onlysuites

Great review thanks! ^

Were you not scared of diving with the bigger ones? I love snorkeling but hate the bigger sharks.

neuro0

Thanks for the great review.^^

With the long transfer from MLE to the resort, I am really hesitant to go there with my wife who hate long transit time

canyonleo

No, I wasn't. Sharks there are reef white tip and black tip, really nothing to be afraid of (and it's not like I'm chumming the water, or mimicking something in it's food chain).

canyonleo

Hey, if she won't mind the 15+ hour multi-segment trip just to get to MLE from the west coast, then whats another commuter-type segment and a boat ride?

My wife isn't that different, she's not an air travel lover (she doesn't hate it)... but she realized some extensive travel is required to hit a remote locale - that's why it's remote. We've been on great beaches in places like say Hawaii, including remote ones that require some hikes, but there's almost always others around... this property can be half- or more-full and we had the main beach all to ourselves at times, and most of the other times there was only one or two other couples.

Cheetah_SA

Thanks for that comprehensive review! ^ I am being drawn to this place more and more.

Did you shore dive the house reef at all? (I'm not much of a free diver but if a house reef is good - and you do say the wall falls away to 30m - I do enjoy a relaxing dive off the pier.)

onlysuites

I am booked.... can't wait

canyonleo

Given that my non-diving wife was unhappy enough that I every single day did the AM two tank boat dive and was away for more than half the day... and the privacy of the place made it difficult to really meet anyone that I might buddy up with for a non-guided shore dive - I wasn't really afforded the opportunity for any afternoon house reef dives.

Still, one must do a check out dive at the house reef (we arrived at like 4a, so that first day was a sleep in and do an afternoon check out dive) and I did one night dive (more like a sunset dive), so I got two house reef dives in.

House reef diving is done from piers, not shore, and the pier edge is in 1-3m of water (depending on far side or ladder side). On the afternoon day dive, I saw nudibranches, a shark or two, a lobster, but not much else. I had more success (in sightings) while snorkeling.

Yes, the topography is as follows:
- beautiful sandy beach (slate-like rock in some parts of the island, but not main beach)
- shallow and flat reef starts 5-15m from shore
- edge reef (more interesting than shallow) where flat meets slope
- slope is rather steep (but certainly not a wall) to I'll guess 25-50m so there's deep blue

If you have a dive buddy, or want to replace your morning boat diving by an afternoon house reef dive, then the house reef is quite good... but nothing like the great channel diving!

skunker

I'm in for 6 nights mid-February 2012. One night from the CC free suite certs and a 5 night Passport Escape. Can't wait!

ksotoodeh

Was there over Thanksgiving week and hit some pretty bad weather. Same issues still prevail: A/C not strong enough for water villas, windows have tracking problems, ants, food was average. Property is beautiful and the staff really tries, there's a lot of potential and I truly hope that the Hyatt management can turn this property around. More details and photos on my blog: http://travel4caviar.blogspot.com/

ma91pmh

wow you clearly had some really severe weather issues. that is really too bad after such a long trip and I am sorry for you. I do remember when we were there we had amazing luck with the weather and while no resort can hope to influence the weather it obviously does influence anyone's stay at any resort.

canyonleo

Thanks for an update. IMO, this pretty much nails the issues to be concerned with, and thus my previously mentioned tips to address these issues:

Immediately upon entering an OW villa and still with your host/butler, do a test of all the sliding doors. Like in my case, some won't work so great but the staff will be on it immediately and mine were working after the fix.

The OW villas don't have the best A/C, but I found it sufficient at night (in fact I turned it down to about 24-26 most nights). If you're the type that plans to spend day time hours in the OW villa and use A/C (vs. having the place wide-open to the outside as I did) then it's likely you'll find the A/C much insufficient for your needs.

There are some small ants, and if you leave food out and exposed for any longer than an hour it will be a problem. As those that live in warmer climates like Florida, Brasil, or Italy/Greece/Turkey or the MidEast know, food must be in an air-tight sealed container. My advice is bring some ziplock bags for this purpose (I always have two or three of the quart/liter and gallon size each in my suitcase).

The food is at worse average, but at best pretty good (but not amazing). Thus, for the price (even accounting for the captive pricing), it's a little disappointing. But, to be honest, it's certainly not poor quality (not even average quality, IMO), and it is very fresh and there is a nice variety of choice (and they'll custom-make anything they have ingredients for - just ask). For my tastes they use too much salt, but that's common in my countries, so if your tastes run similarly then make a low salt request.

The weather is one item completely out of anyone's control (other than the person making the reservations)... and November is supposed to be typically nice weather. Similarly to one trying to make sure one gets some powder days within a ski trip, the only suggestion for mitigating weather risk is to extend the trip (we did eight days even though five might have been a normal plan, just to make sure 3-4 days of bad weather would *kill* our trip) which yes will add cost, or to restrict booking to only the driest of months (which are also peak season and will also add cost).

roder

So, has anybody stayed at both the Park Hyatt (or under the former Brand) AND the Conrad?

What are the overall pros/cons of each property? I'm really torn on where to go to my honeymoon.

lerasp

did you arrive through CMB on the 1am flight? If so, did you have the room reserved for the previous night or did hotel allow you do check in super-early?
We're arriving at CMB at 10:40pm and currently debating sleeping at CMB and taking 7am flight to MLE vs taking 1am flight to MLE.

ronbo83

Ditto. We arrive on the 12:30 AM flight to MLE and have a room reserved for that night but not the night before. The hotel is not confirming the time of our departing flight so I was not sure if they would take us to the island quickly or if we would have to wait at the aiport until an early flight. Any help is appreciated!

ksotoodeh

We booked a room for the night prior to arrival so we could use it upon arrival at 1 AM. As it turned out, the had to accommodate us at a hotel in Male that was a fraction of the cost because the seas were too rough. In retrospect, I'm guessing that they we would have been given a room upon arrival as the resort only had 20 guests that week. I wouldn't chance it during high season though!