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St. Regis Maldives Vommuli Resort [Master Thread]

St. Regis Maldives Vommuli Resort [Master Thread]

Old Mar 23, 2017, 4:41 am
  #421  
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I have a choice of either a 2pm departure or a 830pm one from MLE. Thinking if I book the 2pm one they will send me out on the first plane out. Do they have one that is parked there overnight for the first flight back? I don't want to leave so early. 11ish would be fine. If I book the later flight then I am looking at around a 2pm departure right?
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Old Mar 23, 2017, 4:44 am
  #422  
 
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Originally Posted by onlysuites
If I book the later flight then I am looking at around a 2pm departure right?
More like 3 pm based on the previous reviews. I'm flying out of there at 8:30 next week, happy to enjoy an extra day there.
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Old Mar 23, 2017, 8:08 am
  #423  
 
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Originally Posted by onlysuites
I have a choice of either a 2pm departure or a 830pm one from MLE. Thinking if I book the 2pm one they will send me out on the first plane out. Do they have one that is parked there overnight for the first flight back? I don't want to leave so early. 11ish would be fine. If I book the later flight then I am looking at around a 2pm departure right?
Planes are very seldom parked at resorts overnight. And take the later flight. No point in losing 6 hours in paradise.
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Old Mar 24, 2017, 4:04 am
  #424  
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Originally Posted by MaldivesFreak
Planes are very seldom parked at resorts overnight. And take the later flight. No point in losing 6 hours in paradise.
True ^
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Old Apr 1, 2017, 5:42 am
  #425  
 
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Just had a nice stay here. Stayed for 6 nights in a beach villa. I'll make this as brief as possible.

The Island is still developing, small compared to other resorts. The food is top notch, literally the best. As for the service, it's a hit and miss. I've had problems at Alba Restaurant a couple times regarding smoking (their website explicitly says smoking is not permitted). First complain, nothing happened. On the 2nd time, it ruined by morning, I had to cancel all reservations made later as I knew I won't be in a good mood. However, credit to them, they fixed it and looks like smoking is not allowed anymore.

As mentioned above, the service is still not there yet. You will be waiting at your table for someone to notice you sometimes.

We've tried the spa and it was good. However, the noise coming for the jetty area ruins your experience (I was told that this is the most common complaint by all guests). We've also went for tennis each morning and enjoyed a 60-90 minute training session.

The villa itself was nice, a little small compared to the other resorts in the Maldives. This is where the big part comes in, the hard product is not up to par compared to other resorts I've been to (ie., Shangri La and Four Seasons Landaa Giravaruu), keep in mind that those resorts offer he same products for almost half the price. However, the I would place the St. Regis on top of the W anytime.

I obviously enjoyed my stay and looks like I'll be returning there later this year. However, if I'm paying in cash, I would look elsewhere.

Regarding what's posted in the wiki, to add to that, 10% discount on all spa treatments and 10% discount on laundry service for platinum members. Also, the great room does offer some hot meals, I took 2 burgers on my way out.

I know I might have missed a number of things, but I'm happy to answer any questions if there are any.
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Old Apr 1, 2017, 6:26 am
  #426  
 
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Visit to St. Regis Maldives

I'm not a frequent poster as I've learned I've forgotten my original username. I had booked my stay with the very low redemption rates offered last summer. I haven't been to the Maldives since 2006 when I stayed at the now Conrad.

I've skimmed the post in preparation for my trip. This was my blowout goodbye spg because I'm not a Marriott person trip.

Overall, I've been happy with my trip. I was still given platinum benefits even though I didn't make it for 2017.

Breakfast was good, I liked the benedicts especially with the fried soft shell crab as a side. If you're debating about paying for breakfast, I would argue that is likely the only time you can drink (prosecco) and eat your fill. If you don't have much of an appetite, you can order oatmeal for $30 and eat in your villa.

