A Delayed Honeymoon: Part 5 – Park Hyatt, Maldives

Previous Trip Notes:
A Delayed Honeymoon: Part 4 – Getting to the Park Hyatt Maldives
A Delayed Honeymoon: Part 3 – Hyatt Capital Gate, Abu Dhabi
A Delayed Honeymoon: Part 2 – EY130 First Class
A Delayed Honeymoon: Part 1 – Baltimore > IAD, & Etihad Lounge

As we arrived at the hotel around 10pm, both our Diamond host and staff were waiting for us on the jetty as we exited the speedboat. Our luggage was loaded into one golf cart, and we jumped in a second one. Our Diamond Host, Victoria, told us we could check in directly from our villa since we had arrived so late. She pointed things out in the dark, and within two minutes we were pulling up to Villa #7. Score. After completing my Diamond Challenge the year before, I had the pleasure to be upgraded to Diamond status for all of 2015. One of the benefits at the Park Hyatt in the Maldives is an upgrade from a standard villa to a pool villa if there is availability. Pulling up, and walking into the villa, it was apparent that it had its own splash pool. There was also a bottle of champagne waiting for us.

Nice Note from the GM

Victoria explained all of the intricacies of the villa, and also informed us that the Hyatt was actually an hour ahead of Male local time (and thus 2 hours ahead of Dubai local time) in order to maximize daylight – that’s 10 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time!

Both NSPwife and I were beat. So we briefly unpacked our things and then grabbed some shuteye so we could explore the island the following morning. When we woke up, we enjoyed espresso from the Nespresso machine in our villa, and fired up the laptops. One great thing about the time difference, is that by the time you get through emails in an hour or two, it is late on the East Coast – thus, no worries about receiving emails for the entire day!

Of course, I also had to start my day out with an outside shower. While the shower was great, and the weather fantastic, I wasn’t a huge fan of the shampoo at the hotel. And unfortunately since a beach goes around the island, there’s no shower-to-ocean views similar to those in Koh Samui, Thailand.

We then got dressed and set off to explore the island. It took roughly 12 minutes. To. Explore. The. Entire. Island. For those who know my A.D.D. tendencies, you know that could cause a problem for me. We then headed to breakfast. The best Diamond benefit is that breakfast is included. And, boy, did we take advantage of this while we were there. Breakfast starts out with a 3-tiered tower of food, which changed slightly each day. And then there is the a la carte menu. And you can order anything. We routinely ordered 2-3 dishes each, because, vacation. The western dishes were good, but the Asian dishes were fantastic. This seemed to be a theme throughout the week, and after the first day, I only ordered Asian dishes for the remainder of the trip.

3-Tiered Breakfast Starter – Day 1

The Breakfast Spread – Day 1

So post-breakfast, say around 11am or 12pm, what is there to do? Nothing. Well, snorkel, dive or nothing. Since we don’t dive, we decided to gow snorkeling. There are two jetties on the island, and we decided to go to the one that we arrived at. There is a natural barrier reef around the island with perfectly clear waters, thousands of fish, and snorkel equipment was complimentary. In short, it was amazing. Having snorkeled in islands off of Thailand and in Cozumel, this was in an entirely different league.

Following our snorkeling adventure, we went back to our villa, where we drank more espresso, read books, and of course I smoked a cigar with an accompanying Tiger beer.

Afternoon Beer & Cigar

Dozing off, we woke up around 6:30pm and slowly made our way to the restaurant around 7:30pm. The meal was very good – what one would expect from a 5-star resort.

Park Hyatt Maldives Dinner – Night 1

Park Hyatt Maldives Dinner Cocktails (Alcoholic for one of us!) – Night 1

Park Hyatt Maldives Dinner – Night 1

Park Hyatt Maldives Dinner – Night 1

We then went back to our villa and relaxed. The villa itself is great. There’s the Nespresso machine, small mini-bar, TV, and iPad that is pre-loaded with all of the island information/menus/activities. There are plenty of power outlets, both around the villa and right by the bed, which makes charging your own phones and devices easy. On a quick note – I was worried I would go through the Nespresso pods, since they only give you six. That’s only partially accurate, since they replenish the pods for both the morning/early afternoon cleaning AND the nightly turn-down. Even I can’t go through 18 pods a day…

View into the Villa from the Splash Pool

One of My Faves – Nespresso Machine

One of the Two Closets, and Safe

Mini-Bar

DVD Player and Speakers (where did those beers come from?) 🙂

Informational iPad

Charging Station

Chaise Lounger in the Room

Complimentary Fruit Bowl

The bathroom is almost half of the entire villa, with an inside shower, a toilet room, and then a large area with sinks and counters on both sides of the villa, perfect for couples to not get in one another’s way. Of course there is the outside shower and bathtub.

