Author Topic: A little different Maldives TR  (Read 31012 times)

Offline Denverite

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A little different Maldives TR
« on: September 08, 2016, 11:19:19 PM »
I'm sitting right now in the Conrad Rangali Island and while I can't quite manage a live TR I wanted to open this so that I won't be lazy when I get back and make sure to write it.

We're watching some football, about to head out snorkeling as soon as the game is finished but for now GO Broncos, from the Maldives!

Offline Luvtotravel

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Re: A little different Maldives TR
« Reply #1 on: September 09, 2016, 11:19:52 AM »
certainly looking forward! enjoy every moment.
Don't wait for the perfect moment; take the moment and make it perfect.

Online bermo

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Re: A little different Maldives TR
« Reply #2 on: September 09, 2016, 11:31:15 AM »
Pictures please 😁

Offline Denverite

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Re: A little different Maldives TR
« Reply #3 on: September 21, 2016, 01:29:00 PM »
1st Segment- Trip Planning:

I know when people start their TR's they do the obligatory thank you's to Dan and DDF and it seems hokey but as I am beginning this TR I really do think it is so necessary although possibly for a different reason than others.  Within the frum community, DDF is known to provide a wealth of information and an amazing community to help people easily earn points and maximize their redemptions (and it certainly has helped me move light years ahead on that since I joined only a little more than a year ago), but more importantly it helped with something even greater and for that I want to express my thanks.  I actually grew up overseas and was a elite level frequent flier as a child because of travels back to the US for vacations and my dad was a DDFer before his time (and before the internet, so I really don't know he figured out all the stuff he did) and we traveled tons of places but all of that was not while keeping Shabbos and kosher.  Actually the first orthodox people I think I ever met were a couple of Bochurim from the Aleph Institute who gave me the Rebbe's Book "Toward a Meaningful Life" in Northern Japan, during High School.  When I became fully observant after college, I just kind of assumed that all the interesting and amazing travels that I had a child were things that I would have to give up, along with the many other things that a Baal Tshuva has to give up when they become frum and I was ok with that.  Fast forward many years and children later, with very nice family vacations basically to Phoenix and LA to get warm in the winter and have fun with my kids without worrying about kosher food and Shabbos, when I heard about DDF at a Shabbos table and started reading DDF.  All of a sudden it hit me that maybe I CAN still go to exotic places, enjoy my food and have top notch travel experiences like I used to have before I became frum but now in an observant way.  DDF opened back up the world to me, without compromising my Jewish values and for that I thank all of you!     

Ok, on to the planning.  My husband was coming upon a milestone date in his life and I wanted to give him a trip of a lifetime to help celebrate that milestone.  Also, we were really poor when we got married plus didn't have the time or inclination back then to take a big trip, so I was hoping to also kind of make up for that with this one.  Both my husband I weren't raised in the US, have been to lots of places, aside from Israel, don't really have very many places we want to go or return to so where to plan an amazing, over-the-top vacation?

 Where was worth arranging babysitting for many days for our kids, arranging precious time-off from both our businesses and worth the time to travel.  My feeling has always kind of been that I wanted a truly spectacular place, otherwise I'm not willing to even take a connecting flight and I can just enjoy a quick getaway somewhere close.  The places that pop up on DDF all the time are Bora Bora or the Maldives.  BOB would have been WAY less travel time for us from Denver, with just a quick flight to LA and then an 8hr non-stop flight but even looking at the beautiful scenery and the nice overwater villas at the different resorts, none of the OWV's in BOB appeared to be very private, where you could sit on your deck and enjoy the view without others seeing you, much less have a private pool.  From my perspective, even though it was more significantly beautiful than other places, if I wasn't getting a private deck or pool, the travel, expense or time to BOB wasn't worth it to me when I could get a not as nice but great experience in Cancun but be there on a direct flight in 4 hours with 8k SW points (obviously Cancun isn't BOB but my time and miles are very valuable to me).  Pretty much then the only place left that I was really excited to go to was the Maldives, because from my perspective, it was the closest I was going to get to being on a private island, in stunning surroundings, while paying with points. 

