thexfactor

Much appreciated.

And thank for posting your great TR.

skunker

I emailed the hotel earlier this week and received this reply:
We leave tomorrow. I'm more worried about the weather.
http://www.wunderground.com/wunderma...v=0&mm=0&hur=0

canyonleo

I'll offer my experience as to "obsessing" about the weather as one gets close to their travel to this paradise. As I'm nearly constantly online each day anyway, I made it part of my daily routine to check about five different weather sites as there seemed little forecasting consensus among sites.

I found http://202.21.178.203/mms/ to be the only (or the most) reliable site. Using this site, one must click on the "Weather Forecast" tab as there's no direct URL to that info (page uses frames?). One can also click on the "Kaadedhdhoo" clickthru as the page defaults to the Male' detail.

Of course, for today, wunderground and Maldivian DoM are in consensus

peter42

There was some violence in Addu too, so the reply fom the hotel is not correct.

soonerfanatic

Paradise was simply just that, a place where worries disappear, extreme beauty exists, and a hypnotic state of bliss.

Upon arrival, and repeated each morning, roll out of bed and take a dip in our backyard aquarium (water villa 39). Come take a dip with me in the video below!:

http://youtu.be/yJDos5i3MCI?hd=1

http://youtu.be/-PSb7WmUTMo?hd=1

Be careful going down the stairs, the steps can be a bit slippery!

Villa 39 back deck (the couch is very comfy, don't fall asleep if you roll around, hehe!):



We were treated extremely well by most of the staff. Pierre and his staff are quite simply, awesome. Here are the Diamond benefits we received:

Daily, we received a bowl of fresh fruit with exotic dragon fruit, mangosteen, starfruit, mango and other delights:



Also, daily, you can enjoy an evening cocktail and canapes. This is the delicious minty Mojito, dark in color because it is made with brown sugar. The canapes were delicious also, with great variety daily:



Enjoy your cocktail with the sunset:

http://youtu.be/P3beJhnWWDM?hd=1

Everyone receives breakfast, and each morning a nice display of fruit, tuna, and pastries along with your breakfast make a nice personalized touch:



We would have our fresh fruit in the morning and then have a late breakfast, maybe around 10:30 since this was a week where I could care less about time (leave your watch in the room). I recommend the tuna curry for breakfast, deliciously spicy. Also, the fresh carrot juice and frappucino's are excellent.

You can use the dive shop's snorkel equipment free of charge. While the equipment is used (my flipper rubber foot entry tore the first day), it sure makes it nice not to have to pack snorkel gear. Although we did bring our personal masks / goggles.^

We booked the passport escape with the 3 dinners included. Every meal was outstanding with exceptional service. We were able to choose one app, one main, and a dessert.

The seared scallops at Batutta's is excellent. Our server, Hamid, even took the effort to hand write the recipe for us:



Here are the main courses at Battuta's (more images in the gallery):



Be sure to ask if there are any special items not on the menu. We had a ribeye that was delicious and you can even have your fresh catch grilled and served on the beach. Fishing is $150, very reasonable.



A mango and ice cream dessert:



We had a bottle of wine on these nights. I am pretty sure the cheapest bottle is $52 US, and can go up to the $800 range. So if you like to drink wine, expect to pay. All beers were $10, Corona, Tiger, Carlsberg, Heineken.

The workout room has a bose stereo and you bring your own ipod / mp3 player to interface with. Each day I was there, I was the only one in the gym, I guess people don't come here to workout. There is a new piece of cable equipment that I found adequate for just about any exercise and enough weight resistance. There is a bike, elliptical, and treadmill machine with video / mp3.



The infinity pool is one of the best I have ever experienced. Here are a few videos of the area:

http://youtu.be/hwlvkUCUGmA?hd=1

http://youtu.be/rXw5rnMPRkY?hd=1



From the walkway outside of villa 51:

http://youtu.be/W19n5dmT9Cg?hd=1

We were in villa 39, here is another morning swim:

http://youtu.be/7dK3xkSiNeY?hd=1

View back towards villa 38:

http://youtu.be/gmxBK4jizzQ?hd=1

Each day, I took a walk around the island. Sad, but true, one day I counted the number of steps it took, 1650 steps total around the entire circumference. YMMV due to the tide levels.

Villa #1 and #16 were my favorites from the beach view.

