mc93

Yea, you would think for $175 you can have a lobster dinner instead! I'll still do the cocktails just to check out Ithaa in two weeks.

MaldivesFreak

This has got Marco Amarone's name written all over it. The PDF is dated July. He left in August so I suppose it could have been something he designed before he left. Did I mention that Rangali has had no F&B Manager and no Director of F&B since late August / early September. I'll pitch in and say this: IVD is far better value for money.

bwh3m

What's the story here - was he fired? And sorry for the noob question, but what is IVD?

lhrhappy

No one is expecting them to bring in Paul Bocuse, but they ought to at least put some effort into this. Another dine-in-a-fishtank, not-at-all-veiled cash grab puts me off.

gnomey

in villa dining, i think

washeelers747

I am looking forward to my first stay at this resort during late Jan/early Feb. I want to see if I should bother with getting SIM card or wifi around resort is sufficient enough for usual internet surfing?

Abidjan

Yes, wifi is sufficient. It has improved over the years. Won't win any awards, but absolutely fine.

MaldivesFreak

Yes, IVD stands for In Villa Dining.

As for Mr. Amarone, only himself and a few in senior management can answer that question, however he was changing this and that (see this post and this post for some examples), adding ingredients to already perfect dishes - fine to do if it the result is an even better dish but more often than not it isn't, removing popular dishes (at Vilu) that were loved by many regular guests so I guess his departure went something like "Sorry Marco, it was interesting having you here but.....", that kind of situation. His LinkedIn profile says he was Executive Chef there from Sep 2015 – Aug 2017 (Employment Duration 2 yrs) but that's a bit of a stretch as Ayyoub (previous Exec Chef) left in November '15 so it looks like a few months have been added on to at least one end of his tenure. I think in reality it was more like 18 months at most. In our opinion he was just far too blasé about changing this, that and the other and there was quite a bit of negative feedback as a result of all those changes. No doubt as the manager of a resort you wouldn't want this to continue.....so we can assume that in all likelihood he was indeed fired (half way through his second year by the looks of it).

And goliath, did you manage to see whether the chocolate fondant at Vilu is now back to its original recipe, i.e; without the hazelnuts that he added.


Just remember that there's no WiFi signal on the beach, save for the few villas that are close enough you can still get a weak signal from your room's router (and they are few and far between).

MaldivesFreak

Oh, and anyone notice that restaurant is spelled incorrectly in two places on his LinkedIn profile?

rjp123

Give the guy a break. No need to be like this because someone has different tastes.

MaldivesFreak

You're right. Pointing out errors is a(n arguably) bad habit from my profession. Having said that, someone of his calibre and experience should know that you're going to make waves (and make regular guests upset) when you do that kind of thing. He should've known better and at least have incuded the option for the original dishes for those guests who wanted to stick with what they know and love. He failed to realize that at Rangali, and also failed to take into consideration that there are a huge number of returning guests and 20-25% of them there at any one time are Hilton regulars on redemption stays. If I was paying him 20 or 30K a month I would expect a lot better.

MaldivesFreak

Seems they have a drone that's used for picture-taking for special occasions.



Wonder if this is limited to over water and a little away from the resort in order not to disturb guests.

MJJW1985

actually on this.. do they have any official policy on the drones? Is it ok to fly around with one?

onlysuites

I know most of the hotels there don't allow it as the bathrooms are usually outdoors. Which is the case with the Conrad.

MaldivesFreak

Official policy? Good question. I suppose we could email them. Anyone due to email them soon please ask and post back and I'll put it in the wiki. TIA.