Splotly

MaldivesFreak

Meh, I'd call the Mother Nature Complaints Hotline and have Her turn the wave speed down.
Enjoy the evening and if you can, let me know if there's any noise from Mandhoo up. Thanks and HNY!

Traveler Dave

Traveler Dave

Splotly

draxxusbg

JJeffrey

For your Aspire related questions I would take a look at the consolidated thread and especially the wiki/FAQ as these are all answered there.

It would make zero sense to pay separately at each restaurant as you'd be missing out on all the Hilton points and bonuses that would come with the extra incidental spend by charging everything to your room.

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hilt...rt-credit.html

llfoster

Quick Q for anyone currently at CR. Do you know if Nashid (front office - over 20 years at Hilton/CR) is still at CR? is on vaca? moved over to Waldorf? retired? In advance, thanks very much

Football Fan

MaldivesFirstTimer

Hi all, I’ve been lurking on the thread for a while and it’s helped me immeasurably in planning the trip which my OH and I have just enjoyed at the Rangali Conrad. I thought I’d try to give something back with a review, focusing where I can on an objective assessment of the cost/value of various activities and meals on the island.

We arrived on 24 December and departed on 31 December.

The pre-arrival bits

We flew BA from LGW to MLE, fortunately drone-gate had been resolved by the time of our departure. We were in Club World both ways on a 355 day in advance booking with Avios (and a 2 for 1 voucher). From memory, that cost us 150,000 Avios and c. £1,200 in taxes/fee between us.

7 nights in Beach Villa cost us a total of 570,000 HHonor points (6 x 95,000 plus the free night). We bought the bulk of those points – I think about 500,000 of them which cost us c. $2,500 (c. £2,000) in the various sales. The balance were from Amex MR redemptions.

I contacted the hotel in advance regarding upgrades. Based on the reviews and the information contained within this thread, we wanted to split our time between a RWV and a standard BV. We were offered 3 nights at $400++ to upgrade from our BV to the RWV for the first 3 nights. Given the time of the year, we were happy with that and accepted.

The flight/arrival

BA CW was as “ok” as always. It was a night flight and I had made the mistake of forgetting to select seats at the time of booking, so we were stuck right at the back of the J cabin (row 11). That put us one row in front of Premium Economy and, typically, a row containing a very young baby.

Arrival in Male was straightforward, met by a Conrad rep who took us to check in with the seaplane and then scooted off to the Conrad lounge. Frustratingly having been told the seaplane would be “less than an hour” we were stuck in the lounge for 2 and a half hours due to a delay… We did at least use the time to make spa bookings and have a 15 minute back and shoulder massage, but it wasn’t the start we’d have liked given the long overnight flight from LGW.

The seaplane flight was fun, we were in one of the “executive” planes with the private jet-style layout. Irritatingly they informed us that they hadn’t managed to get our 2nd (main) piece of hold luggage on the seaplane and that would be arriving at Rangali “later on during the day”.

On arrival we were greeted by our Conrad rep who informed us that the RWV we requested (421!) was ready. I had no clothes at all in the one piece of hold luggage which did turn up, so our rep arranged for some “emergency clothing” to be delivered to the villa. It arrived within 15 minutes – a basic polo short and some basic shorts. In fact, the luggage arrived an hour or so later so they weren’t needed in the end.

The RWV

The RWV was fantastic. 421 was an excellent recommendation, the furthest out of all. It is probably the most private, although 420 had young children who were noisy at times and could be heard fairly clearly. The water was a great depth, to about mid-chest level on me and shoulder level on the OH. There was decent snorkelling to be done just in and around the RWV, with a Stingray sighted on our first evening after dinner.

The jacuzzi/hot tub was a godsend. It’s obviously unnecessary during the day (much too hot) but evenings there with a bottle of room-service wine (more on which below) were magical. Turning all of the lights off and sitting with your back to the ocean, looking back across the villa at the crystal-clear stars didn’t get old on any of our nights there.

The only (small) complaints I would have about the villa – it got very hot out on the deck during the heat of the day. I think that is caused by the design being focused on privacy – meaning the deck is almost entirely closed in and sitting on the sunbeds (even with the parasol up) was quite uncomfortable due to a lack of breeze. The second is that the treatment room seems a real waste of space – it accounts for the best part of a third of the floorplan and we were actively discouraged by the spa lady in the lounge from booking massages there, she said (and I agree with her) that it’s better to get out of the villa and into the dedicated spas for massages etc.



Food/drink

I’ll do a quick run-down of what we did each night and my views of it.

