Originally Posted by lagunas2k

I received a lot of information from this thread which was very helpful to me, so thought I'd provide some detailed feedback as well.

Just finished up a 5 night stay on points, booked into a GV standard room. I am titanium, and was hoping for an upgrade like many others. I requested a beach villa since I was traveling with my toddler, and didn't want the additional worry an overwater villa would bring (plus we enjoy the view from the beach so much better anyways). This is the third trip to the Maldives. Other properties we've stayed at are Mirihi and Park Hyatt. A few days prior to arrival I was getting antsy and was about to book the beach villa upgrade to confirm it, decided to roll the dice and was rewarded with a one bedroom beach villa confirmed a day prior.

Arrival Experience: We arrived into Male late, and decided to do our usual one night stopover in Male. We always stay at the Hotel Ocean Grand in Hulhumale and we always receive excellent service, a clean room, and a seamless transfer experience. The StR coordinated with the Ocean Grand and once we arrived back at the airport the next morning, the StR butler takes over and escorted us through seaplane check in and on to the lounge. I had requested an early departure, and sure enough we received seats on the very first seaplane out at 6:15 AM. This left us with about 5 minutes to throw back some iced tea and be on our way. I requested the Bentley for fun and was politely told it was only for the 4 major suites at the property (The Astor Estates and the few other larger suites). The huge van we were in was probably more comfortable any ways. Had a direct flight which got us to the resort around 7, and we were lucky to have our room ready immediately (breakfast was not offered as complimentary that day).

Beach Villa: Wonderful hard product. Everything worked as it should, AC blew cold, and the ceiling fan really helped to keep the AC disbursed efficiently during the afternoon heat. The staff had even proactively setup the daybed by the window as my kid's bed, and he loved having his own setup. Welcomed with a bottle of bubbles, and a large fruit bowl. I will say that the GM left a nice handwritten note, addressed to the wrong titanium member. Assuming a mix up somewhere along the chain, but honestly not a big deal. Just thought it was funny. We had villa 311, and it had some brush directly in front of the pool, but it turned out to be nice for the extra privacy. We could still see the water from our room, but the pool was nice and private. Worked out very well for what we wanted. I appreciate that they provided a toddler bike with training wheels on it. My kid absolutely loved riding his bike on the island. We also requested a microwave and extra water stocked prior to arrival. I was actually surprised they had microwaves, but worked out well for the few kraft easy macs we brought. They also essentially left an entire case of water in the villa cabinet. Housekeeping replenished it daily, but I was told about the box, in case I wanted to get more myself at any time. We had the alcohol and mini bar cleared for space.

Garden Villa thoughts: In hindsight, if I was to go back, I would definitely opt to pay for the upgrade to an OWV or Beach Villa prior to arrival to guarantee room type. I would have been disappointed had I stayed in the garden villa. The garden villa has tons of space and the layout of the villa itself is identical to the 1 bedroom beach villas. The garden villas also have a much larger pool, maybe 2x the size of the beach villa. There is also a nice covered bench swing with a ceiling fan for lounging. It is a very very nice villa. That being said, coming to the Maldives you want to spend time gazing at the turquoise waters, not staring at jungle greenery. Especially if you are US based. We loved being able to take strolls on the beach every sunrise, steps from our villa. Same with playing in the sand. The garden villas are relatively close to the main beach, so you could spend a lot of time there, but a good majority of the folks who stay at the StR stay in their villas most of the time given the amazing hard product. The garden villas are an amazing hard product as well, but if you have a view of trees the entire stay you could be anywhere else in the world (Bali comes to mind, for a lot less money). Just an FYI I found the garden villas a bit distracting given their location. There was less serenity. Given their proximity to Alba there was a lot of buggy "traffic" whizzing back and forth which is clearly audible from your pool/garden. The staff quarters also seem to be right behind the villas which had activity/noise during calls to prayer etc. All of these things are small in overall nature, but added together they contribute to a less than serene stay. We were only in the garden villa for 4 hours and I noticed all these things. Given all of the trees and brush it was noticeably darker in the room as well. The beach villa we were in had none of that. Just serenity and the sound of gentle ocean waves the entire stay. I think the odds of upgrade are high as a titanium, but that being said, even on points you are spending a good amount of coin to come to the Maldives. The additional cost to guarantee the room type you want is probably not a huge deal at the end of the day. I was prepared to shell out money at check in for whatever room might have been available if I wasn't provided an upgraded room (OWV, SOWV, Suite etc). If I return, I'd definitely opt for the upcharge.

