Review: Park Hyatt Maldives Park Water Villa

I thought you weren't into beaches. Or the Maldives not considered beaches? 🙂

i have never been there but judging by the pics i would actually prefer the plunge pool villa... this one looks like a downgrade on the inside... definitely not worth $500.

Lucky did you mean to say you were put in room 44 (not 51)?

And speaking of 51, do you think it's better or worse to be at the end? Trying to get my ducks in a row for the honeymoon in Sept.

Curious both with the land villas' beach access and the overwater villas' "deck"/water access, what's keeping someone else from getting into your room? Obviously given the remote location the chances of getting robbed aren't too high, but still I'm not sure I'd be too comfortable with that.

Great review!!!
You really nailed most of my questions about what to choose
500 dollars extra for non function a/c uh no thanks!

@Bgriff

People that pay $10k a week for vacation aren't going to sneak in your back door and grab your Sony point and shoot.

I've stayed at other OW bungalows in the Maldives and they all have doors with locks.

Good comparison of the 3 types of villas. I definitely wouldn't pay $500 for the water villa.

In less than 2 weeks, my wife and I are going to Bora Bora. We will spend 2 nights in a beach bungalow (award stay) at Le Moana and 3 nights in the basic Emerald OWB. I thought about paying the ~$200/night upgrade to OWB in Le Moana, but then I figured it wouldn't be worth it.

@ Bgriff -- You can lock your doors, ultimately. But given that you're on a secluded island with no practical way to escape, I can't imagine someone would steal.

@ Joe -- Yep, typo on my part, thanks. It is a longer walk, but everyone seems to rave about 51. I'm sure it's very private.

@ Presley -- Generally not, which is why I was surprised I enjoyed it so much!

There's also security at the resort. You don't usually see them, they're really unobtrusive. But I shared a boat to the resort with their director of security back in February and I sure wouldn't want to cross him and meet him in a dark alley!

Excellent review of the 3 villas, thanks Lucky. Looks amazing. I really appreciate your reviews. Great to read at the end of a stressful day.

c.

Seems to me, if you get a complementary upgrade to a pool villa as a diamond member, you should only have to pay the difference from a pool villa to a water villa if you want to upgrade further, rather than the full difference from a park villa to a water villa.

Just me or is that daybed superunsafe

@jmr - It's just you. Depends what you do there I guess.

This probably sounds stupid, but I'm wondering how they keep the white cushions clean. I have two white sofas in my living room, and I can say that I will never again own white sofas. I think about sweaty lotioned or oiled people sitting on the hotel cushions and I cannot imagine how they are not covered with stains.

I have a reservation here in Feb '16 booked with Hyatt points. How do you reserve an upgrade ahead of time? The Hyatt Rewards rep did not seem to know. Do I email the hotel directly? I definitely want to reserve an over the water villa based on this review! Thanks for all the details!

@ Kathy -- Yep, just email the hotel directly and they can help you.

Having stayed in park and overwater (non-sunset) villas, agree with Lucky on pros/cons of each.. Vastly different experience on Park villa 30, where front AC unit (each villa has 2 units), would freeze up when set below 27 degrees celsius and maintenance could not resolve.. Overwater villa struggled to keep temp at 25 celsius, and overwater bathroom trended hotter due to floor to ceiling glass window feature.. Best feature of park villa were outdoor showers (super hot, super pressure, large bottles of soaps refilled daily. Best features of entire property IMO?- 1) overwater villa decks and 2)150 foot dropoff at outer edge of "house" reef, where the reef sharks hung out.

@tara. Monsoon rains/winds continuously scrub the main cushion dirt. However, my OW villa had 2 cigarette burn holes in deck cushion

Hi Lucky,
Don't know if you have noticed but there's a person in trip advisor that has an extremely similar post on the Park Hyatt Hadahaa, to this post. He even has your same pictures, may want to look into that. He posted it yesterday.

@ Beach_dreamer -- Hadn't seen it till you mentioned it. Thanks for the heads up. Very odd.

Ben, since you are my travel sensei. I have taken your advice for my upcoming honeymoon in February and booked the Park Villa for 3 nights and the Overwater Villa for our last night. A little worried about the heat in the overwater villa but still really looking forward to it.

how deep was the water at water villa 44?