Wadge

It started bothering me too... I do have children also but I would go here to relax and rejuvenate with my wife. You may be lucky now as they are quiet but if not your "once-in-a-lifetime" holiday is wasted.

Did you book yourself online or with the service center? I tried it today but when I clicked on BOOKING RESERVATION it failed each time. I called the Diamond desk and they said they can only book me smoking one??!! Is there smoking villa at all?

Land-of-Miles

Ouch, I can only imagine your final bill

I would be happy to take the villa I had this year again but not if I have sprogs next door. To be honest I don't even want sprogs on the same island let alone next door and this is the spoiling factor for me, if they are allowing kids free reign contrary to prior assurances.

kryten22uk

I got the same failures when trying online. So phoned up for the booking. Was never offered smoking or non-smoking. Would want the latter, and it is in my HH profile. When the rates are settled, I'll contact the hotel to discuss UG options, and also settle the room type/number.

Oh I dont know, I dont see it being too big. Got free accomodation and free breakfast, so just need to pay for food and drink. Not likely to do any excursions, mainly because they dont particuarly interest me. The UG to DBV might be pricey (if these latest rates dont change) but if it is, then I might just stick with the basic villa. Its still bigger than the majority of other Maldive resorts villas anyway.

soy

I am *G and we flew in C so we had no real problem with the luggage limit. We had 3 large cases + Quinny Zapp stroller and car seat. We actually had the stroller and car seat in the cabin with us. I specifically bought the Zapp for this trip due to its small size.
The hotel provided a cot and we brought enough food & nappies for baby Soy. We were there for one week.

rkaradi

Sorry I was not clear I too and *G so not worried about the flights to MLE, I was referring to the seaplane, and the 50 LB limit and the ($5 per addl kilo) I think. How did that fare for you w/ what you brought..Also was the stroller helpful on the island, or was it mainly used to get to/from the airports and other travel? I just can't see using it on the sandy beaches etc.

Wadge

Yeah, I did the same and as I have "non-smoking" in my profile, they couldnt book me anything as they said only smoking??!! is available. I try it later, I hope they will fix everything, including the hillarious room rates as well.

Sydfly

Yes, this year the weather was quite unusual for April. We never had two days with rain in a row there before. We were on the OW island facing the reef and the wind blew very strong for several days last week. The rainy season usually doesn't start until later in May but this year it came early and it rained heavily last week. We still had a fantastic holiday but I would not come back in April again...probably March is the safer option.

sharklover

The weather ther is unpredictable. I was there last June and had rain 1 day and then 8 days without a cloud in the sky. When I was there I heard that the previous December it rained for 2 weeks straight. I am going again this June. I hope I am as lucky as I was last year.

mauinow

Was it worth it? Not really. Just returned from a 6 night stay. Used awards and was taken to a beach villa. Very noisely, children next door, a/c is not very good, can't see water from the room. After the first night, went over to the other island, to see about getting a water villa, but told they were all filled up. Then after telling them I was Diamond, all of a sudden, they have 3 rooms. The first smelled of smoke, but the second was fine. The villas are very tired looking, when the tide in down in the morning, a horribe smell from the water, but it goes away as the water rises. It cost about $600 USD to upgrade a night, so my free vacation just went up about $3000. Now the food situation, beyond expensive. Wanted to eat at the underwater restaurent, but at $350 per person, no way could it be that good. In fact met family that were told childen needed to pay the adult rate. None of the restaurents were very good, and very small portions. Breakfast was ok on the big island, but eating breakfast on the small island was excellent. Happy hour was free on the small island if you were in a villa. it is only from 5-6 in the evening, but very peaceful. Seaplane is not worth almost $900 for two for a 30 minute flight.

Land-of-Miles

I am sorry that you did not enjoy your stay. Whilst I would have issues with children next door (or indeed children anywhere in close proximity) I think that all your other issues could have been reasonably predicted by reading this thread in advance. Whilst I thought the restaurants were a little pricey that is in part due to the unique nature of the resort, the costs of importing foods and taxes on alcohol.

I have been through several high end hotels in Thailand in the last week and prices would be quite comparable with the Conrad Maldives were it not for the fact that I have a local discount card.

Anyone expecting a cheap stay at this resort is likely to be disappointed in terms of experience or end outlay but if you can relax about the price you can have a great experience. If the cost is the primary issue then it is probably better to choose an alternative resort.

I would still like a definitive answer form the resort about children in Water Villas however. I assume the lack of response means that whilst they give the impression that children under 12 are not allowed the reality it is free reign to everyone. That is rather sad and will impact our future stay plans.

soy

I had to pay extra for the sea plane - but I put that down as a price I had to pay to get to Rangali. The stroller was not of much use in Maldives, however we also took in SIN and HKG for a few nights so we needed it for that.

pineapple_09

Wow just saw the 2012 rates for April 2012 There has to be a mistake. Spa WV for over $3k a night? Last week you could get April 2012 Spa WV for around $950 a night (advance purchase dinner on 1st night), and this year for the same time there was also an advance purchase rate of $888 (no dinner included).

I'm so hoping that's a mistake of some sort .... otherwise for $3k a night, I won't be going next year as planned for the two weeks

tom-schmitt

Still at Rangali at the moment I talked with the front office. They told me that the actual rates for 2012 will be displayed in August and that the rates actually shown in the Hilton website are not correct.

Sydfly

I know the smell you mention and it was quite strong around the Quiet Zone and Vilu restaurant last week. We were staying on the other side of the island and there was no smell from the water.

Having said this our experience with the food has always been excellent. We only had our first bad meal in Vilu this time where both main courses were below expectation and staff didn't care which was a real disappointment for our last night's dinner. But we ate in Vilu twice and the first time the food was excellent.

SteveF

I'm surprised to read comments about villas smelling of smoke and that only smoking villas were available. I thought that smoking was not allowed inside any of the villas due to their wooden construction.