macdonaldj2

Here now as well, heading out in a few hours, resort is fully booked so I'm scuttled off in one of the spa villas, the overwater villa was nice, you can go snorkeling right from the villa, the AC seems stuck on 24C, it went as low as 21C one night when it rained, there are ants everywhere, annoying at first, after a few days you'll realize they rule everything, don't try and fight it. Food is decent, I ate at the island grill mostly, got the catch of the day. I can recommend doing the Maldivian family feast as well as going fishing off the dhoni and then cooking what you catch. I've never experienced "true luxury" such as the other hotels listed above, but most of us are coming here on points, so come with an open mind, you'll have a good time. Also buy a UV shirt, they are life savers here.

MikeFromTokyo

Any recommendations on where to buy, or which brands are particularly good? I am also looking for one suitable to wear while snorkeling.

ma91pmh

Brands are pretty much irrelevant, something like this would work perfectly:

http://www.amazon.com/Kanu-Surf-Mens...=uv+swim+shirt

kakapinky

Hope you guys enjoy your stay there!

How's the Internet speed? Good enough for a Skype call?

Is there any construction onsite going on?

Thank you

macdonaldj2

That's the one I got and it was great.

Construction on the presidential villa is at a halt, skype calls are fine from your room, you might get away with video calls, I had some trouble with video.

kakapinky

Thanks! Good to know Skype voice is ok!

kakapinky

For people who are taking the midnight flight at MLE, about what time the resort will ask you to leave the resort? Seems that there will be a very long wait at the MLE airport lounge.

I am planning to book spa on my last day and wonder what time I need to plan leaving. Thanks in advance!

Cohall

We had an 11:30ish PM flight and they picked us from our villa at 6:15PM.

johnxkrn

So since our flight is at 3:25PM, we would probably get picked up around 10am ?????

canyonleo

3:25p departure out of MLE?

You need to account for an hour time change, an hour boat ride, and a 1-2 hour inter-island flight... and then at least an hour advance check-in for international travel (and checking luggage?).

bsaced

Just arrived back from a 7 day stay here on a diamond member points stay last week and wanted to share some quick thoughts:

- Totally agree about previous comments that the beach is the most important aspect to get right. We were complimentarily upgraded to a pool villa (#8) but asked to be moved to a standard villa on the better part of the beach (#s 24- 31). Your villa is 5 feet from the beach so being able to lie out in front of your villa and just wade into the water rather than walk down the beach to find a place to sit or an entry point on an otherwise rocky entry was worth it IMO.

- Based on previous comments I was expecting painfully slow internet but it was pretty decent IMO. You can do skype calls well and load web pages pretty fast. What more do you need? You're on an island in the middle of the indian ocean, unplug at least a bit.

- The beach is literally the most beautiful beach I've ever seen. The colors of the water on the white sand are just stunning. It was worth going. hands down.

- We checked in early and was given a "day villa" which was really nice and then when we left we were only given a 5pm checkout but our departure was at 7pm so we were given a spa villa (one of the villas the spa uses for treatment rooms) to use for the 2 hours. A really nice touch I thought.

- We did the shore-dining and reef fishing as our two additional "experiences". I'm not sure I'd really recommend either. The shore dining food was very taste but as others have commented, the service is just really really slow. So after 3 courses having taken 3 hours, we asked to have the desert course in our room so we didn't have to wait another 30+ minutes to finish the meal. Because it's 4 courses you are likely to show up hungry and so the length of time it takes to get each course is a bit of a bummer. The waitstaff is incredibly nice, it's just that they walk back and forth from the kitchen to all the way out on the shore and only have 2 people for 4 tables so everything just takes a long time. Regarding the reef finishing, they set sail just before sun set so the ride out to the reef (25 min) is beautiful. But that means you largely fish in the dark. We didn't catch anything but the people managing the boat did and they were nice enough to give us the fish so we could have it cooked by the kitchen. I thought this was nice but again you're paying approx $250 to line fish for an hour in the dark. Not really worth it IMO.

- We were on a bit of a budget so we did the wake up late, eat a big breakfast, and then just split a mid day sandwich at our villa and then each do a dinner dish at night (dinner still usually wound up around $90 -$110) for only two mains. One thing we loved doing is making ice tea ourselves in the room and putting it in the empty glass water bottles and keeping them cool in the mini fridge. We'd order ice and lemons when we ordered a sandwich in the middle of the day and enjoyed fresh ice tea in the afternoon. I know it sounds a bit silly to do that but a coke or ice tea at the resort is $7-10 each so we honestly saved $300 at the end of the trip by making our own ice tea.

- Overall, I thought the service was always incredibly friendly and nice and at times excellent (the bartender at night really knew what he was doing and was very fast) and other times slow or forgetful. But the atmosphere of the place was so incredible that nothing really mattered much other than enjoying the place

edbyu

This was probably mentioned down thread but, for those that have hyatt gift check certificates (I got mine via the Citi TYP portal and have a $100 face value each), don't try and use them on the intra-island flights/transfer charges. I tried and they would not accept them. I think that's a little crummy.

TheBeerHunter

Does anyone have any insight into the variance of the pricing for the full board AI? Some users upthread were being quoted $357 per person while others of us are getting quotes $320. I just emailed them yesterday about it for an upcoming stay next month and was quoted $320. Husband is Diamond, I wonder if that's the difference? Free breakfast included already for Diamond vs. not.

johnxkrn

I was quoted for 357 for AI. I booked my trip on points and i am plat. maybe because your breakfast is already included (if you paid for your rooms/if you're diamond member) thats why they are subtracting breakfast charge of $37, making $320?

Not sure but hey it's cheaper for you haha.. FOr us, since my wife is not a heavy drinker, we decided to go a la carte haha (heard cheapest wine cost $60+ per bottle)

PointsCentric

I am staying in October booked on a combination of points and Hyatt free nights via their credit card. I emailed reservations to get quotes for upgrades and to my surprise, they were a bit lower than the Wiki suggests.

Pool Villa - $205
Water Villa - $405 (defined as villas 38-44)
Sunset Villa - $610 (defined as villas 45-51)

Not sure if the price difference is due to the time of year but I was pleasantly surprised.