MaldivesFreak

Arrived the day before yesterday. Fantastic weather. There was heavy rain just before sunset in two areas a couple of kilometres away from the resort just as the sun was going down and only a couple of drops fell while we were having the Beach BBQ so were very lucky. I thought we were going to luck out again as this is the first time we've done it.....missed out 4 times already for various reasons.

There is one addition to the Diamond benefits which I mentioned a few posts back and it is a single, 15 minute addition to any 60min or longer spa treatment. It's valid for the entire stay, i.e; you don't have to take up the offer within the first day or two as you did with some of the other spa promos. The additional 15min can be either a scalp or foot massage.

Got invited to the Diamond Cruise with cocktails which is tomorrow evening. Pretty fortunate to get an invitation I guess as I only just qualify for one of the criteria which is a minimum of 5 visits. Not sure whether they serve dinner on board but I assume so as it departs at 6:30PM. There are another couple of benefits for repeaters (one has a 5-visit minimum) but I'm not allowed to go posting it round the internet. Sorry people, but I'm gonna keep my mouth shut as promised.....

Lyle is leaving soon. Going to replace Stefano Ruzza at Conrad Koh Samui and Stefano is coming here to run Rangali. Lyle helped us out with a reservations issue before arrival which was really nice of him. Will be sad to see him go. He will probably be at CKS for two years or thereabouts then retire for good.

The coral is in a pretty bad state, at least at the house reef but I don't see why it would be any different elsewhere as the water temperature that's caused the bleaching would be the same all over the lagoon. Mostly deep yellows and browns and basically half dead. Lots of fish around though. Saw a constantly swirling school of perhaps 200 or so medium sized fish in a feeding frenzy in the water near the dropoff today. Got right up to about a metre away from them. Pretty awesome. Also saw a moray but my girlfriend panicked in the water so I had to swim her away quite some distance. Went back to try and find it but lost the exact place and unfortunately couldn't locate him again. I think it was somewhere in the close vicinity of the buoy marking the dropoff and in a northwesterly direction. Perhaps 30, maybe 40 metres from the buoy. Will have another look for him tomorrow.

They assigned one of the BVs we preferred which was great. We got 216. There were a few problems with it but fixed ultra quick by Didi who is the Assistant Executive Housekeeper. Amjad Ali, who was the previous Executive Housekeeper, has moved on but Didi is a man on the ball who gets things done. He has a 15-year badge BTW. Some of the problems included long and glaringly obvious scratchmarks on the walls, toilet door that wouldn't close without you having to force it shut, squeaky bed, hooks for hanging towels (newly renovated BVs don't have the bamboo ladder that the old ones had where you could hang towels to dry, there's only one hook inside now which is really inadequate). He installed clothes lines upon request at the outdoor bath (again, nowhere bar a single hook outside to hang swimwear or clothes to dry) and, in addition to those issues, took on a couple of suggestions that will improve the villas in general. They have bidets installed on all the BV toilets now but they're mounted on the left hand side and only really comfortable to use for left-handed folks. After suggesting they mount them on the RHS of the toilet we came back to the villa an hour later and it had been moved over to the RHS. Spot on service. They will all be moved to the RHS so I apologize in advance to all you left-handed people out there! Future guests in all BVs will have the above, and in addition more hooks both inside and out and possibly even a shelf on the side of the new sofa where you can put your champagne glass on to rest instead of having to sit up and put it back/take it off on the table every time you want to have a sip. Minor thing I know but after a long trip Golds and Diamonds are tired and want to sip their complimentary drink in the most relaxing manner possible, right guys?!

Price rises are here and there. The Beach BBQ and Champagne & Lobster dinners are now $10++ more expensive than before. The Maldivian Night is now $135++ whereas before it was $115++. It has moved to outside Ari Lounge and is much more private which I suppose justifies the extra $20++. Lobster is now $62 across the board at all outlets except at Vilu where the live lobster is still $28++/100g as it has been for a long time already. Note that now all lobster is local and they don't have Canadian or other, imported lobster.


On the F&B front, so far it has been both good and bad.
Marco Amarone, the new Executive Chef, has changed the menu at Vilu and reduced its size considerably. Some great items, like the wagyu salad that was prepared at the table by the waiter, are now absent and there is now a bias towards seafood and for us that's a letdown. I guess this is primarily to cater for the Chinese who love seafood and, incidentally, are making up about 80% of the guests currently staying at the resort (due to it being Chinese New Year). The superb chocolate fondant, who so many thought of as a perfect dessert, has now had hazelnuts added into it. Each to his own I suppose but I prefer it like it was so I spoke to Shark and ordered one like they used to have for our next dinner at Vilu the day after tomorrow, so if anyone wants the old dessert it shouldn't be a problem.

