iceman77_7

Seems like trip reports to the Maldives are a dime a dozen on FT these days (even spawning this thread: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/exter...-maldives.html). Nevertheless, I recently took a trip to Australia and the Maldives as part of my vacation. Unlike most other trip reports, I didn't stay at the Conrad or the Park Hyatt Maldives (more on that below), and I also flew Air Canada, a relatively unreviewed airline on here. Enjoy!

I hope to upload a segment every one or two days, but I will get through it all.

Introduction
AC F SFO-YVR
AC J YVR-SYD
Park Hyatt Sydney
Sydney
VA Y SYD-CNS, Sheraton Port Douglas
Wildlife Habitat and around Port Douglas
VA Y CNS-BNE, BNE SQ Lounge, SQ J BNE-SIN, SQ J SIN-MLE
Gili Lankanfushi, Maldives
MLE Lounge, SQ J MLE-SIN
Intercontinental Singapore, Tim Ho Wan
BR J SIN-TPE-SFO

iceman77_7

Introduction
Warning: This is going to be a long-winded intro, but I found TR intros like this helpful in planning this trip so hope it can help others.

Initial planning for this trip started in early 2013 after I had proposed to my then girlfriend. Afterwards, I asked where she wanted to go for the honeymoon. She didn’t have a particular destination in mind, she just wanted an overwater bungalow (yeah, JUST an overwater bungalow). Having racked up a decent amount of UA miles and Hilton points through various CC sign-up bonuses, my initial plan was Tahiti/Bora Bora, but after extensive research, there just wasn’t going to be a feasible way to get there using *A. That left the only other good option for OWBs, the Maldives. Surprisingly, it’s much easier to get there with *A carriers than Tahiti. Singapore Airlines flies there with decent award availability.

We had two weeks to play with and I proposed (no pun intended) that we spend some time in SE Asia, perhaps Bali. The wife nixed that in favor of Australia, a place she had never been but always wanted to go (happy wife, happy life after all).

I started looking at award options for Australia and the Maldives, but there was no good way to combine the two on a single award. Enter the US Airways sweet spot. A roundtrip business class award from Singapore to the Maldives is just 30k US Airways miles. I took advantage of their share miles promotion and secured the 60k miles needed for the trip.

Since we were going to be in Australia, we wanted to go to the Great Barrier Reef, in addition to Sydney. Initially I was going to buy the intra-Australia flights separately, but then noticed that award availability from BNE-SIN was pretty good in business on SQ whereas it was non-existent from SYD. By about late April 2013, I had determined our ideal routing would be SFO-SYD (destination)//SYD-CNS//CNS-BNE-SIN-MLE//MLE-SIN//SIN-TPE-SFO. We would buy SYD-CNS, CNS-BNE with cash, SIN-MLE-SIN would be the US award.

I started eyeing SFO-SYD availability more than a year in advance, to get an idea of what the availability would be. UA wasn’t opening award availability for 2 at 330 days out, but AC was via YVR. I decided to book SFO-YVR-SYD and waitlist for SFO-SYD.

When the 330 day window opened, I snatched up SFO-YVR-SYD on AC, the only thing available, then added on BNE-SIN and SIN-TPE-SFO when that became available as well. After booking the award, UA announced that SFO-SYD would be downsizing to a 777 from a 747, removing a decent number of business class seats from the route. I watched as the seatmap became more and more full, and my waitlist never cleared. Alas, I would have to fly AC via YVR.

For the hotel portion, I had to work backwards. I had a firm departure date (the day after my wedding) and a firm return date 13 days later. We wanted to do Maldives at the end of the trip and I had enough Hilton points for 4 nights at the Conrad Maldives so I secured that portion as soon as my flights were booked. That meant I had 5 nights to play with in Australia. I had my wife apply for the Hyatt CC as well as the Hyatt Diamond challenge and we were able to secure 2 nights at the Park Hyatt Sydney. For the GBR segment, I looked at the options in CNS and Port Douglas and decided to redeem 30K SPG for the Sheraton Mirage Port Douglas. We had to overnight in SIN on the way home and my brother generously let me use his IHG CC free night at the IC SIN.

