[ARCHIVE to 2013] Conrad Maldives Rangali Island {MDV}
Jan 20, 2009, 6:37 pm
#751
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Nov 2000
Posts: 16,093
When I visited Conrad Maldives last year, I noticed that too. There were a lot of Russians. The resort had far more Europeans than North Americans. There was also a sizeable number of Asians, presumably from Japan and Korea. One of the Russians really stood out, although I don't recognize his name, he seemed like a well known Russian actor or something, extremly good looking and an amazing body. I stayed at a Spa Water Villa so I past by the Spa reception daily, including treatment appointments. One day, I noticed all the ladies (staff, they are all Thai) in the Spa reception giggling in amazement among themselves. Not sure why at first until I saw that Russian man came out, in towel - and then he left after tipping them. You got to see the face of those women. I think they were really envious of the girl who just had the chance to massage him. 
Jan 21, 2009, 2:32 am
#752
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: The World
Posts: 113
The biggest expense for my trip were my meals/drinks moreso than the upgrade.
I don't get the value of the half-board option --it's not really a savings, but moreso a pre-payment of their Atoll dinner buffet. The half-board option was $70 and gets you dinner at the Atoll buffet -or- a 25% discount on a special meal. But with special meals averaging $260/person , the max discount you'd get is about $63 --which means you're paying $70 for a $63 discount. The dinner at Atoll is the same price whether you pay as you go or you pre-pay through the half-board option.
During my stay, I only felt like eating dinner there once... so had I gone the half-board route, I would have been wasting a lot of money.
The best way to save money on this trip though is to stick with Atoll Market and skip all the special meals. The buffet food is nice ...although if it were to be offered on the US mainland, it'd probably be priced closer to $35. If you go the route of a big complimentary breakfast, an afternoon poolside cocktail, and the Atoll market, you could probably skate by with about $100/day on food-drink.
But the Maldives are really paradise...so I'd recommend people to go only if they can splurge. Or at least splurge on at least one night (like do the Wine Cellar Dinner and stick to the buffet the rest of the nights.)
I considered myself on a fairly strict budget and didn't want to spend huge amounts of money on the trip. I was willing to spend $300-500/night for an upgrade, so when the upgrade was only a fraction of that, I did re-invest that money into the spa visit and special dinners.
I don't get the value of the half-board option --it's not really a savings, but moreso a pre-payment of their Atoll dinner buffet. The half-board option was $70 and gets you dinner at the Atoll buffet -or- a 25% discount on a special meal. But with special meals averaging $260/person , the max discount you'd get is about $63 --which means you're paying $70 for a $63 discount. The dinner at Atoll is the same price whether you pay as you go or you pre-pay through the half-board option.
During my stay, I only felt like eating dinner there once... so had I gone the half-board route, I would have been wasting a lot of money.
The best way to save money on this trip though is to stick with Atoll Market and skip all the special meals. The buffet food is nice ...although if it were to be offered on the US mainland, it'd probably be priced closer to $35. If you go the route of a big complimentary breakfast, an afternoon poolside cocktail, and the Atoll market, you could probably skate by with about $100/day on food-drink.
But the Maldives are really paradise...so I'd recommend people to go only if they can splurge. Or at least splurge on at least one night (like do the Wine Cellar Dinner and stick to the buffet the rest of the nights.)
I considered myself on a fairly strict budget and didn't want to spend huge amounts of money on the trip. I was willing to spend $300-500/night for an upgrade, so when the upgrade was only a fraction of that, I did re-invest that money into the spa visit and special dinners.
Jan 21, 2009, 3:56 am
#753
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: New York / Hawaii
Programs: UA Global Services, HH Diamond
Posts: 5,178
Air Travel
My fare priced out to about $16,500. Other First Class / Business Class fares from Philly were in the $14,000-$19,000 range and fares from New York were in the $9,000-$15,000 range.
If I were to do it again, I'd probably go the other way around the world, going through Dubai or Qatar with a possible stopover in Europe. When I toyed around with some dates with that routing, prices came in at $8,500-$18,000.
Jan 30, 2009, 11:44 pm
#754
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: SFO
Programs: United 1kMM; AA EX Plat, Hilton Diamond and SPG Plat
Posts: 2,014
Thanks for the great report, it is so insightfull, my wife and I are going in September and this just made us 1000% more excited then we already are. Many many thanks. ^^^
Was internet free or did it cost?
