Honeymoon Part 1 - Planes, Seaplanes and delays

It's only taken me over 3 months to do my honeymoon post, better late than never, right?

It took us over 15 hours to get to Male from Indonesia, we flew from Padang - Sumatra to Kuala Lumpur on Air Asia, transferred between the low cost carrier terminal (which is now mega huge since I was last there) to KLIA and finally boarded our Malaysian Airline flight.

If you read in my earlier post (10 things about me) you'll know that I love all things aviation, so I just had to take a photo of all these model aircrafts. I loved KL airport, it was clean, bright and efficient, no lines at customs and free wifi and after being in the village for a week, I loved having internet access and being in touch with the world.

It only takes 3.5 hours from KL to Male, the flight was a breeze, prettty much slept the whole flight. Can't really fault the service on Malaysian Airlines, the staff were very lovely and friendly.

The Maldives is a muslim country, you're not allowed to bring alcohol into the country as they will confiscate it. We didn't have any luckily, they do sell alcohol in the departure area though and it's SO cheap!
Malaysian Airlines only have one flight per day into Male and arrives late at around 1030pm. As seaplanes don't operate at night, we had to overnight in Male and transfer to our resort in the morning.


The sister property to The W Retreat and Spa is The Sheraton Full Moon. We were met by a lovely concierge in the arrival hall, took us to the ferry wharf, where we boarded a private jetboat to The Sheraton, it only took about 10 minutes by boat.

One of the first things that impressed me was the service, the staff were all so lovely and would go out of their way to make sure you're happy and comfortable.

By the time we reached our room it was close to midnight and we were given a gorgeous room. I just love hotel bed linen, especially pillows.

 

and this is the gorgeous view we woke up to...

The buffet breakfast was one of the most amazing buffets I've ever seen and I forgot to take photos, I was way too busy stuffing my face and I loved how you didn't have to wait for your eggs, they would drop them off to your table. Nice touch.

Unfortunately we had some cloudy weather when we arrived but it was still very humid and overcast.

It was such a shame that we didn't have more time to spend at The Sheraton, it started raining heavily so we couldn't explore more.



The jetboat back was very choppy, we rode backwards, we're pretty adventurous like that.

Male airport is on it's own island and is a shack, it's currently undergoing an upgrade but you'd think it would be a little more passenger friendly by now. There is only one food outlet and a few dodgy gift shops and you can't enter the departure area until at least 3 hours before your flight.

From the airport we were transported with other honeymooners to the seaplane terminal, The W had an amazing lounge that we could use before boarding, filled with drinks, sandwiches, fruit and free wifi.

Our Seaplane flight was delayed 2 hours due to weather, all the guests were transferred to the only hotel on the airport island, Hulhule, which is popular for overnight stays for some complimentary lunch.



This was our first time on a seaplane and I was pretty excited and scared at the same time, the legroom was sweet for me, D, not so much.

It was packed with honeymooners and they were staying at The W too.

Male Island, it looks so cramped and with a population of over 100,000 people.

The views were breathtaking.

We saw plenty of beautiful resorts and atolls on the way

I was like a little kid, I always get the window seat

and then I spotted it!! We did a little fly over, so we could all get happy snaps of The W.

Amazing.

Overwater bungalows :)

oh hayyyyyyyyyyyy!!!

The staff waved us in at the jetty, it was a sweet touch. As we disembarked, they welcomed us by name, it took me about 5 minutes to figure out how they knew and I remembered they took photos of us in the lounge, they must've emailed them over, with our names, so personalised.

After a welcome drink on the jetty, we got our photo taken with the gigantic W.

I always laugh at this photo, it's nearly as big as me but D towers over it.

Part 2 - The room, coming soon...

MrsG Xx