To complicate things further, the Conrad later announced that they would be closing for renovations during the time I would be there. They generously transferred our reservation to our choice of the Four Seasons Kuda Huraa or the Gili Lankanfushi. With the Gili, we would be guaranteed an overwater bungalow without having to pay an upgrade fee so this was a no-brainer.

After weeks of planning > 1 year in advance, my final routing became:
SFO-YVR-SYD on AC J using 135k UA miles x 2 for business class award
2 nights at the Park Hyatt Sydney using 2 free nights from Hyatt CC
SYD-CNS on VA Y using cash
3 nights at the Sheraton Port Douglas using 22,500 SPG points (25% off award)
CNS-BNE on VA Y using cash
BNE-SIN-MLE on SQ J using the UA award and 30K US miles x 2
4 nights at the Gili Lankanfushi using 170k Hilton points
MLE-SIN on the US award, overnight at the IC SIN using IHG free night, SIN-TPE-SFO on BR J using the UA award
My out of pocket outlay was 270k UA miles, 60k US miles, 22,500 SPG points, 170K HHonors points and about $1000 cash for the VA segments and taxes/fees for a 2 week vacation to Australia and the Maldives. Not too bad!

iceman77_7

We arrived at SFO approximately 2 hours prior to departure of our SFO-YVR segment. We checked in at the Air Canada check-in counter and tried to pick up our boarding passes all the way to SYD. We also wanted to check our bag all the way through. Unfortunately they were unable to do so and we would have to reclaim and re-check our bags in YVR. A disappointment, to be sure, but we had a 3+ hour layover and my wife was excited to get another stamp for her passport.

I kept waffling back and forth as to whether I wanted to fly UA or AC for my SFO-YVR segment, assuming my SFO-SYD flight didn’t clear, which I didn’t. I’m really glad I chose AC.

AC 567 SFO-YVR
May 18, 2014
5:25 PM-7:42 PM
Seat 1D/G

As we were seated on the E190 aircraft, we received a full printed menu and pre-departure beverage. I was shocked to receive a printed menu on what was essentially a 2:15 minute flight.



Menu for our flight

Hot towels were distributed after take off in addition to another beverage service. Unfortunately, my #1 meal choice, the beef tenderloin, was not available when they came to me, the last person in the cabin (though I was seated in row 1). Fortunately, my wife was willing to eat the chicken so I could have the last beef. Seems I made the right choice in wife. :-)



The meal started out with warm nuts.

The beef was nothing to write home about (though I guess I’m writing about it here), and it was slightly better than the beef I’ve had in the past on United. Not to mention the fact that the UA SFO-YVR flight probably only had a snack box in F, instead of this full meal.



For comparison’s sake, here’s a photo of my wife’s chicken dish:



Both entrees were accompanied by a salad on the same tray.



And finished off with a surprisingly tasty blueberry crumble.



The seat was the usual domestic F recliner. Comfortable enough for a short flight like SFO-YVR.

hlee628

you picked a winner based on this point alone!

BA5E

Enjoying so far the start of your honeymoon trip report, sounds amazing, and having been to The Maldives 3 times I know it is loved by all, the hotel I just looked on the website, and it looks absolutely amazing, those water bungalows are the way to go, we have done water bungalows twice, would not want to do anything else again. Keep it coming^

iceman77_7

We arrived in YVR with a 4 hour layover. First order of business, we went down to baggage claim and picked up our checked bag. Immigration was a breeze with a very short line and we soon made our way to the AC check-in counter. It was a surprisingly long walk to check-in where eventually we dropped our bag off and got our boarding passes. Having gone through immigration, we had to go through security once again. The security line wasn’t long, but it was one of the slowest things I have ever seen. Painfully slow. The agents manning the line were exceedingly friendly, like everyone else I met in Canada, but they could use a lesson or two on efficiency.

We eventually made it through security and made our way to the Maple Leaf Lounge. The lounge was comfortable and had enough seats for everyone. Food spread was pretty basic, but they had excellent cookies. My biggest gripe was that despite the fact the MLL was located in the international terminal, there were no showers! My wife was particularly disappointed given the fact that she was about to board a 15+ hour flight having not showered all day.


