Originally Posted by
mikeparis75
Thanks for the great post. What an impressive stay!
Tricky question: is there a way of having a great experience there without spending $3k? (I know the $3k are well worth it, all I am asking is if there is a way to be stay there "on a budget"). For example: you mention that the half board option is not worth it when you go for the special meals. Can you elaborate on it?
Once again, I understand that spending $$$ is really worth it over there (wished I could do it); all I am trying to ascertain is whether doing it on a budget can be done (and I do understand that it is likely to affect my experience there too).
Thanks!
The biggest expense for my trip were my meals/drinks moreso than the upgrade.
I don't get the value of the half-board option --it's not really a savings, but moreso a pre-payment of their Atoll dinner buffet. The half-board option was $70 and gets you dinner at the Atoll buffet -or- a 25% discount on a special meal. But with special meals averaging $260/person , the max discount you'd get is about $63 --which means you're paying $70 for a $63 discount. The dinner at Atoll is the same price whether you pay as you go or you pre-pay through the half-board option.
During my stay, I only felt like eating dinner there once... so had I gone the half-board route, I would have been wasting a lot of money.
The best way to save money on this trip though is to stick with Atoll Market and skip all the special meals. The buffet food is nice ...although if it were to be offered on the US mainland, it'd probably be priced closer to $35. If you go the route of a big complimentary breakfast, an afternoon poolside cocktail, and the Atoll market, you could probably skate by with about $100/day on food-drink.
But the Maldives are really paradise...so I'd recommend people to go only if they can splurge. Or at least splurge on at least one night (like do the Wine Cellar Dinner and stick to the buffet the rest of the nights.)
I considered myself on a fairly strict budget and didn't want to spend huge amounts of money on the trip. I was willing to spend $300-500/night for an upgrade, so when the upgrade was only a fraction of that, I did re-invest that money into the spa visit and special dinners.
Originally Posted by
MoreMilesPlease
Excellent report! Makes me want to be there right now.
I'll echo mikeparis75's question.
You didn't say how long you stayed for. Did you get a look at what a standard reward room looked like? It seems about half of your $3,000 expense might be in upgrading for $100 and $200 a night charges. Would this be about right?
I stayed one night in Hulhule and 6 at the Conrad. Meals were the biggest chunk of my expense.
I didn't get a chance to see the standard room in person, but in the Resort Guide in the room there were floorplans to scale of all the rooms. With the standard room, you loose the privacy of having an individual, detached unit, loose the plunge pool, and loose about 1/2 the square footage of the deluxe unit.
When I typically vacation, I usually use my hotel room as a place to get sleep and that's about it. So as much as I enjoy upgrades elsewhere, they don't make/break a trip. But at this resort, I spent more than 1/2 my time in my villa (and in the over-water villa, I hardly ever left.) With my own pool and beach, there really was no reason to leave. And because of that, I really valued the room upgrade. If you're the kind of person that would prefer to lounge about the "public" pool or primary beach and spend little time in your room, I think the standard award room would be just fine. Plus the standard rooms have the same outdoor bathroom concept as the deluxe beach villas, just on a smaller scale, so you're getting the same experience there without the need for supplemental cash.
If you do just get the standard room here, you're still getting a room far superior to any other HHonors offering in the US. The room plus resort grounds and service are so amazing that you shouldn't feel like you're getting a bad room if you don't upgrade. But if you have the means to upgrade, do it!
Originally Posted by
globaltrotter
awesome report. thank you so much for such a detailed report.....is there anyway to access the pics without facebook? maybe create a trip report on flickr?
No
I've posted pictures/videos on my MySpace (see theWeatherboy there) and my 2 Facebook accounts (my personal one and my Weatherboy Weather one.) It's easy to sign up for both sites, so it should be painless to get to the pictures without me having to upload them a 4th time
Originally Posted by
SanDiego1K
Fantastic report. It takes me back to our wonderful visit of 2 years ago. A couple things I've noted from your report that are different: we were unaware of any Russians when we stayed there. Russians are THE new tourists around the world, and truly where a lot of hotels need to promote themselves. I'm amazed at the dominance of Russian travelers in certain areas of the world, where just five years ago, I never spotted them.
And the other difference - the complimentary back/shoulder massages at the Male air terminal and your GM reception. I think it's very smart of them - give away a sample in hopes of getting you to make a paid booking.
The Russians are everywhere. I spoke with Europeans at the resort who said in the 90's it was about Americans everywhere. Now they said its the Russians that are everywhere. And considering my recent trips (Maldives, Hawaii, Micronesia, Guam/Saipan) I'd have to agree. I have Russian in my blood and the first question people ask me on these travels is if I'm Russian. (In Saipan, they were disappointed to learn that I wasn't --apparently the Russians drop large amounts of cash and are heavy tippers.)
The Conrad Maldives staff seemed to be fluent in Russian...which made sense since the Russians were the dominant tourist type.