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.