View from the lounge of the SFO-YVR E170

No photos of the lounge as I was lazy and noticed a lot of trip reports already discussing the lounge.

We decided to leave the lounge a little early and explore the terminal. Probably should have just spent more time in the lounge because there was not much going on at that time of night. We got to the gate area and waited about fifteen minutes before they started boarding.


Our 77L that would take us from YVR-SYD

AC 33
YVR-SYD
May 18, 2014-May 20, 2014
11:40 PM-8:15 AM
Seat 4D/G

As we boarded, we were greeted by the FAs and actually escorted to our seats. I kept waffling back and forth on where we would sit as a couple, one behind the other on the window, across the aisle from each other window/middle, or next to each other middle/middle. I ultimately opted for middle/middle, but as someone who enjoys looking out the window on take off and landing, I wish we had done window/middle. It’s actually much easier to make eye contact and communicate when you do window/middle as well, but your rows will be off set. In any case, some photos.



View of the window seat from my middle seat



Entertainment system

When we arrived at our seats, amenity kits, a bottle of water and menu were already distributed. The menu read as follows:



Amenity kit

Meal service started out with the old stand-by, hot nuts



The salmon appetizer was very good. I like salmon and this was a tasty piece of fish.


Despite the fact I had just had a steak on my SFO-YVR flight, I didn’t find the other options all that appealing and decided to have another one on this flight. I think the only time where I’ve ever had an in-flight steak that was not well done was on Cathay. This flight was no exception.





Steak cooked all the way through. :-(

I will eat almost any dessert and the chocolate pecan tart was decent. Then again, chocolate makes everything better.



The meal service was adequate. I had read reports of Air Canada flight attendants being surly, but I thought this crew was pleasant, attentive and definitely a step up from domestic United FAs. Nowhere close to an Asian crew, but that would be an unrealistic expectation.

I watched a couple movies and some episodes of CSI and The Big Bang Theory before getting a solid 6-7 hours of sleep. I woke up with four hours left in the flight and decided to try some of the snacks. FAs were circulating regularly despite most passengers sleeping. I was able to flag one down and order my in-flight snack.



Hot noodle soup with wontons and gai-lan. A step up from top ramen, but not much.



Dim sum selection. Pretty bad stuff. Waste of space in my stomach.



Vanilla ice cream. Can’t really mess up ice cream. Wasn’t rock hard as I was expecting.

Much too soon after finishing my in-flight snack, the breakfast service started. I was pretty stuffed, but for the sake of this trip report, I decided to order a meal, for posterity’s sake.



Blueberry muffin



Fresh fruit



Parsley omelette with chicken sausage, potato and salsa

We arrived into SYD on-time, but had to sit on the plane for a good 20 minutes while they sprayed some pesticide throughout the cabin. Is this something that they do on all flights into Australia?

Overall, given the choice between flying AC and UA, I would have wanted to fly UA. The seat on AC is slightly better, but I would give equivalent marks to the food and the convenience of flying non-stop would have won out. I’m glad I had the opportunity to fly AC though.

Immigration at SYD was a breeze. Despite the fact we had Global Entry and were thus eligible for SmartGate, my wife wanted a stamp in her passport and we waited in the very short line for an agent. Before we knew it, we were outside immigration and on our way to the Park Hyatt Sydney!

iceman77_7

Agreed! She indulges me on my miles and points habits then reaps the fruit of my labor.

Thanks for reading! I'm already making plans to come back in the future and I agree with you, I would not want to go all the way out there and not stay in an overwater bungalow.

steveman518

very nice! I'm flying AC for the first time CPH-YYZ this summer and almost ended up on AC33 this upcoming winter (both in Y). Excited to see how AC Y long-haul compares to UA E+ long-haul.

Mrtrash757

Very nice! Cant wait to see thee rest of this TR

Hyacinthe

This is a great start Looking forward to reading the rest…
BTW, I particularly liked the introduction. Thank you for detailing the booking process, it's always very instructive.

iceman77_7

We easily found our way to the train station in the airport. I knew that train tickets were on the pricey side (AUD16.40) so I walked up to the ticketing machine to buy my tickets. For some reason, it kept asking for a PIN and couldn’t process the transaction. I went to the ticketing agent and found out that I would have to always specify that I would be signing for the transaction. If you’re planning to visit Australia and don’t have a chip+PIN, be prepared for that.

