tsolin01

Just finished an 8 night stay here with my wife and I must say the service was excellent and the experience exceeded my expectations.

Our host, Victoria, was awesome and followed up with us everyday and basically took care of everything we needed. Actually the entire staff was great and I have no complaints in that department. After talking to a few of the staff members I did notice that most were fairly new and it seems there's a decent amount of turnover. I'm not surprised but I guess it could contribute to inconsistency in the service but at least during our stay it was great.

I booked a park villa on points and was upgraded to a pool villa. In addition, I upgraded 3 nights to a water villa and was pleasantly surprised that we were given a sunset villa (#49).

Also the day we arrived it was my wife's birthday and they prepared a chocolate cake for the occasion. I was expecting just a slice but this was seriously a cake that could feed a family and it was delicious.

Just a general comment on the resort itself, everything looks just like it does in the online pictures. The public areas are in great condition and I really didn't notice anything bad. The villas we stayed in were also in great condition. We didn't experience any problems with the temperature in the villas or any real issues.

I also brought my Phantom 3 drone and was allowed to fly it with the assumption I wouldn't be filming other guests or going into the private areas. I was able to get some really good areal video and pictures.

We did a few of the activities including the following:

Journey to Island Creation - this is 4 hrs which includes 2 snorkeling sessions, a small picnic at an uninhabited island and a visit to an inhabited island. I think this is a good excursion to do since it lets you do a variety of things. We were lucky and were the only 2 people on this excursion as well as also having the privilege of seeing a large school of spinner dolphins during the trip. We also saw a couple turtles and reef sharks during the snorkeling.

Maldivian Fishing - sunset boat ride essentially with fishing. It's good because you get to eat what you or the crew catches so it doubles as part of your dinner for the night.

Night snorkeling - good experience if you haven't tried before but you can always explore the house reef yourself during the day without a guide.

House reef - no matter which villa you're staying you can always access the house reef from the beach or go to one of the jetty's. I can only compare it to spots I've been to in Maui and the Caribbean and the reef here is much better than what I've seen before. We are not divers but even for snorkelers this place is excellent.

Massage - my wife loved their massages and we also did their relaxing romance package which was great.

The food is pricey but with free breakfast for Diamonds we really only paid for dinner so it wasn't so bad. The waiter mentioned we were only allowed to order 2 hot items from the menu and that was always enough for us. There's also a buffet with pastries, waffle station, fruits, cereals, yogurt and some cured meats / smoked salmon. We also ordered multiple drinks with no issues.

The food in the main dining room which consisted of international and local cuisine was always good and we never got anything we didn't like. We also participated in the BBQ night, seafood night, shoreline dining and one private dining event. I would say the BBQ night is better than the seafood one. The shoreline and private dining were more expensive but the menu was better quality and on par with tasting menus at michelin star restaurants I've been to.

The only downside to our stay was the weather. It was unpredictable where it would rain in the morning and sunny in the afternoon. We had a good 4 solid days of sun though and the rest were mixed, with a day and a half of really bad weather. This was last weekend where a storm essentially blew through the area with 50 mph winds. At the time we were in water villa #49 and you could hear the wind howling all night and day. The villa held up well but the sliding doors did leak a little just due to the amount of rain and wind being blown in. Nothing serious just small leaks at the door seams.

Although the resort seemed fairly occupied when we were there, we didn't see many people and sometimes it really felt like our own private island. We only saw people during breakfast and dinner and it was mostly couples.

Overall we had the time of our lives there and would come back again.

tsolin01

Also just wanted to add that the experience of getting to the resort was fairly smooth. Someone meets you in Male and checks you in for your flight to Koodoo while you wait in the lounge. You get picked up in Koodoo and taken to the speed boat to go to the resort.

Leaving the resort is the same experience with your host taking care of the arrangements so you don't really need to think about when you're leaving. We had to leave early morning around 5am but it was smooth and they even had breakfast for us.

The only issue is the speed boat ride can be rough if the seas are choppy but that's just the luck of the draw...

guppies

Thank you for the really detailed review. We are really looking forward to our upcoming stay at the Park Hyatt Maldives!

newdaybegin

I want to book using cash + point, do your guys know how far in advance i should be able to book using this option? is it 330 day or 365 day? thanks for the help!

Gunner14

It appears that this property doesn't really participate in C&P.

newdaybegin

Wow when this property stop offer C&P? so that mean the only way for me to get the room is either 25,000 point or free sign up night? this is suck!

joecool1885

It's not that bad. The only thing good about P&C in the Maldives is that it counts for stay credit. There are really no additional advantages.

If you need more points, buy them. 25K for $600 is still a better rate than you'd get most nights when booking without points.

Football Fan

So we will have a 5-day stay at the Conrad, followed by a 6-day at the Park Hyatt.

From what I could see, there doesn't seem to be a possibility to transfer directly from the Conrad to the Park Hyatt, right? I did research a bit and it looks like there is an airline called Flyme that serves both the Maamigili (VAM) and Kooddoo (GKK) airports, which can be reached via speedboat from the Conrad (VAM) and the Park Hyatt (GKK). But I cannot find a schedule on the Flyme website about flights between these two airports, so I assume there aren't any. I inquired about charter, but assume that that would be prohibitively expensive, if even offered at all.

Does anyone have any experience with transfering from one hotel to the other? Would they be willing to coordinate with each other at all? I guess the only way is seaplane from Conrad back to MLE, then from there the flight to GKK, then speedboat.

Also, another question, does the Park Hyatt not have its own lounge at MLE, like Conrad does? That makes the experience a lot more relaxed in the case of the Conrad, as the regular airport lounge at MLE is very dark and cramped.

joecool1885

Dang. I thought I was the only one doing both hotels!
I too am trying to find out if there's a direct route, preferably cheaper. Doing the reverse. PH first 4 nights and Conrad after 5 nights.

lotrbfme

I am also doing the same thing! I asked the same questions about 6 months back and I emailed the properties. Their answer was that I needed to get in contact with them closer to arrival...

beachfan

I did both Park Hyatt Hadaaha and Conrad Rangali. No direct flights. The hotels will take care of the coordination. You transfer in Male, it may not be well timed so it's good to have some lounge access. The hotels provided it for me (the Conrad had a lounge where I waited for departure).

I don't think the Conrad will let you stay for free at the Male lounge after departing the resort (or at least they didn't in 2014), but they were willing to do so for a fee (it wasn't cheap). I did the PH first so didn't have the issue of the smaller, darker lounge until leaving for home.

beachfan

I missed the original post on the change, can you point me to it?

peter42

We combined the PH with the Robinson in the same Atoll, and it was very difficult to get this arranged, as both hotels were not really interested in arranging this and first tried to insist, that we have to go back to MLE.

peter42

Or short, do not exspect much support from the hotel teams.

shadowfax31

Sorry for novice question but how does point earning works for upgrade fee. I have Hyatt credit card so by default I am platinum gold passport member.
So if I use Hyatt card to pay upgrade fee, would I get only 3x points (credit card bonus or (3+5)x points (credit card+gold passport benefits).