Cynicor

I do agree with lhrhappy that I couldn't do much time there if not snorkelling. I'd go somewhere cheaper and closer for that.

alanslegal

8 days was not enough and we only snorkeled all up, probably 5-7 hours worth. Plus we only did one activity too (the Island Hopping Tour?). Laying by the beach, or the deck of our villa, or the hot tub, or the plunge pool in the DBVs, took up a lot of time, and the rest was dining (lots of freebies as a Gold/Diamond) or drinking on the beach and enjoying a lazy island resort life.

For Ithaa I was also skeptical about the pricing, spending US$800 per couple is crazy for a non-Michelin or non-San Pellegrino awarded restaurant. Obviously we had to try it - as its the a genuine underwater restaurant - but will unlikely go back for dinner. Thankfully we were getting 35 HH points to the dollar, so that kind of made it a bit less painful.

MaldivesFreak

Sounds pretty much like our visits. Usually with a couple of spa treatments thrown in. 8 days goes by waaay too fast.

Similar thinking here. Once for romantic and interest's sake and once for the young'un. Having said that, I see no reason why Ithaa wouldn't receive at least one Michelin Star. I once emailed the organization to ask and they said because of the location and cost, it's not practical for them to rate restaurants in the Maldives. No doubt there would be quite a few to add to the list if they were to change their policy.

saaveraward

Michelin allocates stars only where their restaurant guides are published. For instance, Australia, Canada and the entirety of South America (save Brasil) have no guides and thus no restaurants are awarded stars even though many are worthy.

In the US, only New York, Washington DC (new), Chicago and San Francisco/Napa have guides, only those areas are covered.

Los Angeles and Las Vegas used to have Michelin guides, but failed due to lack of support. Many Las Vegas restaurants still claim to have those stars, even though they have not been rated since 2008. A true sham.

saaveraward

Looks like they struggle to fill covers in summer too:

http://conradhotels3.hilton.com/reso...e_Jun_2017.pdf

Jermyn

It looks like the Evening standard got a little confused when posting this article yesterday. Combining the names of the Conrad and Hurawalhi into a single resort:

https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle...-a3633901.html

It does beg the question though, what makes the Hurawalhi underwater restaurant 'improper'? What advantages does Ithaa offer?

MaldivesFreak

Sorry, what does 'fill covers' mean? Never heard that expression before.


I was referring to the 'half-submerged' restaurant at Anantara
But now that you ask, how about the fake floor? Surely that's not glass. It looks photoshopped or it's some kind of cover on the floor? Both in that article and on photos on TA like these





Oh, and apologies for the narcisssssssssss.....well, you know what I mean.


Oh look, I found a 'normal', 'non-narc' pic, heh.....




I mean I have to hand it to them for the Kiwi ingenuity and the size and whatnot, but that floor. Ugh. I don't know which is worse, the old purple walls in the Rangali BVs or that fake floor. Wish we could do a poll on this thread.....

Jermyn

Looks like a wooden floor, the same as Ithaa. Only this resort has added a "water effect" carpet.

To be honest, to me this looks a lot better than Ithaa, which you'd expect given that it has been built far more recently and can therefore learn from the first mover's mistakes.

I certainly imagine that it will be a lot cooler in there given that there is a lot more room for air to circulate.

TTT103

I saw the pdf of the diving on the wiki, but was wondering if the dive center has a website in terms of dive schedule, sites, pricing, etc.

saaveraward

Sorry, covers is a restaurant industry expression for number of diners in a given service or number of diners at a table.

"We had 50 covers in for dinner tonight" or "There are four covers at table 12."

MaldivesFreak

When I read
in the article I intially thought 'photoshopped' (thought it was a promotional picture and didn't realize that the restaurant had opened already and was a real picture). TBH, and considering there are glass floors everywhere in the Maldives thesedays, it still looks fake and a bit tacky / pretentious. Why not just have a real glass floor? Design constraints I imagine. A least don't pretend there is one. Each to his own I suppose. Most guests wouldn't pay too much attention to it as the 'wow factor' is just too high in a place like that. Good thing is they can just remove it if they start getting too much negative feedback. Smart.

There is no fan blowing air in Ithaa and I assume not here either (you don't want noisy fans and them trying to circulate and blow air at speed over the heads of guests). From a physics POV more glass = more surface area for the magnification of the sun's rays = more heat which would necessitate the installation of much bigger A/C units (than Ithaa) to compensate.
From an enginering POV, and as far as dimensions go, no different base calculations from any other room for cubic capacity to find out what strength A/C you'd need: higher volume of air = higher cold air requirement to cool it down. Additionally there are 30+ people in there at any one time; 14 tables with a maximum of 28 guests and 2-4 staff, who would generate twice the body heat than the 7 tables with 1 or 2 staff do at Ithaa. Problem is the table spacing is not as open as Ithaa which means more heat generated per cubic metre than Ithaa.
They may have improved on the technology used in Ithaa (and perhaps design as well, maybe slightly different curvature to mitigate light refraction and reduce heat) but basically you're going to need a much bigger A/C to cool all that still, warm air.

Positives are the end which is mostly glass, far better in appearance than Ithaa. And you've got to admire the choice of colours of the tables and chairs too. Excellent match to the colour of the seawater and they don't distract from what is the primary attraction outside. Better colour co-ordination than Ithaa IMO.

MaldivesFreak

No, they used to when it was run by another outfit but now it's run by the resort. They can email you one though.


Ah, I see. Thanks. You know that there has been a second lunch session introduced at Ithaa? They are fully booked for both sessions (and dinner of course) every day and you're really lucky to get a table even a week out. I think that promo was only a 2-month thing anyway. They are making stackloads of cash, of that you can be assured. Wouldn't be surprised if it was the most profitable restaurant based on size in the world.

Edit: And this is clever; "Dinner must be book prior to arrival or on the day of check in" which gives the impression to guests that they will be able to get a table if they book at check-in. Considering it's usually fully booked for longer than the duration of an average stay, and that most guests would wait until check-in to book, guests who do try to book it on the day of check-in wouldn't really have any chance of taking advantage of the discount and even if they wanted to get a table towards the end of their stay, chances are they'd be out of luck. Clever marketing. Offer a discount that guests will have little or no chance of getting.

bwh3m

Random and sad, but just saw this article about George Michael at CR . . .

“They stayed in four 5* resorts. One night, staying on Conrad Rangali, they were walking across the bridge between the two islands the villas are spread over and they had a huge argument about Fadi supposedly flirting with a waiter. GM became suicidal and threw himself off the bridge. The water was deep, but it wasn’t a long drop to the sea. GM shouted for help and then swam off into darkness while Fadi ran back to the island yelling for the staff to assist them.”

http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2017/09/07...-jealous-rage/

MaldivesFreak

Well, it's not deep at all under the bridge so half of that is probably BS.....

Cynicor

I don't quite think Ithaa is as booked out as they/whoever purports, unless it's gotten a lot busier. When I last went in late 2015 I could get tables for dinner and lunch whenever I wanted during my stay. That was 18 months ago now, though.