YYJMSP

We arrive in a few days. Just curious about advice on current tipping practices? For your butler? For wait staff at breakfast, and other meals?

Opportunity to add to bill, or cash? If cash, I assume USD?

Thanks!

Derman0524

I tipped my butler about $200 throughout my 5 night stay. He didn't exactly go above and beyond but he helped quite a bit. I barely tipped the general wait staff unless they were extra special. The service charge is basically their tip but for excursions, I would tip between 10-20% since it's a lot more personal. For Alba, I kept on going to the same section with the same waiter for breakfast so on my final day I tipped him. For room service, I would toss a $5 to the person.

Note: If you add a tip on the receipt, it gets added to the tip pool but if you write the wait staff's name beside the tip, it goes directly to them so use that info however way you want.

There's no standard for tipping, as many Europeans frequent the island, they don't tip but the Americans/Canadians tend to tip quite a bit. There's also no requirement to tip, the wait staff are perfectly happy to serve you and talk to you.

At the airport lounge when you land in Male, a $5/$10 bill to whoever picks you up is enough since they facilitate your details on the ground and handle your baggage. You don't need to tip at the lounge though since everything is free and included.

Dn10

Any more news on what they're doing during the closure now that it's confirmed? Are they renovating all the rooms during that time or only a subset? And anything else happening? Seems like they've been working on the boardwalk to the OWVs for the past year or so so not sure how much longer that will go on.

Derman0524

I spoke to the GM last week and they're adding a new restaurant, will be fixing up the villas and boardwalks but that's all he told me

LovetoTravel83

They always had a plan for Teppenyaki stations.

jskang07

Anyone arrive to MLE via QR674? We are scheduled to land at 320 pm. We're not sure if that's enough time to make the seaplane transfer to the resort. Trying to determine if we should rebook to Ritz Carlton rather than St Regis. We're only there for 3 nights so we'd hate to lose a night if we miss the plane.

ryanbriar

I can’t speak specially to QR674 / not sure what date you’re arriving, but the clouds rolled in yesterday around 2 pm / started down pouring with high winds. One seaplane took off just as the storm was hitting, but no activity after that until 5-6 pm. I think it’s semi day by day this time of year.

I’d coordinate with the hotel as they’ll be able to help with any game time decisions. If it matters to you, I’d assume that the Ritz likely doesn’t have a breakfast benefit so it may be best to choose a property with that included.

mleebcps

Funny, my husband and I landed on that last seaplane. The staff were shocked that we even landed in the storm saying they weren’t expecting us at that time due to the storm.

There was another couple on the seaplane heading for another resort. The captain told them they have to wait at StR for a bit before taking off.

ryanbriar

Oh nice. Yeah even with the somewhat clear skies, the water is quite choppy. When we came in, the water was too rough at the StR so we took a 20+ minute boat ride. That was a nice way to cap off a lengthy trek from Heathrow.

Dn10

Was it at another hotel that had a sea plane landing dock in the middle of the water? Hotel with some close overwater villas and a bunch of hotel rooms on the island (very non-descript description I know). Had to do that as well during one of my trips on the way out.

jskang07

We're arriving in 2nd week of September. In case we miss the seaplane, what happens to our first night of reservation? Are we SOL if we don't make the cutoff time for the transfer? I've emailed the property, but they just said as long as we land as scheduled, we should be fine. But no guidance in case we miss it due to delays/weather.

ryanbriar

Very descriptive indeed But yes that sounds about right. It was a very small island with a bathroom and the dock.

I think they’ll arrange for a room at their sister property, but otherwise I think you’ll just have to go with the flow. Given that your situation probably happens semi often, I’m pretty certain that they will have you covered.

Grsdo

We got caught running back from Crust in that storm! Couldn’t believe the seaplane landed! At least today has been gorgeous so far

Bpeel

We are headed to the St Regis Maldives in October and we are trying to decide on Starlight Dinner or Vommuli magic so if anyone has any insight it would be appreciated!!!

Ken C

Has anyone had any recent success with upgrade requests from a standard OWV to a sunset OWV. We will be there in shoulder season for our anniversary and have lifetime platinum status.