Have to ask, it sounds like you booked this in December was it hard for you to find award travel for January. Also what carriers did you fly on and what portions on each carrier? I'm guessing US,Thai,SQ and UA. How was the service etc.
Thanks
One thing I failed to mention in my trip report was the internet access.
Each villa had its own wireless hotspot... so if you're in villa 305, you'd connect to hotspot "305". Wireless access worked well around the villa... and in the deluxe beach villa, worked well outside towards the plunge pool.
But, and this is a big but, the broadband connection to the Resort is only 2Mbps. If you had more than a few people online at any moment, the connection crawled to a snail's pace. It took me about 20 minutes to upload 10 pictures and 4 and 1/2 hours to upload a 30 second video to Facebook. I found best speeds early in the morning (like 5-7am when most guests were sleeping and/or the resort staffers were offline.) The connection worked wonderful for sending text emails and doing things like Facebook status updates. But for anything more, like attempting to watch/listen to streaming media ...or upload any files of substance, forget it.
As far as electrical connections, each room did come equipped with an adapter to accept U.S. two-prong plugs. My notebook, however, uses a 3-prong plug.... and it took the resort staff some extra time to track down the right adapter for me since it isn't standard. If you're bringing devices that use 3-prong plugs, I'd suggest you pick up your own adapter (they're like $3 in US stores). If your devices use just a regular 2-prong plug (like my cell phone charger) you'll be fine though.
Each villa had its own wireless hotspot... so if you're in villa 305, you'd connect to hotspot "305". Wireless access worked well around the villa... and in the deluxe beach villa, worked well outside towards the plunge pool.
But, and this is a big but, the broadband connection to the Resort is only 2Mbps. If you had more than a few people online at any moment, the connection crawled to a snail's pace. It took me about 20 minutes to upload 10 pictures and 4 and 1/2 hours to upload a 30 second video to Facebook. I found best speeds early in the morning (like 5-7am when most guests were sleeping and/or the resort staffers were offline.) The connection worked wonderful for sending text emails and doing things like Facebook status updates. But for anything more, like attempting to watch/listen to streaming media ...or upload any files of substance, forget it.
As far as electrical connections, each room did come equipped with an adapter to accept U.S. two-prong plugs. My notebook, however, uses a 3-prong plug.... and it took the resort staff some extra time to track down the right adapter for me since it isn't standard. If you're bringing devices that use 3-prong plugs, I'd suggest you pick up your own adapter (they're like $3 in US stores). If your devices use just a regular 2-prong plug (like my cell phone charger) you'll be fine though.
I used a Star Alliance award to fly there; the routing was a little crazy. I wanted to depart from Newark or Philly, but the only way I could sit up front was this: Philly-LA-Bangkok-Singapore-Male and Male-Singapore-Tokyo-Chicago-Philly on the way back.
My fare priced out to about $16,500. Other First Class / Business Class fares from Philly were in the $14,000-$19,000 range and fares from New York were in the $9,000-$15,000 range.
If I were to do it again, I'd probably go the other way around the world, going through Dubai or Qatar with a possible stopover in Europe. When I toyed around with some dates with that routing, prices came in at $8,500-$18,000.
My fare priced out to about $16,500. Other First Class / Business Class fares from Philly were in the $14,000-$19,000 range and fares from New York were in the $9,000-$15,000 range.
If I were to do it again, I'd probably go the other way around the world, going through Dubai or Qatar with a possible stopover in Europe. When I toyed around with some dates with that routing, prices came in at $8,500-$18,000.
Have to ask, it sounds like you booked this in December was it hard for you to find award travel for January. Also what carriers did you fly on and what portions on each carrier? I'm guessing US,Thai,SQ and UA. How was the service etc.
Thanks
Jan 31, 2009, 7:03 am
#755
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: New York / Hawaii
Programs: UA Global Services, HH Diamond
Posts: 5,178
Thanks for the great report, it is so insightfull, my wife and I are going in September and this just made us 1000% more excited then we already are. Many many thanks. ^^^
Was internet free or did it cost?
Have to ask, it sounds like you booked this in December was it hard for you to find award travel for January. Also what carriers did you fly on and what portions on each carrier? I'm guessing US,Thai,SQ and UA. How was the service etc.
Thanks
Was internet free or did it cost?
Have to ask, it sounds like you booked this in December was it hard for you to find award travel for January. Also what carriers did you fly on and what portions on each carrier? I'm guessing US,Thai,SQ and UA. How was the service etc.
