Just completed a 5-night stay booked on points. Originally booked into an overwater villa and contacted the hotel for a paid upgrade to a sunset villa, as per the suggestions above. The hotel was almost sold out, so a Platinum upgrade or NUA award would have never cleared for us. End of day, I think this is 100% personal preference. The villas are mostly identical, with the difference being the sunset view. If you plan on enjoying sunset at the whale bar every night, that $200+ for your unused sunset views may be better spent elsewhere (like on $26 drinks at Whale Bar 😀
. We were overjoyed with the paid upgrade as we watched the sunset from our hammocks every night.
Arrival. We landed in Male at 7:30 a.m., easily met our butler at the airport, checked into the sea plane, boarded the van to the sea plane terminal (no Bentley or Mercedes here) and after a quick espresso in the lounge, we were whisked off to an 8:30 flight to the St Regis. The STR lounge in MLE was temporarily closed for renovations, so we used the business lounge, which was just fine for our 20-min stay.
Note: We switched on phones in MLE to touch base with home (USA) and soon thereafter received this text from AT&T:
Hi, it's AT&T. Welcome abroad! Please note your current international rates are: talk $3.00/min, text $0.50/msg sent. Cellular data service and photo/video msgs are not available in this country.
We’d already placed a short $30 call home, so use caution if you don’t want to rack up mobile charges.
The butler in MLE handled all check ins and the seaplane was super-easy with a quick stop about 10 minutes north of Vommuli. Greeted by Ali, our butler, on the plane pier and given a buggy tour of the island. Our room wasn’t ready until about 2p so we went to the lounge to refresh and change, then went to the gym for a few hours. The lounge was almost always empty and has good mens/womens facilities if you need them on that side of the island.
Gym. The gym is currently under construction/upgrade. The temp space isn’t huge and feels cramped when more than 3 people are working out. It has the usual array of equipment and machines. The new space sounds great with ice baths and new gear. Unsure of completion date. They offer free yoga in the mornings and meditation yoga in the afternoons—def book with your butler as my wife reported a busy class. Also note that the yoga is not at the gym but over by the pier.
Butler service. Avail 8a-11p. I’m a touch mixed on this. In many ways our butler was excellent, but there were definitely some communication miscues. We had WhatsApp’d in advance with dinner and spa requests including days and times, but when we arrived everything booked was way off from what we requested and needed to be adjusted — easily done but required another level of attention. We didn’t avail ourselves of many butler offerings (pack/unpack, pressing, etc.) and mostly used his services for making spa and dinner reservations. I can see how the miscues would be frustrating if you were paying $2000+ a night. For us, the inconvenience was minor.
Occasion recognition. We were celebrating our 20th anniversary, which was communicated to the hotel in advance. On check-in, we had an iced bottle of champagne, a tray of chocolates, a cake, a flowered tub, and bed with “happy anniversary” in flower petals waiting for us. Quite a nice welcome. We were also given a 45-minute session in the Blue Hole at the Spa—for the special occasion—which was great (more on spa below).
Room. We were on the sunset side in the late 530s, which is farther up the deck. We couldn’t see or hear another villa. In making a room request, I’d suggest asking for a room up from the Whale Bar as the first few sunset villas are close to shore (unless you do not want to traverse the deck back and forth). The room was fantastic—lots of info in the threads above, so I won’t dwell on it. We rode our bikes everywhere and didn’t use the buggies but they seem to be ready to give rides whenever needed. No fridge in the rooms, but we were able to clear space in the minibar to accommodate some leftovers, which were eaten as snacks the next day and a bottle of champagne that was drained 2 glasses at a time (bottle top was provided). As noted elsewhere, there is no 100% private accommodation (even for $17,000 a night) as snorkelers, swimmer, boaters, windsurfers etc. may pop up outside your deck at any moment—but we never found this intrusive. Just something to keep in mind if considering any outside funny business.
On the island, there was quite a lot of work going on as they were hurrying to finish repairs as high season is beginning. The hotel manager told me that there are plans in the works to significantly expand some of the beach villas to accommodate families. One is being completed now, with more to follow. You could hear the work going on but it was not intrusive and I believe they planned on completing in the very near term.
