Not even a champagne sabering?

Is champagne sabering free at any other St.Regis? I always assume you buy the bottle and they saber it for you. Have never been told there's one at any of the st regis i've been to.

Is there a published award chart for this property?

Every St Regis I've had has a sobering around 7:00 PM daily and they give complimentary glasses after the bottle is sabered. This was the same at Bal Harbour, Princeville, Atlanta, and Bahia Beach.

What are the bath products that they are using in the OWV? Do they have remede? I was at the St Regis Bangkok and they have great products there and hoping they do here too.

Shame that they don't do much for Platinums, the Park Hyatt offers more for their Diamond guests based on what I've read.

Will be there on the 12th.

I'm assuming you're referring to the instant rewards you can use your Starpoints for (food/beverage, spa, etc.)? The hotel was supposed to get back to me on this and never did, and they also didn't respond to two follow up emails I sent.

I asked my Ambassador to look into this. They should at least give me a response if they haven't finalized the instant rewards. Not impressed that they have been so unresponsive, especially given how quickly they would respond to me in the past.

I'm really having trouble being any more clear on this :)

Not even the spa is free access to Platinums. Officially.

I'm not convinced the PH is better. Although the StR is stingy "officially", I found they didn't nickel and dime me at all while there. Breakfast is technically for two people; they comped my son without even a question from me. First day we arrived at 7am; they comped breakfast. Tea service is normally a) for two, and b) generally only teabags. They would give me a juice for my son (and their juices are AMAZING!), as well as custom make me mint tea and so on. They gave my son a (brand new) plush turtle to play with, and of course, he didn't want to let it go at the end... they didn't even bat an eye and let him keep it ($65 at the MLE duty free, wow). And of course, I had the spectacular sunset villa. I'm not sure the PH would go that far based on what i've read.

It is the Remede products. Not sure if that's good or bad for you, but both my wife and I have a strong dislike for the Remede products. After trying out the products at the St Regis Singapore, we just bought some Aveda to bring along to Maldives at SIN.

How did you get there at 7AM island time?!

Oops sorry. 8AM! We were on the 6:30 flight which got delayed to 7am.

I guess if you don't have enough time to have breakfast at the lounge, they will give you (free) breakfast at the resort.

I'd be curious to know if that was it, more so than "we'll just extend another Platinum breakfast to you".

Not to mention that there's nothing resembling fold at The Great Room. Haha.

Fold? Cash.....folding? Ha ha. I know you mean 'food'.

Doh!!!!!! :D Stupid phone.

I've been following this thread ever since I booked my stay and can't wait. Anyone else there between 1/4 and 1/9?

And for the people who have already been, are there manta dive/snorkeling excursions like other resorts offer?

Anyone currently here or arriving in the next few days?

My SO and I will be there exactly those days! I'm with you..stalking this thread ever since it started! I can't wait. We land in Male at 14:45...so really hoping everything is on time to make the seaplane.

There are dives and snorkeling (which we definitely plan to partake in). This will fill the time as we will be starving because we can't afford to eat a $50 pizza... Lol.

I didn't do the dives because I keep procrastinating on my certification (I am too lazy to do it in places I live, where it's reasonably priced, and when I actually NEED it, it's at hotels that charge hundreds of dollars for it, which I feel is better spent actually diving ... end result, nothing gets done), but the snorkelling tour was both reasonably priced and reasonably interesting. The reef is in much better shape than the house reef, and much life was to be found - we even saw a sea turtle from afar!

We will be at the resort from Jan 18 - 24, will anyone else be there around then?

What are most people wearing around the hotel in the evenings for the dinners? We don't want to be under or over dressed.

People dress very casually. Decanter might be another dress code, but for Alba and Orientale, ultimately, you're at a tropical resort. Chill. :)

Suite Cert on 32.5 OVW deal?
 

I almost feel silly asking, given my horrible track record with plat suite upgrade certs. Anyone have luck using these on award stays here?

I jumped on the deal bandwagon to get OVW for 26/night, so I'm just being greedy. First five nights booked on a friend's account under my name. Last night is my account. I'm thinking I'll apply a suite upgrade cert to night #6 and see if I can be persuasive (or have an awesome last night)...

Should have done it the other way around (first night mine, next five his) but plans changed...

I think it would probably clear, and if it's the same now as it was when I checked 6 months ago, the certificate would put you in the Beach Villa.

You'd have to ask yourself if that's really an upgrade for you or not. In my opinion, it's a "side-grade", not an upgrade, and ultimately I am very happy I stayed in an OWV.


The Over Water Villas are *really* nice, and "Classic Maldives". The Beach Villas are a bit smaller, and the architecture is perhaps a bit less impressive.

Pros for Beach Villa:
Softest sand on the island [The main beach is artificial and has a lot of dead coral, the beach villas have a natural beach]
Easiest to lay out on the beach if that's your preference [Doing this from an OWV is a bit of a hassle]
Safer for young children
Calmest waves/current on the island
Closer to restaurants/etc [But a reasonably healthy adult wouldn't find it a difficult walk, and the staff is very consistent about offering buggy rides]

Pros for OWV:
Bigger
Better architecture
Direct ocean access
Some units are very private
Some units have direct sunset views
Some units have direct sunrise views


If you do get a beach villa, ask to be in one of the units closest to the reception area or the Caroline Astor estate as the beach is deepest there.

