Moflav

Just wanted to remind travelers that are heading to the WA Maldives this year (and early in January 2020) that you can register for the Hilton AMEX double/triple points promo tomorrow

Promo:Power up with double points or triple points with Hilton Honors Amex cardsRegistration starts August 26
Double points on stays between Sept 9-Jan 5
Hilton Honors Amex cardholder will get triple points in addition to what they already earn from the card

https://www.hiltonhonors.com/en_US/2..._1780/landing/

noeatbutgo

​​​​​​I left three nights out of seven as BV just in case.

Traveler Dave

NightFury1

I'm actually quite surprised that this isn't already being covered by any blogger.

jphripjah

It's not easy. The obvious strategy is eat the free breakfast late in the morning, I recall they serve it until 10:30. Then skip lunch. The free afternoon tea/happy hour for Hilton elites isn't very substantial, the pieces of fruit/chocolate are pretty small.

One day my girlfriend and I were doing an excursion in the evening so we had a very early dinner off the Peacock Alley "all day menu" which they stop serving at around 6 p.m. I think. So those meals might have "only" been $40++ each.

Yes, Nava serves pizzas but only for lunch, and if you're trying to save money you'll be skipping lunch. In the evening Nava just serves room service food that will be delivered from Tasting Table, I think.

I never ate room service here but I recall there are some light options and sandwiches on the room service menu. And then you could drink the free water in your room instead of the $12++ per bottle water in the restaurants.

The $65 peri peri chicken for two plus fries plus one appetizer plus two soft drinks at the Ledge would probably come out to like $105++ for two for dinner. We also went to Ledge one night and tried splitting like 3-4 appetizers and a salad and the tuna "main course" and that was OK and probably priced out the same.

There are also some $50 per person dinner items at Tasting Table. My girlfriend and I don't drink much or order the crazy expensive food items so average dinner bill for us was like $150 after the taxes/fees. We had two dinners at Glow, two at Ledge, one at Tasting Table. We had an after dinner drink at Amber one night and one at Nava. So for 5 nights our Food and Beverage bill was around $1000. Then add the transfer cost at $370++ RT and two excursions (whale watching and Male tour) and my total bill was $2200.

goliath

It's not just for the Hilton Amex, many (all?) other Hilton branded credit cards worldwide count for the triple points promo as well (see the fine print on the promo page).

Tilly71

Many thanks for your reply. We learnt the "fill up at breakfast" trick when we stayed at the Conrad Maldives so a great one. Didn't realise pizza was only lunch - ohh! We are Gold so would be making use of the afternoon Tea also everyday. We looked last night at all the menus available online, saw pasta dishes not too bad on price, crispy half duck with pancakes etc, noodles, the perI chicken. We did wonder about the room service menu as sometimes that is a gold mine at some resorts offering better options and cheaper than dining out, like you mentioned free water also - has anyone been used room service - any good?
Looks like Peacock alley is ok for atleast three meals on our list.

jphripjah

Peacock Alley stops serving their "all day menu" at like 6pm and then reverts to a tapas only menu. Then Tasting Table opens and many of the items from the Peacock Alley "all day menu" are on the menu at Tasting Table for the same price.

alanslegal

Be mindful that Afternoon Tea will not fill anyone up but guests can order snacks/tapas and that could be one's late lunch/early dinner.

Can someone correct me here but I think the in-villa dining prices (ableit a smaller menu) were the same price as if you were dining at the respective restaurants? We ordered in-villa dining once, just two mains and it set us back around $110 which was the cheapest meal per couple we had during the week. Once we went to a restaurant we felt that we had to order some starters, plus our mains, then a dessert, and hence you can easily spend $200++ without even trying.

windk

I also emailed them to change 2/5 nights from BV to OWV free of charge for our April 2020 stay! Thanks all for sharing this (we saved 400x2x23.2%!)

goldelite8

Just finished a stay here and thought I would add my two cents on the property. Happy to answer any questions people have with respect to pricing, logistics, etc.

Villa

Easily the nicest hotel room I have ever stayed in. I posted a few weeks ago that they quoted me an upgrade charge of $250/night + 23.2% service charge/tax in order to go from the beach villa booked through points/certificates to a grand overwater villa. This was a great deal, and I was floored with the shear size of the villa along with the outdoor deck, pool area, etc. The room was stocked with every amenity you could imagine, and we were discovering things right until check out, such as a beach bag, sun umbrella, and more. They did a fantastic job on these rooms and if you can get a cheap rate to upgrade to a grand villa, I think it is worth it because having the living room area makes the villa feel much more spacious (and also means a much larger outdoor deck).

Housekeeping did a fantastic job ensuring that our room was in good shape and came multiple times in the day. When they came, their work consisted of a very deep clean, which was nice to see.

