings with a few additional movie twists but to have themed rooms around certain franchises would be amazing. Imagine a Central Perk room, a Batcave or even a Looney Tunes room. The possibilities are endless and it keeps the offering fresh and unique without stepping too far into theme park hotel accommodation stylings.
I’d highly recommend the WB Hotel Abu Dhabi, it truly is one of the most surreal places to stay on Yas Island and with some of the world’s best attractions within walking distance you really do have a whole lot to explore right outside of your door.
With any hotel you stay on Yas Island you have access to a free shuttle bus service which can pick you up at Abu Dhabi airport when you land and take you straight to Yas Island. Take advance of the shuttle bus service to get you around the island and explore everything that Yas island has to offer!
Check out a video tour of the hotel below including a tour of our hotel room and a quick glimpse at some of the movie and TV props on display. Make sure to subscribe to our sister channel Lift Hills and Thrills on YouTube for all theme park and attractions content.
Book your stay at the WB Abu Dhabi by visiting their website
https://www.hilton.com/en/hotels/auhwbqq-the-wb-abu-dhabi-hotel/
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