We stayed over the festive season on points at both a garden villa and overwater villa. I will share some of my thoughts on areas that have not been covered previously.

Garden villa - if you go to the Maldives, don't just stay here. The beach access is difficult and you don't get the feeling that you are in the Maldives. For the price paid, I much prefer the Lagoon villa at the St Regis Bali. You can be in Bali or Phuket, pay less and have a better experience.

Water villa - the entry-level water villa, on the other hand, was amazing. It was extremely modern and large. If you never stayed at a water villa, you would be impressed. I've stayed at numerous water villas over the years in the Maldives and the French Polynesia, and I would say the entry water villa here was probably one of the best out there. However, if you like the traditional maldivian style water villa, this is not the place for you.

Food - the quality was better than expected. It wasn't just the taste, but I found the presentation of the food to be high as well. The price there wasn't cheap though. E.g. a tiny appetizer at the Whale Bar was easily $30. Average dinner here, with a cheap bottle of wine, will easily top $400. One of the chefs (Durai) came over from Vilu at the Conrad. Nonetheless, I found the resort generous and certainly did not nickel and dime with us.

Mandatory gala dinners - we paid around $3,700 for the gala dinners (Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve) for the two of us. They were expensive, and in my mind not worth the money. The dinner over NYE was especially exorbitant - at over $2,500, it became the most expensive buffet dinner we ever had. They did have some expensive dish - e.g. the Iranian beluga caviar from Gourmet House. However, the cost was expected - and I would say the workers put in a lot of effort putting together the dinners. So consider this as giving back over the holiday season.

Corals - this is probably one of the most disappointing aspects of all. The corals are dead. The construction of the resort, together with El Nino last year, really took a toll on the corals. It will take a long time for them to come back. If you've been to other places in the Maldives, you will be disappointed. However, I saw lots of fish around the resort, and I would say back when the corals were alive, the place must have been stunning. Nevertheless, I did see eel, lobsters, eagle ray, turtle, and even squid at the house reef. We did a private charter of speed boat out to the surrounding and some had much nicer corals.

Service - in general, people were very nice. My biggest issue was the inconsistent service here. When the St Regis calls itself the Finest Address in the Maldives, the service should be impeccable. However, a few bad apples really spoilt the experience - and for this there's no way the St Regis is the finest out there. Far from it.

Butler service - I don't buy this concept. The butlers are overworked - esp during the festive season. Being assigned 6-8 villas to take care of was just not possible to deliver the personalized service. Everything was delayed and the bad thing was you would still need to arrange everything through your butler. If they like to promote this, they need to increase the number of butlers at the resort.

Total spend - we spent a little over $11,000 for a 10 night stay on points. Not cheap, but a little cheaper than my expectation considering the 2 gala dinners already cost over $3,700.

Bicycles - unlike griffingrowl's experience, during our stay, I didn't see anyone's bicycle has their names on the wooden signs. The wooden signs (like ours) showed our villa number only.

Expectation management - this is where I feel the resort failed miserably. We received an email from the head butler prior to our stay asking for our expectations for the stay. I wrote back letting them know what we were expecting - but unfortunately very little was done. Don't ask us if you are not going to follow through. It sets the expectations high but only to disappoint us during the stay. I also thought the resort was pretty slow in getting back to me on my inquiries prior to the stay. After the stay, I got a mail from my butler with a cc to the FOM asking for feedback. I wrote back a lengthy mail sharing my thoughts on the pluses and minuses. I even copied Alec Blair (the GM), but I heard nothing from them. Nothing - and no acknowledgement. Is this what you expect from the Finest Address in the Maldives? '

Despite my highly critical or negative feedback, we did have a good stay. We enjoyed the stay. If not for the St Regis, I think the feedback would have been more positive. It was the fact that they called themselves the Finest in the Maldives, and all the hype leading to the stay that eventually made the stay came in below our expectation.

If you have never been to the Maldives - you will have a great time. It was after all a beautiful property with stunning architecture, great food, and nice people.