I stayed in one a few months back. Really really cold. The one I had didn't get any sun at any point of the day.

Do you have any status with them? I'm debating trying as well.

​​​​​​​I was SPG Gold at the time. Doesn't hurt to email them and it worked out for me when I did it.

I sent the hotel a polite email requesting the Bentley transfer and it was there the next morning. I too stayed overnight the day before.

Theres a ton of GV availability for the next few months now. Looks like most people who reserved ended up cancelling when they did the research on pricing. I have an 11 night stay in dec at the conrad maldives, and now just booked an overlapping 5 night stay at the St regis for the last 5 days. I'm debating if its worth to split my stay into 6 nights at the conrad and then 5 nights at the st regis. I dont have plat status so I would be stuck paying for breakfast everyday, plus an additional $1200 for the seaplane transfer. Is this place really that amazing to make it worth it? I want to take advantage of the 60k point offer but its also going to cost me ~$750 more for breakfast, $1200 for a 2nd seaplane transfer and another $1500 for upgrades to the OWV. Thoughts?

I personally wouldn't switch resorts in the Maldives. Especially into a garden villa. I have stayed in the OWV and while its beautiful, if I had a reservation set somewhere else with a beach view/ or over-water, with a free breakfast... I wouldn't pay all that extra. I guess if if the extra almost $4,000 is really a drop in the bucket for you maybe, but I think most people would find its not worth the additional spend if you are already set somewhere else.

Do you call resort to get owv upgrade from gv after making reservations? What's success rate?

I know a lot of people will disagree but having stayed at the Conrad I really don't rate the St Regis that much higher. Yes its slightly better and a lot more expensive if you pay cash. Transferring between hotels will be a right pain for you though.

Just a question, how/when did you get the 85K points/night at the W for the OWV? Was that booked direct with reservations?

I was able to book and hold reservations at both the W and StR for January for 60K/night and fifth night free for the base room category at each property, but the agent quoted me no upgraded room availability on points at the W and only the 170K/night rate at the StR. I emailed each property and cash upgrades were quoted as $369/night (including taxes) for OWV at StR (or $493 for OWV Sunset or Beach Villa, or $739 for the St. Regis Suite), or $332 for OWV at the W. So at those rates, I would definitely go for 60K + $369 at the StR to get OVW rather than 170K points, but 85K for the OWV would still be a solid deal at the W if there's a way to get it.

As others have noted, the upgrade at the StR came with the terms that it had to be for all nights and the pay-up was due at time of booking and was nonrefundable. The W by contrast did not specify whether all nights had to be upgraded, but was clear that the upgrade charge would just be added to the room bill (and is therefore presumably cancelable if you cancel your booking).

FWIW, I had originally made bookings at each hotel last week and had to call (and took a couple of tries to find a decent agent who knew what they were doing -- first agent responded to my question about the W Maldives by asking what city and state it was in :rolleyes:), but ended up shifting my dates slightly and it turned out today I was able to both make new bookings at both properties and cancel one of my old bookings on the app, which is a pleasant improvement, especially since I decided to try it and see if it would work while I was waiting on a long hold, and managed to complete my changes before anyone picked up my call.

My original booking was August 22, direct with reservations. At that time, you could not book online. We then booked a second room, same dates, on August 25, for friends. Also thru online reservations.

My impression is that the 85k/nt still lives at the W, so if on your dates you are able to see a Lagoon View OWV, you should be able to get it for 85k.

thanks! and it was about $200/night?

Thanks, interesting, I'll have to try again. Both the Fabulous Overwater Oasis Suite and the Spectactular Lagoon Oasis show available for cash on my dates, though the one competent reservations agent I've managed to speak with so far specifically said he didn't see any upgraded rooms available on points at the W. (Oddly some pages of the site also don't seem to distinguish between those two room categories, so not clear what's going on there.)

As an added data point for you, I booked a Spectacular Lagoon Oasis on August 31 for 85K per night. I called Marriott Platinum line and had to be transferred to a Starwood rep to be able to book it.