Maldives Master Thread

[Dan]

Was upthread but I reposted here.

Boy those prices are breathtaking.

What do they charge just for snorkel gear rentals?

[CZ60]

Boy those prices are breathtaking.

What do they charge just for snorkel gear rentals?

Nothing! They give you a snorkel and flippers delivered to your door on your first day. They are yours until you leave.

ETA: to make it clear, it's 1 set per person.

[damaxer91]

Boy those prices are breathtaking.

Actually not as bad as I had thought.

But still much more than u can get in BOB via one of the 3rd party operators as there is a lot of competition and the Euro is cheap

Also don't see how Jetskiing in MLE would be that much fun. In BOB its a 3 hr trip with stops/views and a good chance to check out all the other resorts

[Dan]

Actually not as bad as I had thought.

They're before +22%

[benjie1305]

They're before +22%

As is everything over there. 

[CZ60]

The one sneaky thing is the 22% on everything. Even the seaplane - you think its $645pp - more like ~$800pp after all is said and done.

Food/Drink -  22% on everything plus theres a line for tips 

Whatever prices you see there, add 22%

[Dan]

The one sneaky thing is the 22% on everything. Even the seaplane - you think its $645pp - more like ~$800pp after all is said and done.

Food/Drink -  22% on everything plus theres a line for tips 

Whatever prices you see there, add 22%

"Seaplane
Fee: 645 USD roundtrip per person, tax included."

[CZ60]

"Seaplane
Fee: 645 USD roundtrip per person, tax included."

I'll take a look at my bill again when I get home and lyk.

[theeari]

Does anyone have nights at the St Regis available to sell for later this year (Nov/Dec)? Please pm me. Thanks.

[Yuey]

Do they let you pay for the Seaplane on separate credit cards? I was hoping to pay with either multiple Reserve cards or multiple Barclays cards to get in fully reimbursed.

[mochjas]

Do they let you pay for the Seaplane on separate credit cards? I was hoping to pay with either multiple Reserve cards or multiple Barclays cards to get in fully reimbursed.

does the Y in your username stand for yehuda by any chance?

[Yuey]

Nope. "Yuey" is my childhood nickname

[Denverite]

Wow, leave again for a couple hours and get 5 more pages!  C760 thank you so, so much for all the time spent to give all the info on every room and the service.  Just from hearing you describe the butler service it sounds WORLDS away and better than what we had at the Conrad.  Their service was great, but not what you described and that sounds like a huge SR plus.

And just back to the "whole package" of what people are looking for, I happen to 100% agree with Dan that I wouldn't take such a slog of travel (with headache of arranging babysitting) to MLE or BOB without getting the privacy, pool, views and lower down snorkeling (which BTW, the Hilton BOB is being converted to a Conrad with many OWV with pools, although no idea availability or costs to upgrade).  I personally would want all of those things or I can just go back to Cancun or Hawaii. 

I don't know if there is even one other woman on this thread and maybe the privacy isn't as big a deal to other women or they or your wives don't cover their hair (or they do and these things still aren't important to them) but when I was showing my Conrad pics to all my (girl) friends, literally the first thing they all commented on was how nice and relaxing it must have been to just relax in the OWV with such spectacular views, eat on the deck in PJs, not have to wear a swim cap in the pool, etc.  That's part of the reason I loved the OWV so much.  Our Conrad beach villa was awesome but because it was so private, it had no view (and I could have had the same private pool in Palm Springs) so if I wanted to just read and see the ocean or sunset I still had to put on my whole get-up even though I was only 25 feet from the beach.

Hope this isn't TMI and you DDF dudes aren't traumatized but just stuff to keep in mind if you're planning a huge trip like this and again everyone has different preferences so different info helps different people, without having to argue or belittle what others find important. 

[Luvtotravel]

Wow, leave again for a couple hours and get 5 more pages!  C760 thank you so, so much for all the time spent to give all the info on every room and the service.  Just from hearing you describe the butler service it sounds WORLDS away and better than what we had at the Conrad.  Their service was great, but not what you described and that sounds like a huge SR plus.

And just back to the "whole package" of what people are looking for, I happen to 100% agree with Dan that I wouldn't take such a slog of travel (with headache of arranging babysitting) to MLE or BOB without getting the privacy, pool, views and lower down snorkeling (which BTW, the Hilton BOB is being converted to a Conrad with many OWV with pools, although no idea availability or costs to upgrade).  I personally would want all of those things or I can just go back to Cancun or Hawaii. 