All the restaurants are good, is it worth the price listed? If you consider that everything has to be shipped in, yes it is fine. I actually liked alba the most for dinner. I had a very tasty squid ink tagliatelle dish. Orientele is ok, probably because I'm Asian and already have a bias about such foods at high end hotels. Cargo is good but not enough for me to return to that location. Actually, when we heard that cargo was taking over alba for dinner, I opted to order room service and eat in. FYI, room service is the same price as restaurants.

Spa is fine, nothing over the top. The blue hole is $60 per person for two people and I didn't really want to spend two hours in a jetted pool and be with other people. I think the max occupancy is 8 people.

I stayed in a garden villa for three nights and sunrise overwater villa the last two. Both are quite nice and depends on what you want to do. I liked the spacious feeling in garden villa because it feels like your own compound since the whole lot is fenced/walled. Also felt very private. I dig the outdoor showers.

Sunrise over water faces the island and the "bay" is ideal for swimming but not snorkeling unless you hug the villas and head towards the end of the deck. The current gets strong and you should always try to snorkel out against the current so that you can 'float' back to your starting point. Less tiring that way. The villa is nice and the layout is more "efficient " than the garden villa.

Overall, I think corals are taking a beating worldwide. People are not careful and they do do damage. On my snorkeling boat trip, the group I traveled with clearly dont go snorkeling much and hit coral or picked things up. The best corals I've seen is the Philippines (coron) and only because they are still undeveloped in most of the country. With that said, there are plenty of fish, saw a shark one morning. Best time was at 630 am, the fish are spawning right now and there were all sizes of fish.

The resort caters to the arabs. That was the largest group, second was European, third was Koreans/Chinese.
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Old Apr 2, 2017, 12:28 am
  #427  
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Originally Posted by LovetoTravel83
Just had a nice stay here. Stayed for 6 nights in a beach villa. I'll make this as brief as possible.

The Island is still developing, small compared to other resorts. The food is top notch, literally the best. As for the service, it's a hit and miss. I've had problems at Alba Restaurant a couple times regarding smoking (their website explicitly says smoking is not permitted). First complain, nothing happened. On the 2nd time, it ruined by morning, I had to cancel all reservations made later as I knew I won't be in a good mood. However, credit to them, they fixed it and looks like smoking is not allowed anymore.

As mentioned above, the service is still not there yet. You will be waiting at your table for someone to notice you sometimes.

We've tried the spa and it was good. However, the noise coming for the jetty area ruins your experience (I was told that this is the most common complaint by all guests). We've also went for tennis each morning and enjoyed a 60-90 minute training session.

The villa itself was nice, a little small compared to the other resorts in the Maldives. This is where the big part comes in, the hard product is not up to par compared to other resorts I've been to (ie., Shangri La and Four Seasons Landaa Giravaruu), keep in mind that those resorts offer he same products for almost half the price. However, the I would place the St. Regis on top of the W anytime.

I obviously enjoyed my stay and looks like I'll be returning there later this year. However, if I'm paying in cash, I would look elsewhere.

Regarding what's posted in the wiki, to add to that, 10% discount on all spa treatments and 10% discount on laundry service for platinum members. Also, the great room does offer some hot meals, I took 2 burgers on my way out.

I know I might have missed a number of things, but I'm happy to answer any questions if there are any.
We have been here a day now and I dont understand your comment about the accommodation. The OWV is almost twice the size of the one we had at Rangali (and we had the DWV which them was second from top in terms of cost).

It feels hugely spacious and much better quality than Rangali. Will reserve comments on the total experience until later but I did rather wince at $600 for a light
tapas dinner with drinks at the bar last night.
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Old Apr 2, 2017, 12:57 am
  #428  
 
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Originally Posted by Land-of-Miles
We have been here a day now and I dont understand your comment about the accommodation. The OWV is almost twice the size of the one we had at Rangali (and we had the DWV which them was second from top in terms of cost).

