Hotel Family-friendly a Malolo Lailai Island

Visited plantation island for the first time stating 3 nights in a garden bure. The welcome was wonderful with a shell necklace and welcoming drink while being serenaded, this it would turn out was one of the few highlights. We moved to our bure where the fridge was broken (this was known by staff as a towel was being used to prop up the door. To the credit of the resort they were quick to rectify that issue. We then set up our meal plan selecting half board $108 per day (big mistake, more on that to come) and we were informed we would need to book our dinners in to avoid missing out. We were able to secure a seating that night at 5:30 for Tivola, the lady on the phone asked that we turn up on time and eat fast as they actually had no space that night. When arriving the restaurant was closed and staff seemed annoyed at us for following their instructions. Food was passable given we knew island food would be on the lower scale of quality and freshness. The main eating area is where the breakfast buffet is Copra. I would rate this as the worst buffet I have ever experienced anywhere, extremely limited selections of food considering the size of resort and that it is $49 per adult. We also had the dinner buffet here, the bare minimum effort of food again served, apparently worth $59. Final night food was Black Coral where they have the best food on the island, unfortunately even though we had the earliest sitting the service was painstakingly slow with all tables raising hands constantly to get attention. They also had no chicken avaiable which was a challenge when eating with children. Enough about the food I guess but my tip, if travelling to plantation just avoid meal plans, you'll end up saving about $20-30 per day if avoiding buffets (which you should!) The pools - very underwhelming. There are 4 pools you can utilise, one is tiny but with a slide kids like, another next to that small again but with a nice deck around, the largest a kid friendly pool that unfortunately is very merky. The last pool is the nicest and likely newest but resembles somewhat of a lap pool. The beach... did not resemble any type of island paradise, unfortunately where they have set up the main water activities and inflatable play area is prone to tides so it basically closed for half of the day during low tide. Activities are free and we made use of snorkelling however they is nothing of interest in the main swim area, apparently further away from. The crowd has some good areas to explore however. Kids club - our kids were really excited to visit and this is free except for some activities, the session we took our girls to (ages 8 and 5) were jewellery making, quiz and tie dye tshirt making which they were super excited for. Upon collection I was met by two bored and disappointed kids, jeweller making was fun, the quiz was a non even as apparently there was no control over screaming kids and they ran out of tshirt sizes appropriate so did not get to partici