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Jun 15, 2024 | 1:06 pm

#289

mharlan100

Join Date: Nov 2017

Posts: 126

This write up is based upon our experience using points to book the Waldorf Astoria Seychelles Platte Island. We used our own Hilton points for the rooms, and paid using our own cash for everything else. We did not have any special arrangements with the resort and I’m not an influencer of any kind, so I would like to think my experience would be reflective of what you might experience at the resort under similar circumstances.

SEZ Arrival Experience
We were greeted immediately after baggage collection by a representative of the Waldorf Astoria who escorted us to the lounge for refreshments. Having someone to meet us was very helpful. He came back when it was time to check in and escorted us to the counter and security. Regarding the lounge itself, I understand that everything except alcohol was covered by the Waldorf Astoria, but we did not test this with food. There are bathrooms and a shower there for use. The lounge is comfortable, and there was AC, but it was not quite as cool as other lounges elsewhere.

Flight to Platte Island and Welcome
If you’ve seen the resort's social media posts, then you already know the airplane you use to fly to the island. It seats about 16 people and it is a tight, warm ride. There is no overhead storage and my large backpack was too big to fit under the seat. It rode on my lap and no one seemed to notice or care. I viewed this as a good thing because the WA welcome email is pretty specific about additional charges for baggage that exceeds certain sizes or weights, including carry-on baggage. No one ever asked me about it or weighed our carry-ons, which is good since I already knew my backpack was twice the weight limit listed in the email. We were not charged extra in either direction. It’s hot when loading into this plane. Once the engines come on, each seat has a single AC vent, which does a decent enough job keeping you comfortable. It’s ok for a 20 minute flight but a long flight would be uncomfortable. We did not have any bad weather coming or going, so the flight was smooth and uneventful, although it is a bit loud by the engines. There is a schedule for flights to/from the island, but I discovered that sometimes they do deviate from it. Sometimes there are private charters one way that could impact the time of the reverse flight. Staff members also routinely fly the aircraft to and from the island. Upon arrival we were immediately greeted by our Concierge who escorted us to our villa and gave us his contact via WhatsApp. There we found a welcome gift in the form of some fresh fruit and an iced bottle of Prosecco. It’s unclear if this for all guests or just because we are Hilton Diamond.

Villa
We booked the base King room for three nights using free night certificates and three nights using points via two separate back to back reservations. We were upgraded to the Hawksbill Pool Villa about nine days in advance in the Hilton app. This was confirmed via email a few days prior to arrival. The villa is everything you’ve seen in the promotional videos with three separate areas for a sitting room, bedroom, and bathroom. There are slide out dividers you can use to fully partition the rooms from each other as well as sheer and blackout curtains on all the windows. With the panels closed the first night, it was slightly warm, but partially opening the one between the sitting room and bedroom seemed to improve the AC circulation and we never even thought about it again. The whole Villa feels brand new, as it should. The worst I can say about the villa is that the shower backed up a bit a couple of times, but quickly drained back down after use. We also had a couple of friendly visitors…a gecko and a spider made their way inside the villa but otherwise left us alone. If I’m being totally honest, I don’t think I’ve ever not had a creature of some kind enter my villa in a tropical destination, regardless of how fancy or expensive it is. The geckos love me at these places.

Villa Deck, Pool and “Yard”
The private villa pool is great as expected. It’s not quite as big as the one at the WA Maldives, but it’s more than enough for two people. If there is anything negative I can say, it’s that the birds do poop in it quite a bit, which is unavoidable in a location like this. I saw staff cleaning the pool a few times and it seems to be well filtered. I don’t get bent out of shape over things like that since I also swim in an ocean filled with fish poop and don’t think twice about it. There is an outdoor shower that is accessible from both inside and outside. The deck is large and the villa was stocked with 6 pool/beach towels at all times that were replaced daily if used. The “yard” has a couple of chairs for laying out as well as an umbrella. The grass they have growing is very similar to the St. Augustine grass I have growing in my backyard. My wife laid out a few times, but otherwise this is just an aesthetically nice private area that provides access to the beach. I should point out that you cannot directly see the beach from your deck, pool or back yard.