Monday night – the “standard” HH benefits at the moment are both at Vilu: afternoon tea which runs from 4 pm to 5 pm and happy hour which partially overlaps, running from 4.30 pm to 5.30 pm. In general terms I felt this worked really well, allowing you to drop in from 4 if you really wanted to make the most of the afternoon tea or just from 4.30/4.45 with most people focussing on happy hour. It’s a glorious setting, too.

We were informed though that for Christmas Eve neither was running and they had been replaced by a manager’s champagne reception (open to all guests) in the Quiet Zone from 5 until 6 pm. We made it to that and it was a nice occasion – top-ups were offered liberally and some decent canapes were sent around, a number of staff members made the effort to introduce themselves and it felt quite genuine.

For dinner we did Atoll Market which I thought was not cheap at $190++ a head or so and not worth it unless you have a particularly large appetite which isn’t ordinarily sated by a three-course meal. The selection was good and the quality decent enough, but I didn’t feel it was particularly good value (even taking into account general costs on the island!).

After a bottle of wine at dinner we had the aforementioned bottle of wine at room service. This was some of the better value available on the island – a perfectly clean and serviceable Chenin Blanc from Stellenbosch for $40++ (they don’t charge the $15 “tray charge” on a bottle of wine either). We got through a few too many of these bottles through the week.



Tuesday – we started with a breakfast order in our room. You fill in the request and leave it outside before 1 am the night before and a large breakfast platter is delivered to your door at the requested time. It was fantastic on the deck of the RWV, an idyllic way to kick off day 2. They brought an awful lot of food (more than we could get through) and actually we were able to stick some of the feta cheese and smoked salmon in the fridge for a small snack later in the day.

We didn’t eat lunch on any day, instead holding out (normally without any real difficulty) for 4/4.30 when the afternoon tea and happy hour was on. We found both to be quite generous – afternoon tea was a choice of a couple of small sandwiches (help yourself, and plenty of them being constantly replenished) and some cakes. At happy hour they were generous with refills of sparkling wine, beers, G&Ts etc. Some people would get seriously stuck in – one table I observed the blokes getting through 7 drinks in the designated hour! You also got a small plate of tempura at about 5.15 which was a nice way to tide over to the evening meal.

For our evening meal we did Ithaa which (frankly) was a bit of a let-down. The underwater experience is fantastic for the first 30 minutes or so, thereafter there is a feel of “been there, done that” even whilst you’re waiting for your 2nd course. The festive menu was 7 courses and excellent, but by the end I’d rather have been enjoying it on a sandy white beach overlooking the ocean rather than underwater. The bill came to $1,100. In hindsight I’d probably rather have done it for lunch as a one-off and certainly wouldn’t do it again.

Wednesday – we were booked on the whale shark tour which started at 8.30 am. We had therefore put our card requesting an early in-room breakfast out the night before. It didn’t arrive at 7.30 am and when I looked outside I realised this was because the card hadn’t been collected. I wasn’t particularly impressed with the response – our personal rep/butler was in reception when we hurriedly shuffled past to chuck down an Atoll Market buffet breakfast and her response was “oh, I’ll try to find out what happened, next time you should call in room dining when you leave the card outside to let them know”. Nowhere does it say you need to do that (I hadn’t done the day before) and I thought a simple apology would have been more appropriate.

The whale shark tour was fun and I thought quite good value for money ($155++ pp) but we didn’t see any whale sharks. We did see a huge (and apparently quite rare) Oceanic Manta Ray and were able to snorkel with that. The OH went on the tour for a 2nd time later in the week (at half price) and was able to snorkel with the whale shark on that occasion.

Wednesday evening we did the Fisherman’s BBQ which was fantastic. The lobster was far more tender than we’d been served at Atoll on Monday. The starter selection was brilliant – we focused largely on the very fresh sushi. The deserts were great too. The staff were very alert topping up the wine, which was serviceable rather than good (priced at between $80 and $100 a bottle on the restaurant wine lists). There was some entertainment which was rather rudely interrupted by a group of unruly children from a large family table, but it was all handled well in the end. At c. $650 total bill I felt this was genuinely good value.

Thursday – Wednesday was our last night in the RWV so we decided to have another breakfast on the deck, which this time arrived as ordered. The move to the BV was handled very smoothly – bags were collected from the RWV when we were ready (at about 10 am) and shirts that we’d hung up in the wardrobe they told us to leave and they’d transport separately, which they duly did. Our BV (number 122) was ready for us immediately.

I liked the BV but it was quite a come down from the RWV.