Thanks
I flew US, TG, NH, and SQ. US is horrible domestic first class service (as expected) but the others provide great service and meals up-front. I had no problems booking my travel a few weeks prior to the trip. TG had the nicest cabin, SQ had the best foods, NH had the best service.
Going then too, hopefully we'll see you there. ^
Question to Weatherboy:
When they take the $2500 is it an actual prepayment, or just an authorization for $2500? We ask b/c our HH CC's closing date will be during the middle of our stay. $2500 on check-in and we'll be billed b/4 we get home (in which case I guess we'll have to prepay a bunch on the card)as we'll still be traveling for a few weeks. $2500 at check-out and we'd be golden, however.
Question to Weatherboy:
When they take the $2500 is it an actual prepayment, or just an authorization for $2500? We ask b/c our HH CC's closing date will be during the middle of our stay. $2500 on check-in and we'll be billed b/4 we get home (in which case I guess we'll have to prepay a bunch on the card)as we'll still be traveling for a few weeks. $2500 at check-out and we'd be golden, however.
The resort does not do any dry cleaning due to environmental concerns, so if you're planning to have something cleaned, make sure its washable. I did scan the laundry slip and didn't think any prices jumped out --they were just as expensive as any major resort in the U.S. mainland. But I don't recall any specific prices.
This was the lightest I've ever packed for a long trip ...I think my luggage there was about 20 pounds total. Just a bunch of light shirts and shorts. Without the need for dressing up, I left dressier clothes (and things like dress slacks / shoes) home. For bathing suits, I would dry them out in the sun and re-wear them a few times over my stay.
Last edited by Canarsie; Jun 15, 2009 at 2:17 pm Reason: Consolidation.
Jan 31, 2009, 8:19 am
#756
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: On the road
Programs: Too many to list
Posts: 1,051
Question to Weatherboy:
When they take the $2500 is it an actual prepayment, or just an authorization for $2500? We ask b/c our HH CC's closing date will be during the middle of our stay. $2500 on check-in and we'll be billed b/4 we get home (in which case I guess we'll have to prepay a bunch on the card)as we'll still be traveling for a few weeks. $2500 at check-out and we'd be golden, however.
Jan 31, 2009, 3:27 pm
#757
Join Date: Jan 2009
Posts: 5
Thank you so much for such a detailed report!!!!!^ It's going to be so helpful for our trip! One quick question that I have is did you do any laundry while you were there? If so, do you happen to remember how expensive it was?? Thanks so much!
Feb 1, 2009, 6:31 pm
#758
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: On the road
Programs: Too many to list
Posts: 1,051
Feb 1, 2009, 9:16 pm
#759
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: So Cal
Programs: UA Gold/0.744MM, WN AL, Hyatt Diamond, MR Scum, Hertz PC, National Exec, Avis PC
Posts: 5,565
Feb 5, 2009, 1:45 pm
#760
Join Date: Jan 2009
Programs: HHonors Diamond VIP, Marriott Silver, Goldpoints Silver, A-Club, Priority Club Blue
Posts: 75
Questions related to the seaplane transfer
Hello there,
I am now booked in March for this beautiful hotel as an award stay - does someone know which seaplanes connect the international airport with the hotel? Is there an alternative (e. g. boat trip)? Are prices flexible or is that fixed, for example does it get cheaper if it is booked not via Conrad, but directly at the seaplane company?
Thanks,
Mark
I am now booked in March for this beautiful hotel as an award stay - does someone know which seaplanes connect the international airport with the hotel? Is there an alternative (e. g. boat trip)? Are prices flexible or is that fixed, for example does it get cheaper if it is booked not via Conrad, but directly at the seaplane company?
Thanks,
Mark
Feb 5, 2009, 2:54 pm
#761
Join Date: Oct 2004
Posts: 1,530
Hello there,
I am now booked in March for this beautiful hotel as an award stay - does someone know which seaplanes connect the international airport with the hotel? Is there an alternative (e. g. boat trip)? Are prices flexible or is that fixed, for example does it get cheaper if it is booked not via Conrad, but directly at the seaplane company?
Thanks,
Mark
I am now booked in March for this beautiful hotel as an award stay - does someone know which seaplanes connect the international airport with the hotel? Is there an alternative (e. g. boat trip)? Are prices flexible or is that fixed, for example does it get cheaper if it is booked not via Conrad, but directly at the seaplane company?
