Originally Posted by
ocdb8r
Good luck to them - not clear to me how they'll fill rooms at those rates while the resort recovers from development, landscaping fills out and the staff figure out what the hell they're doing.
LOL. I have to say I agree with you although mainland China is a huge market and they will be seriously pushing the resort there, especially as the last week of June and all of July and August are school holidays there and during those 2 months up to 2/3 of the tourists in the Maldives are mainlanders. I live there so I'm going to start asking my travel agent friends if they've heard of this new resort yet and what kind of packages they are doing. There will no doubt be some good deals but whether they'll offer them to the ROTW is another story. A couple years back there were some deals for the Conrad that were only available to Chinese customers in mainland China (required Chinese pax w/Chinese passports, not just booked through those agents) so let's see how it plays out on that front.
Originally Posted by
rvlcr
unpopular opinion here, but ive seen quite a view videos & pictures of the new Waldorf
i mean look at this aerial image. yes its still under construction but i cant see it getting any better...
In all fairness I think you should have used this pic instead
Originally Posted by
rvlcr
and i simply cant see why anyone would pay upwards of $1,800 to stay in an island that is overbuilt, ugly and essentially everything that the maldives shouldn't be.
ive been to the maldives 5 times (visiting 5 different islands) and ive yet to see a resort island that looks as unnatural as the Waldorf (except for maybe Centara Ras Fushi & the Sheraton!). its very clear by the unique shape off the island that a lot of the sand has been artificially pumped, and the island does not appear to have any sort of big blue lagoon that is typical of maldivian resort islands. the water villas are built in extremely long lines with a very narrow lagoon infront of them which in my opinion will make swimming not so enjoyable as the reef drop-off is so close by.
yeah the rooms are really nice but you can get nice rooms in dubai or other locations.. what makes the maldives a special destination is the sheer natural beauty of the island and its surroundings, and the Waldorf appears to lack all of that.
Well, maybe the SAii Lagoon Curio comes into the
essentially everything that the maldives shouldn't be category.
I agree with the fact that there is a serious lack of natural flora. The fact that a lot of the resort's area is mostly reclaimed land certainly makes it feel artificial. Conrad has tons of what this resort doesn't. I'll go once just because it's new and it will be interesting, however I don't expect it to hold my interest for multiple visits like Rangali does.
Regarding the lagoon, I have to disagree with you there. Where the main islands are situated there is a perfectly normal lagoon. The six boats in the picture above are in the lagoon and it's plain to see that the water isn't that deep even right in the middle. The water in the middle of Rangali's lagoon between the 2 islands is deeper than that.
As for swimming and beaches, you have to take into consideration the size of the resort and then calculate roughly how wide the beaches are and how far out the depth increases. For example, the middle section of the resort with the beach villas (the strip where the Welcome Centre is located) looks to have at least 10m of beachfront and then 30 or 40m of reasonably shallow water before it gets to any dropoff / deep water. The BVs on the other side of the resort are a different story, however.
Added a
Pictures (resort under construction) section to the wiki to show, in chronological order, the resort and how it has evolved.
Also changed opening date to reflect latest change.
And here's a nice pic from of one of the news articles. Seems real enough and will no doubt have some of us salivating until we get there, LOL
