Here now, will write some random thoughts.

Based on the last few posts I had very low expectations for food but it’s been decent to good so far! I’m comparing it to resort food but some dishes I would eat in a restaurant and I’ve lived in major cities in the US. I like Asian food so have only had that tbh. Did try the Ribeye at the grill-ordered 2 medium rare and one was fine but mine was more on the rare/raw side but they had no issues remaking it. Pastries have been good as well! I tried to ask about Soeedy sauce but they just ran out. On the full board rate which is a lot of food but with diving on this trip it is great to have and I like not using mental energy thinking about food prices.


I think I came a few days after moolman -the resort is close to full but did get an upgrade to pool villa. Service has been a lot better on our second trip-they remembered we were repeat guests and even assigned us a butler that we had for a couple days the last time we visited! One of the waiters also recognized us. It might be because it’s busy season but maybe with more staff they are more attentive? The soft product seems a bit better this time around.

On Wednesday (today) we got an invite to the managers cocktail hour at the Kiaali Residence-I’m excited to check out the rooms.

I recommend the back of the house tour which wasn’t offered during the off season. Learned so much and was super interesting so see what goes on behind the scenes! I’ve also utilized the spa twice on the trip with 2 massages.

It’s all based on luck but I would say weather when we came in Aug was slightly better-much warmer waters, very calm water, not much wind. It’s been red flag with more waves but if you’re a confident swimmer you can still snorkel and visibility is still good. I did a few dives here as well and they were quite good (even compared with the scuba liveaboard I was just on before the park Hyatt) so for divers I do recommend getting a few dives in. If you’re advanced, they take you to do channel dives and today we saw maybe 30-50 sharks just swimming in front of us. Apparently it’s not as many sharks as usual! They don’t have the dive dhoni right now as the engine is broken so using speedboats and spots are more limited.

I left an item from the boat I was on before the PH and they were able to coordinate the item being picked up in Male and sent back to me via the plane-incredible I got it back in 2 days! Thank you to my butler for coordinating all of it. I was expecting to get it on my way back to Male airport.

Wish I had a longer stay this time. The part I dread is a very long layover in Male on our return and leaving the resort much earlier than I planned to due to timing with the domestic plane and our international flights. That’s the main downside of a trip here, ending a relaxing stay with a not so relaxing last few hours.


Edit: late review of the rest of the trip - ended amazing!

We met the executive chef named Deden - he just came from the Park Hyatt Jakarta and he's Indonesian - just started a few months ago at the end of 2025. He's trying to bring more Asian dishes to the menu which we did notice compared to 2 years ago. I prefer Asian food and tried almost all of them on the menu since I was on the full board - I can say that they were very delicious and some I would order at a regular restaurant. My husband loved the Mango Reef Fish at lunch - we had it multiple times. One night at the Dining Room (Thurs I think) it became a buffet which is part of the full board rate! Lots of good variety of food and glad there was a change in dishes. Chef Deden remembered meeting us and the next morning (our last morning) he made a few off menu special Indonesian dishes to share with us.

Happy to answer any questions!

Howdy, Folks! We have an upcoming 5-night stay at the end of February. I'm a Glob and booked stand room w/ points. Currently, the hotel is not showing any beach pool villas available when doing a dummy booking. I know it's high season, so the hotel is probably quite full, but what are the odds of us not receiving an upgrade? If offered an overwater villa instead of a BPV, can anyone offer feedback over whether it's worth it compared to a standard room? Both me and the misses really value privacy.

It's a long and expensive trip. Pay for the upgrade to the room you want. You may still get an upgrade, but do you really want to roll the dice?

when I went last month they were quite full and app doesn�t show beach pool villa availability but we were still upgraded as globalists. We would have been fine without the upgrade though so if it�s a must then would recommend emailing them to see if you can have a paid guaranteed upgrade.

the overwater villas do get really hot, longer walk to food, and if people are snorkeling they can see in. I enjoy the outdoor shower and for our second visit chose the beach pool villas.

Agreed on the overwater villas. Our first trip, we tried both beach and OVW. Had booked 3 nights each. Asked to move back to the beach after the 2nd night on the OVW.

They made a big design mistake with the OWV, orienting them so the view from the deck is straight towards the adjacent villa. The entry to the water was also really dicey, with lots of algae/slime on the ladder.

I don't regret paying for the OWV experience first time in the Maldives, but I suspect there are better properties (in the Maldives or Tahiti) to make that splurge.

We have tried OWV at Ritz, Waldorf, Soneva, Conrad, St. Regis, 4S, and Cheval Blanc. Our preference has always been beach.

But a decision most folks will need to make for themselves. OWV has an undeniable allure. That's why I say I don't regret the splurge, but there were probably better places to give it a try.

As a follow-up to my previous post can anyone give feedback on the following:

- Is the treehouse dinner a gimmick or neat?
- What is the water temp of the plunge pools at the villas? We were at the Zilara Cap Cana recently and the water in the "private" pool was freezing
- Which excursions are recommended between the turtle swim, dolphin cruise, and night snorkeling. Or all of the above?

Thanks!

My answers to my own questions above are in red.

