Mtbikersd

Anyone else there between March 4th and March 6th and interested in splitting a private boat to search for whale sharks?

tylerc

The private boat, I believe is $250/hr whereas the sunset dolphin cruise is $80/pp for 1.5 hours. Unfortunately we didn't see any, but enjoyed an hour and a half out on the water (we're boaters)...

MaldivesFreak

That could have been a plane that stays at the resort and leaves at the break of dawn.

tylerc

The Bentley is at the airport, but not yet registered and does not yet have the logo on it. It certainly looks nice, but no ride for me

The service is really outstanding, and airport butlers took use to Hulumale (sp?) hotel for dinner till kill some time (drink). When they picked us up they assisted with a damaged bag claim from SQ on the inbound, took us through checkin, and saw us right to the security screening.

If anyone has specific questions, ask away and I will try to answer. Oh, and I was able to get more than 8 bottles of water per day

MaldivesFreak

How many nights were you there and what was the approximate makeup of guests nationality-wise?

And do the GM and other department heads actively chat to the guests? Is there a Manager's Cocktail party once a week like at Rangali?

TIA.

beastieb

How many total nights were you there? What activities did you do? What restaurants did you try and how much did you end up spending a day.


Thanks!

britinva79

[I've not seen the price for the dinner/wine tasting at decanter. How bad is the pricing?] Found the answer above please ignore!

tylerc

I was there for 5 nights, and most of the time it felt like we had the island to ourselves to be honest. Saw some people that were definitely from North America, a few from Asia, and a few from Middle East. I'd say we saw more from North America than anything else.

We chatted with a number of members of the management team, but the GM was not on the island while we were there.

If there is a cocktail party it didn't take place on one of the nights we were there (or we weren't invited!).

tylerc

5 nights, and we ate at the 3 restaurants that are open (Crust, Alba, and Orientale). Since we're not platinum we skipped the breakfast buffet, but apparently it's amazing. We did order things like pancakes to the room in the morning. Coffee/tea service to your villa is complimentary, and sometimes accompanied by cookies.

We spent roughly $350/day in total on average (including tax & service charge), We did one paid activity which was the sunset dolphin cruise ($160 for 2). Sadly, no dolphins were spotted, but it was nice to get out for 1.5 hours and tour around. I did see some dolphins on the seaplane flight back to Male. Otherwise we relaxed, swam, relaxed, sun tanned, relaxed, snorkelled, etc. We spent a lot of time on the villa deck...the villas are really amazing. They have a bluetooth module built into the wall by the desk that allows you to connect to the TV, which is Bang and Olufsen. We used it to steam audio to the TV, which has really good speakers.

Someone mentioned concern over the OWV being difficult to keep cool at other resorts - that's not the case here. We were able to keep the villa at a very cool temperature during the hot afternoons.

MaldivesFreak

Thanks. Sorry, I forgot to ask if you knew what the occupancy rate was while you were there.

kkl

What about wifi connectivity? Fast and reliable?

I know people are meant to disconnect from the world. But I'd need the internet 24/7 for work purposes.

thexfactor

Any reports on dive shop yet?

Ants1

Great! Pseudonim will be sad to see that I won't need to bring powdered water anymore.

Here come some specifics and a ton of questions...

Did you feel very pressured/obligated by resort staff to spend on additional food/beverage and activities? Assuming you also had the 5 nights on points, did that seem to affect how attentive the staff was to your requests?

How was the coral/sand underneath your hammocks at the OWV? How low was low tide? How high was high tide? Did you need reef shoes/were you able to jump off your dock into the ocean without slicing your feet?

Did you go kayaking or use any of the dive center gear? How was the snorkeling?

Thinking we may go for one of the fishing cruises, or potentially the dolphin cruise like you did. Seems like a good value. One of my colleagues might have actually overlapped with you while you were there. She showed me pictures of a sandbar that one of the resort boats took her to. Did you hear anything about this sandbar?

How about the spa? Did you guys use this?

In my mid-20s-- did y'all see many other honeymooners?

How about those golf cart buggies-- did you guys use these at all to get around the island?

I'm bummed for you that Cargo wasn't yet open and the Bentley wasn't yet in operation. At least it seems like you visited when the resort wasn't near full capacity.

What all did your butler do for you guys?

Thanks for sharing your experiences, Tyler!

MaldivesFreak

Also interested in knowing answers to the above and also as to how far away the sandbar is (doable as a trip with jetskis?). Also wondering whether it's submerged only part of the time (if it is, it might not show up on Google or other map services). I suppose an email to the resort would clear that up if tylerc wasn't sure about the specifics.

Pseudo Nim

I'm also there in five days from now so i'll help you answer those as well if nobody else does!