We returned to this property earlier in the month and had a fantastic time. Stayed in the exact same OWV we had on our previous stay, 510, and have a few comments/opinions/advice on things that have changed and/or posters have been arguing about recently on this thread.
1) Breakfast (food) was again fantastic. Service (this time) was far worse-- maybe a result of the resort being full, but it was easy to wait 20-30 minutes without anyone coming to check on us, take our orders, refill water/prosecco, etc. Best plan is to flag someone down and order all food/drinks at once if you plan on spending less than 90 minutes there. They could really use more staff at breakfast.
2) Snorkeling (house reef) was better in Mar 2019 than it was in Dec 2017. The sand on the main beach was also a bit softer. We went from the dive center back to our villa multiple times, and found the best snorkeling just to the dive center side of whale bar.
3) Diving is not great (relative to other locations in the Maldives). If you're headed to the Maldives for the diving, stay on Ari Atoll instead.
4) Our pool was still not cold. It had sun all morning-- we preferred not to have direct sun, so we usually came back to our villa from beach/diving/crust/etc between noon and 2 and spent afternoons on our deck, where we at least had shade on the top part.
5) Download WhatsApp and use it to communicate with your butler. We did this on our second day there, and it worked quite well. Otherwise, trying to reach your butler, arrange buggies, change/confirm reservations is a huge pain.
6) Make dinner reservations in advance in high season. They will confirm dinners a week in advance of your arrival, but you can email them well before that, and they'll make a note of it. You can always change into something else available once you're there, but it can save the frustration of choosing between a 9:30pm dinner at Orientale and another dinner at Alba.
7) Our Whale Bar dinner was our favorite we had on either trip to this resort. It's expensive, but it's small and the only place you can sit and eat out over the water (without room service). Wagyu steaks were awesome.
8) The wine dinner was a lot less fun, and had less free-flowing wine than our last trip. Atmosphere was uptight, and the tasting felt routine.
9) I thought the pizza at Crust was good. I wouldn't replace any of my local pizza restaurants with Crust, but I thought it turned out tasty pizzas on the beach and wish it stayed open past 4pm.
10) People stress WAAAAY too much about seaplanes, and I believe there is some very bad advice floating around this thread from people with 1 or 2 visits to the Maldives, who happen to have missed their seaplane and found it to be stressful. Under no circumstance would I plan an overnight in Male if my flight were scheduled to arrive by 3:30pm, especially in high season, unless you have business to attend to in the capital or you really enjoy the pool scene at the Hulhule. We arrived a half hour late on EK 660 (scheduled 3:30pm, landed 4pm, deplaned 4:15pm.) We were through customs with our bags and to the seaplane check-in desk by 4:45pm. We were the only passengers headed to the St Regis from our Emirates flight, though there were 2 couples from an earlier Qatar arrival and a few staff heading to a nearby resort who joined us on our plane. We had over a half hour in the St Regis lounge, and didn't take off for Vommuli until 5:45pm. The staff member who met us in MLE told us that over 90% of EK 660 passengers make a same day seaplane. He said they had a great relationship with EK and the seaplane company (as well as SQ incidentally). Of the 7 nights we were there, we noticed at least 1 seaplane land at the St Regis after 5:15pm on 5 of them. May have happened more, but we weren't always in our room (paying attention). If you can live with a 1 in 10 chance you'll have a forced overnight in Male (or preferably Hulhule), I think you're doing yourself a disservice by wasting a night of your life near the airport.