MaldivesFreak

I wouldn't hold your breath if I were you.

brodielayne

MaldivesFreak, Sometimes when I read your responses I have the feeling that you are a stakeholder in the property. For him to share his opinion, and for you to ridicule his said opinion, is rather sad.
"childish attitude"
"take your post seriously."

You need to chill out dude.

MaldivesFreak

True, but in reality everyone knows I rip into them where I feel it is due. The NYE Gala fee is a good example.

I don't think he's being 100% honest and he's most certainly exaggerating*.....so I am going to point it out and challenge him on it. Is that a bad thing? No. One reason that I seem to be the one that gets into arguments here is because very few people here have the guts to say what they think (and this is not my imagination, I've received numerous PMs to the fact). His posts are full of you can do this on the cheap, you can skimp on this and that and it goes on and on. Pathetic. Rangali is a place where you either don't go because you haven't set aside a decent amount to enjoy the place properly or you do go when you have enough cash. It's not a difficult concept; but of course there will be others who don't understand this concept, or just simply close their eyes and ignore it. The problem is, they are just not going to enjoy it to its fullest and even though they might try and refute the fact, the fact still exists and it's not going to go away.

* If anyone wants crap pizza then just come to China and get it from a *cough* 'pizzeria' *cough* here. It's even worse than Pizza Hut and that's saying something.

jphripjah

The Quiet Zone is a lovely venue. You sit right on the beach, usually very few other people there. The problem may be that there's no kitchen there, all the food is delivered from the main island, so the pizza wasn't that hot in addition to not being very good. I ate there three years ago, had the $33++ steak sandwich and the same pizza, thought it was good.

Ithaa is a one of a kind restaurant for a $240 underwater lunch.

I like Rangali Bar, the $47++ tenderloin was a good (200g) piece of beef. The $47++ catch of the day was fine too, though I thought $47++ was a bit much for what's essentially a $12 piece of reef fish, which is why I had the tenderloin the second time around.

I love the property, I think it's stunning, the breakfasts are great, but I don't think the food and beverage is great value. Of course, they have to fly almost everything in, etc.

jphripjah

You think people who report having a bad meal at the resort are dishonest exaggerators? I would suggest you're not being objective and you take an odd personal offense to any criticism of the resort.


I've made dozens of posts on this thread, how many of them discussed doing it on the cheap? One?

I've eaten at Ithaa for $240 per person, I did the "luxury" dolphin excursion for $170 per person, eaten at Ufaa, etc. But I have also pointed out that if someone doesn't want to spend $75+ per person for dinner every night, he doesn't have to, especially if he's getting free cakes, sandwiches, drinks and canapes at 4:30 - 5 p.m.

MaldivesFreak

So, the crap pizza is now a not very good one. Bit of a difference, eh. LOL.

tom-schmitt

Private Pyle

I've a similar opinion having been to PH too although I did prefer the breakfast at PH.
Lets not forgot what a PITA getting to & from PH is too!!
PH do have the all inclusive option which you can pay for, you just need to be a big drinker to get value from it which didn't apply to me. I do like a drink but I couldn;t get through that much day after day!
Rangali the better of the two for me overall though.

captainamerica

The hilton Q4 promo is 3x on luxury resorts. Is there a cap to the amount of points you can earn in a stay? I have the hilton aspire so I could earn a combined 54 points per dollar spend. So if I spend ~$5k during my stay I would get over 250k points? Seems like a really good deal to me!

manneca

Actually I was talking about staying at the Rangali. So, why would you come here and skimp on the things that make it outstanding: great food? I've stayed on points; I eat the free breakfast. I dive, so I eat and early breakfast and lunch (and try to get back for happy hour.) I just wouldn't come half way around the world to skimp on food. (My father was one of the cheapest cheapskates; I live my life in reaction to him!) The first time I came, I ate at the Rangali Bar all the time because I had sticker shock. My traveling companion convinced me that to spend $50 ++ on a burger at the bar when I could eat a steak at Sunset for $75 was crazy. I agreed and never looked back.

jphripjah

It's a great deal, if you value Hilton points at .5 cents each then you're getting 27 cents back in points for every dollar spent.

jbeckett

The only cap is on base points. From the terms and conditions - "Members may not accrue more than 100,000 Base Points during one stay, regardless of the amount of eligible folio charges, except for Canopy™ by Hilton, Curio - A Collection by Hilton, Tapestry Collection by Hilton™, Tru by Hilton™, Homewood Suites by Hilton, Home2 Suites by Hilton, and Waldorf Astoria Jeddah – Qasr Al Sharq hotels for which there is no cap."

So as long as you spend under $10000 on your stay, you will earn the full amount that you expect.

You will earn 40 points on your spending, not including tax and service charge (23.2% plus $6 per night). Plua you'll earn 14 points from the credit card on your spending, including tax and service charge. So it will be less than 54 points per dollar spent.

jphripjah

My girlfriend and I visited the resort last week for the second time, first visit was in 2015. Stayed five nights for 380,000 Hilton points in a water villa. Here are some observations.

On arrival there were guys from various resorts holding signs with passenger names, no one from Conrad, but Conrad has a nearby booth (#19) in arrivals hall. Guy there checked off our names and we were taken over the the seaplane check in and then driven to the lounge.

Lounge no longer has a good view of sea planes taking off and landing, I'm not sure if they filled in some water and changed where the planes land/take off on the water or just built warehouses nearby to block the view, but the view from the lounge is now mostly of warehouses and hangars and construction.

Lounge now offers a menu of free food I don't remember that before. Choices were panini, salad, fruit plate, spaghetti, etc. I had the tuna panini, came with french fries, very good, the sort of thing that would cost $28 ++ at the resort.

