Author Topic: The first DDFer to go to St. Regis Maldives, with a little Dubai to start  (Read 38436 times)

Offline Yuey

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Re: The first DDFer to go to St. Regis Maldives, with a little Dubai to start
« Reply #60 on: February 09, 2017, 12:10:17 AM »
My butler was awesome. How much should I tip him?

Offline chuchem

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Re: The first DDFer to go to St. Regis Maldives, with a little Dubai to start
« Reply #61 on: February 09, 2017, 03:35:13 AM »
I was there 4 nights and gave him 50 dollars the day i arrived

Offline ual902

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Re: The first DDFer to go to St. Regis Maldives, with a little Dubai to start
« Reply #62 on: February 09, 2017, 04:41:42 AM »


This was our breakfast every day from hermolis incl hot eggs (right corner) and fresh OJ from Hotel

Did you have to pay EXTRA for the daily hermolies? If yes how much?

Offline CZ60

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Re: The first DDFer to go to St. Regis Maldives, with a little Dubai to start
« Reply #63 on: February 09, 2017, 06:12:59 AM »
My butler was awesome. How much should I tip him?
I gave him $100 for 5 nights

Offline davidmal

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Re: The first DDFer to go to St. Regis Maldives, with a little Dubai to start
« Reply #64 on: February 09, 2017, 09:33:11 AM »
I gave him $100 for 5 nights
he prob said screw this!!! Now!!!! I open my own hotel!!!
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Offline CZ60

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Re: The first DDFer to go to St. Regis Maldives, with a little Dubai to start
« Reply #65 on: February 09, 2017, 11:07:46 AM »
Maldives Day 2:
Our second day was Friday so we didn't have much time to do something big. We spent the morning snorkeling by the edge of the reef. There's nothing to see in front of the sunrise villas (in the clear light blue water) so you need to swim to the sunset side to get to the reef. The coral is bleached and still damaged from the construction but there's still fish to see at the edge. We saw a few baby black tip sharks, sting rays, clams, and a lot of colorful fish.


Morning at the sunrise villa























Snorkeling - They give you a snorkeling set (goggles, snorkel, flippers) withing an hour of when you arrive that you use for your entire stay. Side note: They only have one type of snorkel, if it doesn't work for your face, you probably have to buy a different one from their store. For whatever reason, it didn't work for my face. Luckily, one of the ladies in the water sports center had a personal one that was different than the rest and that one happened to be fine for me. She let me use it for the duration of my stay.

I'll add some more pics and videos for Day 4 & 5. As you can see, the coral is mostly dead. There are fish to be seen though.








After lunch we went to the water sports center to make a plan for the next few days. We did sea bobbing that day which was a lot of fun. It's basically like a jet ski that you lay on with your stomach and your lower half just dangles in the water. You can take it under water (up to 2 meters). We didn't take any pictures of them but here's a picture from google. I couldn't strap my gopro to my head because these things go up to 100km/hr, and I couldnt hold my gopro in my hand because you really do need two hands to hold onto this thing.



After sea bob we relaxed by the main beach before getting ready for shabbat. We had our dinner at 6 (before shabbat actually started) so we didn't run into any food heating issues.

Beach





Bike parking (each guest gets a bike to use for their stay)



Free sunscreen at the pool/beach area



Crabs




(And here’s a video we took from the deck of the room. It will give you more of a complete picture of how the rooms are set up.)


Offline chuchem

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Re: The first DDFer to go to St. Regis Maldives, with a little Dubai to start
« Reply #66 on: February 09, 2017, 11:12:53 AM »
Did you have to pay EXTRA for the daily hermolies? If yes how much?

I took them along myself

Offline BarryLincoln

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Re: The first DDFer to go to St. Regis Maldives, with a little Dubai to start
« Reply #67 on: February 09, 2017, 11:20:58 AM »
Pictures and videos are great.  You're quite the photographer... love how you positioned your teacup at the edge of the infinity pool!!!!

