Tea time is gone entirely - a surprising downgrade given what their new competition offers. We went to the free happy hour on the first day and never returned because it was very disappointing.
We were very surprised by our experience at CMRI. Almost all of the staff is still very nice in conversation - I can only think of 1-2 exceptions. However, things fall apart when an issue arises and you need them to complete a task.
Our experience will not be uncommon because it appears their strategy is to complete light refurbs/rebranding of their outdated hard product and hope that their guests don’t stay elsewhere and notice this difference in quality: Conrad = Summer Camp/youth hostel; WA/St Regis = 5 star hotel (BTW- we knew this going in and we were ok with this difference in hard product, it is the other elements we experienced during our stay that have changed our assessment of CMRI)
These light construction projects will strain staff capabilities (like it did on our trip) and you will be disrupted (eg, confirmed villa not available; no hot water; construction materials in your villa or AC goes down).
Also of note is that staff doesn’t go out of their way anymore and this is highlighted by the buggy situation: we walked as much as we could to avoid having to interact with Conrad staff about buggies (they were very delayed or seemed frustrated by the task). This has been a major contrast at the WA where in both instances where I was walking on the island a staff member in buggy passing by happily asked me if they could drive me somewhere - this never happened in 8 days at the Conrad on this trip.
In the end I don’t think this performance change is all that surprising. What would happen to the performance of any company if a significant number of staff left at the same time and had to be replaced?
Morale would go down and it would take a bit of time to train new employees and for the a new culture to be established. So far the old culture of service I used to experience at the CMRI now exists at the WA.
Originally Posted by
pineapple_09
I haven’t been on FT in ages - so spent a lot of time last night catching up on a few months’ worth of posts.
I’m so sad to read all the negative things about Rangali lately. We had a really great stay, we couldn’t fault it at all. The staff were amazing and went above and beyond for us. It was our third trip. I’m really disappointed to read about afternoon tea - is it gone completely now or just invitation only? I loved afternoon tea. As a non drinker myself (and my hubby doesn’t drink much anyway), happy hour doesn’t interest us at all but we loved afternoon tea.
Maldives Freak - you asked about how much SPF to take. We were there for two weeks. I think I brought 4 or 5 bottles of 250ml suncream SPF 50 for each of us (2 adults. 1 child) - we stayed in the shade a lot and don’t sunbathe at all (I am very pale!) - so yes, I think I brought about 3L of suncream!! Yes, my husband thought I was insane. LOL.
Most people don’t apply enough. Also, I wasn’t sure how much to bring so I figured I’d err on the side of caution. We had a couple of bottles not used in the end but I’d rather have too much than too little. It’s about 30ml suncream per adult per application so depends if you’re gonna be out all day in it or not so much. So that’s only 8 adult applications in a 250ml bottle so would last 2-3 days max. You probably have rash vests already, if not get an spf50 one so at least when snorkelling your back will be covered and you can save on the suncream for that.
A 30+ night stay would be amazing but I’m just thinking the logistics of packing all your clothes and spf etc for that trip would be a nightmare!!!
