bangkokiscool

Thank you very much! I will do this, the Zoom-monitored tests will be much cheaper. For some reason I thought Maldives requires hotels to do a PCR test before departure, it's good to know that it's optional.

Hydro88

Hi all, glad to see the recent reports that the hotel reef is healthy. Does anyone have any experience scuba diving at the resort? Would be grateful if anyone could share what sort of dive sites are available and how you liked the diving. I've dived in the Maldives a few times before, but never in this Atoll.

'

canyonleo

The channels of the atoll are near-spectacular, certainly not to be missed by a global scuba traveler. I saw five species of shark in one dive, never done that before.

invalyd

There are 20-30 dive sites in the area. As mentioned above they are incredible. My favorite was the sea turtle cove, reef sharks and 1m long sea turtles within a few feet of each other, not to mention all the other fish, truly a memorable experience.

nasaflyer01

Can someone please send me the email address of someone involved with reservations or management at Park Hyatt Maldives? Thanks!

WasKnown

This is the property email: [email protected]. Someone individual will reply with this still CCed.

ATLSFO0515

We returned from the PH Maldives last week and did 7 dives (orientation plus 6 dives) while on property. Overall it was a great experience and the dive staff, boat crew, and everyone we interacted with was excellent. As noted upthread, having your Advanced OW certification and being experienced would likely further enhance the dive quality. We are only OW certified and this was limiting in terms of the types of dives that we were able to do as many of the best channel dives (per our dive instructor) typically occur at a depth below the OW depth limit. We also benefitted from being the only divers on the boat 2 of 3 days so it was able to be customized to our diving level. We are relatively proficient OW divers so were still able to experience a couple of channel dives and they were spectacular - multiple types of sharks, turtles, rays, etc. The reefs were in great shape as well and vibrant with an abundance of large and small sea life.

Halfway through the trip we were already committed to getting our AOW certification after returning home so we could go back in the future and have additional dive opportunities.

afmiami

Good to know, as I will be there in 2 weeks (OW/Nitrox certified). Was the resort pretty empty?

nasaflyer01

Thank you!

ATLSFO0515

Yes the resort was fairly empty. In conversations with the staff I believe the occupancy was somewhere between 10-11 at the low point and ~15 as the high mark during our seven nights. I would imagine even at a higher occupancy it would feel relatively empty; however at a sub 30% occupancy it definitely felt private. There were a few breakfasts and dinners where we were one of max 3 (and often just us) parties for an extended period of time. The Bar during the evening cocktail hour was typically the place that felt the busiest and it rarely had more than 4-5 groups. It was a great experience and we are already planning to return when feasible while also looking at the new Alila property scheduled to open later this year.

friedablass

I added the email to the wiki so others can easily find it in the future. Thanks.

nasaflyer01

So, when exactly do you have to show the negative results of a test when you are traveling back to the US? We are flying MLE -> DOH -> JFK, with a 16 hour layover in DOH. We do not plan on leaving the DOH airport. Do we have to show the negative result before we board our flight in MLE, when we get to DOH, or when we get to JFK? Thanks!

invalyd

You will need to show it before being issued your boarding pass in MLE, and probably again in Doha.
​​​​​​
​​​​

ATLSFO0515

This was our routing back to the US (MLE-DOH-USA) with an 8 hour layover in Doha. We used the Abbott BinaxNOW proctored self-tests and had the resort print out a copy of our results to take with us to the MLE airport. We showed it at check-in to have our boarding passes to- and ex-DOH issued and were not required to show the test results again. We did have to show the Maldivian Health Declaration (a QR code generated after completion) in MLE to access the international terminal. The Park Hyatt representative that escorted us from the Maldivian domestic flight to the international terminal noted that having a printed copy of the test available for the airline agent made check-in much more expedient. Our flight from the local island to MLE was significantly delayed and we were up against the check in cutoff so we were glad to have both the results and the QR code readily available.

nasaflyer01

Thank you.