Keyser

Just got back today from a 3 night stay at the Sheraton full moon resort & spa. I took my parents there for their anniversary so had booked 2 rooms for 3 nights using 6 free weekend night awards. I had called the hotel earlier to inform them that it was my parents anniversary & spoke to the reservation manager. His name is Vijendra (can’t remember his last name). He sent me an email a few days before we got there letting me know that he had already upgraded us to a beach bungalow.

We got in around noon on Friday & there was someone waiting for us at the airport with a ‘Sheraton’ sign. There were about 20 of us on the boat to the hotel, which took about 15-20 minutes. We got a bottle of water on the boat. The boat transfer was $66 per person for the roundtrip. When we got to the hotel we were greeted by Vijendra & were pleasantly surprised to find out that we had all been upgraded to overwater bungalows. The check-in was quick at the platinum desk, which is right next to the greeting area as soon as we stepped off the boat. We were served ice cream & juice while the check-in process took place. Also, at check-in I was given a brochure with the total number of points I had & options on how I could redeem them for stuff like food, excursions, bathrobes, etc. Nice touch.

The overwater bungalows are the first rooms you come to, just 25-30 meters from the greeting area. I think there were a total of 20 overwater bungalows in that row. The general reception & all the restaurants are a little further ahead & the beach bungalows & deluxe rooms are on the other side of the island. I think I saw a few more overwater bungalows on the other side of the island as well. The reception area has a little library with four computers offering free internet as well as free wifi in that area.

Our room was very nice. A large king bed, a nice settee with 2 windows on either side, a decent size patio with direct access to the water. The bathroom on the other hand was a little strange. There was a decent size tub, a separate shower area & 2 sinks, but the WC area was very small & cramped. They had very unique bottles for the shampoo, conditioner, bath gel, etc & would refill them every morning. Also, the AC did not work too well. There was a problem both in our room as well as our parents. We called to complain & someone was there in an instant to fix it, but even after working on it twice (once on Friday & then again on Saturday) the room did not cool properly. We met someone else staying a few bungalows from us & even they said the same thing. I guess the AC units do not work properly in the overwater bungalows. The room service menu was very expensive & so was the mini bar. We did however get 2 free bottles of water every day.

It rained all of Friday so we could not do much that day. My wife & mom went to the spa. They said it was ok & quite expensive. I never got a look at the pricing but if my wife thought it was expensive then it must have been. We went for dinner to the Full Moon Restaurant that night, which served a dinner buffet. There were a bunch of other places we could have gone to, like the Thai restaurant or the Atoll Grill, which served themed dinners every night. We thought we would try the buffet on the first night & then go to the other restaurants on the other nights. That turned out to be a mistake as we were not aware of the fact that some of the restaurants are closed on certain days of the week. So we basically ended up having most of our meals at the Full Moon Restaurant. Dinner was $55 per person & breakfast was $27 per person. The food was ok, nothing to write home about, but we had a lot of choice.

The next morning (Saturday), was nice & sunny. It rained a bit early morning but the rest of the day was great. I went swimming off my patio right outside my room. The water was turquoise blue & less than 5 feet deep. While in the water I saw a reef shark swim past me (about 10 feet away) as well as a bunch of rays & lots of other colorful fish. This was very cool. We signed up for a bunch of excursions for the rest of the day. There are different days for different activities. Listed below are the days & prices for each excursion. The price mentioned below is for adults, for children everything was half priced:

Kuda Bandos Snorkeling Monday & Thursday $55

Reef Snorkeling Monday – Sunday $40

Male’ Ferry Mon, Tues, Thurs, Sat & Sun $45

Sunset Dolphin Cruise Monday, Wednesday & Saturday $45

Full Day Island Hopping Tuesday, Thursday & Sunday $105

Sunset Fishing Tuesday, Friday & Sunday $55

Half Day Island Hopping Wednesday & Saturday $60

We ended up doing Reef Snorkeling, the Male’ Ferry & Sunset Fishing. All of it was pretty good. Would have loved to do the Kuda Bandos Snorkeling but it was only available on Mondays & Thursdays.

The last day (Sunday) my wife & I went swimming again outside our room. No shark this time but we did see the rays again. While my mom & wife took the Male’ Ferry to the capital to do some shopping, my dad & I went Sunset Fishing. We all caught a bunch of fish & the resort gives you an option of cooking you the fish you caught for dinner. The cost is $22 per plate. We wanted to have dinner at one of the other restaurants (Casa Luna) but it was closed on Sundays so we once again ate at the Full Moon Restaurant.

When I woke up this morning I saw a letter under my door letting me know that I had the option to use points to clear my bill. Every 750 points would give me a $10 credit on my bill. I decided to skip this option & once I cleared the bill in the afternoon we were on our way back to Male’ on the speedboat.

All in all, the stay was pretty good. I would go back again if I got a good deal but am very tempted to check out the W next time. I must thank Vijendra for all his help. He got us a very nice upgrade, a cake on the house for my parents anniversary & went out of his way a bunch of times to do things for us. He is also the reservation manager for the W property & I told him I would keep him posted on my future plans on visiting the Maldives again.