EuropeanPete

spirith20

I thought the resort was just as magical that second time. It actually helped to know the lay of the land this time so that we didn't have to rely on our butler for everything. They added another "restaurant" called Craft next to Crust but the same menu is literally offered at both. A few more options now at Craft/Crust and they actually dropped the prices on the pizza. We took advantage for several of the group fitness classes offered as well as playing tennis. Seasonally they have added a seafood/steak dinner option at Whale Bar which was incredibly expensive but very good. Unfortunately I think that is done for the season.

We hired a private boat for three hours. During the 3 hours we went snorkeling with the guide and it was AWESOME. In additional rather than go to a second snorkeling spot we had the boat take us to a sandbar and just chilled on it for an hour and half. No one else around, it was amazing. We also did the coral gardens group snorkeling tour which was good but there were little kids on the tour so we had to somewhat cater to them. We also did the sled ride where they drag the sled behind the boat...definitely a thrill.

If you enjoyed riding the bikes around the island then you'll enjoy it more this time as all of the bikes have been replaced. Updated and much more comfortable. We were fortunate that we had incredible weather and really chilled at a villa.

The resort had 92% occupancy during stay so the only negative at times was that when you needed to request a buggy you had to wait longer than normal.

Hope that helps. Let me know if you need anything else.

Falimz

Me personally, no. I have a trip at the end of June that covers 4 days in Maldives and 2 in Sri Lanka. My wife on the other hand...

rp88

Great! Amazing info. When was your first trip? Ours will be a pretty short interval from the last one.

helvetic

The Maldives has a history of Islamic terrorism, so not entirely zero relevance[1]. On the private islands, there's nothing to worry about. On Male, there's certainly a nonzero risk. Overall, though, any risk in any city is low enough that I wouldn't ever worry about it. Think of it this way… on a terrible day, at worst maybe 1,000 people get blown up or injured. Out of 7 billion. On average, the amount is minuscule, probably at 2 or 3 people a day. What is the chance that that's gonna be you? What's much more likely is dying of a car accident, which happens to 3,287 people a day.

[1]: Just one example of many. Lots of Maldivians were fighting in ISIS. They're also officially under Sharia law. Obviously, they look the other way for anything that might impact tourism, because… money. https://thediplomat.com/2019/03/the-...slamist-block/

spirith20

Our first trip to the St Regis Maldives was in November 2017, not too long after it had opened. The one bummer about the trip is that during the year and a half since we went last much of the coral during our Coral Garden Tour and our private boat tour has been either bleached out or died.

Any other questions?

Gwaahjo

Just finished a 5 night stay here with the SO in mid April, really awesome resort/island and we had an incredible time overall. I read through this thread A LOT prior to the trip and want to thank everyone for the extremely useful information. I will jot a few of my tips/thoughts below.

Room - Booked 5 nights for 240k Marriott points last year in the Garden Villa (I am a Platinum). I had first emailed the hotel ~3 months prior to the trip to give them our incoming/outgoing flight details for the Seaplane transfer as well as inquiry about upgrade options to the overwater villa. We were quoted $369.60 per night and did not take it. I then emailed 2 weeks prior to our check-in to make restaurant reservations (so that we wouldn't get stuck in the 9PM seatings) and this time asked about the "chance of a Platinum upgrade to Beach Villa based on their experience." The generic reply was that they are an all suites property so complimentary upgrades are not applicable but that they noted my request and would do their best to accommodate it. At this point, my SO and I made peace with the Garden Villa. Imagine our surprise when we were picked up at MLE and in the van to the St Regis interim lounge when the staff member told us we were upgraded to a Sunset Overwater Villa! We were thrilled with this turn and it really set the mood for the rest of the stay. The room was incredible (#540) in every way. Our butler, Haroon, was excellent. He gave us his WhatsApp # at the start without me first asking, and really saw to all my requests throughout the stay. As far as amenities, we had the welcome Champagne, fruit basket, and little treats at the start. We also had cold tea brought to the room each afternoon (left in fridge if we weren't there).