Thanks,
Mark
If you have lots of money, you can arrange your transfer by boat. The cost is in the area of $1000-1500.
There are two airlines providing a service between MLE and the various islands but they both charge about the same.
I suggest that you let the Conrad know your arrival times and departure times and flights, and then leave the flight arrangements to them.
Feb 5, 2009, 10:20 pm
#762
Join Date: Jan 2009
Programs: HHonors Diamond VIP, Marriott Silver, Goldpoints Silver, A-Club, Priority Club Blue
Posts: 75
What do they have in the library? Is it possible to get daily newspapers (at least in one of those outlets)? I am there for 15 days and need a lot to read... :-)
Feb 6, 2009, 9:08 am
#763
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: New York / Hawaii
Programs: UA Global Services, HH Diamond
Posts: 5,178
If you have lots of money, you can arrange your transfer by boat. The cost is in the area of $1000-1500.
There are two airlines providing a service between MLE and the various islands but they both charge about the same.
I suggest that you let the Conrad know your arrival times and departure times and flights, and then leave the flight arrangements to them.
There are two airlines providing a service between MLE and the various islands but they both charge about the same.
I suggest that you let the Conrad know your arrival times and departure times and flights, and then leave the flight arrangements to them.
Someone had also asked if it's possible to seaplane to someplace other than Hulhule Island where the airport is: the answer is no. The air taxi service only comes/goes to Male airport; there is no service available say from the Conrad to another island in the Maldives. (Although again, if you pay handsomely, I'm sure you can rent an entire plane to take you wherever.)
In a later post, I saw that the speed was even slower than with wifi in the room, is that also true for those 3 PCs? Is access to the PC room also free of charge?
What do they have in the library? Is it possible to get daily newspapers (at least in one of those outlets)? I am there for 15 days and need a lot to read... :-)
What do they have in the library? Is it possible to get daily newspapers (at least in one of those outlets)? I am there for 15 days and need a lot to read... :-)
They do get one-page faxes in from various countries that offer a snapshot of the current events in each region. The fax was delivered to my villa mailbox each morning at the hotel. But it took all of 2 minutes to read through the 1-page, 1-sided photocopy of the fax.
Internet was slow island wide --it's not the speed of the Wifi network that's the issue, it's the size of the internet connection the island has to the nearest internet backbone. The entire island has to share something smaller than your typical cable modem service.
For news, I did check out CNN.com. I didn't bother with streaming videos but did catch up on current events by reading the articles there.
For pool/beach reading, I usually bring a stack of magazines/books that I don't get a chance to read at home... and polish them off while I'm killing time in the sun while vacationing.
Last edited by Canarsie; Jun 15, 2009 at 2:18 pm Reason: Consolidation.
Feb 6, 2009, 10:04 am
#764
Join Date: Jun 2004
Posts: 396
Flights, is there a way to avoid staying overnight before catching the seaplane?
I've been looking at all the flight options (coming from NYC), and it looks like there is no way to arrive there in time for the seaplane on the same day, is that right? It looks like there are options for leaving the same day via seaplane, then flying on..I've been looking at going through DOH, DXB, SIN, Austrian has a once a week flight right now from Vienna (but would involve overnight in VIE) - but it looks like it discontinues soon.
Can anyone that has flown give their best recommendation or something I'm missing?
Thanks!
Can anyone that has flown give their best recommendation or something I'm missing?
Thanks!
Feb 6, 2009, 10:36 am
#765
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: YVR
Programs: AC 50K MM, HH DIA, GP DIA, SPG PLT, Delta Gold, Farimont Plat
Posts: 617
I've been looking at all the flight options (coming from NYC), and it looks like there is no way to arrive there in time for the seaplane on the same day, is that right? It looks like there are options for leaving the same day via seaplane, then flying on..I've been looking at going through DOH, DXB, SIN, Austrian has a once a week flight right now from Vienna (but would involve overnight in VIE) - but it looks like it discontinues soon.
Can anyone that has flown give their best recommendation or something I'm missing?
Thanks!
Can anyone that has flown give their best recommendation or something I'm missing?
Thanks!
That way you get a full day at the resort the next day instead of scrambling to get there without an overnight - has to be relatively early.
It's also nice to get a bit of rest after a long journey - we flew from YYZ to Maldives, and as you know, it's a long way.