It feels hugely spacious and much better quality than Rangali. Will reserve comments on the total experience until later but I did rather wince at $600 for a light
tapas dinner with drinks at the bar last night.
Can't comment about any of the overwater villas in the Maldives as I only stay in beach villas. Maybe I should've mentioned that earlier.

Last edited by LovetoTravel83; Apr 2, 2017 at 2:32 am
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Old Apr 2, 2017, 2:25 am
  #429  
 
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Never mind
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Old Apr 2, 2017, 8:52 am
  #430  
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Originally Posted by MaldivesFreak
Planes are very seldom parked at resorts overnight. And take the later flight. No point in losing 6 hours in paradise.
One is parked up here tonight
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Old Apr 3, 2017, 6:35 am
  #431  
 
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I envy the pilots.....
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Old Apr 6, 2017, 11:02 am
  #432  
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Originally Posted by Land-of-Miles

It feels hugely spacious and much better quality than Rangali. Will reserve comments on the total experience until later but I did rather wince at $600 for a light
tapas dinner with drinks at the bar last night.
Ummm... look forward to hearing whether all meals can be expected to run this expensive... Did they sprinkle gold on your food?
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Old Apr 6, 2017, 12:56 pm
  #433  
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Originally Posted by yosithezet
Ummm... look forward to hearing whether all meals can be expected to run this expensive... Did they sprinkle gold on your food?
Only in Decanter which ran to circa $860 all in.

A typical restaurant type dinner here for 2 runs to about $450 to $500 inclusive for 3 courses (or equivalent), starting cocktails, large water and reasonable but not extravagant wine.

Have now done all the restaurants and room service.

Room service is the best value option and with the most normal food (you can bring your 3 course dinner equivalent in for circa $300), Cargo was great as they opened tonight just for us. The Decanter dinner last night had probably the best food all round and was actually superb value despite the cost.

This is not a place for the faint of wallet, but overall the experience thus far has been great. We seem to be averaging circa $1k a day of spend and that is definitely not pushing the boat out, but does include spa and return flights here.
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Old Apr 8, 2017, 3:51 am
  #434  
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Just left and sitting at MLE airport.

Will probably put together a proper trip report in due course.

High points are the quality of construction and space and layout of the over water villas. I don't see at all though why an effectively smaller beach villa would be more expensive. I absolutely would not be happy in a beach or garden villa which compares very closely with a villa I had at the IC Samui over Xmas.

The staff are on the whole a good and cheerful bunch too.

In most respects it is a resort head and shoulders over the Conrad Rangali and most aspects just reek of high quality.

The downside was the rather limited dining options especially on the one wet day we had, There is simply nothing beyond room service in the evening if you want relatively plain comfort style food. We tried every outlet and thought that Decanter was both the best value and clear dining highlight of the stay. This was closely followed by Cargo which was opened just for us and was effectively private dining. Dinner at Alba was a bit meh, and Orientale was reasonably good value but with chaotic service. The Whale bar had good quality but the most insubstantial and most expensive tapas style meal I have ever eaten. It was good but wasn't good value. The bar itself was great however especially the music, ambience and locally developed cocktails.

The Alba breakfasts were superb as was Crust for lunch (for what it was). The Spa was also great and I wish in hindsight we had spent more time in it.

Sadly I think it will be a while before we return but we did love the place and for the quality of the villa alone would give it 5 stars and the Conrad 4. We came it at a smidge under the expected $1k per day which was fairly pleasing.
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Old Apr 9, 2017, 9:43 am
  #435  
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Thanks for the detailed info Land-of-Miles. We will be there the middle of next month for three nights. We pretty much don't drink, so will focus on Decanter and Cargo for dinner and Alba for breakfast.

We enjoyed being able to snorkel right at our OWV in the W Maldives last year. Sounds like that might not be as interesting at this resort.

Sharks, Scrzy? Hmm...
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