Inside Shower – Never Used

Separate Toilet Room

Half of the Bathroom

2nd Half of Bathroom

Outside Bath Tub

Outside Shower

And then there is the splash pool. Again, while similar in style to the villas at the Conrad Koh Samui, because the beach goes around the villas, and the villas are only about 10-20 feet away from the ocean, there are two options: a villa with shrubbery blocking the view of the ocean (which we had) but also providing some privacy, or no shrubbery with an open view to the ocean but no privacy from others walking along the beach.

Park Hyatt Maldives – Pool Villa

Park Hyatt Maldives – Pool Villa

The patio area for the pool is nice, with a built-in giant “couch” and table and chairs.

Park Hyatt Maldives – Pool Villa

For our second day there, we again went snorkeling, although this time we checked out the second jetty. It was amazing. The number of fish, the colors, the coral. I didn’t think you could beat the day before’s experience, but this one surely did.

We decided to grab lunch at the same restaurant later in the afternoon.

And then after relaxing in the villa some more made our way back to the bar area. In a rookie-mistake move, we were napping during the previous night’s happy hour. As diamond members, we each receive one complimentary drink and canapes. Next to the bar is the largest area of beach, facing west and looking at the over-water villas. There are a number of cabanas and seats to enjoy the sunset. It was a perfect way to end the day.

Happy Hour Drinks

Happy Hour View

Happy Hour View

Bar-Side Cabanas

Bar-Side Seats

Canapes

Canapes

The sunset was amazing:

Sunset in the Maldives

Sunset in the Maldives

Sunset in the Maldives

Sunset in the Maldives

We again headed back to our villa, and after doing a tour of restaurants, including their up-scale grill, we decided we preferred to just order room service. We stopped by the activity center to borrow a DVD, and had a nice and relaxing evening.

Dinner…or it was

The following morning we decided to wake up early and watch the sunrise. We were out just after 6am, and watched the sunrise around 6:20am.

A Maldives Sunrise

We found ourselves in an awkward position. Again, there is nothing to do on the island. Although I went to the gym on the first day, I was feeling rather lazy.

Park Hyatt Maldives – Gym

We could have done morning yoga – but I’m definitely not a yoga person:

Park Hyatt Maldives – Yoga Studio

We contemplated going back to sleep, but really didn’t think it would be possible. So by 6:45am, we were back in the water snorkeling. There wasn’t a soul in sight when we dropped in. And, Oh. My. God. There are no words to describe the activity going on in the water. It appeared that there were tens of thousands of fish. Every size. Every color. After about twenty minutes of awe – something caught my eye. I grabbed NSPwife, and pointed. And then I made the fastest 50-foot swim in history. Phelps had nothing on me. While not monstrous, a 6-ft(ish) shark was just flying through the water. While probably OK, I don’t do well with simple aquatic life. I had already googled every fish I saw the first day to make sure they weren’t unexpected predators (p.s. I wouldn’t recommend doing that – after googling, I thought roughly 50% of the fish I saw were triggerfish. And when they went flat – I was outta there). So you can imagine my reaction with a shark…

That ended the snorkeling for the trip, but man was it awesome. So we arrived back at the villa around 8am, had our morning espressos, and slowly waited out our final hours in the villa before we had to check out. Depending on availability, often times you can check out of the villa late, or they will actually move you to a standard villa. Unfortunately, the entire island was sold-out, so we had to pack up all of our things and let the hotel hold them for the day.

We finished packing and headed to the restaurant for breakfast. And we ate. And ate. And ate. Such a good meal, we were going to be full until we landed back in Dubai!

Breakfast at the Maldives

Breakfast at the Maldives – No, There Were Only Two of Us

We then went to the bar area, grabbed some drinks, and relaxed again for most of the day. NSPwife hung out at the pool. I mostly hung out on the couches in the shade inside the bar area.