joykid

I have an upcoming stay at this PH Maldives and was looking at the AI meal plans, especially FOR DINNER part, in the website it says:
1. The Dining Room – 3-course a la carte dinner, excluding Chefs Specials. A 50% discount off published price on any Chef's Specials items is applicable for any exchange of a 3 course item for a Chef's Special dish. Orders of any additional Chef's Specials dish would be charged at published price.
2. The Island Grill – dinner only.
3. Complimentary inclusion for BBQ Night. Includes one private beach dinner to be available on the evening of guest’s choice during stay.

So, based on above, we can have a "dinner" 3 times (1 in each location) per day? like first we go to the DIning Room, order 3 courses dinner or 1 Chef Special. Then head up to Island Grill and eat, then BBQ night dinner on private beach.
We can also order a bottle of wine and don't have to finish it and just bring it back to the room to drink on the other day.

We also think that we can save more by buying some canned alcoholic drinks like beer or bottle of wine by ourselves before departure to MLE and stock it up in our check in luggage. Can save a lot.

What do you think of this plan to save money and maximize the benefit of the AI plan above?

mharlan100

scented

I really wonder what the point is to fly to a Maldivian luxury resort and then bring own food & liquor.... really? One would think that a different, more affordable destination would be in order. It is hard to get any real news from the resort when the entire discussion revolves around budgets, meal plans and importing food to a luxury destination.

1fan

I was charged taxes and service on top of the $210/day

jasonvr

Well that's incredibly short sighted. While I agree on importing food/liquor (I'd never think of doing that, aside from the legality issue), talking about what people should budget and whether the meal plan is a good idea should be one of the top conversation points (aside from whether you should actually visit the resort in the first place). EVERYONE, from the richest of the rich down to those who are broke should always be concerned about a budget. No one should just be throwing money out the door. I can certainly afford the meal plan, but have no desire to waste money if I can receive the exact same amount of food and drink for less by not going with the meal plan. Having money doesn't mean you should waste it. Look at the number of lottery winners that end up going broke or being right back where they started. What type of news do you want from the resort? The rooms are the same as they've been, no major renovations, no change in elite benefits, practically on the equator so the weather basically doesn't change... I'm sure that if anything material actually changes at the resort, it'll be posted here.

I can see this is going to be an interesting checkout experience.... Although, they sent me a Pro-Forma invoice and credit card authorization form ahead of time to charge me for the meal plan and transfers and there is no tax/service charge included

platbrownguy

Ok, so I managed to snag 2 F award seats (using AA miles) on my desired dates for MLE-AUH-JFK-DCA, including Etihad Apartments on the long flight, so coming here just got real. Question:

Is there an option for just all-inclusive alcohol and if so what's the cost per person per night? I'm looking at rates on hyatt.com and there's a prepaid full board option that is +$255 total per night (for a booking for 2 ppl), so I'm wondering whether to book that and add booze later (we'll drink our money's worth, esp. in $100+/bottle wine), or whether to just book the room only and add the $210pp onsite for food and booze.

All in all I'm leaning towards booking room only and adding on the $420/night premium all-in option unless there's a compelling reason not to.

Thoughts?

orca1114

$195 per couple per day, all you can drink beer, wine, cocktails, mocktails, and smoothies from 10 AM to nighttime. It is advertised by the pool bar every day. As with the AI option, there are some premium brands (esp with champagne and top shelf liquors) that are not included. You can add this to your stay anytime on property, and you can pick and choose which days you want it (or not).

We are not big drinkers, enjoying just one or two per day, so it made much more sense to do everything a la carte. The bartenders told us that younger (under 45) Americans are usually the only guests who do the all-you-can-drink option. I thought that was an interesting observation.

While no trip to the Maldives (if visiting a name-brand resort) is going to be inexpensive, there are ways to keep costs down here. The shared options (whole fish, grilled platters, etc) at the restaurants are large portions of food, and cost is fairly reasonable. Also, room service is the same price as restaurants (and you dont have to pay for still/sparkling water if you take dinner in your room). We always eat a late breakfast, skip lunch (or have a small snack at the pool bar), enjoy Globalist sundowner cocktails and canapes around 5 pm or 6 pm, and then eat a big dinner around 8 pm.

