I relied heavily on TripAdvisor prior to coming to Fiji so I'd thought I'd better give my view…
I travelled with my husband, mother-in-law and three young children aged 5, 2 and 5 months and we stayed at the Sheraton just after Christmas for 5 nights as part of a wedding group. Due to the broad mix of reviews I went with an open mind and expected the "Fijian time". We had booked two adjoining Ocean Breeze rooms (one room had two double beds, the other King bed and they were lovely, clean and very roomy) and when we checked in only one was ready. After 4 1/2 hours later we eventually were able to get into the other room after many calls to reception - it was 10pm kids were really exhausted. Other friends experienced the same type of delays checking in on different days. Back to the rooms - after our friends wedding were continuing onto Castaway Island so we did not want a room that had ocean views and honestly with three kids we would not have had time to appreciate the views anyway. The downside of the hotel room was that the fridge was not cool enough and could not see any dials around the sides or top so I could adjust it. I think it took about one full day to cool a 2L bottle (but was not ice cold). There is no microwave as you would expect so having a 5 month old I needed to sterilise bottles. I purchased Mothercare cold water steriliser bags which where great. I used bottled water in the bags and hung it in the bathroom as they had a good sturdy robe hook. The sterliser held four Tommee Tippee bottles with teats, then to warm the milk they had in the room a stainless steel coffee plunger which JUST fit the Tommee Tippee bottles which worked perfectly. Our rooms was located close to the stairs and we did not have any problems with noise much to my relief although I wished we asked for a ground floor room as we had a stroller and found it a battle going up and down with it and two other children.
We were offered a discount voucher at Feast for dinner so being the first night and some of our friends from the wedding were eating there, we gave it a go. It was typical buffet some good some ordinary but ouch it ended up costing us for 3 adults and 2 kids $317.25FJ!! Honestly think we could have ordered room service and that would have come in a lot cheaper than that.
Being summer the heat is intense and found that after 1hr you really do need to reapply sunscreen and take a bottle of water at least for the kids. At night the mosquitos do attack if you are outside but did not have any problems with them in the rooms.
The hotel is really nice and personally would classify it as a 4.5 - 5star despite other reviews. All staff including grounds people were pleasant would say 'Bula!' when you passed them. On the second day we went into Nadi Town to their local supermarket called MH Supermarket which is on the main street (all taxi drivers know where the MH is). This shop had everything we needed, its almost what you would expect Woolies or Coles to sell just a whole lot cheaper than the Sheraton or even Port Marina. We asked our taxi driver to wait for us while we shopped which he was happy to do at no extra charge. It costs FJ$12 each way via taxi. Some of the things we purchased at MH were (all in FJ $) Meadowlea margarine 110g $1.99, Ritz Cracker Biscuits$1.85, Finefare Milk Coffee biscuits$1.40, Beach Bucket with rake, moulds&watercan$5.59, Beach bucket with shovel $1.99, Giggles Infants nappies @11.79, Giggles Toddler nappies $11.79, 3L Bottled water $4.19, Oreo biscuits$1.95, Fiji Water 500ml $1.85ea, CocaCola 2.25L $3.19, Orchy Orange Juice 2L$8.69.
I liked their kids wading pool as it had a shallow sand entry and my two year old was able to slowly walk in by herself . The deepest point was about 70-80cms as my daughter was able to just keep her head out of the water whilst on her tippy toes. We bought some cheap plastic beach toys and bucket from MH Supermarket in Nadi Town which entertained her endless as we sat in the shallow waters on the sand.
I did not eat lunch at the Sheraton as it was extremely overpriced so we went to the Café just across the road in front of the Sheraton. They sell pizzas, sandwiches, wraps, milkshakes and reasonable prices. Eg I purchased a chicken wrap for approx FJ $6-7. We also went to Port Marina which again had a wide range of restaurants at reasonable prices (roughly 1/3 of the price of food at Sheraton plus it only costs $5 FJ each way via taxi.
We had the hot/cold breakfast buffet included in our package. I found this to be quite okay (wasn’t' the best but definitely was not the worst) with a wide range of choice from fruits, margarita/cheese pizza (yes at breaky time!), toast, pastries, mini sausages, eggs, bacon and best of all they had Vegemite! (my kids live on Vegemite so that was a life saver for us) Everything at the Sheraton can be done on Room Credit which was handy as we could purchase food, drinks or small souviners at their shops and not carry cash/card Everything at the Sheraton can be done on Room Credit which was handy as we could purchase food, drinks or small souviners at their shops and not carry cash/card.
In regards to Kids Club, I cannot offer too much as my 5 year old only went twice. The girls seemed really nice, my son seemed to have fun and really liked that they took the kids swimming and coconut hunting. they do have three sessions-morning, afternoon and after dinner as the parents must pick up their kids and feed them. I did like the fact that the last pick time was about 10pm which allowed us adults to do dinner and drinks after.
All in all it is just a typical 4.5-5star hotel and would not say it’s the best way to experience what Fiji has to offer. We also found the nanny service very good, costs FJ$20 for first 3hrs then I think it was $6/hr thereafter. Could not believe how cheap this was.
I definitely would consider staying at the Sheraton again if we had to do a stop over between Island to airport.
Hope this is helpful to any families thinking of travelling with young children...