I haven't had a chance yet to share my thoughts and data points on the stay we completed about 2 weeks ago, so here goes. I wasn't planning to do a full review because there are already plenty of those, but I did want to point out a couple of things (not in order of importance).
- I booked straight into a St Regis Villa using all points. I emailed the resort and requested the coveted villa 535 and I felt really lucky to be awarded that villa for our full stay
. I am Gold and my husband is Plat but I was not expecting any upgrade having booked an STR OWV and requesting 535 so we were absolutely fine with that.
- Regarding the villa location, we liked it because it was about halfway up the jetty so not too far to walk to places if we wanted to. We obviously also like the relatively warm pool that comes with having a villa on the Sunset side - I say relatively warm because I was actually expecting a bathtub warm pool based on the hype that people give a sunset pool but the temperature was lukewarm at best; sometimes the ocean water was even warmer than the pool. I can't imagine what the water temperature in a non sunset pool would be but I haven't tried it so can't say. The fact that we were on the sunset side also shielded us completely on many days from wind and choppy waters. We would walk on the jetty and there would be a really strong breeze and we would see how choppy the water was on the sunrise side but then the water on our side behind our villa was super calm and enjoyable snorkel in.
- The only thing I really really disliked about our villa location is that because it's so central there are "buggies" (go-karts) passing by back and forth at practically all hours of the day and night and they make quite a noise on those wooden walkways. When you're inside the villa it's ok, passable, but the noise was loudest if we were out on the back deck relaxing - it was just really annoying. If I had to choose again, it would be a tough call for me if to request this villa again and just live with that noise or rather take at STR OWV all the way at the end of the walkway where the number of passing buggies is way way less.
- The actual villa itself was phenomenal and spacious and the larger pool actually allowed for doing real swimming in it when I wanted to avoid the salty water.
- Being in the Maldives for the first time, I really enjoyed the snorkeling and seeing all those colorful fish up close. I did not see any sea turtles or eagle rays (did see some rays and even baby sharks once when walking near the water by the beach area but not while snorkeling) but I was perfectly fine with the range of colors and sizes of fish as well as coral that we did see as first timers.
- On our last day we requested and were granted a 4 p.m. late checkout (which I believe is a guaranteed Plat benefit) because our seaplane was scheduled to leave around that time. However, they said we cannot stay in our Villa and would be moved at noon to a Beach Villa. We were disappointed because it basically meant that we weren't able to do anything that day. We didn't wake up early enough to have enough time to do any snorkeling and swimming and still be able to shower and pack up thereafter to be ready for the 12 p.m. move; after that we were all packed up already so it wasn't like we were going to do anything so we just lounged around in the new villa and relaxed. And then we were given what is probably the worst beach Villa (301) as it is closest the seaplane arrival jetty - they obviously gave it to us since it's the least used villa in the resort and occupancy was quite high while we were there. So to the poster above, make sure you don't get this villa! In addition to being so close to the arrival jetty, the beach for this villa was practically off of a quite steep cliff due to the high winds shifting all the sand to the left - our butler said they would be bringing in sand to "fix" the beach on this end. The actual villa itself was quite nice and the outdoor shower out back is pretty cool. I did like the setup and the extra space in the STR OWV much better and would definitely go back to that rather than stay in beach villa but it was nice to experience it for those few hours.
- Occupancy rate during our stay according to our butler was at 80% - 90% but we did not feel or see any crowding at all. We did spend a lot of time just enjoying our villa, deck, and snorkeling in the ocean off our villa, but when we did venture out and walk or bike the place did not feel overrun. I believe this is what most people feel even when the resort is at close to full occupancy - it is big enough that you don't ever feel like it's stuffed.
- As I mentioned in a previous post, we received a fruit basket as a welcome gift in our room upon arrival. According to the Wiki it can be refilled upon request, however our butler said they no longer do that - you just get it once as a welcome and that's it because they found that a lot of fruits went to waste as many people didn't eat it. I told him that that's why I thought it switched to "on request" because if your'e requesting it means that you're actually eating the fruits, but he said that no, they don't refill at all. So unless others have had alternate recent experiences where their fruit WAS refilled on request, I think I will go ahead and update the Wiki to state that the fruit basket is a one time thing, so others are aware of this and won't be disappointed like I was - I know it's nothing major but we try to eat healthy and we had been looking forward to having fresh fruits daily.
I think that's it
. If I think of anything else I'll be sure to add it and if I can, I'll be happy to answer any questions anyone has.