Once, I decided on the Maldives, I needed to book flights.  Because of the businesses we have, it was very important to be able to go on very specific dates, where business is anyway slow, we wouldn't lose that much money from being away and I could also get flights.  I chose to try to get flights over Labor Day weekend and since it is the exact same distance to the Maldives going either East or West, we decided that we'd much rather fly on an Asian airline, have a stopover in Asia and also there had more possibilities of being able to incorporate some business dealings that would help justify the time and expense of the trip.  Both Cathay Pacific and Singapore airlines consistently have multiple business class seats available to their hubs from LAX and SFO but because I had MR points not SPG (which are the best points deal in J to MLE because it is only 62.5 Alaska miles ow on Cathay Pacific) we chose to go Via Singapore Air, with a two day stopover in Singapore.

Total mileage for both of us in J SFO-SIN, via ICN (stopover), SIN-MLE and then the return on the exact same route was 306k miles total for both us, so 153k pp.
.  We got a cheap Frontier flight from Den-SFO that was the only flight that would give us a comfortable connection and then on the way back to United from SFO-DEN (and they did tag our bags all the way to DEN from MLE).  It was worth it to book these last two segments separately in order to get the 15% mileage discount from SQ.

We were able to set up a great business meeting for one of the days we were in Singapore and also had set it up to have all our kosher food for the Maldives delivered to the Conrad, where were staying.  We ordered the food from www.koshwhere.com and the ordered was fulfilled from the local restaurant.  I could have tried to order it directly from the restaurants but it was so easy from the website that I'd preferred to do it that way.  There were some small hiccups with the food that I will get to later but I do love the way that website works.

I'm not going to describe the Singapore Air flights except to say the seats were amazing, got a great sleep and our 777 flights didn't have suites and I wouldn't probably pay the extra miles for First class because Business class was awesome, I can't enjoy the better food and the bigger seats wouldn't really help me sleep better, which is my personal reason for paying more points for J.  Unlike other DDFers I don't enjoy flying and just want it to be comfortable enough that I can sleep!

The Conrad Singapore is a horrible points redemption but a great Cash&Points redemption, which we were able to get for $127SG (about $100US) and 24k HHonors points for a room that cost about $400SG.  They also gave us a beautiful diamond upgrade to a Centennial Suite.  It is also a great location, easy and direct to the Jewish community center, shul and restaurant.  It's a bit farther but also a nice walk to the kosher Coffee Bean as well.

Next installment- Singapore with Pictures!


Offline Torkay

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Re: A little different Maldives TR
« Reply #4 on: September 21, 2016, 02:02:14 PM »
Great segment looking forward to the rest

Offline Dawie

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Re: A little different Maldives TR
« Reply #5 on: September 21, 2016, 02:15:49 PM »
looking forward!

Offline LoLo

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Re: A little different Maldives TR
« Reply #6 on: September 21, 2016, 02:21:29 PM »
Looking fwd to the rest and the pics, great introduction!

Offline @Yehuda

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Re: A little different Maldives TR
« Reply #7 on: September 21, 2016, 02:27:01 PM »
We're watching some football, about to head out snorkeling as soon as the game is finished but for now GO Broncos, from the Maldives!
Awesome - LOL
Great intro - very nice. Looking forward to the rest!

Offline rileywiles23

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Re: A little different Maldives TR
« Reply #8 on: September 21, 2016, 11:50:30 PM »
Nice perspective on what ddf opened up for you.
Looking forward to the rest
Life is as good as you make it...

Offline mgoldhammer18

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Re: A little different Maldives TR
« Reply #9 on: September 22, 2016, 02:17:18 PM »
At first when you said cash+points redemption I thought u were referring to the Conrad Maldives and was about to book, then you said next to the JCC and I wasn't sure if the JCC made it to the Maldives yet

Offline Yehoshua

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Re: A little different Maldives TR
« Reply #10 on: September 22, 2016, 08:44:33 PM »
Nice first installment. Looking forward to the pictures and the rest!

