freeloader

really excited now - one week until we depart for the Conrad!!!

Any other FTers there 10/13-10/18? if so, lemme know, i'd love to meet some of you!

MaldivesFreak

Both $150 and $210 are within low season figures. Based on that I guess it was probably availability that determined your final rate.

slodki

I've emailed again to see if there is any better pricing which can be done - and mentioned I've seen lower prices being quoted for the low season - we'll see what happens!

lhrhappy

I hope you haven't told them it's your honeymoon!

goliath

We arrived yesterday and are currently in BV 21x, will be in this BV for a total of 5 nights before moving to a RVW for the remainder of our stay.

The weather wasn't too great yesterday with rain and winds. We had to wait in the Conrad lounge for ~3 hours for our flight due to the weather. They say it has been like this for a week now.

After torrential rainfall during the night, today was much nicer with a mix of sun and clouds at about 30° C and only 1 minute of rain. ^

A few initial impressions:

• The renovated BVs are a huge improvement over the old style BVs ^^
  
• The beach on the sunrise side of Rangalifinolhu island (in the 200s) has massively increased compared to our last visit 18 months ago (i.e. 25...30 meters wide now compared to 5m to "almost gone" in some places then) ^
  
• There is a new executive chef that has started 6 weeks ago, I talked to him today at the manager's reception and he is planning some changes. We were told on arrival that "everything" had changed at the Atoll Market breakfast buffet as of yesterday. However, I only noticed very minor changes, and most of them were negative (you can't pour yourself a glass of water any more - you have to order it, the bubbly was gone as well...)
  
• The kids pool is under renovation, supposedly until Oct, 5 (not sure about that date by the looks of it, we'll see)
  
• The new bridge and construction site for the new underwater suite is another setback for the view on the sunrise side of Rangali island (in addition to the recent additions of the 3rd island bridge and the "sand bags").

We haven't been to any restaurants yet (too tired yesterday, not hungry anymore today after afternoon tea at Mandhoo, happy hour at Vilu and manager's reception at the Quiet zone... )

I'll report back with more news and observations later.

We're here until Oct, 18 as well.

MaldivesFreak

Check out how much bigger the sandbank next to 349 is. Same thing as the sunrise side of Rangalifinolhu.

So Marco's gone, huh? Not surprising. Can you see whether the chocolate fondant at Vilu is now back to its original recipe, i.e; without the hazelnuts that he added.

You mean Rangalifinolhu Island, right? Any chance you could take a pic and post it here?

TIA goliath and enjoy your two weeks!

lhrhappy

Any more "improvements" you can share?

Wadge

Hi Guys, we are going soon again, cant wait to see the new renovated BVs. I always preferred them over the WVs for some reason, though they look cooler I know.

Is there any sticky now about the basic facts and details of the stay? Like cost of the hydro plan transfer per person now, menus and such things? There used to be a DropBox document but it is no longer available. Thanks

MaldivesFreak

Have you read the wiki at the top of this thread? That lists the seaplane prices and a whole plethora of other info.
And as far as menus go, I can send you them in .jpeg format. PM me your email address and I'll send them to you. Just need to make sure your email provider can accept attachments of up to 20MB.

freeloader

Awesome!! i'll see you next week!

bwh3m

Very disappointed . . . champagne is half the reason for going to breakfast

lhrhappy

That's a serious disappointment. Can we get the Conrad rep to clarify if it's true?

slodki

Well - looks like they aren't budging much

We're staying May 20-25 next year and prices to upgrade are:

BV to DBV is $375 p/n ++
BV to RWV is $600 p/n ++

They mentioned usual upgrade prices for RWV were $800 p/n but discounted to $600.

Have people been dealing with anyone in particular from Conrad to get the prices mentioned in the wiki? Happy to pay upgrade costs, but it would be great if we could get closer to what's mentioned in the wiki - unless something has changed recently and the upgrades have increased?

MaldivesFreak

Have you checked how many villas in those categories are left for those dates? Could be that there are only a few, hence the high rates.

alanslegal

Sparkling wine was available upon request at both Vilu and Atoll when we were there two months ago which we made the most each day So if the changes are correct, then it's very sad indeed