peter42

As long as the incidentials were point eligiable alll of our award stays counted, untilk they changed the rules.

macdonaldj2

Where are you seeing this?

suite2suite

It's all in the posts.

Outbreak187

I just received an email from the concierge confirming my in room service requests.
On the confirmation it lists the "park villa" as the room, which is what I booked with points. Should I try to ask what is their occupancy next week or just wait and see if we are able to get an upgrade when we arrive?
Thanks

ahcjar103

water is chargeable in the restaurants, but they'll give you as much as you want in your room, laying by the pool, etc.

for sundowners, i'm not sure what it was before, but i doubt it was a mountain of food. we thought they were great, and they let me get macallan every night.

we did get the 20% off at the bar after 7pm.

for breakfast i just got whatever i wanted each day. it was rad.

macdonaldj2

Makes more sense, I thought they were charging for bottled water in the room as well, If they charge for water at the restaurants that's fine, I'll order wine/cocktails or something else

MCMAHONSMR

I have just returned from an award stay (I used 100k of my GP points). The property itself is beautiful, the villas are very nice, the house reef is beautiful, it feels isolated and remote. You truly feel disconnected from the rest of the world and I was able to really unwind. However, I had a lot of issues with the soft product (consistent with a recently posted 3 star/circle review on TripAdvisor), which ultimately left me feeling unimpressed to the point of having no desire to return to this property.

I will eventually get around to posting a full review, but in the meantime for the benefit of those who are visiting soon I can confirm that the happy hour is gone, goodbye. From 7pm to Midnight, Platinums get a 15% discount on wine and cocktails only. Diamonds get a 20% discount on wine and cocktails only. I didn't even bother.

From reviewing some of the older posts, a less expensive beer has been added to the menus. San Miguel (a Philippine beer) is now on the menus at $8 per 330ml bottle. The Hadahaa (house water) that is free in rooms is $8 per liter in the restaurants. It is still free if you are lounging by the pool or beach (if someone brings it to you at all). At meals I would just drink a San Miguel. Why pay $8 for water when it is free in your room? I'd rather just pay $8 for a beer and go back to my room to hydrate. I also noticed other guests bringing their own Diet Coke that had been taken from the Maldivian Lounge (300ml plastic bottles) at MLE to meals and asking for ice in order to avoid the $7 charge for the resort Diet Coke.

For Gold and Platinum GP guests using points or credit card certificates for their stays breakfast is still $30 per person plus 10% service charge and 13.2% tax. Regardless of whether you order a set breakfast (American, Asian, Continental or Healthy) or a la carte, you receive the tower of fruit, tuna mafushi and some sweets. Despite asking two people how many a la carte items I could order no one gave me a straight answer. One person said order as much as you like. So, I ordered three dishes. When I asked our useless personal concierge how it worked she seemed surprised that I ordered three but said "it should be no problem, it should be like a $30 charge" When pressed for a more definite answer no clarification was provided. This lack of information I found very frustrating. I personally found the $30 charge to be reasonable as breakfast was quite filling.

As a Platinum, I can't speak as to the sundowners that Diamonds get. From what I could see, there were not many people in the bar area from 5 to 8 in the evening so I'm not sure there were many Diamonds at the resort while I was there.

As I said above, I will eventually post a full review, but in my view, I would not return here as long as it is managed by/affiliated with Hyatt.

tsolin01

I don't really understand the complaints about paying for water and no more happy hour. Given the remoteness of this place, I would think the prices are in line with similar resorts in the area. I'm planning a stay here in Sept. and everything seems reasonable given the circumstances.

I do agree that the management should be more consistent in delivering information. However, staying on points / awards I tend to be a little more forgiving since I'm not really paying full price for the stay.

Private Pyle

I think the complaints about the price of water are for the house water, the stuff purified on the island.
$10 for a bottle of Evian is cheap in the Maldives and everyone accepts that charge but as I read it, $8 for house water is the problem. I think it used to be $4 and free pour in the restaurants?

canyonleo

Correct, the discussion is about house water, provided in large (and small) unbranded and clear glass refillable bottles. It's free in the room, but they're charging for it in the restaurants (and always have I'm pretty sure - I stayed there within six months of the opening and it was that way).

I'm always drinking water (always, not talking just about during travel), so I carry a bottle with me nearly 24/7. I just took my room bottle with me to the restaurant (and if I arrived straight from the dive boat or the beach then I had it with me anyway) and no one cared that I was at the same time avoiding the water charge as part of my restaurant meal.

Big_Foot

Honestly it seems to me the only reason to go there is to use the Hyatt card
free nights. For a couple, 4 free nights is still a $6000 saving.
My strategy would be to attach those 4 nights to a stay somewhere else.
Still the domestic transfer between 2 hotels can be a big PITA.
But there is so many better hotels around it would be ridiculous
to have a paid stay here.

MCMAHONSMR

I'm not saying I am complaining about the charge for water or disappearing happy hour. The purpose of my post was to convey information to readers who are going soon, so they know what to expect, especially since some of the information in the wiki is outdated now.

The wiki for this property suggests using the happy hour as a means to save on some costs. It's gone, so if you are on a budget and were planning on drinking from 3 to 5 to save on some costs, adjust your plan.

As for the house filtered "Hadahaa" water, it's free in the rooms and $8 per liter at the restaurants. If I'm going to pay $8 for house filtered water (which in my opinion did not taste very good) I would prefer to spend my $8 on something else, beer, Evian, etc. That's a personal preference. Again, the purpose of my post was to convey information about my recent experience for the benefit of future visitors. There are reports out there that the $4 per person charge was for unlimited house "Hadahaa" water served in the restaurants. That is no longer accurate information.

canyonleo

Interesting discussion point, as in whole I agree with you that I would not return just given the cost/changes over the years (not recent ones specifically). But, it remains the highest value for 2 free CC nights.

But, I disagree as a generalization when you say "But there is so many better hotels around it would be ridiculous to have a paid stay here" (assuming you mean in Maldives). While true there are other great hotels, avoiding a generalization and focusing on a few specifics (and everyone has different preferences) this property is in a select/top list of resorts for great house reef, great local reefs for boat dives, remoteness (for some this sucks, for others it's a feature) and small resort (only 51 rooms).

travisair

My wife and I do not drink alcohol, and will probably drink a ton of water... Do you know if they provide water in the gym (like most hotels) that we can grab if we already used the ones provided in the gym? Thanks for all of the info, we are going there next month and can't wait!

Big_Foot

Remoteness is good, it's just no sea-plane option which sucks.
Transfer becomes the biggest issue.
Also the water villas have no pool - sucks comparing to most other "great" hotels.
Service going downhill - as this thread explains. IMO, this is not a great hotel.
Also there is quite many NEW places around which have better design,
even more remoteness as they tend to spread out over new atolls
and much better value. We are talking ~$1800-2000 range for a water villa,
that puts you in the Cheval Blanc/new COMO etc territory. No contest.