After an uneventful ride to Circular Quay, we exited the train and got our very first look at the Sydney Opera House. We were surprised at how brown it looked, instead of the pearly white we were expecting. In any case, it took us about 10 minutes to walk from the train station to the Park Hyatt Sydney.
We arrived at the PH Sydney at 9:30 AM. I had specified in our reservation that we would be an early check-in and a honeymooning couple. On our arrival, they congratulated us on the honeymoon, acknowledged our diamond status, mentioned we had been upgraded to an opera view room that was already available, and made a free bottle of sparkling wine available. Couldn’t have asked for a better and flawless welcome.

Exhausted, we trudged to our room on the ground floor and excitedly entered the room. Here are some photos:






Yes, that’s the opera house in the background



The room itself was awesome, but this was what really made the room AMAZING. Could never stop looking at the view:



We were in love with our room. The one complaint we had was that the toilet was in an odd location, in its own small room immediately to the right of the entrance to the room. The room came stocked with a couple bottles of complimentary water. We also discovered early on that the fitness center also has a refrigerator full of complimentary waters so if you go through your room’s free waters, just grab more at the fitness center.

Through the course of our two night stay, we were able to explore the hotel a little as well as sample the free breakfast for diamonds. The fitness center and pool are located on the top floors of the hotel, along with the spa. We didn’t take the opportunity to try out the spa, but we did use the fitness center. It was small overall, but the machines were relatively new and well-maintained. However, my biggest gripe was with the free weights, which is an integral part of my routine. They only had free weights up to 10 kg. Seriously? Just 10 kg?

The pool area is just above the fitness center and is nice with covered cabanas next to it. You also have a great view of the opera house, harbor and CBD. However, there is very little privacy there as the Harbour Bridge directly overlooks the roof and pool area. With so many nice beach areas a short ways away from the hotel, we didn’t spend any significant time just at the pool.

The breakfast amenity for diamonds is huge. One thing we noticed during our stay in Sydney and Australia is that prices are very high compared to US standards. Being able to have free breakfast saved us a ton. The diamond breakfast amenity at the Dining Room (the name of the restaurant) allows you full access to the buffet as well as whatever you’d like off the menu. I had read some reports of poor service at the breakfast secondary to understaffing, but we were the first guests into breakfast each morning and service was excellent.

The buffet area consisted of a huge variety of baked goods, including my favorite, chocolate croissants. There were also several coolers full of fresh fruits including incredibly sweet kiwis, a variety of yogurt and muesli. Finally, there was a wide selection of juices and cereals.

Overall impression: The Park Hyatt Sydney was an amazing hotel, though I admit I may be biased due to the view upgrade and diamond breakfast amenity. Even still, service was impeccable, the rooms were outstanding, and location is excellent with unbeatable views of the Opera House and easy access to the train and ferries. I would love to come back just to stay at the hotel, but I’m more lukewarm about Sydney itself, which you will see in the next installment…

iceman77_7

I didn't get a good peek at the Y cabin, but I think it comes down to whether you value the extra legroom of UA E+ versus the superior entertainment in AC Y, particularly if you're on a UA 744 with just the overhead video.

Stay tuned! Hopefully 1 part per day!

Glad you found it useful. There's even more nuances, but didn't want to make it too long. Let me know if you have any questions!

iceman77_7

Having settled in by 10 AM, we found ourselves hungry for some food. Fortunately I had done a fair amount of planning (as in almost down to the minute :-P) prior to arriving and knew that we could walk to the Westfield Mall in about 30 minutes and enjoy two of our favorite restaurants, Din Tai Fung and Ippudo.



Din Tai Fung's famous xiaolongbao

We wanted to eat at both restaurants so decided to just have two orders of xiaolongbao at Din Tai Fung. I was surprised when we got to Din Tai Fung and saw that it was a purely take away stand at a food court, not the sit down restaurant I was expecting. The food was also a bit more expensive than I was used to (a recurring theme on this trip), and the dumpling skin was not cooked very well. It was not the standard I have come to expect at Din Tai Fung. I couldn't help but wonder if the sit down restaurant had better quality food.