If you get an OWV, the units closest to the island have the calmest waters of all OWV, with the east side having sunrise views and less privacy [for all units], and the west side having sunset views, and more privacy starting from the 5th unit all the way to the John Jacob Astor estate .

The northern units have complete privacy but the pool stays shaded the whole day, and during days with rougher seas, the ocean can get so rough that it is outright impossible to swim, but on calm days it will still actually get "glass smooth", and easy enough for a child to swim.

My personal suggestion, unless you will have children with you or it will be your first time in the Maldives, I'd suggest sticking with the Over Water Villa.

We are there 1/4 to 1/9 as well. Coming from W Goa. Booked garden villa with SNU, crossing fingers!

Different ppl have different tastes. I'd go for the beach Villa all the way.

My visit to the St. Regis will be my 4th and it will also be my 4th stay in a Beach Villa over there. However, I do see how small the beach villas are at the St. Regis compared to the ones I've been in at like the Four Seasons, Shangri La, and the W.

But then again I like the private beach compared to the OWV's.

Pretty concerned about this now... had a babymoon planned to the StR in March, and not interested in rolling the dice. For some reason the Maldives hadn't been on my Zika radar, but I guess it's actually there. Zika-free world seems to be shrinking. Think the Seychelles are still clear... anyone else in the same boat or know a little more than I do re: Zika situation? I still have a couple of other dates booked down the road in case things clear up.

Edit: not interested in transferring/selling/bartering any reservations, thanks

Early November stay didn't work out, so I finally locked down my late Feb stay.

EY Apt NYC-AUH, overnight in PH AUH, EY F AUH-MLE
5 nights in OWB at SR MLE
CX J MLE-HKG, the Pier HKG, CX F HKG-NYC

Mrs. thexfactor and I are both certified divers, so still waiting on some reports out of their dive shop.

How full has the resort been lately? I know in November it was at 20-25% occupancy.

Has the resort been accommodating with room selection? in other words, can we request (and reasonably expect) to be placed in a sunset view room?

This will be our second trip to MLE, but given the reviews of this place, we're excited.

Okay. I figured since I write most notes of my travels anyway, I should clean up the grammar, pick the better pictures, add some acid wit and share it with the community. I'd normally do this via the blog, but I'm still somewhere in early 2015 catching up with my travels, so I don't want to break the timeline, so I'll post direct links to my Evernote travel notes instead.

Here are some notes from our trip in mid-December 2016. I'll add a few more as I sort through the pictures.

• Crystal Beach Inn Maldives (for the overnight): http://tinyurl.com/h7svm5p
• Flying to the St-Regis Vommuli: http://tinyurl.com/jxrb428
• Arriving to the St-Regis Vommuli (I did say clean up grammar, not decidedly uninventive titles): http://tinyurl.com/hdplb88
• St-Regis Vommuli breakfasts (I really took one for the team here, trying all dishes on the menu. You must feel sorry for me.): http://tinyurl.com/hw7s3c4
• The Iridium Spa and the Blue Hole experience: http://tinyurl.com/h6y3sxg

I'll be there tomorrow-Jan 10. Has anyone done a fishing trip yet?

@Pseudo Nim - big thanks for sharing! Loved the details and writing style. Good stuff! ^

+1. I'm curious as well.

There is no private beach. The beach is shared among all guests.

IMO, in the Maldives that is considered private as almost all guests have their own beach.

I see that Pseudo Nim also noted that the northern unit’s pools are shaded the whole day. Sun is important to me (privacy is also, but not as important as sun), so am wondering if anyone has suggestions on what the best standard OWV would be for me. I booked the 26k point deal for next Christmas - not expecting any type of upgrade as I assume the resort will be sold out...

Christmas proper?

Ooh ... be prepared for the mandatory gala dinner for however many hundreds of dollars it is. :)

Booked it for the 26th-31st to avoid any Christmas and/or NYE mandatory gala dinners :)

Ahh smart :)

Hopefully no Chinese billionaire takes over the resort during that time, unlike... other times!

@Pseudo Nim, just finish reading your trip report and it provides a lot of valuable information. Just a quick question, if you book "any" spa treatments like a 30 min foot message, can you access to the Blue Hole pool? I notice you didn't know the price for the spa. From the spa menu in the wiki, the private Blue Hole experience for two hours costs US$350 before 10% tax and fee. So you essential got $400 experience for free ;)

As I understood it, a spa treatment does NOT automatically entitle you to the Blue Hole. And oddly, I feel like the in-room spa menu did not have prices, but sure enough, the one here does. Very strange.

In all fairness, it was a cool experience, but $400? No. Just, no.

I'm getting here day after tomorrow. Has anyone seen if the Bentley is ready yet?

EDIT**: This is the same conversion rate for the seaplane transfer redemption. Still could be worse...

For those of you who have been waiting in anticipation of what the Starpoint Instant Rewards redemption value is, my reliable ambassador did some digging and sent over some info...

You can purchase hotel credit at the conversion rate of 75 Starpoints per $1 USD. This isn't a great deal and using points for hotel room redemptions is obviously ultimately better, but it's a better rate than what I originally expected, so it's still a win for me. I'm going to target converting between 150K-200K Starpoints to give my wallet a break, esp. since I'm paying cash for our flights to MLE.

What's the total tax/service fee percentage again for each resort product?

The resort will allow you to redeem hotel credit for "all incidentals". I need to confirm this, because I was previously told by resort staff that the dive center would not be eligible for these redemptions.