Snorkeling: We were absolutely thrilled with the quality of the snorkeling. We would typically go straight out of the villa to "the wall" and then follow it toward the John Astor estate. We did snorkel from the dive center to the whale bar as well as from the whale bar to the sunset overwater villas, but the best we found was on the wall along the sunset overwater villas. Just an incredible amount of fish and sea life. We saw manta rays, sting rays, eagle rays, turtles, octopus, squid, puffer fish, and endless amounts of other brightly colored and sized fish. This was our favorite activity and thing to do and the snorkeling gear is free for the duration of your stay, hard to beat that value. Also saw dolphins after the one rainstorm!

Spa: We took advantage of the Iridium Spa offer that was given at check-in (it was the loyalty massage for $125++ per person) and felt it was fantastic. The therapists were excellent. They don't have any explicit couples massage options, but each of the rooms were set up for 2 people.

Restaurants - Besides breakfasts at Alba, we ate at Crust/Craft, Cargo, Decanter, Orientale, and did the Sunday beach seafood dinner. You really just have to go into this stay knowing food/drink will be expensive across the board and simply not worry too much about it.
Alba breakfast: As others have said, this is a great value if you are a Platinum and get breakfast included. We arrived most mornings at 8:30-9 and stayed until it closed at 10:30. There is a large buffet spread of anything you could possibly want and you can order anything off of the menu as well. We would normally order 3 plates (not huge portions) and make several trips to the buffet. My favorites dishes were the Steak and Eggs, Maldivian Benedict, and Duck/Waffles. We would get our fill of mimosas/bloody mary's/prosecco as well, though this was definitely the one service area that was lacking during our stay. At one point we had asked 5 different people for 2 proseccos and eventually got 1. Ending the morning with a scoop of their delicious ice cream is something I really got used to as well.
Cust/Craft: Pizzas were very tasty and not terrible value for an afternoon snack for 2 people. I ordered a couple of the sandwiches but they were mostly underwhelming at their price points.
Cargo: Nice meal and with their cheapest bottle of wine ($75) came to ~$420 for the both of us. Very good food all around but not the best value imo. Avoid eating too much bread for the starter mezzes, the mains were fantastic but we were so full by the end.
Decanter: Ended up booking this last minute and it was a great experience. It ended up only being 1 other couple and ourselves, but luckily we were a great match (probably the closest people in age and personalities on the whole island). The sommelier was fun and informative, but the sous chef didn't really add much to the experience besides the food being very good (which I'll take as a trade-off!). Drank a LOT of wine and probably the most fun night we had. Total cost came to ~$950 in the end for 2 people.
Orientale: We had a quickish meal here our last night, the menu is large but we just went with the Chicken and Lamb Tikka Masala. The chicken was very good.
Sunday Seafood: This was a nice setting on the beach but a bit hectic trying to get your orders in. You have to go up and basically pick what you want off an ice shelf. Local fish was very fresh and tasty (went with the red grouper and tuna, I would stick with the grouper or another more local fish that they recommend).
Whale Bar: We spent a few late nights here for drinks, nice setting but usually completely empty post-sunset. You can see lots of sea life off the sides (baby sharks, reef sharks, octopus, squid, lobster, etc).

Tips:
-Can order off the children's menu for room service, eg. the pizza is marginally smaller but half the price of the normal one.
-Bring floats and they will blow them up (I also asked for a rope to tether them)
-Ask butler for afternoon tea
-Ask butler for a short trial of the blue hole (usually $60 for 2 hours). We were able to get 15 minutes in there and it was more than enough for us.
-They have 30SPF sunscreen in the room, ask for more and it's free (they also have 50SPF by the main pool).
-If you want to drink more at breakfast, sit inside as far fewer waiters will walk by you as you go toward the beach.
-Bring a waterproof case for your phone so you can take underwater shots
-Put the waters in the fridge/wine rack and they will supply endless amounts.
-Bring waters to lunch/dinner to avoid $14++ Evian bill

All in all, a fantastic place and stay, I would go back in a heartbeat. I am more than happy to answer any/all questions from people on my experience there.

calvinoeh

tthanks for the extensive write up! I'm keeping notes of the good places to snorkel! Manta rays while snorkeling? That's amazing!