Great sounds:

http://youtu.be/v5iajMIvWbk?hd=1



Enjoy the water, and the snorkeling. Here is a video of a swim from the arrival jetty:

http://youtu.be/H34cdF7jGsw?hd=1

The beach lounges are awesome, soft and comfortable, well stocked with fresh white towels.



Best beach ever:



And underneath the water villa walkway, where a school of small fish were hunted by 6 foot long needlefish that would dart in. One of the coolest things I have seen:



http://youtu.be/ty6BToVnwXg?hd=1

Some other snorkel videos:

http://youtu.be/_8UgOoNFDWQ?hd=1

http://youtu.be/x6iDe1n2vXE?hd=1

http://youtu.be/WatsZAuw_rc?hd=1

I took over 48Gb of digital media, over 2K pictures and 200 videos. The internet speed was not too bad during the evening and early morning hours. I highly suggest you bring an underwater camera. Gallery:

http://gallery.flyertalk.com/gallery/album36

There are 160 staff members on the island. Quite the ratio to guests. You will be treated well, almost too well. During meals, we felt that we were always being watched, in a good way of course.

We were told by staff that they work a max of 8 hours a day. They can work for months straight, and take time off when needed to go back to their home island. We were shared a local chip made of tuna and rice flour, quite spicy!



We were constantly asked if we wanted a ride when passed by a golf cart. We always declined as it was nice not to have to step foot in a vehicle for the week.

The island has its own water desalination facility and generators for power. The staff living quarters are off limits to guests, with private area markers.

None of the bills included a space to charge a tip. We tipped with US cash.

All in all, one of the best trips ever and to a truly unique resort. The best definition of a paradise experience and a magical place on earth.

Now for the bad. We received a confirmation email notification of our transfer expectations and it stated that we would have to wait a max of 2 hours in Male.

Our flight arrived at 7am and our departure flight on Maldivian did not leave until 11:15am. Add on a 3 hour transfer time for flight, boat ride and 1 hour time change and we did not arrive to the resort until around 2pm, 7 hours after arriving in Male. Exhausting after an overnight flight. You may consider this as an expectation.

To make things worse, upon arrival at the jetty, we were brought to villa 34 in a golf cart. I was a bit surprised at this villa since it had a view of green foliage only and was no upgrade as confirmed. I knew something was wrong when the incorrect bags arrived 15 minutes later. They had mistaken us with another couple and brought us to the wrong villa! and insulted me by calling me a Platinum member....me, only Platinum?!?!

I sure felt for the other couple that were brought to water villa 39 and then suddenly told that they were in villa 34!

The arrival experience was not good and no guest should ever have to experience. I was a little shocked that the property has the host greet and take you immediately to your villa. I found this a bit unprofessional and would have preferred a more formal check in procedure by a management type. I presume you would only agree with me if you had the experience we did.

Our departure flight was not until 8pm from Male. The night prior to departure, we were told we would need to leave the resort at 1pm (noon Male time). Evidently, this was due to flight schedules. I spoke to another guest on the boat and his flight was not until 10pm. He was upset since the later flight from Kaadedhdhoo was full and they could not get him on it. A little disconcerting that these arrangements are not made earlier.

Arrival boat footage (bumps included!):

http://youtu.be/s7r_DJEI5MY?hd=1

Arrival jetty:

http://youtu.be/HSCH_u3LvLE?hd=1

Departure boat footage:

http://youtu.be/Kcjdw1yh-B0?hd=1

Flight into Gan:

http://youtu.be/HArQDrXw0-Q?hd=1

And sadly leaving paradise:

wpj

great review ! I liked the tuna in the morning and chicket tika masala from batuta at night. amazing food.

soonerfanatic

Agreed! The tiki masala was excellent, also, the red curry shrimp is outstanding.

price123

soonerfanatic - fantastic report. We have 5 nights in April and can't wait. With regards to the evening cocktails and canapes, were there any choices on where you could have them. Also, what choice for drinks was there? With regards to the passport escape, could you have anything off the menu, or was it a set menu?

soonerfanatic

You can have the canapes and drinks at the pool bar, either relax on the couches, or in the couch swing or you can have them at the beach. There are several tables set out on the beach, where I shot the sunset video in my post. We could choose from any drink on the menu or a custom one not found, ie. Long Island iced tea. Probably a $60 daily value.