Butler Service: I was actually quite worried about getting a "not so proactive" butler given the varying levels of service reported here and on other sites. Our butler, Shamiu was fantastic. We also conversed primarily on Whatsapp and every request we had was promptly responded to. It was very convenient to operate this way. Everything from dinner reservations to coordinating afternoon tea (at different times each day, given our kids nap schedule was erratic) was done via Whatsapp. On our last day we had a late seaplane out at 4:45 PM, so he even arranged a move to a garden villa after 12 PM for the remainder of our stay since they needed to ready our beach villa for another guest. He handled all kinds of random requests for us and always delivered. He'd come find us at Breakfast or at lunch and check in to make sure things were going smoothly, but was never intrusive.

Food: Overall we thought the general food quality was excellent. Prices are expensive, but think about the cost to import everything and have staff cook it for you and deliver it to you etc. Once you get over that fact, you can enjoy yourself. We indulged without being excessive and we did ok on food costs. Just over $2K over 5 nights for family of three. Ordered whatever we wanted, didn't go nuts on booze but had cocktails/wine/beer at lunch and dinner, always plenty full.

Room Service - Somewhat limited menu, but during standard hours they have much more flexibility on what they can provide. For example they can deliver crust pizza for you (at a higher cost), but on my last day, I wanted to maximize the time spent with my family in the pool vs. going and spending 30 minutes walking to/waiting for a pizza. Cost difference? $29++ vs $47++. Also not sure if they would say anything if you didn't have a kid with you, but the kids menu cheeseburger at $21 was about 90% of the meal the adult cheeseburger was at $45. A few more fries and slightly larger pattie (like very slightly). We ordered ice cream with a meal, and they delivered it inside a small cooler. Probably mandatory given the heat, but a nice touch that kept our ice cream cold. You order via ipad and then they call you minutes later to confirm your order.

Crust - Fantastic lunch spot. We absolutely loved their seafood pizza. We probably ordered it 3 or 4 times. The crust was fantastic. You do have to eat it straight out of the oven or it does get chewy and soft from the heat and humidity. The Ahi soft tacos were also quite good. Whoever tipped to bring water from the room helped save $14 per trip as well. I still ordered a beer or two with lunch and thought it was worth the price of entry. Your lunch will look exactly like those Corona commercials.

Alba Breakfast - Very good selection given the size of the resort. For those individuals that want to be wowed by the buffet selection, you do have to think there are only 80 or so villas at this resort, so there would be so much food wasted if everything was cooked and replenished on a regular basis and left out. The a la carte menu was fantastic and had plenty of choices to mix things up daily. I even had them make me a maldivian fish curry once, and they obliged. The duck and waffles were so good I ordered it twice. The maldivian benedict was great as well. I wasn't a huge fan of the lobster/caviar omelette, but it was cooked fine. The drink service here had a tendency to get mixed up a lot, but it wasn't a huge deal. Order ice coffee they bring out iced tea. Pineapple juice? out comes passionfruit. Etc. It eventually got sorted, but was a tad annoying. We always requested a plate of fresh cut papayas and lime and they always obliged. As a titanium benefit, this was a wonderful breakfast.

Orientale - A good mix of asian dishes. The chinese food was solid and tasty, we skipped the japanese, but the curries were also fantastic. Service was unbearably slow the first night. Took almost 45 minutes for the first dish to come out. We told our butler the next day, and the service the next time around was on point. Also the inside tier is nice and breezy with the ceiling fans on full blast and dim lighting overhead. The outdoor seating can be a bit warm if there is no breeze. It is also quite dark outside. Almost too dark. The menus come out with lights because you can’t read them otherwise.

Cargo - A good relative value at $250, but a wonderful dining experience overall. The night we enjoyed Cargo it was relatively sparse with only about 3-4 other groups dining, so that made it more of an intimate experience. It was much quieter than Oriental (which was packed both nights we were there). The jungle theme with lighting and mist was cool. The wine pairings we ordered were also quite good. Although we ordered by the glass, they essentially were opening up new bottles almost every time. My almost four year wasn't into middle eastern food so they cooked him up a great bowl of spaghetti bolognese. As the jungle cinema was right next door, if we had another night, I might have opted for that experience. We ordered the primarily seafood menu and it was very good (seabass and tiger prawns).