There was a slightly pushy lady in the lounge trying to sell us on a spa deal at the resort, one time only offer, could only be booked from the lounge, bla bla.

I noticed that the day beds in the lounge are looking pretty tattered.

We were in the lounge for about 45 minutes and then taken to a separate waiting area for a few minutes and then boarded the sea plane.

Our plane landed at Centara on the way to Conrad to drop off passengers. On the way back from Conrad to the airport, we landed at Mirihi to drop off and pick up passengers. This was a significant negative to me because it means spending an extra 30 minutes on your arrival and departure days on the cramped little plane that could otherwise be spent at the resort.


Stayed 5 nights at a water villa, last time it was a standard beach villa. Based on advice from the wiki, I requested a sunset facing villa and asked for an end unit, specifically requesting 330, 328, 324, or 319. They gave me 324. I did prefer the water villa to the beach villa. Could walk out hundreds of meters into the ocean and water stayed waist deep to shoulder deep depending on tide. Great views from the deck. Water villas also have proper indoor bathrooms and showers and a small toilet room that is in the bathroom rather than just off the main room like in the beach villas.

I had requested cola or fruit juice in advance instead of sparkling wine, as neither of use drinks sparkling wine. Room had bottle of sparkling wine (Domaine Ste. Michelle Brut Rose), which our host offered to switch for a bottle of non-alcoholic date juice. I told him not to bother. I think he said Diamond members get the sparkling wine and Gold members or other guests get a slightly inferior bottle of wine.

Host said they normally provide two bottles of water per day but could provide more, I asked if they could just keep us stocked with four bottles of water and he said that was fine. I recommend bringing a couple of small empty plastic water bottles as they are easier to drink out of and open/close than the big heavy glass bottles they provide in the room. Or just keep the little plastic bottles of water they give you when the sea plane lands at the resort.

Bathroom had ceramic jars of shampoo and shower gel, we were also offered Temple Spa and Refinery toiletry options which we requested and were quickly delivered.

There were also four pieces of fruit in the room, not replenished.

All electrical outlets in the room were British three prong outlets. My girlfriend found some adaptor plugs in the bathroom.

Didn't rain at all for the five days.

Picked up a life jacket for my girlfriend at the water sports center on morning of day 2, as she doesn't like to go in the water without one. Staff told me I had to bring it back by 5:30 pm, which I thought was a bit silly since they had a whole wall of life jackets there. Anyway, brought it back three days later right before check out with no issues.

We used the Dhoni a lot to travel from our villa to the main island. I noticed that the Dhoni often seemed to stay moored over at the main island and wouldn't come over to the Vilu dock unless it had passengers to drop off. You can, however, ask the Ari Lounge (reception near Vilu dock) staff to call the Dhoni and then it will come pick you up, or just call the main service line yourself from the phone on the Ari Lounge desk if there is no staff there and they will send the Dhoni over.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Vilu closed on August 26th for maintenance. When I asked at the front desk on 26th the guy told me it would be closed for 30 days. That may explain why the Dhoni didn't seem to be making trips across as frequently. Breakfast is being served at Mandhoo and Atoll Market, afternoon tea and happy hour at Rangali Bar.

We only did one excursion. They offer a Luxury Lucky Dolphin cruise for $140 per person and a Lucky Dolphin cruise for $90. Asked my host the difference and he said the Luxury Lucky Dolphin cruise was on a nicer speedboat and included champagne and canapes instead of chips and soft drinks. Ended up choosing the Luxury cruise just based on day of week, wanted to go on Sunday instead of Monday.

When I called to book it, host told me that speedboat was full but they were doing an additional cruise on the sailboat, the resort's largest boat, and we could join that, which we did. It left a half hour earlier and returned a half hour later and was a very nice cruise, I think preferable to the speed boat. Saw lots of dolphins. They brought out the canapes and champagne after an hour or so. Didn't try the canapes, they didn't look like much, bruschetta or cracker with something on top.

Departing Male airport, I noticed that the airport wifi didn't seem to work in the departures area near the restaurants/duty free shops but it did work downstairs in the waiting area for gates 1-6. Also while the Burger King is one of the most expensive in the world (over $20 for some combo meals) and the coffee shop charges $5 for a croissant, the bottles of water at the coffee shop are only $1 each.

There's a priority pass lounge at Male Airport, but it is located landside before check in between the arrival and departure terminals.
You probably won't have the time/need to use this lounge because when you arrive at the airport on the seaplane from the resort it should be time to check in for your flight. The airside Leeli Lounge in the departures area is for first and business class passengers only.

MaldivesFreak

They ask you to bring them back so they can wash the salt water out of them because it slowly ruins the material.

luv2ctheworld

This is helpful information.

Due to logistics and timing, it looks like I can only spend 4 nights (though the award booking is 5 nights - 5th night free). The flight departing MLE is after 10PM, which I presume is late enough that I can get on the very last seaplane flight out of the Conrad.

Question for those who may have had similar scenarios:
Is there any way to definitely be on the last flight out (i.e. speaking with someone at the resort for the request), as I would like to spend as much time relaxing in the room or on the grounds vs. waiting by the dock or hanging at the airport lounge (knowing that I technically still have a room in my name)?
Are the seaplane operating hours extended during summer hours, or do they stop flying at a certain time regardless of longer days? From what I read/understand, there isn't a set schedule as much as a general time frame based on the manifest from the previous day.
How much time prior to the seaplane arrival are guests expected to be at the dock/departure point?
If the seaplane is running late, are guests expected to wait at a particular spot or are they informed in advance so we can still relax in the room? Technically will still have the room for the night, rather be there than hanging around the waiting area.

If it makes any difference, we're planning on Tue/Wed night departure from the property next summer; not sure if that impacts the amount of traffic for the transfers.

TIA