harrisk7

All the villas look like they are infinitely nicer than the Conrad from the video; looks like a huge pool for all villas, even the base beach villas, and a huge improvement to the tiny pool and deck on the base water villas at the Conrad. Hopefully they don’t have those huge walls extending 25+ feet out into the ocean blocking all wind and airflow like the Conrad does.....those decks got 🔥🔥

monahos

... with commensurate pricing and surely not available as standard awards.

As for the beach villas, I am concerned about those mini-jetties every 3 units or so, which suggest a strong current which would otherwise wash away the sand, and will definitely detract from the tropical island beach feeling. With characteristics comparable/superior to the Conrad's deluxe beach villas, no doubt they will be in high demand as standard awards, perhaps in a Bora Bora like scenario where each night has to be booked 365 days ahead of time.

Also, I appreciate the Conrad for its non built-up areas on the smaller island, and relative sense of space on the larger island, which seem to be missing from this new W-A with admittedly highly specified villas on every available piece of land (and water). Great for staying in/by one's pool, but CR might have the edge for water/beach/land activities. The ratio of water villas to 'public' beach front also looks very low, for water villa residents who would like some time in the sand.

The nearby empty islands on Google maps might make for good snorkeling trips.

harrisk7

I’d assume they would build concrete breakwaters around the island to take the effect of the current and waves away like they do at the Conrad....

I’m hoping they will allow boat transfers between the Waldorf and Conrad, say you wanted to do 5 and 5. It was only about 10 minutes away from the Conrad by seaplane when we flew over it; one would think a boat transfer to the other would be possible.

EuropeanPete

I thought the opening couple of minutes felt very much like "Dubai by the Sea", but I do have to admit that the Villas look nice - very reminiscent of the Cheval Blanc Randheli which clearly wins in pure luxury terms vs. the Conrad.

monahos

Rangali island has a much larger 'continental shelf', so to speak, which enables the implementation of such breakwaters, and it still suffers from erosion problems especially on the northwestern side of its big island, where onshore perpendicular concrete walls make for an unattractive section of beach.



The steep dropoffs off Ithaafushi's middle island must make it a challenge to keep the sand on its beaches in the desired configuration.



Hopefully not too apt a metaphor... The 'sandless' arrival pier and lobby do seem set up for the W-A brand's target audience.

MaldivesFreak

After they removed most of the mostly-underwater wall between the tip of Rangalifinolhu and the OWS / Mandhoo 18mths ago, it has been much much better and is now not really a problem although they still have the walls emanating from the beach into the water so it still looks less than perfect. Now the erosion is occuring further down the island, especially near the beach volleyball court (villas 201-205) where they've had to put sandbags onto the beach and cover them with more sand.

Yes. This is a shame. This property is going to fall far short on natural beauty compared to Rangali. The undergrowth on both Rangali and Rangalifinolhu at the Conrad, and the pathways through it, give you a completely immersed feeling.....like you're in a hospitable jungle. The W-A will feel rather fake, like the O&O Reethi Rah. Like you say, it's going to appeal to a certain audience but it's not everyone's cup of tea. Certainly not mine but perhaps I will visit once if the base villas aren't hiked up to something like 150K pts per night which Hilton could well do.

MaldivesFreak

If you mean breakwaters further out (like the low walls surrounding Iru Fushi) then they aren't able to do that due to the limited size of the lagoon so it is indeed difficult for them to keep the sand along the middle stretch and the eastern half of the resort. There's really no way they can do without those ugly walls emanating from what was the sandbank every few villas. At least they look to be making an effort to reduce the eyesore by having greenery on the tops of some of the breakers.


Impossible to be only 10mins flight time from the Conrad. It's 7-8min / 20km from MLE so it's the other way around, more like 22-23min flight time.
Either resort will be able to provide a speedboat service but expect to pay in the region of 3000-3500K++ for the transfer. It will be far cheaper for even a family of 4 to take the seaplane back from the Conrad to MLE then speedboat to Ithaafushi or vice versa.

yerffej201

can't wait

onlysuites

Looking forward to this one. Whenever rooms become available please can someone post in this thread.

Land-of-Miles

Looks great much more like the St Regis than the Conrad, where the room design feels well past its sell by date. Why would anyone choose the Conrad as a redemption rather than this? I look forward to trying next year.

kpc

Better start saving those HHonors points!!

MaldivesFreak

Wish that they could swap the hard product around (with the Conrad). Then you'd have the best of both worlds.

Land-of-Miles

The Conrad is presumably beyond bringing up to the latest accommodation standard though. You would have to do so much work and drastically cut the number of guests and force up prices.

MaldivesFreak

So it will be interesting to see what the UWS looks like when finished. I don't really think the number of guests / villas needs to be cut, though I suppose this would differ from person to person. It's a huge resort with good shape and layout and you don't realise there are 500 or so guests there at any one time. 150 villas is about right for a good balance between size and privacy. There are plenty of resorts with a much higher ratio of villas to actual land area.

Land-of-Miles