Our F&B for 5 nights last week was only about $650. YMMV, of course, but we felt like we never wanted for anything...if we wanted food or drink, we got it, but there was no need to be excessive. Last time, we spent even less than that by bringing some light snacks from home.

always_solo

You sound like a good time ^^

always_solo

This is GREAT info! I was wondering you could "pick and choose" with the all inclusive options. I have breakfast included, so I can't imagine drinking/eating $420 worth of beverage/food across lunch and dinner EVERY DAY, but it might be fun to have a day of gluttony where my friend and I just eat and drink to our hearts content!

jasonvr

You can not pick and choose dates for the Food plans (full board, half board, premium AI). Those apply for your whole stay. Just the AI Drink option (which is 195 + tax/service charge of 22%) can be done on a day-to-day basis

I'm just finishing up my 6 night stay here and plan to post a full review as well as my experience with the Premium AI after returning home and things settle down

BTW - for those who think they'll just eat lobster every night and make the Premium AI worth it - it's impossible. The Island Grill was only open with the normal menu 2 of the 6 nights we were here and that's the only place you can get lobster
Night 1 - Taste of the Maldives - Grill closed
Night 2 - Grill open
Night 3 - Grill closed - unknown reason
Night 4 - BBQ Night, normal grill menu not available but there was grilled lobster in the BBQ buffet and BBQ night is included in the Premium AI
Night 5 - Grill open, but we had our private beach dinner that night
Night 6 - Seafood buffet - grill closed, not included in the Premium AI

Oh, and the Wagyu steak is gone from the menu. The menus on the iPad app are now out of date. The ones one the website are more correct (though I can't say for sure they're 100% accurate). The app is no longer used on the in room iPad as well (at least the one in our room). Instead they have PDFs of the menu downloaded for viewing

andreiz

Is there any info on what a la carte breakfast menu has? One of the reviews linked to from here showed a photo of the menu that was just french toast, pancakes and oatmeal. Surely there's got to be more than that?

jasonvr

In addition to the buffet, this was the menu a few weeks ago

jasonvr

So, here's my overdue review of the hotel and our experience with the Premium AI

So first, overall, we enjoyed our stay as Globalists. We did receive our complimentary upgrade to a Park Pool Villa (Villa 25). The property overall is very nice and absolutely never felt crowded, though since we were there in low season, I'm unsure how many people were actually there. On average, we saw between 4 and 7 other couples at any given meal throughout our stay. Overall, we felt the food was good, though maybe not excellent. There was enough variety that we didn't feel overly constrained on a 6 night stay. All of the staff was quite accommodating and cheerful. Our previous visit to the Maldives was 10 years ago and we stayed at the Conrad. Overall, the PH felt more relaxed and "cozy".

Yes, the transfers (and the overall process of getting to/from the hotel) is quite an ordeal, but was handled well. Our flight from SIN to MLE was delayed by 1.5 hours and we thought we were in serious jeopardy of missing the domestic flight to GKK. I emailed from SIN, but didn't see a response before we left. As it turns out, the PH was on top of it, and as far as we can tell, the domestic flight was held for us. The PH rep was right there when we cleared immigration and gathered our bags. He got us checked in efficiently and immediately over to security. Once we arrived at the hotel, since they knew we were delayed they dispensed with some of the formalities and brought us directly to our room and did the check in stuff there. On the return, it was just as smooth. We got a printed itinerary the day before. Since we were on the late SQ flight out, we were able to stay in our villa until 6:30pm at which point the luggage was collected and we started our journey home. In both directions we had the direct flight between MLE and GKK.

Some little details:

• When you are at the pool, they will bring over complimentary bottled water in a cooler so that it stays chilled
• If you don't like what's in your mini-bar, they can do substitutions. My wife likes Diet Coke, so we had some things subbed out for that. Unfortunately they didn't have bottled orange juice to sub in for me.
• I did do some diving (mandatory intro dive and a 2 tank boat dive). It was quite nice and is the nicest coral I've seen since I was on the GBR. The snorkeling was also quite nice off of the jetties
• If there is something you would like and you think it is in their power to fulfill, don't hesitate to ask. Our most glaring example was our last dinner. As I posted previously, due to the restaurant schedule, there was only one night where we could get to the Island Grill with the normal menu and we had the lobster. We really wanted to try the Chateaubriand, so we talked to our host. He arranged for us to have it in the The Dining Room instead and the chef even came out to chat with us and check on us to ensure everything was good
• The senior staff is all quite willing to chat and quite visible at the resort. We saw the GM multiple times and the Director of F&B was always around and working. During the managers reception we had chats with both and had a much longer chat with the Director of Operations.
• If you would like to leave tips, but don't have enough cash, you can talk to reception and charge them to your room, specifying where they should go, including general places like "bar staff" and specific people
• The fruit bats around the island are just awesome to watch. I could watch them fly around all day
• On the premium AI, you can substitute a meal at the bar instead of lunch or dinner if you wish

Now, some negatives.