On Thursday afternoon we had a 2 hour couples massage, as booked in the lounge on arrival. We got an additional 15 minutes by virtue of HH status. The total cost was c. $570 inc all fees which I felt represented very good value. You would struggle to pay less than that in any 4 or 5 star hotel in Europe (you would probably end up paying much more) and the treatment compared very favourably. It was a 30 min scrub, followed by 60 min massage, then 30 min facial. The extra 15 mins I opted to take as a foot massage. The setting was fantastic in the Mandhoo spa – including a fantastic outdoor shower which they encouraged us to take together between the scrub and the massage.

We ate that evening for the first time at the Rangali Bar. We shared a sushi platter to start and for main I had a pizza which was serviceable but very ordinary. The OH had a seafood pasta which was much better. We shared a bottle of $100ish white wine and the bill came to c. $280. Expensive for what it was but, in the context of the island generally, reasonable value.

The entertainment was on the patio outside Rangali and was good – an American duo, a singer and a pianist/singer.



Friday – the OH went on her second (and this time successful) whale shark trip. I therefore tried Vilu breakfast for the first time alone, and was very impressed. The selection is great and you can order extra dishes of bacon, hash browns, sausages etc to supplement whatever you’ve ordered from the a la carte menu. The pastry and bread selection is much the same as in Atoll Market.

Friday was largely spend on the beach outside our BV and then we did some snorkelling on the other side of the island (outside the BVs in the 200s) at the ‘house reef’. As has been reported elsewhere here, the reef is almost entirely dead now but there is still a good amount of marine life. We saw lots of fishes of various size and colour and spent a bit of time tracking a black tip reef shark at least 1m in size.

We tried at around midday to get a reservation at either Sunset Grill or Mandhoo but both were fully booked, which was a shame. We ended up back at Rangali Bar – this time I had the club sandwich (nice but an unmanageably large portion) whilst the OH had another pasta dish. Again the bill including wine came to about $280 and the entertainment was good.



Saturday – the weather started to turn a little and it was quite breezy in the afternoon. We had booked the Lobster and Champagne BBQ in the evening. Food-wise it was much the same as the Fisherman’s BBQ. This time, though, the food was paired with Ruinart champagne rather than the wine selection offered on Wednesday. It was poorly attended, only around half of the tables laid out were occupied. Again the food was excellent and the wine services was regular and attentive. The waiting staff almost egged us on to drink as much as we could manage – we gave it a good go!

The bill was about $700 and, as with the Fisherman’s BBQ, I thought this represented good value.



Sunday – we woke up to torrential rain. It improved during the day but remained largely overcast, still nice enough for time to be spent on the beach and some further snorkelling on the house reef. Unfortunately the bad weather returned for the evening which meant that our reservation at the Sunset Grill was moved indoors, rather than on the outside decking area overlooking the beach. This did take something away from the experience – it’s not designed to be a restaurant with all of the external doors closed.

We both had the catch of the day, which was a fairly meaty tasting local Maldivian fish. We both enjoyed it but it was nothing particularly special. The bill was around $250 including some entry-level white wine. Had we eaten outside I suspect I’d have considered it decent value, but the atmosphere/ambience indoors was the worst of those we experienced at dinner and it ended up being an in and out job – we took the last third of our bottle of wine back to the room with us for a final hot bath before leaving.



Monday – home time. Our flight home was at 11.40 from Male (12.40 “Rangali time”) and we had been told the night before to expect the seaplane to depart at around 9.30 am. We settled up the bill and were ready to go from 9.20 or so. In fact, the sea plane didn’t arrive at Rangali until around 10.15 am and didn’t depart until after 10.30 am. This meant we’d be arriving at MLE at around 10 am local time and with bag drop closing at 10.40 am left it feeling a little close for comfort considering the transfer between the seaplane terminal and the main airport.

It was even less comfortable for another family who were sharing our seaplane – they were on the Emirates flight departing at 11.10 from Male!! The Conrad team at MLE were extremely alert to this and fairly rushed us on to the transfer coach, piling all of the luggage onto the same vehicle and bombed ahead to the main terminal. The Conrad rep had been in touch with Emirates who held open the bag drop 15 mins after official closing and, as far as I am aware, the family made it home with luggage as intended.

The flight home was again perfectly serviceable and we arrived into LGW about 30 minutes ahead of the scheduled arrival time.



Overall verdict

A fantastic trip. Conrad Rangali is a first-class holiday destination. The occasional minor grumbles highlighted above really pale into insignificance compared with the overall majesty of the place. The staff were, to a man/woman, a pleasure to deal with and appeared to genuinely enjoy working on the island.