At the Beach BBQ everything was great and cooked to perfection but I can't say we had an equally good experience at Vilu for dinner on the first night. The scampi had been frozen far too long and was, for any seafood junkie, inedible. It's not native to the Maldives so has to be imported but there's no excuse for it having the texture of tofu and tasting like a year-old defrosted blueberry. Because of this they brought us another dish (something else we liked but which wasn't on the menu) then comped the entire meal. This was unexpected but a nice gesture. Service, in some areas, was inadequate (so the waitress was changed) and also terribly slow. We saw Marco running round the kitchen teaching and supervising the chefs on how to prepare his new dishes so I can understand why and so we didn't mention it. The transition period looks like it will be a long one. On that night about two thirds of the tables were full and they had a Degustation Dinner at The Wine Cellar as well. With that amount of guests and staff in the kitchen, it's not surprising that we experienced significant delays so if you're looking to go to Vilu in the next few months I suggest going on a half-empty stomach as you will probably have to pace yourself accordingly.

That's about it for now. It's 7AM and I should get back to the villa before my girlfriend wakes up and blasts me for spending hours writing this, LOL! I'll have more in the following days.



Correction for the ladies: The 15min addon for the spa is either a scalp or foot massage, not a face or foot massage as previously stated.

Michael19887

Enjoy! When we went during our trip, they served passed canapés along with champagne and wines on board.

MaldivesFreak

Some details I forgot to mention and some new info.....

* The 15 minute spa extra is for both Golds and Diamonds.
Update: The 20% off for 90min or longer treatments that finish at, or before, 1PM has been discontinued.

* And something else for the ladies; the Spa desk at reception is manned only from 11AM to 2PM daily. If you come outside this time and want to ask about treatments etc, you'll have to either phone or go directly to either spa for consultation.
Update: After going through the reception area numerous times over the next few days I noticed that this wasn't adhered to. Bit of a hit and miss to see any of the spa girls there during those 3 hours.

* The Vilu Happy Hour is no longer for non-elite HH members who are staying on Rangali Island. In simpler terms (for those whose mother tongue may not be English); before, if you were not Hilton Gold or Diamond but you were in a water villa on the smaller/water villa island, you could have free drinks at Vilu Happy Hour from 5-6PM. Now you may still go along but you will have to pay for all drinks, they aren't free anymore.

* There have been 3 flavours of ice-cream at Atoll Market in the mornings for a good 6 months now. They change the flavours daily.
Update: There are around 15 flavours in total and they put 6 or 7 flavours out each night for the buffet. This is a welcome improvement as before (mid 2015 and earlier) there was only sorbet which was made on site.

* Scrambled eggs, grilled tomatoes, sun-dried tomatoes seemed to no longer be on the breakfast counters at Atoll Market. You can ask the omlette station to grill tomatoes and scramble eggs however.
Update:
* After asking Nahid (Manager of Atoll Market) about it, a few days later there was a warmer filled with grilled tomatoes. ^ When we asked about the sun-dried tomatoes they kindly brought some out on a plate and the next day they were back next to the olives at the vege/cold cuts station. ^
* The bacon (in the warmer) seemed to be either permanently reduced in amount or possibly nearly out of stock. Also, they now don't cook it as much as before so it's much softer than it used to be. If you want it crispy just give it to one of the chefs behind the stand and they'll make it as crispy as you like.

* Now there are only 4 (instead of 6*) types of coffee capsules for the Nespresso machines and our villa had no pamphlet to explain the colour coding. I called housekeeping and they printed it out on a couple of sheets of paper but there was still no 'Intensity' ratings on the printouts.
Update:
* They have removed the info about the coffee capsules from all the villas as the new printed material is smaller and is now both in English and Chinese.
* I think the Sunset Water Villas and the Premium Water Villas still have 6. If that's the case then I'd assume that the Beach Suite/Jr. Beach Suite would also have the original 6.

* Bottled/mineralized water is no longer provided as standard in villas. They only provide desalinated.
Update: You can ask for mineralized water and the room boy will make sure you will have it in the room every day. The room boy said they have a facility to mineralize the water there (I think this is on the staff island) but what I got was from Male. No problem of course, just FEI.

