🇦🇺 Novotel Twin Waters Resort, Sunshine Coast (Jan 2024)

We stayed at the Novotel Twin Waters Resort (or Novotel Sunshine Coast Resort) on the Sunshine Coast for two nights. Chapter marks below.
00:00 ... taking a drive around the local area
14:22 ... spot VH-TIT, a Transall C-160 military transport repurposed for fire fighting
24:40 ... quick tour of the room & spotting a kangaroo
25:32 ... nature's groundskeepers (i.e. kangaroos)
25:45 ... stroll through the grounds to breakfast
35:33 ... stroll to the local beach
www.novotelsunshinecoast.com.au
As with any Queensland holiday in January, it was a gamble with the weather - lot of rain on the drive up from Logan (about 1½ hours), but overall the weather was okay: quite humid and a mix of overcast & blue skies, not much rain. The air conditioning in the room worked very well. We arrived on Monday 8-Jan-2024 for two nights. It was raining on Wednesday morning when we were checking out, but cleared up to be a beautiful day later.
We booked two rooms: a Garden View King Bed and a Garden View Twin Double Beds. Both rooms had a view of the lagoon. Cost for the two rooms was AU$1444 (with Platinum Member discount?), brought down to AU$846.90 by using 18000 Reward Points (AU$597.10).
It appears the rooms had been renovated "recently" (last year or so), so reviews about the rooms being "old and tired" didn't reflect our experience at all.
The resort has a pool (unheated, perfect for the climate) which was popular. The lagoon was also a nice temperature, with boating/kayaking available.
The patrolled beach was a short walk away, past the "Habitat Twin Waters" construction site (habitat-tw.com.au).
We had buffet breakfast in the Sola restaurant, but never had dinner. On the Monday & Tuesday nights they only offered a buffet at AU$65/adult (over 14 years) ... so very bad value for money considering our kids would probably not eat much. So we had Subway on the first night, and ate in the lobby on the 2nd from the Sola All Day Menu: wagyu burger & 300g t-bone steak, which were both excellent.
We got a AU$15 food & drink credit per room by not having the rooms serviced after the first night.
Wildlife roaming the grounds included water dragons, bush turkeys and kangaroos.
Full Disclosure: I booked this when a Platinum Member in 2023, which carried through to the booking even though I'd been downgraded to Gold Member in 2024. We were able to check-in early (around midday) as one room was ready, received two welcome drink vouchers, complimentary breakfast & barista-made coffee, and a welcome cheese platter plus birthday chocolate platter. I don't think we received complimentary room upgrades - this was not mentioned at check-in (but this is always dependent on availability).