Spa. My wife had a manicure and pedicure one day and a body massage on another and came back raving about both. Our butler informed us that for special occasions, we also were being offered a 45-minute complimentary session at the Blue Hole, which was fantastic. Another couple was there, but it was not intrusive. The 45-minute session was more than enough—the jets are strong enough to shoot your skin off. We were slightly confused as to timing (and if we were going to get the boot), but no one really seemed to care how long we stayed. Afterwards, we were told that all guests have access to the spa sauna and steam room (and I assume the lounge chairs).
Food. Yes, it’s as expensive as you’ve read upthread. We were offered the 350 for 300 food plan but declined it as we don’t drink very much and are smaller people and don’t eat huge meals. Details:
Breakfast. Covered for Plats and above. Amazing offerings + Bloody Mary’s and champagne. As others have mentioned, I don’t think they care if you come and go or simply sit for 2 hours reading and noshing while enjoying the view, as we did. Tables were never an issue, especially for a resort at capacity. A la carte offerings end at 10:30a and the buffet was cleared by 11–but we were never rushed away from our table.
All restaurants have two seatings at 7 p.m. and 9p. 7p is a pretty liberal reservation, and you can pretty much wander in anytime. We didn’t eat at T Pan but at all others, attire was very much beach casual—I’d feel out of place in a bathing suit, but shorts, Ts, and flip-flops are totally appropriate. If you want to eat earlier than 7 you can use room service or Crust.
At each restaurant, we found that starters were almost as pricey as the mains, and most often we’d order three dishes and share. Portions are generous and were more than enough for us. As mentioned again and again and again—yes, water is $14 a bottle for sparkling or still. BUT it’s not the filtered water from the room (not offered at dinner)—it’s all brand water like San Pellegrino. Cocktails were ~$26 each, and glasses of wine started at $23 (sky is the limit). Our dinners ranged from $159 at Crust to $400 at Oriental, with a 5% to 10% extra tip included.
Crust and Craft—closes at 5 p.m. We biked over on the first night and got takeaway to enjoy on the deck for a perfect low-key adjustment night.
Alba has a very varied menu and was excellent. Cargo was Middle Eastern (Egyptian chef) — cool concept as it’s just a clearing in the jungle with a remote kitchen. Apparently, there are plans for some rain shades as rain forces everyone to run across the path to eat indoors at Alba. Plan accordingly if it looks cloudy. Dinner at Whale Bar was simple and excellent. Oriental was also excellent but felt like a place one would be most likely to find back home.
Tipping. I know this is subjective (and can be divisive), and I don’t want to invite a flood of angry posts and PMs, so I’m only sharing our experience here. The practice of “not expected but appreciated for good service” is in full effect. My read was that NOT leaving an additional gratuity felt like we were sending a direct message about the level of service. 10% is auto-included, and we generally added another 10% to the bill. When rooms start at $1500 a night, adding $20 for unbelievably friendly and helpful staff felt like a small gesture that would be incredibly appreciated (I have no clue what staff makes but can take some guesses). For our butler we left $150 in cash for a five night stay. We left housekeeping $50 in cash. All US $.
The water was rough when we were there and only snorkeled on our last day. I wish we had tried on our gear earlier as it didn't quite fit and it was a pain to get over to the dive shop. When you check in the butler will get your sizes and they will automatically bring the gear to your room. Our one snorkel day was great. Sadly we weren't able to use either the SUPs or kayaks because of the wind--but we made due on the deck all day.
Last but not least---BRING SUNSCREEN. I think it had been reported above that there was sunscreen available at the resort for guests but there was none in the room (I confirmed with the main lobby that the body cream did not have SPF) and none at the main pool. We ran out on the last day and a small Sunbum was $42.
LAST--MAKE SURE YOU GO ON LINE AND FILL OUT YOUR MALDIVES TRAVELLER DECLARATION PRIOR TO FLYING TO AVOID HAVING TO DO IT AT THE AIRPORT. QR FILLED US IN, BUT WE WEREN'T ALLOWED TO FLY WITHOUT IT.
Happy to answer any questions I can here or via PM.