lhrhappy

How much do we have to tip to get them to stop interrupting our meals to upsell excursions and other meals?

IvanCU

They really do that? We haven't experienced it, and occupancy is fairly low right now.

MaldivesFreak

Did you do two back-to-back or was that just a typo?


How low is low? Remember that low at this resort means 95% occupancy, and it's at near full occupancy most of the year, with festive season etc being either 99.5% or 100%. But since it's your first time there you probably wouldn't realize it because you end up seeing more staff than you do guests. ^

gnomey

yes i know that. but what i mean is how early is the earliest flight. surely it is not 8 am, with the expectation that people at standby at the departure lounge by 7:30 am.

additionally, generally, hotel check in time isnt until after 2-4 pm in general. and hotel check out time is usually 12 noon or after

so is it safe to say that the first seaplane carrying passengers departing out from Male is usually noonish? this to me makes more sense since on the return leg, they can pick up hotel guests that just check-out.

metcon123

We arrived the night before and stayed in Male and requested the very first flight out to Rangali. We flew out at 9AM. While the check out time is noon, I've seen seaplane that departs from Rangali at 7AM ish when seaplane can actually fly since there are guest whom are flying back at say 10AM. My suggestion is let them know that you want the first flight out assuming you are ready to go by 7am or staying the night prior. No guarantees but they usually try to honor it. Hope this helps!

gnomey

Thanks! this info is helpful.

manneca

I have gone out as early as 7:30 ish--be at lounge at 6:30 am, lately more like 9:30. I've asked for last flight out and have gotten anything from 2:30 to 6 ish. Of course, the outgoing plane is always late.

IvanCU

I just took an early morning walk and saw a number of RWV that were vacant. The staff has commented that it is very quiet, and there are typically only a few other people at the restaurants, other than the first night when we went to the Sunset Grill, and we were still able to walk in and get a very nice outside table. Yesterday breakfast at Vilu there were only four or five other tables busy. The Atoll buffet is maybe 1/4 occupied at the most. The Island Hopping excursion was cancelled since we were the only couple who signed up, and yesterday's Local Island tour had just one couple other than ourselves. So it does seem pretty quiet here. And we keep seeing the same people over and over, although maybe they happen to keep a similar schedule to ours.

lhrhappy

You should probably turn off your phone, walk out to the beach barefoot, and reflect on how your toes feel.

Internet points are cool, but only you can see the clear sky, hear the waves crash, marvel at the nighttime plaknton...

You are living the dream. Ignore the internet for a while.

I say this as someone who has been there.

Cynicor

Eh, do what you want with the net, it's your holiday. I live in a dream beach destination so for me it's other things that make the resort.

On the tipping front- it is purely an American thing, you do not NEED to do this anywhere else in the world. So the etiquette is anything you would like, no one expects you to tip and the resort adds an automatic tip onto everything that is actually given to the staff, including those you don't see. Tipping in the USA is an essential because of the minimum wage issues for those expected to receive tips. This discrepancy between the waiters and the chefs etc doesn't exist elsewhere.

So I don't tip in this sort of resort. You are most welcome to tip every time you see someone, or at the end in bulk, or to certain individuals at the end.
Just do what makes you happy!

passionforhotels

That depends entirely on what time the guests arrive on international flights. Can be as early as 7am (local time). If you really want to go to Male before transferring to Conrad, let the reservations team know and ask them to give a dummy arrival flight to TMA (the seaplane company) with a later arrival time than your actual flight arrival time. Otherwise they'll automatically schedule you on the earliest arrival flight possible in the assumption that you don't want to hang out at the airport any longer than necessary.

MaldivesFreak

There is no way to know what time it will be on any given day. I have a post linked in the wiki under Seaplane Transfer specifics:

What that effectively means is that if no-one overnights in Male and no-one arrives earlier into MLE than say 10AM, there won't be any flights out to Rangali until about noon. Of course that almost never happens but it's still a possibility. And regarding the first flight out each morning, generally speaking they won't fly unless the plane is at full or near-full capacity, so if there are only a few passengers, say a couple or a small family overnighting in MLE, and the first lot of other guests arrive in MLE at 10AM (and there are no guests waiting at Rangali for an early departure back to Male), you'll still be looking at a midday flight out. Again, almost never happens due to the resort's size (more guests so more flights per day) so it's almost never an issue.

The other determining factor (bar maintenance issues) is daylight as they cannot fly in darkness so the earliest will be say 30min after sunrise which is 5:58AM if you look at today's sunrise / sunset times. So the earliest they will fly is about 6:30AM but that's only if they've prepped the plane the night before and are flying staff out. They won't fly guests out that early. The earliest we've flown out is about the same as manneca, around 7:30, so that's what you should expect if you are on the EARLIEST first plane out and there are a good number of passengers on it.

I think that post of mine needs to be updated to include the above information.

gnomey

Thanks - these are helpful. Do they really wait till the plane is 100% full before flying? IIRC it is 15 seats max per plane.

And big suitcase - i know it is 20kg pp, plus 5kg hand luggage. Is there a dimension restriction for the suitcase? I believe I saw a picture of them just being piled at the back of the plane... so wonder if they do restrict it to certain sizes. (like how they do on some safari bush plane)

In addition to weighing luggage, do you also need to go through luggage scan + security check + metal detector before boarding the seaplane? Presumably, no?

IvanCU

From an E-mail the hotel sent me on March 31, 2018:

"The luggage allowance is 25 kg per person plus 5 kg of hand luggage and the maximum weight is 32 kg per piece of luggage. Any excess goods will need to be removed and placed in another baggage. Any excess baggage is chargeable and will have to be paid directly to Trans Maldivian at US$ 5.00 plus 12% TGST per 1 kg per way."

We were a little over and I paid them $25 at the office. No mention of dimensional restrictions in their paperwork.

gnomey

This. Bolded being the most important.

This is not just specific to Maldives - generally, tipping is not the custom once outside of US. Why tipping exists in US is like the reason Cynicor has mentioned above. At Conrad (as well as many other non-US places), I believe there is already a 10% service charge applied.

I did not tip while staying at a top resort in FP. I tip when I am in the US. I almost always never tip once outside of US, unless it is a newly ingrained custom. In some cultures, it is perceived as offensive to even offer a tip.

This is a very contentious and polarizing topic, with strong opinions on both sides. This is one of the things that can happen when tipping goes down the wrong path - Country X never have a tipping culture, tourists who grew up familiar with tipping culture bring over their customs to Country X when they visit, workers in Country X gradually become accustomed to receiving extra $$$ and as human nature dictates, over time, some (NOT ALL) have rising expectations and become disgruntled when they dont receive the same treatment from every tourist. Worse, some workers start demanding their own countrymen who patronage them to do the same, or choose to ignore them in favor of tourists that will tip, and begin to treat guests differently based on how much $$ they think they will be getting in the end.

I have spent an equal number of years in US and such a country, so I have seen both sides of the coin of how tipping can be motivating, but also insidious at the same time.