Just finished up a 9 night award stay under two separate reservations, 5 on points and 4 on FN certs. Initially had a 2 bedroom reservation at the StR but shifted here due to schedule conflicts and to attend opening. They allowed us to stay in the same room. In terms of service, I would even go out on a limb say best I’ve experienced in all of my travels. There’s several people poached from other luxury properties, even within the Maldives. IE: The #2 in charge is from the W Maldives and the head of reservations if from the StR Maldives. So service is still top notch for “just” an upscale property. I agree with Alpbeta and say service isn’t as personalized when compared to luxury properties. For example, you don’t get a dedicated butler like at WA, StR, Ritz, etc. Personally, I actually prefer the team based style here. I feel like butler service can be a YMMV, as my previous stay in the Maldives had butler service that came off as more optics than substance. At the LM, it seemed like everyone was on the same page, especially during opening week. We were here celebrating a birthday, and everyone, quite literally, from the airport escort to the owners of the resort offered birthday greetings (maybe one for each year LOL) and went out of their way to make the celebration extra special. Along with the usual birthday fanfare and cake, we even got a miniature model of the arrival pavilion boat to take home. We were also recognized and thanked multiple times for being Titanium and Gold members, maybe more than all of my travels, combined, post COVID, lol.

F&B is also strong here as mentioned previously. GM came from F&B side which is a factor. Not a wide variety of outlets, however. You have 3 main restaurants: Tabemasu (fine dining), Velaa (main lunch and dinner outlet), Turquoise (main breakfast outlet). The rest are some variations of a bar: Riviera (Beach Bar), Waves (Health Bar), and Latitude (Coffee Bar). We didn’t do a meal plan as we don’t drink alcohol and were happy with the decision, especially with the added loyalty discount and lack of restrictions. It seems you could opt in for a meal plan after check in, so maybe do a test run at the start of your stay to see if it’s really worth opting for. The portions for mains at the Velaa are fair and filling; we could usually survive with just breakfast at Turquoise and two mains at Velaa.

As expected, there are some teething and design issues. I felt this especially for transportation. There’s no bikes, the FO has at most 7 buggy’s available. When occupancy picked up, waiting time could sometimes be around 30 minutes. The roads are quite narrow and barely wide enough for two buggies, so there’s added congestion when a custodial or in room dining buggy is parked on the road. For the OWVs, the buggies either pull an Austin Powers in between the segments or drive to the end of the pontoon to circle around. Experienced a few buggy “love taps”.

Other “stuff in-progress”. The Olhuvelifushi pontoon and Thilamafuushi Villa are still not open for guests. I tried to get a haircut at the spa but they still have a beautician vacancy. Meal plans are still a work in progress; still haven’t got an itemized list of drinks or meal plans sets. Some of the frontline staff, like our housekeeper, haven’t even had a day off since opening so everyone is in high gear,

Water sports and dive center is great, maybe a bit pricey ala carte, so packages are the way to go. Did snorkeling, diving, glass bottom canoeing, catamaran sailing, and sunset fishing. All fantastic experiences. Our boat only caught one fish during sunset fishing so they offered us a second chance on the house. I don’t know if this is a goodwill gesture or standard policy, but we were the only two guests out of the 6 that returned on the next trip. If you catch fish, you can have it cooked for $30 each. Marine life and house reef is amazing, definitely a selling point for the resort as mentioned previously.

The luxury vs. upscale discrepancy is most noticeable in the hardware and amenities. It’s not really a fair comparison to the LM (kinda like comparing full service airlines vs. LCC), but might still be worth answering. No motorized curtains or shades, no electronic bidet, no in-room electronic tablet, smaller floorplan footprint, Malin Goetz toiletries, no private transport to seaplane terminal, shared seaplane lounge, no on-property photography service, etc. Could be a deal breaker for some, so wouldn’t recommend this property for first timers to the Maldives. That being said, I would personally return here, since I don’t find luxury amenities worth the price premium.

I think the resort has done a fantastic job, and seems to be selling itself. There’s several here on award stays, loads from North America. I guess many points and miles enthusiasts are seeing the outsized value of the LM being a Cat. 5 property. It was nice meeting some of you, especially the nice couple who gave us a fish to eat when we caught 0 fishes on our second sunset fishing!