The passport escape had no restrictions, we were told one app, one main, and one dessert. I think our tabs for us were around $250 each night. You pay for any alcohol, which is either highly marked up or taxed? A $60 bottle of riesling we had one night sells for $12 at home.

ma91pmh

soonerfanatic thanks for all the feedback very helpful. when we stayed under alila management we had cocktails on the couches every day and paid full freight so that is a real nice freebie that we will be sure to make full use of

a 5x mark up is frankly pretty reasonable. keep in mind that 2-3x is standard in the worst suburban american restaurants (you can pay that markup at olive garden or outback), 3-4x is standard in any big metropolitan area and 5x is not unusual in the londons, new yorks and tokyos of the world, and it is a lot easier to get wine to and from all those locations than here. I don't mean to be apologist but a 5x markup would never shock me in any remote island location like here or Seychelles

we tended to just have one glass of wine with dinner after having a cocktail or two on the couch, so were spending around $30 on booze with dinner. the passport will be very helpful in getting the overall bill down

I would also like to add that I am very happy to see the onsite water purification is still in action. There were reports upthread when Hyatt took over that they had replaced this with imported Norwegian plastic bottled. When you visit some of the local islands and see the swathes of washed up plastic bottles you really see first hand the difference this can make. Bravo!

canyonleo

I'll comment (provide a tip) regarding sf's layover/transfer times experience in post #275, as it can be avoided, but you need to an over the top details obsessive type. Like the type that actually emails/calls a property before arriving.

The air transfers used by the property are regularly schedule Maldivian Air (Q2) flights. While one can't book them directly (must be booked through the hotel and one's reservation), one can use Q2's booking website to determine the schedule of the flights. And, while any flight could conceivably sell out before the hotel books a guest, one can probably be watchful of how a flight is filling up (if there's not expert flyer type website that allos this, one might try booking a party of five every few days).

*Before making one's international flights to arrive/depart MLE, one should check the Q2 schedules to find an optimal itinerary (a two hour layover is IMO optimal, noting that my one experience with a 9:30p MLE arrival saw a long line at immigration (due to a SN 340 aircraft, I'll guess, arriving only 20 minutes ahead of our MH flight) which took us 50-60 minutes to go through).

*Then, knowing what single unique Q2 routing will "make" your trip, one should communicate frequently with the hotel regarding getting booked on that itinerary (noting that the hotel will not book until the reaching of x days out, where if I remember right x is two or four weeks?, but before that date one could discuss the possibility of that flight, and discuss a priority situation among similarly traveling property guests, if one is the first to contact the hotel on the topic, etc.).

Our plans were schedule such that not having the best Q2 schedule, but settling for the second best Q2 schedule, would have resulted in a forced overnight in Male, a 5+ layover at MLE, and/or leaving the resort on the last day many many hours before desired, losing much of our last day.

thexfactor

Just want to "confirm the confirmation": I have two nights in a suite from the Hyatt CC. Those are automatically placed in an OWB upon redemption at Hyatt MLE?

canyonleo

I went back and reread my post, and I'm thinking I meant to write something a little different (maybe I meant to ask the question)... that post was before my trip to there.

I will confirm that I was given an OW villa, and that I used the two Diamond suite Chase nights (as the two of nine nights before my 7-night Escape Pkg reward redemption) - but I never meant to imply that I discussed the topic with Hyatt or property management... I have no confirmation that this is a rule/policy/likelihood - only that it is what happened for me (data point of one).

I suggest calling the property ahead of your trip and making a personal request, if it's what one wants.

soonerfanatic

Thanks and good suggestions for all. Looking back, I wish I would have been diligent in gathering all of these details prior, which is normal protocol. I guess I just had enough faith that the property would take care of all of this.....especially after having a confirmation email in writing saying a max of 2 hours in MLE, which was after they knew our arrival flight info.

We were told that there are plans to build a new airport on one of islands on the more eastern side of Gaafu Alifu atoll, we also heard that the property may also have access to a float plane to fly guests in.

listener2

Well just arrived, staying in a water villa no 49, wonderfull view spent half the night looking at the stars and enjoying the view and gentle lap of the water, a great indian meal at the restaurant, our host is wonderfull girl called Lada i think had arranged everything perfectly.
I spent the morning reading on the balcony.
If any one would like any further info on the hotel we are here for a week, but the previous review was one of the best i have read on flyertalk.