I’ve had some interesting conversations with multiple staff members about the “renovations” of the OWV. They won’t actually be renovated but instead completely new OVWs. The current plan is to shut down the entire quiet island and demolish all the villas and build new ones before the festive season of 2019. They plan to start in April/May of 2019. One staff member specifically told me they don’t want to do it group by group like they did with the beach villas because it takes too long. One possibility is they do half the island at a time to keep some OVW open but it seems like management prefers shutting down the entire island to get it all done faster. People who have OWV over the summer would get notified and have their room switched to one of the main island.

Also, the first official guests of the Muraka arrive on Christmas. Theyre a royal family from the UAE and they’ll be staying in the Muraka and 10 additional beach villas. They had to get a steam boat to transfer over 150 pieces of luggage for the family