Transportation
Each person receives their own bicycle, including customized nameplate, which was a nice touch, although we never rode it. We just walked most places. If we needed a ride for dinner, it was very quick and easy to call for a buggy.

Resort Facilities

Wi-Fi - Free and fast enough for Netflix through a VPN without issues. AT&T WiFi calling worked seamlessly as it has on other similar trips. Unsurprisingly, WiFi only works within a reasonable range of your villa or the resort buildings. It won’t work at the beach. I was told the island is using Starlink for internet access.
Main Pool - Very nice and no one uses it. I guess this is not a surprise since each villa has its own pool.
Spa, Tennis Courts, Gym - I have no reason to believe these are not spectacular, but I did not use them. I was amused at having such a nice looking tennis court, but every time I went looking for a tennis racket, I ended up with a cocktail in my hand instead.

Restaurants/Bars
A quick note here. In my opinion, dining at the Waldorf Astoria Seychelles is relatively “high concept”. Unfortunately, I am not a “high concept” eater or a food snob. I’m pretty easily pleased, so I would consider this when reading my thoughts on dining there. Not every menu has pricing on it, so you need to ask about it. As you may have expected, this is an expensive place to eat. Dinner with a couple of drinks each can easily run you $400+ for two people and much more if you order starters and other extras.

La Pearle - This is the only location open for breakfast and lunch. It’s the more “general” restaurant with options that range over a variety of food types and origins. It is also open for dinner most nights and services In-Villa Dining as well. We had breakfast here daily. It’s à la carte off the menu, but they will make pretty much everything you ask for, including items off the in-villa dining menu. I love food, but I’m a pretty basic eater, so I stuck to the boring English breakfast most mornings and found it to be perfectly good. The fruit platter was excellent each morning as well. We had lunch and dinner here a couple of times and had no complaints.
Maison de Epices - This restaurant puts a lot of emphasis on its cocktail creation and I did enjoy the unique drinks prepared off the menu here quite a bit. We ate here twice. The first time I went simple and ordered the reef fish and I did not care for it much. The second time, I went for the New Zealand red deer and this was excellent. I should also mention that the starter ordered was a skewer of ostrich, springbok and kudu. This was fantastic. I wish they had a main entire of these three meats as I thought it was excellent.
Moulin - This is the most expensive restaurant to dine at. In my lay opinion, this is “super-high concept”, with ingredients sourced from the local island garden, if possible. I understand that this restaurant initially only served a vegetarian menu, but has since started offering various meat add-ons, such as chicken and beef, due to demand for it. There are four set menus that are on a rotation. We only ate here one night, so I have no idea how the other menus are. I went out of my comfort zone and opted to not add any meat as I was curious to try the multi-course meal as intended. The chefs take a lot of pride in what they are crafting here, and they were indeed able to take only plants and vegetables and make them far more appetizing than I ever could, but it will come at a co$t.
In Villa Dining - The Villa has a decently stocked mini-bar which they will customize at your request. We picked up a couple of bottles of liquor at the airport duty free store coming into SEZ and had the resort stock the mixers we chose. The resort provided unlimited still or sparkling water in the room, although we were charged for it inconsistently at the other restaurants. We ate three times in-villa and found it to be enjoyable, easy and everything was very good.
Lalin - This is the premier stand alone bar with the sunset views. They pride themselves on making drinks to your liking and preference. They have some unique drinks that I tried off their menu and I enjoyed coming here most nights, even thought we only had one really nice sunset during the six nights we were on the island.