Offline Abebee

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Re: A little different Maldives TR
« Reply #11 on: September 22, 2016, 10:31:35 PM »
Think we're all waiting for the pictures :)

Offline mgoldhammer18

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Re: A little different Maldives TR
« Reply #12 on: September 23, 2016, 06:44:25 AM »
Think we're all waiting for the pictures :)

+1

Offline Denverite

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Re: A little different Maldives TR
« Reply #13 on: September 23, 2016, 03:56:31 PM »
Thanks for all the kind words and encouragement!  I'm going to B"H try to work on the next segment and upload all the pictures on Motzei Shabbos or Sunday.

Offline gswannabe

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Re: A little different Maldives TR
« Reply #14 on: October 05, 2016, 01:45:43 PM »
awesome

Offline moisheyb

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Re: A little different Maldives TR
« Reply #15 on: October 07, 2016, 09:08:59 AM »
So glad the trip worked out for you.

Maybe I'm missing something but why didn't you book a United flight to sfo from den... Isn't it the same price to include it?

Offline Super Speed

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Re: A little different Maldives TR
« Reply #16 on: October 07, 2016, 10:48:32 AM »
Nice perspective on what ddf opened up for you.
Looking forward to the rest
+1

Offline E-MAN

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Re: A little different Maldives TR
« Reply #17 on: October 07, 2016, 01:26:42 PM »
Still stuck in Singapore?

Offline Denverite

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Re: A little different Maldives TR
« Reply #18 on: January 15, 2017, 01:47:34 PM »
Still stuck in Singapore?

Ok I'm back in Denver..LOL!  and I'm gonna do an installment now!  I was waiting hoping I'd upload and format my pictures but since that may not happen I'm gonna write the TR and just link to some other good pictures (yes, LAME, I know but at least you guys will get some info)!
So glad the trip worked out for you.

Maybe I'm missing something but why didn't you book a United flight to sfo from den... Isn't it the same price to include it?

NO, you can take a 15% discount from SQ if you only fly on their metal and since that was about 50k for both of us, just totally not worth it.  The best way would have been for us to use Alaska miles and fly on AA to LAX or SFO and then Cathay Pacific but those miles are harder to get.

Offline Denverite

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Re: A little different Maldives TR
« Reply #19 on: January 15, 2017, 02:03:46 PM »
SINGAPORE- a GREAT INTRO to ASIA!

Once I knew I wanted to go to the Maldives, I had to figure out the best route.  From Denver it's literally almost the exact same amount of time to fly east or west and we knew so much preferred to stop in Asia, basically leaving Hong Kong and Singapore.  We also didn't want to bring food from Denver and knew there were good kosher options in both those cities.  I chose Singapore because I was able to find flights in J on the dates I needed and because DH had never been to Asia (my parents were expats and I grew up there so have traveled a good bit there) and I feel like Singapore is the perfect city to introduce a newbie to that part of the world.  You get the feel for all the cool cultures in a former British colony that is super clean, everyone speaks English and it's extremely safe and just comfortable to walk around and explore.  Before we landed in SIN they handed us the immigration papers and it said it big, bolded, red letters something like: "WE EXECUTE DRUG SMUGGLERS" which cracked us both up and I told my husband see this is Singapore in a nutshell, they have some strict rules but hey they are pretty clear about their expectations and if you are a normal person that can follow them it's an awesome!  :P

We only had two days there because of flights and time constraints and I wish we would have had one more day but it was still a nice break.  We checked in late at night at the Conrad.  In general it's a horrific redemption BUT they often have C+P of 24k points and S$138 (one S$ is US$0.70) and since rooms were running S$450 a night it was a fantastic redemption.  In the morning I was up super early and my husband still wanted to sleep.

I decided to go by myself to the Gardens By the Bay, since it was close and my husband wasn't dying to go.  I would definitely recommend it.  Since I didn't have my bearings, I took a cheap cab over.