Gabrca

Seeing some $600 rates in April, $780 at full board for two, which seems to be a very good deal ... Not sure if this is unusual or not.

Coupled with Citis 4th night free, and it brings this hotel into a relatively “reasonable” Maldives holiday.

3rdworldresident

on Hyatt.com website?

Gabrca

Yes, I’ve found it even lower ... $520 on April 16th-18th for a Park Villa ... $693 full board for two.

For fourth night free on top you’d need to book with Citi Presstige.

slm9555

My stay is coming up, less than 20 days away and they have not reached out for payment of the transfer and upgrade, is that normal?

pskaife

I'm heading there Jan 19th, and they sent me an invoice almost two months ago. The payment wasn't due until 30 days out, but if you're less than a month away you might want to contact them and check!

makavel

Agreed! I think sometimes this slips through the cracks. Send them an email to get the ball rolling. I've also found that submitting my flight info through the Hyatt e-Concierge service (there's an option for arrival/departure transfers at the PHM) gets this process going.

pskaife

Hey all. About how much should I tip while I'm there? I had 6 nights with points, but then paid for the upgrades deluxe pool villa for 4 nights and the over water for 2 nights. Same question for like dinner and drinks. I know they include a gratuity already, but I want to make sure I don't short them.

lagunas2k

I actually had to go back and email them because my final bill did not include points for the upgrade charges. I am told those should count. The transfer fees however are not eligible.

lagunas2k

In the end it truly is up to you. We brought plenty of $5's, $10's, and $20's and honestly ended up tipping a lot more than I thought I would, simply because the staff really bends over backwards for the guests. The service charge that is added on gets split among all staff, whereas additional gratuity goes directly to the individual. Particularly for your server (which never really changed throughout our stay) we gave a generous tip at the last meal of our stay (otherwise we didn't add additional tip). For housekeeping we also provided a generous tip at the end of our stay. The staff never really changes much over the course of your stay for day to day items, so it's really up to you to tip daily or perhaps at the end. I never once got the feeling it was expected, but always got appreciation when it was provided. We handled most tips on the last day of our stay, except for maybe when they transferred our bags from one villa to another mid stay, or special excursions or spa days.

WillSkiGT

Villas 1-20 have a large beach no matter what the tide is doing. We were in 23 for most of our stay and had a small beach at high tide, tiny beach at low tide. Villas 25-37 had no beach, only rock.

I paid at check-in, though this may not be normal. As long as they know your flight arrival time into Male, you should be good to go.

Yes, they fumigate daily (when not raining) just before dusk. Still got bitten, but not badly, and I usually am eaten up with them here in the States. Second the comments about some kind of biting ant in the sand during evening dinners. Nothing horrible, just a little itchy the next day. Staff had calamine lotion for itching/sunburns.

To be honest, save your money. The standard villas (or pool villa) are really quite nice, and the overwater villas are a bit overrated in my book (upgraded for the last night). Better off spending the upgrade money on a pool villa with the all-inclusive package instead. If you're really into snorkeling, the best stuff is on the edge of the reef off the end of the arrival (dawn?) jetty, so the private water access from the overwater villa doesn't help that much. Plus, they're hot during the daytime and not as private as some of the land villas.

I tipped an additional 10% with every bill - both because I think the standard 10% service fee is too low and because we were on all-inclusive, so I used the tip amounts to calculate what we would have spent without the package (hint: package is worth it).

Breakfast (at least for us) did not have a bill, so no tips there.

As far as WoH points, I have no idea how they calculated the points I received. We were on points for the entire 10 night stay, but also had the all-inclusive package and went on several excursions, but the total amount credited as points eligible was probably $2k less than we spent. I don't have my first invoice (with transfer and meal package), so not totally sure. I suspect the 10% service fee and 12% GST may have something to do with the difference. I ended up with 30k Hyatt points after my stay, which was a pleasant surprise - wife got the Chase Hyatt, so we already have 70k points towards going back next December.

I've traveled a decent bit and can easily say this was the best hotel experience I've ever had, hands down. There aren't enough superlatives to describe the staff - very thoughtful and went above and beyond with small touches, like remembering the way my wife/I liked a certain drink prepared, minibar restocked with things we liked (told a bartender that I was really liking Tiger beer and that evening the minibar had 3 Tigers in it instead of 1), champagne in an ice bucket on arrival and every third day thereafter (was our honeymoon). My wife felt ill from 30 hours of travel + jetlag, so one of the staff members had the chef prepare a special meal for her and had it delivered. The chef sat and talked extensively with us about cuisine, made dishes not on the menu, etc. We couldn't have felt more catered-to and special - it was incredible.

Things I highly recommend:

-Arrive in Male before 10:30am (if possible). You get a Maldivian Airlines connecting flight that will have you to the resort around 1pm (resort time), and that will give you a bit more time on the first day. Our Air France flight was a bit too late for this connection, plus we left Paris 2.5 hours late.

-Similarly, depart Male after 11:30am. Any earlier and you will have to take the pre-dawn (like 5:30am) Maldivian connection to Male - not a great way to start the long journey home.

