h8stn4d

I arrived yesterday and thought I'd post a few initial impressions--info that I didn't get from prior posts.

I am Plat and we are traveling with friends who are gold. Attached is a picture of the two cards we got (35% for Plat; 25% for Gold) explaining the current promotion. Indeed, last night we billed dinner for 4 to my room and got the 35% at FISH.

Some of my initial observations:

1) Water. We sat down at FISH for dinner and ordered "W tap water"--assuming we were going to get standard filtered water that they leave in glass bottles in your room and in the gym, and elsewhere. It didn't come. Next person who asked about water--we said the same thing. They brought a bottle of Evian. We said we just wanted normal (ie no cost) water. They said, "Sorry, this is all we have." This made me remember a review I had read in which people recommended that you bring your glass W bottles to dinner because otherwise you had to pay the absurd price for water. So I got up, walked to the gym and came back with 4 glass bottles of water. Five minutes later, a waiter came over and removed the bottles. He said, in effect, "We do not allow the glass bottles here and we need to remove them because it is not fair for others who were not allowed to bring bottles." Now to their credit, they voluntarily said they'd comp our Evian (and they continued to bring it, no charge), but ARE THEY SERIOUS? I realize that many restaurants around the world have only bottled water, but not at $12 (or more--I don't actually know the price) a bottle. We know how important it is to drink water and stay hydrated...so why are they forcing us to BUY their water at dinner?! At breakfast, they serve a different brand of bottled water and don't charge, FWIW. This whole policy seems shortsighted and foolish.

2) Snack stations. I understand these used to have ice cream and now they have apples, towels, and ice machine and some sort of sugar drink. The drink (pina colada, although I understand they change from time to time) is very tasty, but no water? Seriously? Guests need to stay hydrated but getting water is near impossible around the resort. And same for sunscreen. So far as I can tell there is one sunscreen dispenser at the pool, but nowhere else. How hard is it to keep sunscreen at snack stations?

3) Snacks, part 2. As others have noted, granola bars, popsicles and ice cream bars are available at the pool at 10, 1 and 4, respectively. I went at 2pm and was able to get a popsicle and saw a bowl of granola bars as well, so presumably, there is some flexibility as to time.

4) Reservations. There seems to be a bizarre undercurrent regarding dinner reservations, which I just don't get. We wanted to make a reservation at 6:30pm for FISH. We were told, sorry, earliest available is 8pm. We lamented a bit and 30 mins later by WhatsApp, they said they had 6:30pm. Great. Made the reservation. Went and between the time we ate and left, the restaurant was half empty. Today, we tried to make a reservation for 7pm at FIRE. They offered 6:30 and 7:30. Seriously? There are literally 2 restaurants available. It is 10am and you can't accommodate us at 7pm tonight?

5) Traffic. Others on TA have .....ed and moaned about the golf carts and bikes traversing the narrow walkways leading to the OWVs. Indeed, this is bad planning and a PIA to dodge them. Not a dealbreaker, but annoying.

6) Kids. I have kids. The people we're traveling with have kids. We didn't bring them. For that reason, it was particularly annoying to be sitting next to a large Chinese family who allowed their kids to watch movies at full volume on their phone at dinner, outside, in an otherwise beautiful, serene environment. Use headphones, people. Or, better yet, have some common sense and sense of courtesy.

OK, so now that you've made it through the venting, let me just say--this place is really beautiful. The rooms are great. The staff is great. The clear water and sea life are spectacular. I cannot compare the snorkeling with the St Regis or anywhere else in the Maldives, but I have seen all sorts of life just walking around the resort (sharks, rays, jumping schools of fish and more). The outdoor space at the OWVs is really nice. Pool water is warm. And the jets in the pool are a nice feature. I also just managed to figure out how to use the Bose system. Separate remotes to get music to the outside speakers and inside speakers. Pretty cool and fun (although one obnoxious neighbor could blast music you don't like and be annoying, I suppose).

Hope this helps.

Lookoutitzsean

gba

Great review, I look forward to hearing any other observations you have from your stay!​ ​​​​​​Are you on a points redemption? Are there any other noteworthy Titanium perks beyond the F&B discount?

It seems that recent reviews here and on TA have suggested food quality isn't great, what's your perception?

h8stn4d

Some additional observations and answers to questions above:

I am here on points; 85k/nt, 5th night free, OWV.

I don't have any additional visibility into the water-at-dinner problem. After posting last, we ate at FIRE and didn't pay for water, but that was after we brought bottled water to dinner again. We didn't bring the W water, but Aqua Panna that had been delivered to our room. There was confusion as to whether the water was delivered for us to bring to the restaurant, which was clearly wishful thinking, because they took it away. They also took away (or, more accurately, poured into glasses after telling us it was prohibited) the pina colada drinks we brought to dinner (which came from the 'refresh stations'). Sigh. Last night, we went to Kitchen and did $12 for a bottle of water. We were just worn down and not willing to protest. This water thing is an issue waiting to be resolved. It is just not sustainable.

