Pseudo Nim

I wonder if, since the seaplane will likely go on the hotel bill, we'll at least earn SPG points? Use that for a minimum spend requirement and the $650pp damage suddenly feels a little bit less bad as well. Hehe.

polonycjunk

Thanks for the tip guys! A bit more reassuring. I can be a little bit more at ease.

pricesquire

No

tylerc

Came across this picture today, not sure if it has been posted yet (I don't recall seeing it).

Should give you a good idea of what the bottom will be like in the ocean outside the bungalows, to assist with picking a room.

britinva79

Looks amazing. Can't wait to go visit next year!

Pseudo Nim

This makes it look like the ones on the inner side have a bit more water that you can get into before you hit the corals. Interesting.

[edit] but the size of (or the lack of size, rather) of the lagoon means no swimming laps, I suppose :P

Ants1

Thanks for the share!

How deep would you guys estimate that depth to be before you'd hit the corals near the OWVs? 9 feet?

Pseudo Nim

I'd love to be proven wrong, but that density of coral would not be possible (or at least, so clearly visibile) with 9 feet of depth. I'd say 6ft max. My guess is you can swim above them, but you can't dive from your deck, or even jump for the outward facing villas because you'll end up feet first in coral.

BobbySteel

i'd guess about 6 feet too, though if the tide's high you can probably dive in safely.

tylerc

The hotel informed me that the depth for the OWVs ranges from 2 - 3m, so approximately 6 - 10 ft.

MaldivesFreak

I think you are a little confused. In all likelihood you booked a local airline like FlyMe and got a special deal. If you did book TMA (see below) and they gave it to you cheaper than the resort quoted please do post pics of your bookings and receipts!


I can tell you now this is a complete waste of time. They will charge you exactly the same as the resort does, that's even if they entertain your request for prices. You, i.e; individuals or groups, can only take private (scenic) flights for photos. They take off, fly around some uninhabited islands close-by then land back at Hulhule. If you want a FIT then you have to show a reservation for a resort (resorts can't let strangers fly in unannounced) and you'd be a fool to have a reservation and not pre-arrange your flight there. Wanna roll the dice and take the (extremely high) chance of being stranded at Male because you didn't arrange the flight and then waste a night's accommodation? Thought not.

See http://www.transmaldivian.com/freque...ked-questions/ and click on "Where do I make a reservation for a TMA seaplane?"

Note that for any domestic flight to an airport that has no inns/hotels/resorts, you will have to have special permission from the Maldivian government otherwise you won't be allowed on the plane. When you take FlyMe to Maamigili to get to Rangali for instance, they make sure all passengers have legit reservations, i.e; onward speedboat rides or whatever. For all intents and purposes it's a locked-down island nation. You can't just go island-hopping at will to whichever island you fancy.


Best of luck with that. The domestic airline transfers + speedboat will work out the same in 99% of cases. They (TMA & resorts) have got the country monopolized so you aren't gonna get much of a discount on local flights through your local, out-of-country travel agency. The resorts price their speedboat transfers to and from the local domestic airport accordingly so it ends up exactly the same as what TMA charge for a direct flight.

Totally false. Hilton (and probably most chains) have a price guarantee where if you find a travel agent who gives you a cheaper price, they'll guarantee to beat it. Hilton gives you $50 off the TA's rate if you find a better rate than on the comapny's/property's website. Package deals are sometimes cheaper but you don't get points and when you are spending thousands of dollars on accommodation, F&B, spas, activities and excursions etc you'd be mad not to earn the points. For example on my last trip I earned enough points for 2 1/2 free nights (at 95K HH points/night) plus that kept me Diamond until the end of next year. Hotel chains love travel agents and you can see why.....


No. The only time you will earn points on a seaplane journey is if the accounting department make a mistake and includes it on your room bill.

MaldivesFreak

Basically you could comfortably walk down the steps into the water of most of the villas on the RHS, villas both on the outside and inside of the curve, and starting from mid-point going right and up towards the island without encountering much coral (with the exception being the bunch in the middle of the outer curve on the RHS). Impossible to do at the other OWVs though. Which is interesting. You can see they have cleared the coral on one side but not the other. Anyway, there's bound to be lots of dead and broken coral there so best to take reef shoes if you want to explore those areas.

The water depth outside the favourable villas there would possibly be low enough at low tide for an adult to walk on the bottom. And, as someone has said previously, you could easily swim over the coral at high tide. The question is, is the coral there dead? Probably mostly destroyed during the construction process but you never know. They might have used some new technique to preserve the outlying coral while drilling into the sand and whatnot.

I wonder what the dropoff is like there. There is a little path through the coral just above and to the right of the (presumably) presidential suite that would be good for navigating out to the edge.

LovetoTravel83

I doubt that I can post pics of my bookings and receipts of 6 years ago. I don't think I would even try looking for them .

Anyways, as I said, it was an actual airplane and not a seaplane which could;ve been for my last stay there at the Shangri-La.

Pseudo Nim

FWIW, anyone looking for alternate means of transport to get there, you can come with your (a?) yacht if you want: the hotel will not provide mooring (quite obviously, there isn't a pier in the pics), but they will come with a boat to pick you up if you moor in the open ocean.

tylerc

I was wondering about that. Thanks for the info