This is not ever going to be a “cheap” or even reasonably priced holiday. The cost of things on the island is eye-watering at first (not helped by a weak £, of course) but my advice would be to accept/come to terms with that before you arrive. Have a plan for meals and drinks based on what you’re willing to spend.

Our final total bill came to about $8,500, although that included the $1,200++ on upgrading to a RWV and the seaplane transfers. We were careful without missing out on anything we wanted to do – we drank from the lower end of the wine-list at dinner and our drinks before dinner, for instance, were either at Happy Hour or a glass of wine at the villa (or both!) rather than $35 G&Ts at the Rangali Bar. I certainly wouldn’t skip either of the beach BBQ dinners next time, but probably would swerve Ithaa as a returner.

Even by booking the basic rooms on points and the J flights with Avios (including a 2 for 1 voucher) the total cost of the holiday is likely to tip over £10,000 all-in when the value of the points spent is taken into account. I think overall, taking everything into account, that represented very good value for money for a holiday I won’t forget any time soon. Hopefully I’ll be back!

I’ll be happy to answer any questions arising from the above.

MaldivesFreak

Hi TD.

First off I would count the Curio SAii Lagoon out for obvious reasons.

Second, I would definitely find out whether Vilu and The Quiet Zone would still be open and whether the beach dinners would still be held if they 'closed' Rangali Island for the removal and installation of the new OWVs. You'd need to find out from management there once the decision had been made.

Next I would consider the view from the sunset side of Rangalifinolhu (the 100s). Since there are 12 OWVs on the sunrise side of Rangali (301 - 312, opposite the main island and very visible) you will probably see huge cranes and ugly boats right outside them - not exactly picturesque. You would want a sunrise-side villa to avoid the ugliness that would be at your back door or visible from the sunset-facing RWVs but you wouldn't be guaranteed a sunrise-side villa no matter whether you booked a BV, DBV or RWV so the fact that all the equipment might be in your line of sight is definitely something to consider - especially since it will be your first trip to the Maldives. You want the best possible impression as it will stick with you for the rest of your lives. If I had no other choice and I were there at that time I would be booking a BV or DBV and if we got one in the 100s we wouldn't be going out to the beach on the sunset side if there were cranes and equipment visible. But that's just me.....and the other half too I suppose. We would walk out the front door and walk over to the sunrise side and be at the beach there. At night, however, it would be a different story and Vilu and The Quiet Zone would still be on our list of places to go. If Vilu and TQZ were closed that would be the definite deal breaker. No way I could plan a trip to Rangali under those circumstances. But again, everyone's different.

As far as the WA goes, I don't have a crystal ball but I would certainly be booking a room there for July rather than take the chance of ugly monstrosities spoiling the perfection that is Rangali and I wouldn't be too concerned about them postponing any further*. Their website says March 31 and so you have another 3 1/2 months for them to further delay which, considering the delays already, is 95% going to be way more leeway than you should ever need. Further to this, what I would do right now is email both resorts and get them to put you on a mailing list for the latest updates. Try and find out what the exact reasons* for the delays are at the WA (from mid to high level management, not the front desk / standard email responders) and that will better inform you as to whether there could be further delays of months at a time. If there is still construction going on it could further delay by a significant amount of time but if it's little things and staff training then I would relax 100%.

texmanufan

JRV62

Staying the 2nd week of April but have not emailed yet for upgrades, we were happy with the OWV in May/June last year and most likely will stay in it again. We have had BV in Bora Bora but not here and really prefer to be on the water. As far as the Aspire goes charge everything to your room, it will automatically trigger the credit.(basically everything except the seaplane triggers it and I'm not positive that the seaplane doesn't, I just don't remember). Also remember to sign up for any promotions they have available, I know we got 3x the points last time we were there.

MaldivesFreak

Huh? TMA is owned by Blackstone who own Hilton. Could've just as easily been bad luck. There haven't been any real complaints on TA in probably more than a thousand reviews (maybe one with bags not arriving on the same flight but that's about it) so I think you might be reading into the hearsay too much.

After another read I see this bit "we were in one of the “executive” planes with the private jet-style layout" which might indicate a breakdown of a standard plane and they had to use the specially outfitted as a replacement.

llfoster

Football Fan - Thanks very much. Indeed. Nashid is a very nice fellow and I'm delighted to hear that he is still at Rangali. Your additional info is helpful too. Have a July stay coming up and wavering between CR (at which I've booked two villas) or WA ... time will tell. I'm already looking forward to our 2021 trip to CR with the over water renovations/construction being completed.