EuropeanPete

That's all fair, but the bombing in Sri Lanka has no relevance on the situation in the Maldives, which is what I meant. Certainly terrorism remains more of a threat in the Maldives than Bora Bora, for example.

SantiC

Thank you for the review. Curious what you thought of the sea in an OWSV, was it rough, calm, cold, or warm? Was your pool warm cold, did you get enough sun? Thanks!

Elevators

Just finished a stay there.

Some thoughts / tips:

Food
- Dinner at Orientale was our favorite from the restaurants (had the beef yakiniku, good cocktails, tuna sashimi, chicken stirfry)
- Breakfast at Alba is great value for Platinum, we usually skipped lunch as had large breakfast
- Lunch at Alba was OK, nothing to rave about (mac and cheese $36++)
- The burgers are terrible and taste like frozen meat, I would avoid, the pizzas at Crust are good
- Service at the restaurants can be hit and miss
- Food in general can be better for the price; we found most dishes to be OK, not bad also not great
- You can save LOTS by ordering rooms service from the kids menu and it has more casual food such as oven baked salmon etc. Also try the Seekh kebab, very tasty
- Menu at Whale bar is basic, but its a great spot for some drinks

Activities
- Scuba was average, the site where they took us (site 22?) was nothing spectacular. The equipment was excellent and the dive masters were very professional
- Snorkelling opposite the SOVW is better than scuba! If you are staying at the beach facing OVW just swim under them and you get to the the wall, LOTS of marine life (saw turtles, eels, reef sharks, Moray Eel, small ray not sure what type)
- Did some of the complimentary classes, they were fun especially yoga at the spa
- Snorkelling opposite the OVW wasn't very good, but check out SOVW wall and where the Beach Villas are, much better
- The scheduling of activities can improve; dives are supposed to go between 830-1030 so you miss out on breakfast and can only eat before you dive. They should change it to 8am-10am

Other
- The butler is helpful but doesnt really do much, over Easter they had a seafood dinner and all restaurants closed, our butler informed us they booked us in without asking if we want to go, I got a feeling our butler tried to up-sell us into a few things including this dinner ($165++)
- As a Platinum member we didn't get an upgrade (was booked into OVW on points)
- We did get a bottle of (not so good) champagne, (very good) fruit basket, (very good) Middle Eastern sweets, and one night our butler surprised us with cake (really good). I got a feeling they have a very good pastry chef as all breads and cakes were very good
- Didn't get any points for the seaplane or scuba, only food
- Design of room and facilities is 10/10. The room is fully controlled through an iPad, they thought of everything.

Dn10

Thinking of taking the Qatar flight that lands at 3:15. Heard the last sea plane was at 3:30. I called the hotel and they mentioned that that should be fine (even with getting bags, etc) as long as flight isn't delayed, but my ambassador mentioned that it wouldn't cut it. Know that getting there earlier in the day would be more optimal (will look at changing flight), but have people had close calls with the sea plane and still made it?

Dn10

Was quoted 890k points for 5 nights in the over water villa in early 2020. Seems like this is the going rate now? Tempted to do the GV and try and pay for the upgrade- are those typically available?

jjakobv84

The last seaplane does not depart at 3.30, however you should arrive by 3.30 on your inbound. I came on Qatar at 3.15 and easily made it despite kids and bags. Also had about an hour in the lounge prior to the seaplane leaving. You'll most likely be fine, but of course a delay from Doha can put you at risk of not making it and losing a night at the hotel. If it's no difference I think most here would suggest trying to arrive into MLE earlier if nothing else you'd get more time at the resort! But as said... the Qatar flight arriving at 3.15 guests normally make it.

calvinoeh

I emailed them to provide seaplane information and asking nicely for an upgrade knowing they won't confirm anything. Now they are telling me that the GV is double occupancy and we need to upgrade to Beachvilla for $369 per night to fit 4 of us. I told them no thank you and waiting to hear back from them..