captainamerica

Has anyone been to both the conrad maldives and the st regis?

I have an 11 night stay in the Maldives this December. Currently I've booked all my nights at the conrad maldives (which I went to last year). Given this temporary discount on points, is it worth spending 5 of the days at the OWV in the St Regis? The downside is I lose 340k marriott points, have to pay for breakfast, and an additional $1,100 on the sea transfer. Points aside I suspect it will cost an additional ~$2,000 to go to the St Regis for the first 5 days. The rooms looks nice BUT I want feedback from people who have been to see if it's really worth going or I should just stay the entire time at the conrad.

Westin

Believe only plat and above now

LauraLG

Has anyone else had this issue? I haven't merged my accounts yet and (nearly) all of my points are in Marriott. I called SPG and confirmed availability for my dates for a five night stay and the 340k OWV points redemption was available but the SPG agent could not book it for me since I don't have enough points in my SPG account. Apparently she was able to go in through my Marriott profile and make the reservation but it got caught up with an IT issue in the last screen before confirmation and wouldn't complete (several times). I was advised to wait out the IT issue and did make a cash reservation but I'm concerned that the award nights will be gone once this is bookable or after the St. Regis can be booked by a Marriott agent. Has anyone made a booking with Marriott points at an SPG property (since August 18)?

tylerc

Now that everyone is going wild for this property, I can't help but wonder if they will do something to block availability (I know it's against T&C) - the hotel is primarily OWV, and they're at 85k. (edit 21 OWV and 4 garden)

On another note, I wonder how many people are booking this without looking at the seaplane cost and the menu prices

A 'free' stay adds up to multiple thousands within a few days! We ate fairly light while there, and still managed to spend a lot of cash!

shuuy

Availability is blocked. See OWV on cash, and hold a booking for it... but 4 agents won't give me the points opportunity... mind you I'm booking around the holidays, but seems to be against T&C

btonkid12345

Lol. You don't get to pick seaplane times; neither does the resort, really.

TMA does the scheduling and they fill the planes by stopping at more than 1 resort if they have to en route to MLE. 3 days is way too short and totally not worth it.

onlysuites

I agree. Considering they will charge you $600 return sea plane costs. Breakfast is around $60. Not a cheap place.

I went for 6 nights and felt it was ok. 5 would have done too. Any less is not worth going for.

some dude

I have been to both, and would say that the two properties are totally different things.

At the StR Maldives, it's all about the service and attention to detail ... and the room quality at the OWV is absolutely top-tier. The breakfast buffet is also top-tier. On the other hand, there are less choices for restaurants and activities, the beach is much smaller and sand is less soft, and the reef is in bad condition, with lots of dead coral.

At the Conrad Maldives, the beach is much better (arguably one of the best I've seen in the world), the reef is much better, and there are more choices for restaurants and activities. The breakfast is very good, but not as good as StR. The rooms are not as good, but are certainly not shabby. If you went straight from StR Maldives to Conrad Maldives, it would probably *feel* shabby though, just because of the superlative quality of the StR Maldives.

I personally would not switch hotels on such a short stay ... just pick one and stick to it. If you only do 2-3 nights at StR, it won't really be enough time for the luxury of the service to set in. If you only do 2-3 nights at the Conrad, it won't be enough time to sample all the restaurants and activities.

Also, not sure how much of a difference this makes for you, but there is a major size difference between the two as well. StR is a single relatively small island. When I was there, I would swim around the entire island (with mask and fins) as my morning exercise, and I would only consider myself to be a moderate swimmer. Conrad is now three islands, one for staff, and two for guests, and is truly large enough to spend a bunch of time walking around aimlessly, just enjoying the tranquility.

I'd happily go back to either hotel.

some dude

I would say 5 nights is the minimum for a property like this.

I did 10, while a friend did 5 because he thought he would be bored, upon leaving, the friend agreed that 5 was enough but he could have stayed on for the full 10.

porkie

Doesn't 10 get boring? I'm currently booked in for 7 nights but I'm thinking of adding 3 more to get one more free.

FederalFlyer

I can not find the 1 800 St. Regis number anywhere. Can anyone post the number?

Westin

Has anyone been here recently? Is the marine life around the resort recovering at all?

Also anyone here dive during their stay? Any recommendations?

jasonbourne88

Anyone else able to book today? I've called and seems like they were viewable yesterday but not viewable again today...

Quite frustrating at this point... called both SPG, and Plat line number to no luck.

If anyone was able to book - mind sharing the number?

FederalFlyer

Are you trying to book nights where 60k points show availability? Or nothing available but the OWV for cash rates?

porkie

OVW's are entirely sold out for most of the dates from December till April.