We just stayed 5 nights on points... getting that free 5th night is nice. Quick little report, as I feel the need to give back to this site, as I get so much from it!
Trip from AMS through Doha to Male overnight was fine. Arriving in The Maldives in the morning is great, but not getting much sleep does start you off kinda tired.
Seaplane to W was cool trip... expensive of course.... around $600 per person roundtrip. We made one stop at another resort, so it took about 45 mins total.
Upgraded from "fabulous" overwater room to "spectacular" overwater room... The room was great. Bed was firm. View is of course amazing. We hate the lack of door to the bathroom area, and the toilet room door that doesn't actually go to the ceiling. It's a trend we wish would go away... We like a bit of privacy now and then... The deck and outisde of room are showing their age just a bit... the sea water takes a toll.
Food is eye wateringly expensive, as expected. We had free breakfast with our Bonvoy status, so that became a way to fill up and then skip lunch. Over the 5 nights/6 days, we spent about $1000 on food... no lunches, free breakfast and very minimal drinks and such. The food quality is fine... but not anywhere close to what you would expect for the price. The was the biggest negative by far of the trip. Almost every night there was some sort of "all you can eat" event happening at one of the restaurants. We joined the "Asian Market" night... $110 per person... a row of about 8 food stations were set up outside with everything from make-your-own soups to fresh grilled meat skewers to a wok-noodle station... it was a nice atmosphere, but again... before drinks, was it worth $220, of course not.... but you are out in the middle of the Indian Ocean on a tiny island... so it's all just to be expected.
June/July is the rainy season... we knew it going in.. and wow... did we ever get a storm! Waves crashing over our deck.. parts of our roof blow off... other rooms lost cushions from deck furniture (we saw them floating by). All in all, we lost about 1.5 days of "sun time" to the weather, but were very content relaxing, reading, and enjoying the room.
The staff is golden. All of them.... from the greeter in Male (Cindy, she was amazing), to the restaurant crew, to the house keeping staff... all so friendly and focused on customer experience. They do a great job.
The island is nice. Obviously small.. it's part of the experience. We walked around the whole circumference in about 25 minutes. A couple of the beach spots have amazing sand and water access. We snorkeled a ton. Swam with a giant sea turtle and got some amazing videos. Was my partners' favorite part, she is still so happy we found the turtle.
We used AA points to fly roundtrip from AMS. So all in, this "free trip" with travel and accommodations all on points ended up costing us about $2300. I am not sure you can do a resort like the W for much less.
So... verdict? If anyone cares... We are glad we went. We have a ton of Marriott points from work travel, and The Maldives certainly offers one of the best "values" for redemption. This isn't really our style of vacation/travel... we love to be on the go, seeing new things, exploring, etc... and you just really can't do that here. We are definitely NOT luxury travelers either, so some of the whole experience of a private resort is just lost on us. We both agreed we would rather go to Greece or Spain than back to The Maldives... These places are way closer, have more to get out and do, and have better and far more affordable food.