Activities

Solar Farm Tour - This was somewhat of a “behind the scenes” tour that is offered on Sundays. They did give it to me by myself on a different day since we were departing on Sunday. I can see how this might not be for everyone, but I found it very interesting as they more or less have created a small self-sufficient city on an island. There is no external link to power or water, so this is created on the island through solar power with diesel generator backup. Fresh water is produced via desalinization. I was also able to see a bit of the staff quarters and how they live. Highly recommended if you appreciate this sort of thing.
Discovery Center - They had an evening meetup at the newly opened Discovery Center with their Environmental Manager who answered all sorts of questions about the wildlife on and around the island. Of note, they did pour free wine at this event. I thought this might be a “one glass” sort of encounter, but they kept pouring which was a nice surprise.
Tortoise Enclosure - Our Concierge scheduled a private visitation with the island’s Biologist who answered all our questions about the five giant tortoises housed on the island. They are expecting to eventually have over 100 of these tortoises at this location.
Environmental Walk - Each morning, a team walks the perimeter of the island to check for new turtle nests or other activity. We were able to walk with several other guests as well as the Environmental Team and the resort General Manager. This is a must do activity as you get to see the entire island and learn about it in the process. Seeing the turtle nests and asking questions to the people who are actually doing the work on the island was a great experience. I would do this activity earlier in your stay versus later, as it helps familiar yourself with the island, including which beach areas you may want to visit later.
Snorkeling - This was a bust. We tried to have snorkeling excursions multiple times, but unfortunately they were always canceled due to “rough water”. This was a disappointment as snorkeling directly off the beach was possible, but not what I hoped for with all the seagrass. I was hoping to go to the outer reef to some more open locations that had been identified as being good for snorkeling.

Staff
I can only say wonderful things about the staff on this island. We met several of the managers and I can say that they went out of their way to ensure that we were having a good time. This extended all the way through everyone working the restaurants, housekeeping and activities. I never saw any indication that we were treated differently than guests who paid cash.

Concierge
We had two concierges since our first went on vacation a couple of days into our stay. The transition was seamless. I don’t consider myself to be a needy guest, but these two individuals were more than willing to take care of everything we asked. Just like the rest of the staff, they were excellent.

Hilton Gold/Diamond Benefits

Villa Upgrade - The upgrade from the King Room to the Hawksbill Pool Villa was by far the biggest benefit to us. Cash upgrade costs were obscene and ridiculous compared to the cash price difference for the villas. While I never saw the King room, I’m quite certain that I would have been disappointed if we had not been upgraded. Other people getting upgraded is what gave us confidence to keep the reservation. Right now the resort appears to have low occupancy, so your mileage may vary if things pick up.
Breakfast - Breakfast is 600 scr per person on the receipt, but is wiped off for billing. The only thing we paid for was alcohol. No bottomless mimosas here
Cocktail Class/Tasting - We were provided a complimentary tasting of our choosing at Lalin. I chose Japanese Whiskey as they had a wide selection.
Sunset Cruise - This was canceled more than once. We were never able to experience this even though we were there for six nights. Despite this cruise and our snorkeling being canceled, the weather was overall quite good. It was windy which is what we were told was creating the rough seas. It rained a number of times, but was generally sunny to partly cloudy again within 15-20 minutes. We did not have “bad weather” while we were here, although it was not mostly sunny everyday either.

Departure
Our island departure flight was scheduled for 11:45AM. Bags were picked up by 10:15 and we had to be available to close out by 10:45. The departure process was largely the same as arrival, but in reverse, including lounge access at the airport. As we had a late departure, we chose to fill some of the time gap by paying for a driver to take us to some scenic locations around the island. This was organized by the Waldorf and the cost was included in our folio. If you have 3-4 hours to pass, I’d highly recommend doing something like this.

Pros:

5 Star Property - This resort is brand new and everything is sparkling. The villas smell new.
Staff - Outstanding.
Service - Outstanding.
Food/Drinks - Overall very good. I liked some dishes more than others, and some of the things they are doing are probably wasted on my low-ish standards, but I can still appreciate the care they are putting into their ingredients and preparation. I think other more-discerning pallets will appreciate it more than I did.
Nature:
- If you are into a more natural and less artificial experience, then this is the resort for you. The resort is leaning hard into the natural ecosystem and being environmentally-friendly. That’s awesome, but that does come with some compromises that I’ll list below in Cons.
- Beach - The beach is very natural and varies quite a bit from low tide to high tide. The walkable sand area can go from being 30+ feet across at low tide to non-existent at certain locations during high tide. Walking underneath palm trees that overhang the ocean is very beautiful and definitely Instagram-worthy if that is your sort of thing. The expansive sand bars on the north and south of the island were definitely my favorite places to go as there was minimal sea grass, clear water and the most visible sea life. These are must visit areas.
- Visible Sea Life - You will likely often see sting rays and sharks right from the beach. We saw many from just a few feet away. You might even be lucky enough to see a turtle, although we didn’t see any from the beach.
- Seashells - I’ve never seen so many beautiful seashells on the beach. Most of them have hermit crabs in them. At certain times, there are thousands of hermit crabs on the beach, all in beautiful shells. Go right after high tide and you won’t be disappointed. We definitely saw more on one side of the island than the other, so it may depend on the time of year, wind direction, etc.