I don't know if there is even one other woman on this thread and maybe the privacy isn't as big a deal to other women or they or your wives don't cover their hair (or they do and these things still aren't important to them) but when I was showing my Conrad pics to all my (girl) friends, literally the first thing they all commented on was how nice and relaxing it must have been to just relax in the OWV with such spectacular views, eat on the deck in PJs, not have to wear a swim cap in the pool, etc.  That's part of the reason I loved the OWV so much.  Our Conrad beach villa was awesome but because it was so private, it had no view (and I could have had the same private pool in Palm Springs) so if I wanted to just read and see the ocean or sunset I still had to put on my whole get-up even though I was only 25 feet from the beach.

Hope this isn't TMI and you DDF dudes aren't traumatized but just stuff to keep in mind if you're planning a huge trip like this and again everyone has different preferences so different info helps different people, without having to argue or belittle what others find important. 

so true. see here http://forums.dansdeals.com/index.php?topic=61385.0

[chuchem]

Here a good pic with the villa numbers, will explain in detail in next post

[jj1000]

Here a good pic with the villa numbers, will explain in detail in next post

That's super helpful! Thanks!

Does it seem like they'd upgrade plats?

[CZ60]

Based on that pic, I originally had 23 with no sun. I moved to 9 and had a perfect view of sunrise.

[chuchem]

Just came back from the st regis and staying at the great room before our flight back with TK, so here some thoughts and comparing it to the Halaveli

The rooms at the st regis are more luxury and fancier. The Halaveli was also amazing, SR is nicer, needed not at all
I preffered the Halaveli pool, as it was infinity and had much more sun, the SR pool was in the back of villa. SR has a hammock
Reef at St regis in front of sunrise villas is dead. YOu can swim out 5 min or go to the reef in front of dive center, thats very nice, but you will not get the same fish view from your villa as in Halaveli
Service was great, butler really tried to help. They were very nice about heating up kosher meals and served it whenever we wanted. I didnt see any need for a butler really, I got the same service in halaveli, besides for unpacking every 5* star luxury resort in maldives will have the same service, just not called butler
The pool and beach are very nice, service was great... probably a little better then halaveli...
I missed a proper beach bar, they have the whale bar, its very nice, but its a real building, I would have preferred a more relaxed setting on the beach, like halaveli
They have a great game room, air hockey, ping pong, pool, playstation... really nice
spa treatment was very good, the bluehole was overrated, we didnt see the "wow factor" in it, especially as they charge for the use, even when booking treatments (we got it complimentary after asking)
Big subject: privacy......
I think everyone looks at it differently, especially with the level of znius the wife keeps... Every room on the sunset side can be looked into, either from the beach or the bridge or some of the other rooms....
room 1-7 can be seen from the other villas across and are quite close to the beach, so avoid
room 9-16 are further away from the beach, so they will not really see any details, but can also be seen by room 1-7
room 13-16 have the best sun, as it will last quite long, even closer to sunset you still have sun, while 1-7 will  not get much sun towards late afternoon
the north side has 100% privacy, but almost no sun, as it rises by villa 18 area and crosses until were it says sunset
The sunset villas will have great privacy ( not the first 5 villas) but will only get sun from lunch time around

We stayed at 516 and it did the job, we had sun and felt quite privat because of distance to peeking spots, but the Halaveli didnt have these issues at all. Sun and privacy was 100%

The St regis was stunning and we had a amazing time. It does not justify a 2500 USD price per night, most OWV with pool are about a 1000 this time of the year in other great 5* resorts. For 135k spg 5 nights its a bargain. If its the same price as other 5* resorts, I would probably try to get a villa that has more privacy for the reasons denverite posted above

All the activities are  expensive and add 22% we did night fishing, one couple massage, one seabob snorkeling tour, one regular snorkeling tour, one discovery scuba dive and that added very quickly to 1000s of dollars incl the seaplane transfer. They didnt charge for heating up the meals, but drinks also added up very quick. evey coke is 8 ++, so 10 dollars a can. they give free water in the rooms.

We had a amazing time and paid very little for the room, but still had a expensive 5 days, but we did enjoy it 100%

[mochjas]

Sorry to hijack. My cousin is going to MLE and staying in the park Hyatt. He wants to use my diamond status so he transferred the points to me to book through my account. Now I got an email from park Hyatt asking for the names of the people traveling besides me. How do I tell them that I'm not coming?

[jj1000]

Sorry to hijack. My cousin is going to MLE and staying in the park Hyatt. He wants to use my diamond status so he transferred the points to me to book through my account. Now I got an email from park Hyatt asking for the names of the people traveling besides me. How do I tell them that I'm not coming?

Hyatt doesn't care. It's called a guest of honor or something.