Transfer

I recognize that there has been a lot of discussion here with respect to transfer pricing, and, prior to actually enduring the experience, I was in the camp of folks who were of the impression that these prices were simply outrageous. After experiencing the yacht transfer, I actually think the price of $300/pp + 23.2% service charge/tax each way is kind of reasonable. Note that I got them down to this price after complaining about the fact that the "mandatory" aspect of the transfer experience was not disclosed at booking. The yachts we took in both directions were stunning, and the bedroom setup was outrageous. They literally have Waldorf Astoria beds on these things, and, having never really spent any time at sea, I found the experience of flying through the Indian Ocean in my own luxury bedroom to be something quite special. Don't expect much in terms of the food/beverage offerings onboard the yacht. This is a major area of improvement for them, and I already let management know.

Hilton Honors Perks

Gold members are the real winners here. The only difference between Gold and Diamond benefits is that Diamond members get a complimentary 30 minutes tacked onto a 60 minute massage but this is really only worth $20 since that is the difference in cost between a 60 minute and a 90 minute massage. I addressed how absurd this pricing differential was to the spa staff, and they agreed it made no sense, but, alas, these were the prices.

The complimentary breakfast is insane. Easily the best breakfast I have ever had at a hotel -- in terms of both quality and quantity. Usually, you would eat at the buffet and then get a choice of one item off the menu. Here, you could literally get everything off the buffet and then order absolutely everything off the menu. We had the buffet, along with waffles, pancakes, French toast, made-to-order eggs, eggs benedict, and six or seven fresh-pressed juices every morning and nobody even blinked. If you come here later in the morning and eat a huge meal, you can easily make it until dinner.

The daily reception at Peacock Alley was also great in the sense that the free non-alcoholic/alcoholic beverages were also unlimited. You could have six or seven drinks and no one will say anything. The food is not substantial but was generally of a high quality.

The welcome package was quite nice. It included a bottle of champagne, fruit, and cookies.

Upgrades seem to be virtually non-existent here, though I realize some have reported success. They claim they are exempt from the upgrade program given the unique nature of the property.

I was given a 8 PM late check out. Enough said.

Dining

We dined at Li Long, Tangled, The Ledge and Tasting Table. If you steer clear of some of the more expensive items on the menu -- and do not drink -- you can keep costs under control. Of these restaurants, The Ledge and Tasting Table were the highlights. The Ledge had a tremendous meat offering, and we also enjoyed the tapas appetizers (some of which are just $10-$12). Tasting Table is the winner in terms of a bargain. We went on the sunset fishing excursion and caught a couple fish. A few others folks on our trip caught fish, as well, but did not want to eat them. We were informed by the staff that the fish you catch on the excursion can be prepared for a meal at Tasting Table for $65 per person + 23.2% service charge/tax. BUT, once you pay that amount, there is no limit to how much fish you can eat. So, we each caught one fish but then the other folks on our cruise gave us their fish. So for that same $65 per person++, we both shared five full entrees (each with a side). We picked how we wanted each fish prepared, what sauce, etc. and it felt like a steal. So much food we could not finish it and was just $120++.

Li Long and Tangled were great, too. All the food at the resort is very high quality but a lot of the pricing, as discussed already, makes no sense at all. For example, the cheeses you can have on a basically unlimited basis at breakfast go for $68 in room service. Or a single egg costs the same thing as a complete omelette breakfast? Crazy.

And as a FYI, you can get unlimited free water in the gym. You get a few bottles every day in your villa but it's amazing how quickly you go through them. Some restaurants were charging $12 or $13 for one bottle of water so the costs can add up quickly and you should figure out ways to avoid paying it.

Oh, and I have no idea why anyone in their right mind would pay to eat at Terra. The bamboo cages are awkward and, even in daylight, you barely have a view. Li Long and Tasting Table seem to offer the best views.

Personal Concierge

A joke. Our personal concierge, after checking us into the villa, literally disappeared. We were unable to make contact on our first day, and, after many phone calls, we went back to the reception area only to discover that our concierge had left the island. No one informed us of this, reservations we wanted had not been made, and management did not really seem to care. We got a replacement concierge but this kind of left a bad taste in our mouths. When a resort is charging these amounts, they need to be flawless when it comes to this sort of thing. They also need to implement some sort of system that tracks all of your reservations (perhaps accessible on the in-room iPad?) because it was difficult to just remember everything we booked, and, at times, even our concierge was confused as to when things were booked. We also learned that if you want something, expect to ask for it multiple times. Maybe the concierge staff is just overwhelmed but they seemed to often lose track of our requests.

Overall, they need A LOT of help in this area.

Spa

Beautiful. Had a great massage and only complaint is that the pricing makes absolutely no sense. A 60 minute massage is $180 and a 90 minute massage is $200. So the Diamond massage perk amounts to $20.