Cons:

Gift Cards - You currently cannot use Hilton gift cards at the property. This is a big miss as I have over $500 in Hilton gift cards I planned to use on this trip. I suspect many others might have similar plans and no one at the front desk could pull it off. I have upcoming Hilton stays I can use these at so it’s not a disaster to me, but if I didn’t have those upcoming stays this would have been a serious miss. Hopefully they get this fixed soon.
Amex - Similar to the Hilton gift cards, they don’t have a way to process Amex directly at the checkout. This is mind blowing as Amex is the issuer of the Hilton credit cards many of us have. The temporary fix is to send the information to one of the other Hilton Seychelles properties, Mango House or Northolme, for them to process the charges. Supposedly, the points will post eventually. My credit card transaction shows as Northolme, and the $200 Aspire credit did post correctly.
Expensive - This is not surprising and was well known before we committed, but there certainly are cheaper places, including ones in Seychelles near more iconic beaches. In particular, the flight to and from Platte Island costs about $1500/couple, which is why we went for six nights instead of three nights. There is no other way to get to this island unless you want to fly private for even more money, but that would be on the same Indiana Jones plane, so there is nothing to gain in my opinion.
No Gold/Diamond Happy Hour - Peacock Terrace has some great teas and coffees for free, but I miss that WA Maldives complimentary happy hour and endless mimosas with breakfast.
Nature:
- Seabirds - The birds are not on the ground, but they are in the trees and flying overhead everywhere. They are loud and don’t have pleasant tweets; more like uncomfortable squawks. I was crapped on twice during our six days and had a few near misses along the way. It’s a good thing that it rains so often here to help wash away their endless fecal bombardment. I’m not exaggerating. They poop so much that you can see the land mines clearly enough to step around them in the backyard grass.
- Seagrass, Seagrass and more Seagrass - This may be decisive but we have to talk about the seagrass. On one hand, if there was not so much seagrass, the island might not have nearly as much wildlife activity, including the turtle nesting that Platte Island is so famous for. However, this impacts the beach-going experience and everyone should have their expectations in check before they go here. If you want endless blue clear water over sand bottoms or coral reefs that are immediately available offshore to snorkel, then go to the Maldives or Bora Bora. Live seagrass circles the whole island within 10ft-30ft of the shore, with the exception of the two sandbars on the north and south ends of the island. Depending on the season, the beach in front of your villa may be inundated by piles of dead seagrass. During the time of our visit in June, this was far worse on the east side of the island, whereas the west side had little to no seagrass on the beach. We saw some of the areas being raked up, but this is a battle that cannot be fully won. After each high tide, twice per day, there will be new areas of dead seagrass on the beach in these areas. It seems that these areas change over time and maybe even day to day, so the best mitigation is probably to request a villa that is currently less likely to be near these areas. That’s fine while occupancy is low, but if the resort was at capacity, then all bets are off. I cannot imagine someone paying over $2K/night only to have a their beach location covered in piles of seagrass. Time will tell how the resort chooses to address this. My personal thoughts are that they will need to get more aggressive with daily raking in these areas, especially if they are putting paid guests into those villas.

Other Thoughts
We really enjoyed our time on Platte Island. It was similar, yet different, to other beach resorts we have been fortunate enough to have visited. At risk of starting a totally different topic and post, I’ll say that our favorite continues to be the St. Regis Bora Bora for a variety of reasons, although I would happily go back to any of them. I think the service at the WA Seychelles likely exceeded the other properties we stayed by a small amount, but that might be due to such a large staff to guest ratio and it could change under increased occupancy. Other resorts I’ve stayed at definitely experience significantly higher numbers of guests than I saw here. This resort is still new and I’m very curious to see if and how it changes over the coming years.