Whale Bar - Beautiful. Get your free champagne, order another cocktail or so and then head to dinner. We always had a buggy pick us up at Whale bar after to take us to dinner. Ends up being a great "happy hour" while enjoying the sunset.

Decanter - We skipped. At $1000 per couple, and being from the Bay area, I'd just rather drop that at Benu. We did highly consider it, this is just one thing we decided not to indulge.

Spa - Fantastic. Massages we received were world class. Facilities (steam room/sauna) are very nice. We did the blue hole twice we enjoyed it so much. Those jets are no joke. They are like fire hoses. The views are amazing from the blue hole. We had the blue hole to ourselves both times we used it. With others it might not have been the same experience. The complimentary sessions may be booked with others, just FYI. I was given 10% off as a titanium member, but their 20% off special was better (9:30-12 and I think 7-9 PM)

Sunset Fishing - Tons of fun and good value, I caught zero fish. My toddler caught 3. He fed our family lunch the next day. Who knew grouper sashimi tasted good? A nice way to enjoy the sunset. You don't even have to add the bait to your line, just toss overboard and wait.

Sunset Yacht Cruise - I expressed my interest my entire stay but there were no other takers. At $1000 per couple, sunsetting on a yacht would have been a cool experience but it either got booked as a private charter ($3k for the two hours) or didn't go out. They told me with another room we could have split it two ways at $1500 each(which I would have done), but sadly there were no other groups interested during my stay. It's a nice looking yacht.

Scuba/Snorkel - I had an awesome instructor and really enjoyed my dive of the house reef. We spotted a turtle (I think it might have been the same turtle I spotted snorkeling given the size and shape). Overall I saw much more sea life diving than snorkeling, but given the condition of the house reef at the snorkel level, I was quite surprised to see as much sea life as I did snorkeling. I think the variety was much better than the Park Hyatt. Which was quite bleached when we went about two years ago. Given the age of the resort the coral needs time to repair itself after all of the construction, but thought it was in decent shape. The snorkel they provide does not have a dry top mechanism and their fins are crap FYI. We never got around to trying the Seabob, but it did look fun. We just chose to do more snorkeling.

Kids Club - Fantastic. You can clearly tell this resort caters to families (kids club, playground, kids bikes, kids meals, the sheer number of family size villas, etc). Be forewarned, I'd almost say that 40-50% of the occupants during our stay were families with one kid or more. I saw many families with multiple kids and extended family. If you want adults only, there are plenty of other resorts that cater only to adults. This is a place that does embrace people who travel with kids. The attendants at the kids club were awesome. My kid loved spending time there. He baked a cake, painted a coconut ship, did all sorts of other arts and crafts, and vegged out and watched movies in ice cold AC. Great for mid-day heat.

Service - Excellent. Sure were there minor issues here and there, but every time they were given a chance to recover they did. No stay is every picture perfect. Everyone we encountered was hospitable and always greeted everyone with a smile. The only time I met the GM was when we were leaving. I did miss the manager's reception though. That being said, the entire staff was incredible and we had a fantastic time. Our villa service attendant was probably the most thorough we have ever seen in all of our travels. Every nook and cranny was cleaned, the iphone charging cables were neatly wrapped and organized every day, the toiletries were evenly spaced apart and facing the exact same direction, my kids stuffed animals were always "tucked" into bed, next to his towel animal he created. I mean this guys attention to detail was amazing. He took great care of us, and we in turn made sure to take great care of him at the end.

Overall – A fantastic stay with very good to excellent service, a family friendly and welcoming resort with an amazing hard product. I will say the resort does “filter” out a lot of the Maldivian charm with such fancy resort grounds, but overall we had nothing to really complain about. We had a fantastic stay and would definitely return. A lot of the grounds are actually quite similar to the Park Hyatt, but the Park Hyatt just looks a bit dated compared to the StR. We really enjoyed the service at the Park Hyatt as well. If we were coming back with our kid, I would definitely come back to the StR.