scwam

I've never been to the Maldives. Although, I've been to the Turks and Caicos and I and my family loved it. I want to know for those of you who have been to the Maldives, do you think this resort would even have a slight resemblance of what the true Maldives is like? I know it's an impossible question to answer given no one has been to this resort yet but luxury (and top-notch food - coming from Tokyo) is something of utmost importance during this trip. But I'd like to know if you think a westernized mega-resort like this on a manufactured island can even come close to the true experience - especially being so close to the capital with brightly lit islands in the distance at night.

alanslegal

This resort is playing games and it is not a good start.

Yes, it has already been reported that the reservations online regarding the yacht transfer is now to "$370+ each way". My biggest grip right now is that there is zero notification from the property about this unilateral change. I have received no email, no call etc about the changes and I expect no one else got any notification about their changes too.

This is definitely unsavoury. Imagine buying a green coloured car, and then whilst waiting for the car to be delivered, the dealer decides you can have a blue one instead.

scwam

That's what they do. When I emailed them 5 weeks ago, they offered to let me know about points redemption availability once it opens. Although, I never responded to the email with a "Yes, please do." I'd still expect a proactive response on their part especially with a 7* hotel. They keep track of who contacted them first don't they? But never got one. Maybe I'm just too used to good service even when one is not a confirmed guest.

dcht

People love to complain here about being nickle and dimed by resorts or charged a ridiculous amount for a yacht transfer, but until people start leaving bad reviews on TripAdvisor these hotels are going to continue to do this.

Also, when people shrug off the $15 room service charge because it's just $15 on top of thousands of dollars they're already spending, of course the hotel is going to do this because they receive no backlash for it.

jphripjah

Are they going to automatically honor the 370++ return price for everyone who booked before they changed it online, or are they just going to bill everyone for 370++ each way and then only reduce it if an early booker complains and/or shows them their booking confirmation saying "370++ return"?

I think I know the answer to this.

And what happens if I, an early booker, am staying at the resort, and I blurt out to a late booker in the villa next to me "HAHAHA I'm only paying $370 return! Sucker!" and then he complains to the resort that he's being charged more for the transfer?

Because I would totally do that.

scwam

You're killing me! I've yet to see something like that but would make great comedy especially during the afternoon "high tea" in the lobby.

Traveler Dave

Stivelio

I have personally never stayed at a hotel before in it's first week of opening and have my 3 nights booked here for the very first opening weekend. Just curious to know experiences from other folks here how their stays ended up in this kind of situation

Wozza2404

Points aren't free.

If you earn them from stays your employer pays for, then their value is what you end up spending elsewhere as a result of using your points here. These points, I personally value at 0.5p each as the hotels we stay at in Europe or the GCC are expensive and we don't have enough points to cover all our stays.

Points earned from credit cards, assuming 2 points per £ (or currency of choice) have to get (at least in the UK) 0.62p per point value for you, as otherwise you could have made that spend on a cashback card and earned more than that in cash.

As such, my base valuation for the 360000 points I used for my upcoming reservation is £1,800.00. Add to this a £1,200.00 ($1,680ish) transfer (arguable, but for new bookings would apply) and my net cost is £3k for 3 nights. It's actually costing me that because I will spend at least that booking other properties this year for cash, when if I wasn't redeeming here I would have used points.

Could I get another 5* resort for that for 3 nights? Yup.

As good as this one? Time will tell. But let's not pretend these stays are free.

llfoster

We actually were the very first guests to arrive at Conrad Koh Samui. Was pleasantly surprised. No big glitches at all. I would expect/hope for the same at WA Ithaafushi

Smurfettepharoh

Hello

1) I was not able to locate the yacht transfer fee $370++ one way per person.
where can this be found?

thank you

alanslegal

We are booked 6-11 July so might see you there if our times overlap.

