Falcons05

Here is my review: I am a diamond member from Minnesota.

We booked 6 nights on points - so 600k points. Originally booked at the Conrad but changed once this opened up to book points. We got the $370++ per return rate and they honored it.

We arrived Saturday Nov 2 a little after Noon local time. Our plane was about half hour late from Rome (Alitalia). Once we grabbed our bags, a WA person was waiting for us at the exit. They walked us to the yacht - which was the Princess 52. There were 2 other couples waiting on the yacht (no idea how long they were waiting). The yacht ride was ok - not sure who would go to the rooms for a half hour-45 min ride but they were available. We had water and the fruit skewers - snack wise was okay.

We arrived at the hotel and sat in Peacock Alley while our butler took our passports. He then asked for a credit card to cover expenses on the island. He wanted to charge $3,000 usd. We gave him our bank card (listed debit, but commonly used as credit). It did not work. Thankfully, I brought my credit card for emergency backup but have a relatively low limit - so he charged $2,000 on my credit card. Pretty annoying since we have never had an issue traveling the world with our bank card. And yes, we did let the bank know and tested it at the airport When we departed and it worked.

Our butler drove us to our beach villa - 605. I did not request any certain villa or direction etc. I was extremely happy with our villa location. It was in walking distance to breakfast, and was still private. We had a large amount of beach with no “beach drop off due to tide” like a lot of others had. We also had a cool solo rock pile by the drop off that offered even more snorkeling for us.

The bikes are a nice feature - however one of ours was taken when we were at the main pool and they left a broken one. Ours did not have numbers on the back of it. When we asked our butler for a new one, he took hours to get a different one.

FOOD: Breakfast was great - the only thing I disliked was the liquids are all warm - but this seemed to be more of an island thing all around than just breakfast. Just weird drinking warm chocolate milk. We had a pizza at the pizza bar By the main pool. It was really good. I told the waiter we would just have water, and he brought a $12 bottle of Evian water - already poured by the time we looked. I told him we didn’t want that and we wanted house water, and his response twice was I already poured it. For reference: any other time during the trip that we wanted water, it was always provided house water. Otherwise, we did not eat at any restaurants. I thought they were price gouging in all aspects of food and I stand by that. We had snacks in our room (pop tarts, sandwiches). We also cooked ramen in the “tea kettle” (?). Worked great! I brought a small thing of dish soap to clean everything after every use.

HOUSEKEEPING::: first off, the do not disturb and make room buttons - are not really followed at all. So note that. They would just show up - I’m assuming this will get better with time and training. They did a great job of housekeeping and would give us 6 liters of water per day (keep full basis). I tipped when I saw them - but it’s tough because I never knew if they were coming or not. One day we left the make room button on all day and they never came. Not a huge deal.

ACTIVITIES::: we did one offshore activity - the sunset fishing. $95++ per person for 2 hours. We went when the weather was questionable with lightning all around. It is more like “line fishing” where you just hold the line and pull up 60 feet. Our boat caught about a half dozen for 10 of us...not good. The other boat had a pale full. It was from 6pm to 8pm island time - which is too late in my opinion - it should be 5pm to 7pm because it’s pitch dark at about 7pm. We could not keep our fish to cook because we were leaving the next day. You can not eat them the same night. So plan your trip accordingly. We took a paddle boat out in the lagoon - it was pretty neat. Do it on a calm day because it is a larger area than one thinks and is a workout.

SNORKELING::: I was disappointed with the snorkeling around the resort. It wasn’t good. This will take a few years to get better I suppose - but it wasn’t much fun. I was not going to pay for an excursion of something that should be around the resort at no charge. The best snorkeling we had was at the boat dock “east” of the welcome center. The only issue was boats were coming in and out for trips - they are very mindful of you but keep an eye out for sure.

AFTERNOON DRINKS::: we specifically just went to this to get pop - since it was $7++ per can. We did not drink. The snacks were not our style - so we would just go for a pop and leave.

BUTLER::: our butler seemed like you were bothering him when we would call. He also would come into our room and leave some papers if we did not answer our phone (I left it in the room a lot of time). That was kind of weird in my opinion.

VILLA: I thought the beds were uncomfortable - I’m not a firm guy though. My fiancé liked it. The a/c works great. Everything is controlled on the iPad, neat at first but we eventually just used the buttons on the wall because finding the iPad every time got annoying. The blinds were pretty blackout so that was nice. We brought a white noise machine I use to travel, because it is dead silent at night. Other than a bat that apparently lives in or under the roof of our villa that would make noise all night. The water in the showers - both outside and inside - never got hot. It was luke warm. The tub did get hot water. The bathroom was kind of weird in my opinion - having it in a glass box with a door that doesn’t “shut”. Yes I was traveling with my fiancé - but you need some privacy too.

Overall, I thought the resort was ridiculously overpriced and not worth the cost - especially $ wise but also point redemption. The best part about the trip was the villa and privacy - but nowhere near what they think they can charge. Plus they gouge you at every corner. This is my first trip to the Maldives, which I’m sure isn’t unheard of. I honestly didn’t feel like the resort was far and beyond a higher class Carribean resort (with the exception of the villa) at a fraction of the price and likely all inclusive.

These are my opinions - I know I’ll catch some grief for not eating any food there and saying the Maldives didn’t seem much better than the carribean, but that’s my opinion and the 2x day travel vs 4 hours factors in as well.