We just wrapped up a 5-night stay here, and all I can say is WOW. This place is as close to paradise as my wife and I have ever experienced. I am glob, booked with points, and we were upgraded to a deluxe pool villa for the first two nights and a standard pool villa for the other 3 nights. Both rooms were amazing with loads of privacy. I'm not sure the price difference between the two if paying for an upgrade, but I don't think I would spend more than ~$150/ni to have a deluxe pool villa. We were celebrating a delayed honeymoon/1-yr anniversary trip, and our host made a nice display in our room the final night which was a fun surprise for my wife. We were surprised by the amount of activities, and we never seemed to be wanting for things to do. We rented a kayak one day, snorkeled a couple other, and also did the turtle swim. Next time we come here, we'll probably stay for 7-nights; 5 was a bit too short for us, considering the journey getting there. But as others have said before, the island is very special. The isolation sets it apart from any other beach resort we've been to. We ate at the dining room 4 nights and did the beach bbq one night. The bbq was not worth it to us. However, wine was included in the price, which we did not realize until the bill came. If we would've known that ahead of time, we would've ordered a bottle instead of a couple glasses.

As for the dining room, we enjoyed all of our meals. One night, my wife asked if she could get the catch of day cooked in a blackened style. While the chef couldn't completely duplicate it, he did prepare the mahi mahi in a special style that my wife enjoyed. I also was able to get the catch of the day cooked Indonesian-style another night. Most of our meals included Speedy sauce on the side, which is highly recommended (but also very spicy!). If you go and are bored with the food, I would recommend asking the servers if they have any recommendations for dishes that the chef can make, which aren't on the menu. Whenever we did that, they were happy to oblige.

Service was also very good, apart from one minor nitpick. A couple of the male workers never engaged my wife during interactions. And one night at dinner, we had ordered a bottle of wine, which came to the table while I was using the bathroom. The male server initially went to my wife to taste the wine before pouring, but once I returned to the table, he rushed over to my side to have me taste it instead. It was not enough to make a stink over/ruin our evening, and she experiences similar treatment here in the midwest US when dealing with tradesmen. We also don't view it as being malicious; it's more just an outdated behavior we hope can be changed. Other than that though, we have no complaints. The staff does the little things so well. For example, when walking around the island at night, the employees turn off their headlights on the golf cart when passing.

The other thing worth mentioning is that the resort recently opened a bar at the dusk jetty, and it has a special for free Sangria from 6:45p - 7:30p for the sunset. We were there every night enjoying the view while lounging in the suspended hammocks above the water. It was a great atmosphere and way to wind down before dinner.

Overall, we rate our experience as a 9.9/10, and we'll be rushing back here as soon as possible.

Love this write-up, thanks! My wife and I are active and I was worried that there might be enough for us to do, but reading this convinces me we'll love it.

Oh! This reminds me of the other point I forgot to make in my previous post�take the sun super seriously. I had read the previous reports about wearing sun shirts in the water and dismissed them�bad idea. My wife and I both got very burned our first full day snorkeling, and it took over a week for our skin to fully heal. We had put on loads of sunscreen, but it must�ve washed off once we got into the water. Thankfully, our host delivered us real aloe a couple times which was tremendously helpful.

If you plan on snorkeling, kayaking, or any activity with more than 15min on sun exposure, wear a shirt. The sun there is no joke.

Also, make sure you pack enough sunscreen because they charge a ton for some in the sundries shop. I knew it would be expensive, but $28 for a 3fl oz bottle of standard stuff is insane.

Do most globalists order the food package or � la carte? As a non alcoholic drinker. I feel that a late breakfast plus dinner would be enough food, but I could be wrong and don�t want to end up not having enough food / drinks! Are non alcoholic drinks available throughout the day with the package even during non meal times? Would 6 night stay be sufficient? I�m trying to plan this before the impending award chart devaluation.

a la carte. Yes, you're likely good doing late breakfast (they stop serving at 10:30am, it's buffet + a la carte) and dinner (earliest is 7pm), plus there's the 5-7pm globalist sundowner with light canapes/snacks and a drink.

I did 5 nights and thought it was just enough / a good minimum. (For context - I'd say I'm not a slow traveler, but I don't hop around super quickly either, so maybe just slightly speedy). However, the weather and surf/current were perfect when I was there. there wasn't a single day where it rained and it was always a yellow flag day.
In retrospect:
1) to give cushion for bad weather, I may give it a couple extra days to be safe.
2) Also, I saw some people mention they stay in Male the first night so that first night doesn't get cut short due to all the transit. This is pretty smart if you're being frugal with your points. I thought coming into Male by 3pm would be fine since check-in is late anyways, but I didn't account for waiting at Male for the flight from MLE to GKK and how Park Hyatt Hadahaa is +1 hour ahead. I didn't arrive at my room until 9pm. On my final day out though, I had a redeye and didn't leave the resort until ~4pm. So if you're there first thing that first day and can leave late, maybe 6 nights will be fine.

No. Most of us reach the conclusion that it's not a good value. My further advice (which I think is supported by others) is don't bother with the fancy dinners, they're not worth it. We thought the food in the bar was best (and also cheapest), with the main restaurant second. We had the private dinner on the beach and while the setting was very nice, the food was not very good at all. It was outrageously expensive.

That's the sweet spot I'd say. 5 nights was just a little too tight due to nightime arrival/morning departure.