Food is definitely hit or miss, but nothing is bad. The variety at breakfast is good. It's not fantastic food, but it's not horrible, either. The best deal so far was SIP after 7pm. 2-for-1 drinks and the raw section is a good value considering what we pay for sushi at home. Sushi platter is something like $46, for example. Four of us had a drink, shared a sushi platter and two more items from the raw menu...after 35% discount total was <$100 for 4. (We then went to Kitchen and spent another $130, but still, $230 for 4 for dinner is less than I expected...and a lot less than what we'd have paid on FB or HB.) Bottom line is this: We didn't come here expecting gourmet cuisine. And frankly, if the food were the best I'd ever had, I'd go broke paying for it. So it cuts both ways--food isn't great, so you don't need to break the bank paying for it.

We are looking forward to the local buffet dinner Tuesday night; the menu for that looks terrific and the price is reasonable, all things considered.

I am Platinum, so I can't comment on benefits for Titanium, but I think the 35% is the largest discount you're going to see and I don't know how long it will last.

Also, for those who are interested, when we ate at Kitchen last night, they gave us a menu of discounted wines by the bottle. Indeed, comparing to the "normal" menu, the discounts were pretty decent. A bottle of Dom was $340, down from $600. A bottle of Sauternes was $70 down from $120. This wasn't our cup of tea, but I looked out of curiosity and that's what I remember.

As I ended the last round of comments, I will end this one the same. The snorkeling here is SPECTACULAR. The water is calm. The visibility is insane. I am not a diver, but our friend had scheduled a dive and canceled it after experiencing the snorkeling. I just cannot describe how vibrant, colorful, plentiful the sea life is. Sharks circle the water below FISH; you can literally stand out there at night and look down into the lit water below and see reef sharks circling nonstop. I have snorkeled in the Galapagos and the Great Barrier Reef, as well as in Hawaii, among other places. Each is special in its own way, but I have never been this close to so many varieties of tropical fish. It sounds cliche, but it is like swimming through an aquarium. There is a very good reason why the W is proud of its house reef. It's amazing.

Hope this helps.

Furyleader

wow , I can't believe they're now banning people on bringing in their own bottles of water or even provide a tap water in glass.

I will be traveling in April with older parents and 2 toddlers whom will drink nothing else but plain water in between meals , for wife and I maybe ice tea could cover this, but again this is necessity for some people, I can't believe they could just make u purchase water out of no choice. Perhaps a complain to the GM will bring attention to the matter ?

if possible , do ask if the 35 or 25 will offer will last till, hoping still will be valid during our trip. thanks in advance.

keep us posted on water crisis

Kaloz

_fly_

Furyleader

u paid for the breakfast? how much per person?

_fly_

yes, we paid for the breakfast as I am Marriott Gold only and it was the only restaurant expense the discounts did not apply to. I think it was 41 or 42 USD tax etc. included per person.

kjc313

Where did you see most of the rays and turtles? Was there a best time of day for you to see them as well?

_fly_

Early morning was the best time in my experience, but we saw quite many during the day also. Location-wise around the overwater villas, you could simply sit at your deck and watch the rays swim by and hop in to swim with them if you wished. There was one huge and couple smaller rays that seemed to hang around the villas and under the pathways most of the time. Other good locations for rays were certain sand bottom areas near the shore, where they seem to dig into the sand. You start to see ray-shaped markings in the sand and then you know you're getting warm.

Also around the Kitchen restaurant and Sip bar we saw rays multiple times. The caveat is, there is also a lot of sharks in there, which might or might not make you feel a bit uneasy in the water.

GoZags

Curious if anyone has had luck in getting them to honor the free breakfast they used to advertise? For those who made a reservation at the time this was offered, it seems appropriate that they would grandfather people in.

_fly_

All the cash rates include breakfast - there were exactly two tables every morning that paid for breakfast, they had the invoices printed out on the cash register, and there was two of them every morning, one of which was ours.

I was not aware of any such advertising so I would not know and I didn't even know to ask.

_fly_

Oh yeah the turtles are super easy - 4-5 of them can be found spread across the "better" side of the reef, you pretty much find them there every day. During low tide they do go a bit deeper down the reef drop, but they are still there. Of course I speak only from experience gathered during one week and maybe 10-15 snorkeling rounds.

escapefromphl

Do you know if it's possible to book cash rates without breakfast, one would assume if not that breakfast would have to be included on all award stays?