Originally Posted by
Splotly
Early impressions as follows (but we only arrived on Boxing Day) - here until the 5th so no doubt my views might change plus I’m yet to experience NYE here yet!
The most noticeable difference has been that the place is genuinely busy. They always claim it’s at full occupancy in August but you can reliably book any restaurant only hours before and always get a seat on the beach in the bar etc and frankly the place feels extremely quiet with few people around at times - I guess somewhat lacking in atmosphere but very peaceful as a result. The last couple of nights (but it is festive season rather than simply December/January so I’d imagine I’m seeing an even more extreme version) have been by contrast extremely busy - hard to find a table on the sand in the bar to watch the sunset, some restaurants saying they’re full but they’ll find a way for us. The happy hour and aftertea absolutely max’d out.
The difference is also exaggerated by the difference in clientele. August seems to have couples and foursomes, with the odd kids and few large groups. This time of year seems to have more groups of 6/8+ than smaller groups and as you can imagine a lot of kids. However, strangely in terms of noise it’s rather quieter! Mainly Europeans and Japanese, so I guess stereotypically more reserved compared to the natural culture of the mainland Chinese who seem to dominate the bookings in August. It’s also very noticeably obvious that people here this time of year are vastly more wealthy. Our room (just a RWV) was $53k (versus about a fifth of that in August) for the 10 nights at rack-rate, which thank God we didn’t have to pay, so I guess it’s not surprise that we’re seeing the generality being people are sitting on the beach drinking the premium wines, playing continuously on the jet-blade, filling the restaurants etc rather than the buffet.
Different in itself from August where the whole game appears to be to upsell people
They don't actually need to upsell Atoll Market. It's mainly because the Chinese go for the buffet dinners rather than the restaurants. This is for two reasons; the first being they (and their kids) want more choice and they know rice and other Asian dishes are on the menu. The second is because they are afraid of the menus at the other restaurants (some of them don't realize that there are menus translated into Chinese and with accompanying pictures) and wouldn't know what to order anyway. They generally dislike most Western food, especially Haute cuisine, and that's even if they haven't tried it. Koreans are the same. The Japanese, OTOH, are completely the opposite. The Chinese are lucky in a way because their country is so huge and there are a billion different dishes so they are incredibly spoilt for choice.....so you can kind of understand the attitude. However they are completely wrong to think that Chinese food is the be all and end all of delicious food - take them to a decent Mexican restaurant for example and they (under 50s) change their minds completely about Western food. The 180 degree turnaround is interesting to watch.
Originally Posted by
Splotly
I’ll let you know on Jan 1, but unlike MaldivesFreak who likes to be tucked up in bed by 8pm, earplugs inserted, determined to resist any fun, and laying in bed jotting down his notes on noise ready to be up at 6am and go complain on Jan 1.... we fully intend to ensure we are the ones being complained about for falling in the bushes giggling on the way home at 4am... so I may not post until Jan 2!
Heh, you gotta love the Brits. Believe it or not I'm actually a night owl. It's nearly sunrise here right now so time to finish this post and get off FT and hit the sack. The other half is the one that likes to get to bed by 10 or 11 and she couldn't get to sleep even with earplugs until they actually stopped the music. And we were in 339, can you believe it. However I adjust to that bedtime too so i wasn't too thrilled about the bass travelling through the villa, especially considering the distance. What can you do (about those giggling drunkards falling in the bushes) eh?!