Watersports

It was dead when we were there so the staff members were incredibly attentive and they have some very cool gadgets that make for a memorable time on the water. Totally worth it, even though it is a bit expensive.

We were blown away by the house reef tour, available for $35 pp + 23.2% service charge/tax. I thought there wouldn't be much action based on what I read here but it was absolutely gorgeous, and we saw tons of fish, an Eagle ray, etc.

Miscellaneous

You get around the resort on bikes (or you can be driven in a buggy). At night time, there are virtually no lights anywhere and the buggies go at exceptionally high speeds. As an attorney, I could never imagine approving this setup from a liability perspective. You need to be VERY careful at all times, especially at night, as the buggies are going quickly and often from hidden turns and, sadly, think it's only a matter of time before someone gets injured. There are not any lights on the bikes. Be careful.

DO NOT leave anything out in the open on your villa deck. Our bikes were stolen from our villa, which means that someone literally went through our front door and onto our deck to retrieve them. There's no way to prevent this as you cannot lock the outside door to the villa area (you can obviously lock the villa itself). Thankfully, there was nothing of high value in the bikes but disconcerting that this happened at all. What was even more alarming was that the staff did not seem particularly upset about this. We spoke with a couple other guests who reported that the same thing happened to them so seems to be a common occurrence and hopefully they figure out a way to prevent this in the future.

Take advantage of the photo shoot. They don't really advertise that you can have a professional 45-minute photo shoot done and then you can keep some of the photos. The book in the room said you could only keep one photo, but we were able to keep more than that and they were REALLY high-quality photos. You'd need to pay hundreds of dollars to have done what we had done for free at the resort.

Overall

It's a beautiful resort but cannot give it more than a 8/10 as a result of the various service issues we encountered, as well as the apathy of staff when it came to very serious issues like someone coming into our villa area and taking our bikes (and the contents therein). Much work to be done but they certainly have a beautiful property to develop.

NightFury1

Awesome review,

although I don't understand why they would only let you keep one photo...

noeatbutgo

@goldelite8
I appreciate your awesome review. I have a quick question- how was your snorkeling experience in front of your villa? It would be even more helpful if you can tell us your villa # as well.

goldelite8

Didn't go snorkeling directly behind our villa (in the 700s) but the dive center was close by and the water on the other side of the 700s seemed to be rife with marine life.

jphripjah

Haha, I wonder what the record is. I didn't manage more than three beers it's only an hour and the service isn't that fast. I think the key is just to order two drinks for yourself whenever they come by.

You can get free apples in the gym too. They don't replenish the fruit bowl in the room. In fact, on day 3 or so, they removed the fruit from my bowl even though the fruit was still perfectly edible.

As for water, I wouldn't be surprised if you could just ask your housekeeper or concierge for more water and you'd get it. I haven't heard of them charging for water except in the restaurants.

This is pretty surprising. I thought the system here was that concierges are expected to be VERY attentive and whenever I called for a buggy they would ask my room number and send my concierge if he was available.


We've heard a few reports of this now. I never noticed it but I absolutely wouldn't have ridden a bicycle at night there. At night, we took the buggies.


What the hell? People are stealing bikes? Who? Why? Like other guests are coming inside your villa gate to take a bicycle? Why? Do they not have enough of these free use bicycles for every guest when the resort is full?

Or are professional type local bike thieves raiding the resort in the middle of the night and stealing bicycles and then putting them on a boat and slipping away before anyone wakes up?

For those who haven't been there, the resort has a bunch of bicycles available for guests' use and if you tell your concierge you want bikes he or she will have them delivered to your villa inside the gate. I think every villa has an outer door/gate out front but it's not lockable.

One thing I thought was poorly planned with the bikes is that they are all the same color and model. So at breakfast, for example, there may be a couple of dozen identical looking bikes all lined up next to each other and it's invariable that someone is going to get on the "wrong" bike and then that sets off a chain reaction of "well my bike is gone, so I'll just take this one." And then you have to readjust the seat and the gears each time, etc.

If instead of having, say, 200 bikes in green they got 50 each in green, blue, red, and yellow, I think it might cut down on this confusion. Or they could number the bikes. Or just make some removable luggage type tags saying "Villa 104, Villa 609, etc." and put those on the bikes when they are assigned to a guest at the start of the guest's stay.

I do recall riding our two bikes to Tasting Table, and then when we were leaving only two bikes were parked there, but when we started to ride off some guests said "those are ours," and I said "Well, ours were here and now they are gone I think they're first come first served" and then a staff member intervened and said I could take them, but maybe I was being a dick there.

Anyway, if they have a bike shortage and are telling some guests "Sorry, no bikes for you, only two per villa" and now guests are raiding each other's villas for bikes, then I think it's time for them to buy more bikes. Handing out 150 identical looking free use bikes to 250 guests at a high end resort is a great way to create strife and conflict among the guests.