-The lucky dolphin trip. Sounds hokey, but was really special. We saw over 1,000 (not a typo) spinner dolphins in a giant group, and because no one else booked, we had the entire ship/crew to ourselves. A lot of the "Blue Journeys" dive shop excursions seemed to change prices when compared to website. Don't know if this was demand based or what, but we paid less than advertised for some of the activities and trips.

-Night snorkeling. I saw a group of blacktip sharks hunting/feeding - so cool!

-UV rated rash guard. I f you plan on snorkeling a lot, you will get badly burned without one. The first day, I applied/reapplied sunscreen 4 times and got fried, and I don't burn that easily.

-Pool villa / deluxe pool villa upgrade. We were in a standard Park Villa and an Overwater Villa, but we both agreed that the deluxe pool villa (there was an unoccupied one next door that we checked out) or a pool villa would be a great upgrade.

-All-inclusive package.

Sidenote on AI package: Yes, it's outrageously expensive, especially for longer stays. But, the food/drinks at the resort are also very expensive, and worrying about saving money will ruin your luxurious experience (I witnessed a woman melting down over paying $9 for a tiny glass of orange juice at breakfast. Not pretty). Plus, we actually broke even on this package - the cost for 2 people was $512/day and we ended up around $530/day in estimated food and beverage costs. It's indescribably nice to be able to order 3-4 drinks and not have to cringe over the $100 bill you get afterwards (you still get the bill when on all-inclusive, you just don't have to pay it). Plus, all of the high end dinner options at the Island Grille are allowed on the AI package, like the lobster ($110 pre-tax) and Chateaubriand ($160 pre-tax). One dinner with a bottle (or 2) of wine, 2 appetizers, 2 lobsters, and dessert will reach $400 easily.

Things to skip:

-Expensive overwater villa upgrades. Yes, they look amazing on Instagram, and watching the sunset from one is a unique experience. But the villas get so hot if you leave the shades open to enjoy the view. Our land villa never got over 23C, while the overwater villa didn't get below 27C until the sun was almost down/we closed all the windows. As a big snorkeler, the private water access also sounded great on paper, until I saw that the water below the villas is very shallow and all of the nearby corals are bleached. The best snorkeling is still on the edge of the reef on the north side of the island. Additionally, the villas are not very private - it's easy for you to see your neighbors and vice versa. It's even worse when there are snorkelers in the water near the villas; the entire villa faces the water, so you have to worry about being clothed all the time. Also, the bathrooms, though nice, don't have the outdoor shower/tub that the land villas do, which are really great (I didn't take a single indoor shower the entire trip).

-"Glass bottom" kayak. It's not glass, but rather acrylic, which (depending on the boat) can be scratched up. Also, any water that gets splashed into the boat distorts the view. It wasn't expensive, just wasn't super enjoyable (you get hot really quickly in the sun). Might be a good option for those with very small children or those who are afraid of water/snorkeling, but otherwise, I would give it a miss.

-Private dinner. One caveat - this is included in the all-inclusive package, and we were told after the fact that we could have picked a different location, even in our villa. That said, the "private dining" is a table on the main beach directly in front of the sitting area, so 15-20 people watched our "private" dinner, and there were 3 other private dinners happening at the same time as ours, just spread out on the beach. This was the only thing about our entire stay that felt a little unpolished.

pskaife

I looked for info on the AI packages and couldn't find anything. It seemed like because we were using points for our stay it wasn't an option. Do you have anymore details on what all is included for that? If drinks are $25 a pop I can see making it up to $500+/day pretty quickly.

Kilian Zoll

What would the cost be to add the AI package to a points booking? Debating if it would be worth skipping the OWV upgrade and opt for AI instead.

WillSkiGT

Just inquire with the staff member who responds to your initial points booking, it is offered for all guests. For us, the cost was $256 per person per day after taxes and fees. They offer 4 packages, but none of them are very good value except all inclusive:

Half Board: USD 176.8 per night per adult,
-Half Board includes Breakfast and 3 courses A La Carte dinner in the Dining Room, excluding chef’s specials.

Full Board: USD 226.8 per night per adult,
-Full Board includes Breakfast and 2 course A La Carte lunch and 3 course A La Carte dinner in the Dining Room (Main Restaurant) excluding the chefs specials.

Premium All Inclusive (All markets): USD 256.8 per night per adult,
-Alcoholic beverages including a selection of premium brand spirit and liquors, beers and house wines in both restaurants and the bar.
-Breakfast, lunch and dinner, excluding chefs specials are included in the package.
-Complimentary inclusion to in-house Cuisine of the region and BBQ night.
-Includes one private beach dinner to be available on the evening of guests choice during stay, 24 hours’ notice for reservation is required. Alternative options will be offered if beach dinner is not available due to weather conditions.
-Complimentary Mini Bar- All mini-bar items are available and restored once daily.

Drinks only: USD 180 per day per couple

In my mind, AI is a better use of money than an overwater villa, but some may disagree. To me, it's a special experience regardless of villa (all are very nice), so I'd rather spend the money on something that will eliminate any stress about food/beverage spending. Cost (broken out above) is $256 per day per person.

CanuckFlyHigh

256.80 a day for AI including alcohol is an absolute steal.

antonius66

I would like an option that is the full inclusive without alcohol.