Maybe this comparison report will help some of you who have kids below 6 y.o. ! This is my personnel point of view of the different aspects. So, please be kind about my first report, sort of!
Anyway, we did a 5 night stay at St Regis Vommuli and went directly afterwards to the conrad rangali for a 5 night stay again. We were 5 (2 adults + 3 kids – 5yo, 3 yo and ½ yo). Concerning the villa, our main point was to book a beach villa since
1. playing with the sand on the beach in front of the villa is a real advantage with 3 and 5 y.o. toddlers. And meanwhile having the baby resting in a temp. controlled room nearby (supervised with a babyphone).
2. Less risk for the kids of falling into the water (+ less supervision for the parents ;-) )
3. Leave the OW villa for couples or families with older kids.
The Villa Beach:
1) Sand quality
-St Regis (SR) : 8/10 (bigger grain, I guess there was some coral residues mixt to it which make it less comfi to play with and to walk on, but still great sand)
-Conrad (CO) : 10/10
2) Beach shore angle
-SR: 6/10 (pretty soon the water was too deep for the kids and from that point the parents need shoes because the bottom is too uncomfortable and the coral reef is just after that point.
-CO: 10/10 (more playing in and with the water for the kids and no shoes needed for the parents)
3) Shade on the beach for sand castles
-SR: 6/10, a tiny bit of shade from the villa in the morning
-CO: 5/10 no shade
The main beach:
1) Sand quality
-SR : 9/10 (also bigger grain at the alba beach, but from the restaurants point of view, the right side of the beach has a better and nice grain size)
-CO : 10/10
2) Beach shore angle
-SR: 10/10 (great low angle of penetration)
-CO: 10/10 (great low angle of penetration)
3) Shade on the beach for sand castles
-SR: 5/10 none
-CO: 10/10 great in the afternoon/evening on the 200s villa side (+coral reef)
Marine life observation:
-SR: 7/10 nice, but not as nice as in CO.
Ideas with toddlers, rent a glass bottom kayak.
-CO: 9/10 great!
Ideas with toddlers, watch it from the main bridge by night or at the mandooh at 13:30 (official fishfeeding) or at the Ithaa at about 19:00 (non-official fishfeeding) (also at around 11:30 but much less feeding).
N.B.: my 5 y.o. really enjoyed snorkeling around the coral reefs, but sand playing was more interesting for my 3 yo.
Moskitos:
-SR: 10/10: 1 bite in total for 5 people during 5 nights
-CO: 10/10: 5-6 bites in total
Nothing to worry about for both resorts, and we stayed during the “rainy” season. Unfortunately, we don’t know (and guess don’t want to know) how much insecticide we inhaled.
Villa privacy:
-SR: 10/10
-CO: 6/10 bit less privacy and much less soundproof protection (baby cries ;-) )
Kids club:
Activities
-SR: 9/10 (great but CO does it better), not much kids in both resorts in July and since SR is more exclusive it has very few kids at that time of the year.
-CO: 10/10 (with pirate cruises, dauphins watching, …)
Toys given
-SR: 10/10 received hats, t-shirts, sand castle building tools, … They also had kid sized bike to ride for our stay
-CO: 9/10 received as well hats, t-shirts, but no sand castle tools!
Restaurants with kids:
-SR: 9/10
-CO: 10/10 kids ate for free except at the in-room dining
With young kids it is not possible to book a table for the fondue or the tapas which is normal and I respect that. But especially during low season, you may book a table there if no other guest has a reservation. I didn’t work for us on the fondue evening, but on the tapas evening it worked. We were the only guest and instead of the tapas we were able to get the fondue.
Originally Posted by
goliath
I don't think you have a choice. I believe it's made of a mix of three types, one of them is Vacherin.
Originally Posted by
Cynicor
Pretty sure you can customise it a little if you tell them what you like. At least that's what he told us when we were having it last week. And I don't remember all the cheese but o think emmental was in there too?
By the way goliath and Cynicor, the third cheese in the fondue was the Beaufort from France. Cynicor, it is possible to customise your cheese selection, but it has to be done at the reservation.
And I agree with you goliath,
Originally Posted by
goliath
On both occasions I think the texture was not quite right and I can definitely make a better fondue at home. But for those that are not used to it from regularly making / eating it at home, it will definitively be an interesting novelty. The location / setting is really nice* and it I think the price is reasonable for what you get.
, the texture could have been better, but the context makes us forgive that!
PS to Maldivesfreaks: in July I wouldn’t recommend having the sunset grill at the very last night, we were very lucky we did it earlier because it was raining on our last night. My advice for in July would be to book it on a nice and a tiny bit cloudy evening (most of the evenings were like that though
).
Tea-time/coktails/fruits/snacks.:
-SR: 5/10 or 10/10 if you request the fruit basket and the tea time!
Nb: during my stay no revolving fruit basket and no tea time was offered until I’ve read about it in this thread in the middle of my stay. Asked my butler about that, he answered me it is only on request. Was kind of pissed since other FT received it without any request and during all their stay. Told him he could have at least let me know about this possibility of request. Will change that in the wiki, since not all butlers are equal!
-CO: 7/10 tea time and cocktails were not my favorites. Not much choice for the toddlers (and not much more for the adults).
Secret Nb: I’ve nicely asked my butler if he could get some snacks for my kids from the employee market. He took pictures of the different snacks so I could choose from it. The price was really correct.
Overall I can’t really tell which one was best. Probably the kids enjoyed it a bit more at CO because the island was bigger (= more things to see and for the parents = more places to “hide” if the kids misbehave, cry, etc…). And for the parents, it is probably the SR which wins because of its exclusivity.