* The smoking section of Atoll market is, if you are standing inside the main building and facing south/the 3rd island, the section that goes in a straight line from the cold cuts stand out to the beach. Basically it's a rectangle that starts inside the building and projects out to the beach. Yes, that means technically smokers can smoke inside the main building! Anything to the right of that, i.e; the tables just outside the building and from the hut over to the swimming pool area are non-smoking seats. Of course the rest of the seats inside the main building are non-smoking.

* The table tennis table is now outside the seating in front of reception. This is good placement as it reduces the amount of noise at breakfast (used to be outside Atoll Market) and gives the kids something to do while waiting for the seaplane.

FlugE

Thanks for the update, checking in tomorrow!
Any news or changes with Afternoon Tea? And what about the welcome amenity for HHD - is it Champagne or sparkling wine?

MaldivesFreak

Going to Afternoon Tea in just under an hour. Will post with results. We request non-alcoholic beverage for the HHD welcome amenity as we don't drink so not 100% sure but AFAIK it's still the same as listed on the wiki. What time do you check in? In time for Vilu Happy Hour?


Also, the fruit Basket with chocolate (which all guests receive in villa upon check-in) is only refilled daily for certain guests (see above).

And lastly, we've been upgraded to RWV for the last 4 nights. ^^^ We were given a choice between the last 3 or 4 nights so we took 4.

ScubaRoo

Nice work on the upgrade. We had the same on our last stay, I intend to follow up on my last review. It's awesome for snorkeling out to the drop off out near Mandhoo. (btw - Sad news about the state of the reef)

Do you know Alex (GSM), I'm contacting him soon about my upcoming stay...

ScubaRoo

Meant to say I really appreciate you doing the recon on afternoon tea, still free for Gold's and repeaters?

Private Pyle

Thanks for the updates Mr Freak ^

Roger Lococco

Thanks for the detailed updates MF! Can't wait to hear about the Retreat Water Villas ...

p78

Have You got any experience staying with small kids 1 and 4years
Is it some free sport equipment which we can borrow from Conrad?

SR12

@MaldivesFreak:
Do you know if the gym is open 24/7? And if you have a minute, could you perhaps take some pictures of the gym?

Thanks and enjoy your time in paradise

onlysuites

All the non motorised sports equipment are free.

MaldivesFreak

Actually there was a little misunderstanding about the upgrade. Even though I chose 4 nights and the understanding at that time was they could definitely do 4, there's availability for only 3. I know there may not have been perfect communication on their side about how many nights they could actually give us. We really appreciate any upgrade and are fine with it even though we have packed because we thought we'd be moving this afternoon. Will be moving tomorrow and will find out after 8PM what villa it will be.

Met Alex. Really nice guy and on the ball. He has been compiling stats for the resort and now they have a database where they can access a whole lot more info about guests, including a wide range of our preferences etc. Service should improve a little because of it.


Sorry, no. But you can borrow snorkelling fins and masks as well as live vests for free.


Yes, 24/7. Took pics yesterday but having trouble with hosting them on my usual provider. Do you need pics urgently? I'm going to upload them and a whole bunch of others when I get back.

Oh, and the Business Centre (where I am right now) hasn't been improved much. There are a couple of Macs here but you can't do anything on them except look at Hilton ads, LOL. The Windows PC has internet access but only after I had to change settings and fiddle with the connection (originally there was no connection to the net). Hardware is old and lagging. No firewall on this machine - what the heck! Pretty sad really. Also, no more water available here but there's a coffee machine. The machine works but there's no sugar nor spoon to stir it with. Had to go down to Rangali Bar to 'borrow' one yesterday. Today it's back the same - no spoon nor sugar.

What else is new.....ah, yes.....the 'Fashion Police'. They only ask guests wearing sleeveless shirts who look like they have just been to the gym to change their dress. Decisions to actually confront guests are done on a case by case basis and it's not anything like that poster was saying a couple months back.

MaldivesFreak

Sorry, forgot to answer this. Yes, it's free for Golds, Diamonds & repeaters.
Also, everyone will be pleased to know I got a photo of the detailed list of daily sandwiches, cookies and cakes so u can see exactly what they serve and when!

goliath

We stayed at Rangali when our daughter was 2,5 and again when she was 4,5 years old and she enjoyed the time there as much as we did - she loved the kids club. ^

The first stay was in February with hardly any kids there, the second stay was around Easter with many other kids around.

Given the options of repeat destinations Hawaii, Abu Dhabi or Rangali for this October (when she will be 6 years old), she chose Rangali.