Place looks awesome...

Online jj1000

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Re: The first DDFer to go to St. Regis Maldives, with a little Dubai to start
« Reply #68 on: February 09, 2017, 11:22:21 AM »
Wow, just a note, who cares if the coral is dead if there are still fish there.
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Offline davidmal

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Offline davidmal

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Re: The first DDFer to go to St. Regis Maldives, with a little Dubai to start
« Reply #70 on: February 09, 2017, 11:31:43 AM »
Maldives Day 2:
Our second day was Friday so we didn't have much time to do something big. We spent the morning snorkeling by the edge of the reef. There's nothing to see in front of the sunrise villas (in the clear light blue water) so you need to swim to the sunset side to get to the reef. The coral is bleached and still damaged from the construction but there's still fish to see at the edge. We saw a few baby black tip sharks, sting rays, clams, and a lot of colorful fish.



incredible photo videos
« Last Edit: February 09, 2017, 11:37:45 AM by jj1000 »
-DMC
"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it ~Ferris Bueller"

Online jj1000

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Re: The first DDFer to go to St. Regis Maldives, with a little Dubai to start
« Reply #71 on: February 09, 2017, 11:38:32 AM »
incredible photo videos
New DDF rule. When you quote a long post with pictures etc, you should delete all the images and then reply...
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Offline CZ60

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Re: The first DDFer to go to St. Regis Maldives, with a little Dubai to start
« Reply #72 on: February 09, 2017, 11:45:57 AM »
New DDF rule. When you quote a long post with pictures etc, you should delete all the images and then reply...
#BradyRule

Offline CZ60

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Re: The first DDFer to go to St. Regis Maldives, with a little Dubai to start
« Reply #73 on: February 09, 2017, 11:53:37 AM »
Wow, just a note, who cares if the coral is dead if there are still fish there.

I like colorful coral. My first time snorkeling was in Hanuama Bay and the coral there is vibrant and lively. This was nothing compared to that but having a lot of fish there made it nice. I'll try to find the pic/video of the stingray for the next segment. That was pretty cool.

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Re: The first DDFer to go to St. Regis Maldives, with a little Dubai to start
« Reply #74 on: February 09, 2017, 11:54:39 AM »
You're quite the photographer

Shot on an iphone6 (and gopro black 5)

Offline shmebeble

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Re: The first DDFer to go to St. Regis Maldives, with a little Dubai to start
« Reply #75 on: February 09, 2017, 11:57:09 AM »
Wow, just a note, who cares if the coral is dead if there are still fish there.
the coral itself can be beautiful and some people care about that.
One reason the snorkeling by CKS is just ok

Offline AJK

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Re: The first DDFer to go to St. Regis Maldives, with a little Dubai to start
« Reply #76 on: February 09, 2017, 12:59:24 PM »
1) lively coral = more fish
2) seabobs don't go anywhere close to 100 km/hr; more like 13km/hr
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Re: The first DDFer to go to St. Regis Maldives, with a little Dubai to start
« Reply #77 on: February 09, 2017, 01:04:46 PM »
1) lively coral = more fish
2) seabobs don't go anywhere close to 100 km/hr; more like 13km/hr
Over the water it goes pretty fast, under water, you obviously slow down but still too fast for a gopro strapped to my head

Online jj1000

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Re: The first DDFer to go to St. Regis Maldives, with a little Dubai to start
« Reply #78 on: February 09, 2017, 01:52:55 PM »
1) lively coral = more fish
That's what I thought was the case, but based on his video I don't think the W was much better than that for snorkeling with fish.

One negative was dead coral but if the fish are still there it's not a negative for me personally.
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Re: The first DDFer to go to St. Regis Maldives, with a little Dubai to start
« Reply #79 on: February 09, 2017, 01:54:22 PM »
Could be the reef at W was subpar... Go diving or snorkeling in GBR and you'll see the difference.
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