We then proceeded to Ippudo for our “main course” after that disappointing appetizer.



Oddly enough, this is not the same photo that sfoactuary took in his report (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...ba-f-sq-j.html), but thanks for the idea of eating here!

I went with the ippudo ramen, a tonkatsu ramen that is a staple of mine. It was tasty, to be sure, but like Din Tai Fung, a little disappointing compared to my favorites in the SF Bay Area, NYC and Japan.



Disappointing ramen

We took a leisurely walk back to the Park Hyatt Sydney. That afternoon, we decided to go to the Pylon Lookout, which is one of the best views of the Opera House and Sydney Skyline. The alternative, the Harbour Bridge climb, is unbelievably expensive and didn’t fit into our budget. For just AUD13, it was a great deal to learn about the history of the bridge and enjoy some excellent views.

The next day, our only full day in Sydney, we planned to hit two main destinations, Taronga Zoo and Bondi Beach. The best way to get to the zoo is via ferry which ended up costing AUD52.50 including zoo admission. The cost is well worth it as you get excellent views of the Opera House from the ferry.



We were one of the first guests into the zoo (hundreds of school kids soon arrived, however) and hit up the koala exhibit right next to the entrance first.



The zoo is set up such that you start at the top of a hill then wind your way back down to the bottom, where the ferries are. With the zoo built on the hill, you have amazing views of the harbor and skyline.





They have a decent collection of animals as well, with a focus on those in the Southern Hemisphere (naturally, enough). Being from San Diego, home of the “world famous” San Diego Zoo, I thought the Taronga Zoo was a bit overpriced and underwhelming as a whole, but the views were impressive. I thought the Wildlife Habitat in Port Douglas, which I'll talk about in a later installment was a much much cooler place to see and get close to animals at half the price. Taronga does have a skyride that takes you from the bottom of the hill to the top and vice versa which probably provides the best views overall.

Bondi Beach: We took the bus from Circular Quay all the way to Bondi Beach. I didn’t take any pictures of the area that don’t have my wife or me in them, but I can understand why it’s a big attraction. It’s a huge beach with soft sand, plenty of room to lay out, free wi-fi (a recurring theme throughout Australia actually), and great hiking trails.

On our final morning in Sydney, we finally addressed the elephant in the room (literally given our view): the Sydney Opera House. We signed up for the 9 AM tour, which features a slight discount over the rest of the day, AUD28. We were actually really disappointed that we had arrived in Sydney when we did, as Vivid, a spectacular light and multimedia show that takes over the downtown area, would take place the day after we left. We kept seeing all these advertisements for Vivid and were quite bummed that we would miss it.

The Opera House tour is a well-oiled machine. They give out portable headsets to everyone so that you can hear your tour guide clearly, and it was fascinating to hear the history behind the construction of the opera house and the controversies. We got to go into several of the theaters, but could not take pictures due to the presence of stage crew and sets. There is also great photo spots on the grounds outside the Opera House as it sits on the end of a small peninsula.

Before we knew it, our 56 hours in Sydney were over. Overall, I liked Sydney and was glad to come back after so many years, but was left very unimpressed by the food and the prices. Ippudo and Din Tai Fung were disappointing. For our first dinner, we went to The Woods restaurant in the Four Seasons Hotel and were similarly disappointed and underwhelmed (went there for work, not by choice). I’ve heard that there is a growing foodie scene in Sydney, but even as someone used to San Francisco prices, the menus scared me away.

hlee628

Very much looking forward to the Maldives Gili Lankanfushi portion. It's one of my "potential" hotels for my "potential" trip to MLE next year.

I heard from a friend that the Din Tai Fung in AUS are franchises where the original Taiwanese owners sold the rights to a Chinese restaurateur based in AUS. That is probably why the quality is not up to par with some of the directly managed branches in the states and in other Asian countries.

steveman518

IMO Din Tai Fung is much much better in Asia (especially Hong Kong) than elsewhere-I lived next to the new one in Seattle and it was slightly disappointing every time