• It unfortunately rained every single day we were there. Not all day, but at last some part of every single day. That being said, we still enjoyed ourselves and got enough sun to get a mild burn. Of course, not the hotels fault in any way and they handled it well. I just wish we could have used our deck couch more We did fall asleep on it our first night there (long day of travel (CJU-GMP/ICN-SIN-MLE-GKK) combined with an entire bottle of wine at dinner)
• Even with their daily fogging, both my wife and I still ended up with a decent number of mosquito bites. She is usually a magnet, but we both received about the same number of bites, so overall, still not that bad
• Sometimes the staff can be a bit too friendly. It sometimes feels as though they don't quite get the subtle social cues that people occasionally want to be left alone. The most obvious case was during our private beach dinner. There was one period in the middle of our meal where the server just kept chatting with us and didn't quite get the hint that we wanted a little privacy during our "private beach dinner"
• The diving gear rental structure kinda stinks. I was originally under the impression that the rates for a full set of rental gear would cover my two tank dive, but instead I was charged the full amount for both dives. Given that they were both in the same trip, that seems a bit excessive given that the gear was already rented to me. All other places I've been, rental covered the day
• I wish the pool was open later. It shut down at 7pm, and given the temperature at the resort, there was never a time where it wasn't warm enough to swim. My gut says this is due to the layout of the hotel. The restaurant and bar look directly at the main pool and I can imagine that the resort really doesn't want people frolicking in the pool while people are trying to have dinner.
• The umbrellas over the chairs on the beach and at the pool are wholly inadequate. Given the brutal sun (when it was shining) they typically only shaded a portion of one of the two chairs they were by. This could be remedied by having umbrellas with a joint so that they could be angled towards the sun. It made it somewhat unbearable to try to just relax in the chairs.
• The layout of the pool and beach cabanas is such that (at least while we were there) the prevailing winds were mostly blocked. While this may seem like a good thing, again, with how strong the sun is there, having absolutely no breeze can make it just sweltering to try to lay outside. Not a lot that can be done about this and may differ at different times of the year as the winds switch
• There was a lot of construction going on while we were these. The Dhoni was closed the entire time and the construction noise was a slight annoyance at the pool, though I genuinely believe they were trying to keep the noise to a minimum. The last two water villas (50 and 51) were both under construction. The insides seemed to be gutted and our host told us they were both getting pools. He also said there were still plans to build some sort of luxury villa at the end of the water villa area (in the abandoned looking area at the end). I'm not 100% sure, but I thought he said they were targeting having renovations done by Chinese New Year. I believe some of the land villas had work going on as well
• Tax appears to be on top of the service charge, so instead of 10% + 12%, it is actually a combined 23.2%

Now for our experience with the Premium AI. People who have been following this thread know I debated long and hard on whether to do it and eventually made my decision to add it to my stay. I was charged ahead of time for that and my transfers. They sent me a bill and a credit card form via email a couple of weeks ahead of time. The rate was exactly $210 per person, per night. No additional tax or SC was added on. In the end, we did get our money's worth out of it, but we had to work at it. We definitely ate things we normally wouldn't have, in quantities we normally wouldn't have. By the end, we weren't sick of the food, but rather, the physical act of eating. We almost began to dread having to order two courses at lunch and three courses at dinner to make sure we made it worthwhile. As noted previously, in villa dining is not included. However, if you want to have breakfast in villa it can be done for a $30 tray charge (we never did this). The private beach dinner was nice (aside from the comment above), though the menu is fixed (i.e. it is not a create your own). All the wines and drinks we had were quite good and I do believe that the bar puts a decent amount of liquor in the drinks. They will also create things off the menu as long as it contains alcohol within the plan. I had them make a rum painkiller and my wife had rum added to the ginger island mocktail (at their suggestion) - both were quite good. Since we were on the AI, we never limited ourselves to the complimentary Globalist sundowner during happy hour, so I can't comment on those.

If we were to go back, I don't think I'd do the AI again. It was just too much food for us. We easily could have gotten by and been quite happy with far less food than we ate and we might have actually enjoyed ourselves even more than we did. Again, this is a personal thing and will vary from person to person. I might consider the drink package though. I kept a record of what we ate and drank, but haven't done an analysis to see if it would have been a good deal.

I think I've rambled enough, but if people have questions regarding our experience, ask away.

platbrownguy

Thanks for the very detailed review! Wife and I are going next month and are fully prepared for low-season weather, but could you shed a little more light on the nature of the construction noise? Jackhammers and chainsaws, or just hammers and clanking? Or less than that? Was it audible from your villa? Did it detract from the aesthetic appeal of the place? Thanks!

jasonvr

Absolutely not audible from our villa (we were in a land villa, so no where near the water villa construction). The Dhoni is near the common area, so no effect on the villa. Noise was hammers and some sawing/drilling. Nothing like jackhammers. Dhoni should be complete long before you get there as they said it was only a week or two more. There was some fencing around the dhoni, but even then, they tried to make it aesthetic by putting fabric and palm fronds up to make it less unsightly.