And we might be having the chat below if our transfer costs are not the same

Stivelio

If all goes well we will be there July 5 - 8 and talk in person

Willbur

https://waldorfastoria3.hilton.com/e.../policies.html

A shared transfer on the resort's private yacht is charged at US$370 + taxes and service per person per way. This charge will be added to your total bill. Please e-mail [email protected] for more information or to arrange your transfer.

MaldivesFreak

OK, this is a tough question but not at all impossible to answer. The answer is both yes and no. Degree is the key word here. Beautiful new villa interiors and amenities aside, you should find good sand, but not nearly as much as say Rangali and almost certainly nowhere near as fine as Irufushi.





As you can see from the picture above, the main part of Ithaafushi is built on a natural island that had a tiny, and I mean tiny, amount of greenery to begin with. Because of this you're going to find almost 100% planted (as opposed to natural) jungle with no natural undergrowth. Lots of thick undergrowth is what you really need in order for you to feel like it's real and been there for hundreds of thousands or millions of years. There will be pathways through planted rows of palm trees but with a somewhat, or rather fake feel to it all (depending on how it's done and who you ask!) Take a look at the picture below of One&Only Reethi Rah Maldives and you'll see what I mean regarding the lack of undergrowth you can expect, the planted forest tree feel and the straight, man-made roads. Most of that resort is reclaimed land. Beautiful but a rather fake beautiful.





Note that I'm not saying the whole of Reethi Rah is like that but it's a good example of what developers and landscape artists do when there is nothing to work with. If you look at the layout of Ithaafushi they've been very careful not to make mistakes like the Reethi Rah, i.e; they've avoided too many perfectly straight pathways. They've tried to twist and turn them and by all means it should look much better but still, it's all planted and it will be very noticible. Then again some folks will no doubt wander down the pathways and think "Oh, so lovely!" while others who are more observant will be thinking "Hmm.....these aren't cut out of any original jungle." And there's something else to consider as well. The undergrowth will get thicker as time goes by so when the resort opens it will seem barren by Rangali (Rangali Island in particular) and Irufushi standards. I'm not sure how long the undergrowth will take to thicken up but probably years.

The bonus is you have the large lagoon in the centre and its shallow water and that gradation into deep blue and the fantastic array of blues and greens mixed together. You can see it's got a reasonably good-looking lagoon from the photos earlier in the thread. Beachfront will be sparse, especially at high tide, and it doesn't look like there's enough space to have a decent beach BBQ anywhere and that's a shame. If you've got the time and the inclination, get onto Google Maps or similar service and check out the sizes and widths of the beaches of some of the islands that have resorts on them. You'll soon see that this resort, although new and up-market, is pretty crowded. Some folks won't mind too much but others will. I suggest arranging the times you plan on laying about on the beach and to do it at low tide, that way you'll have more beachfront to play with. The Water Sports centre will be able to tell you the precise times. When you want to go swimming or snorkelling at the resort, you may wish to do it at high tide. That way you get more shallow water before any dropoff or where it gets deep. Another obvious advantage with Ithaafushi that I should point out is the 2 sandbanks that you see in the first picture, one in the middle of the resort (situated on the band of coral on the far right of the lagoon) and the other to the south (which the resort may have access to on a permanent basis). This is something that most resorts do not have and will be fun to take a boat out to (or swim to if you're game). They should be able to take guests there to have a picnic or whatnot - but at a price no doubt.

As far as the coral and marine life is concerned, you probably know that around 70% of the coral in the Maldives was killed off by higher than normal water temperatures in 2016. It will take a good many years for the coral to recover but at a brand new resort like this I doubt there is even a single cluster of coral that survived both the rise in temperature and the construction process. Hey, that's probably an exaggeration but the good thing is there is usually a lot of marine life in situations like this because they feed off the algae that grows on dead coral. Again, because of the construction process I don't know how much marine life there is but I'd hazard a guess and say not a lot at this stage, at least not in close proximity to the BVs and the inner regions of the lagoon. Other resorts have living coral and tons of marine life so this is something to consider. Of course there will be excursions that you can go on to visit nearby 'healthy' reefs but they won't be free.

Hope that's sort of answered your question.