Centara Grand Island Resort & Spa Maldives

Chandra always made sure that when we entered our room, we had a pleasant surprise with: perfectly fluffed pillows and a spotless floor. The whole team was lovely, from the restaurant crew to the receptionist and especially the housekeeping staff.

Superb resort everything you could dream of food and all inclusive package second to none Staff are all lovely our cleaner Hridoy was excellent Snorkelling was fun whale shark excursion fabulous Thai restaurant good with generous portions Just come

For clarity we would rate this a 3.5. It lacks the consistency to make it good. We stayed 10 nights in a Club Sunset Overwater Villa with pool. Arrival On landing and collecting our luggage we made our way to the meeting point at A14. A nice man greeted us and took us to the Sea Plane Desk to weigh our Luggage and get our boarding passes. (Make sure you only have a 20kg suitcase and 5kg hand luggage). We then boarded a bus to the Sea Plane Terminal. We got off the bus, but had to find our own way to the lounge. We just followed the people in front. Once in the lounge, we checked in at a desk, were told our flight number and approx departure time. We then got a voucher for a sandwich and a bottle of water. Our lounge was upstairs and the outside balcony had a great view of the Sea Planes + the adjoining runways of Velana airport. Our wait time was approximatley 2 hours. We then went down to board our Seaplane. We may be biased but we would rather do a Seaplane vs a Domestic Flight or Speedboat. We had a lovely flight with a few bumps when we hit clouds. Approximate flight time was 25 minutes. Make sure you bring ear plugs or noise cancelling buds as it can be a bit loud. We landed at a Jetty shared with the Outrigger resort. We were the only 2 people for the Centara. We caught our boat, landed and were greeted at the dock by Marta. We got a welcome drink and cold towels. As we were in a Club Room, we received a free floating Breakfast. We filled out a form and arranged it for the day of our Wedding Anniversary. Marta then set up the App and showed us how to book restuarants etc. We paid for the Seaplane, but it was not the price we were expecting - I queried it when I paid - (It took 2 days to sort out which was a bit annoying). Marta then walked us around the resort and we caught the tail end of lunch at the buffet restaurant. There was no avilabilty for either the Italian or Thai on our first night, but we managed to book for the rest of the week during our lunch. By the time we finished lunch our room was ready. But the app had kicked us out and lost all our bookings. So we had to re-scan the QR code and manually re-book the restaurants. Villa We were in Room 68 which was at the furthest point away from reception. The room was lovely. At the back was a large bathroom with his & hers sinks and mirrors, large bath and a decent sized shower. It also had plenty of drawers, open hanger rails and a safe. His and hers toiletries e.g. body cream, bath salts, single razor with foam, toothbrush and toothpaste. The shower had seperate bottles of shower gel, shampoo and conditioner. There were life vests, bathrobe and slippers. The main room had a large 4 poster style bed, sofa, table, big TV, minibar, coffee machine and kettle. The minibar had 2 cans of beer, Mango juice, Diet Coke, Coke, Fanta, Sprite and tonic from memory. You also get a couple of snickers and a small tube of pringles. There is no wine, which is poor compared to the 2 other Maldives resorts we have stayed in. The snacks are pretty basic, no other crisps, sweets or savoury snacks. Because we were in a Club Room and staying 7 nights we got a bottle of Bombay Saphire gin.(I think you can maybe get Vodka and Whisky). The room boy also brings bottles of water that they convert from sea water and is used in the rest of the resort. Some people have mentioned the TV in reviews and said it is not "SMART".Whilst this is true, it has all of the modern inputs, HDMI USB etc I was able to bring my Google TV device and we were able to watch Amazon Prime etc (I did use my VPN and there was little to no buffering) and also I pre-loaded some AVI's onto a USB stick and it happily played those. Our pool looked out onto the reef. Apparently it is a UNESCO reef and lots of boats come to dive here. I have a PADI certification, and brought my books, but stuck to snorkling. You can see a fair amount of fish circling around your villa, and also Reef Sharks. We also saw what looked like turtles swimming far out on the edge of the reef. The pool is great to sit or kneel in during the day or gaze at the stars and shooting starts at night. It was great to see the Sea Planes taking off and landing virtually parallel to our villa. The down side as pointed out by many, is you get full sun in the pool from around 11am. There a two sunbeds built into the deck an by mid afternoon there is no shade and it becomes very hot. In other resorts they had sunbeds that could move, and 1 also had an umberella. My wife got an email around day 3 asking for feedback. She pointed out then lack of shade and suggested a parassol should be optional if required. They responded and said "It was due to Health & Safety". Dining We only ate in the Buffet Restaurant twice in the evening, so cannot really comment on how repetitive it was. The nights we went a chef was cooking fresh meat and fish on a griddle. We ate stuff from there on both occasions vs opting for pre-cooked meat dishes that were kept warm in serving dishes. On the 2nd night my wife asked for a "Rare" Steak - A chef took over from the other chef and cooked a couple of lovely steaks to order. He was also instructing the other chef to clean the griddle after cooking the fish. It turns out he was the Exexutive Chef - The staff we asked called him Mr Charles. He was really helpful all week. My wife asked for Marmalade, he got it. I asked for Bannanas - He got those. They had no Orange Juice on a couple of mornings - He got that. He seeemd to be there 24/7 Very helpful Also the Cheescake and mini Lemon Merringues were fab. The deck outside is by the Dive centre and reef and main bar, it has a nice breeze most nights. Italian We ate here maybe 5 times in the evening. The food here is really nice, could not really fault it. The lava cake is great. The service however was quite slow on most occasions, like they did not have enough chefs/staff. Fish are swimming around under the lights. It does get a bit warm in there, even on the edge by the water. Thai I think we ate here 3 times. The staff here were great - Meaw the lady in charge was very helpful in making sure we had no allergy issues and assisiting my wife in picking dishes that were not too spicy. Aufey the other regular waiter was always smiling. Again the food was lovely - 1 exception - I had a dessert that had caramalised rice - I bit down and nearly lost a tooth - It was rock hard. I mentioned this to the waiter when he asked how the dessert was and the Head chef came out a while later to appologise that it had accidently been overcooked. He does come out on a regular basis and walk around tables talking to customers. Again it is a bit warm, so try get a table with a fan. The Club To us this was the most dissappointing aspect of the holiday. The Description is below THE CLUB "The Club lounge boasts a resort within a resort experience with exclusive access to a dedicated pool, a range of delectable a la carte offerings, and premium spirits and refreshments served throughout the day amidst a pristine tropical ambience". What you get is slightly different. Anyone who is staying in the resort for 7 nights or more, regardless of room type gets to use the Club. We got there on the first night and there were a couple of people having drinks. They bring you 3 small "Canapes" with your evening drinks. The drinks menu is limited (i.e we asked for a Limoncella Spritz which is available in both bars) - "Sorry, not on the menu" was the answer . Also beware if you go in near closing time, you are made to feel unwelcome as they are looking to close ASAP. On the 2nd night we were the only ones there, they started pulling all the shutters down and told us they were closing soon. On the last night we were drinking with about 15 minutes to go, and they swiched all the pool area lights off and we were plunged into virtual darkness with just some side lights left on, they were that keen to close. We did the Sunset cruise and popped in for the canapes and a cocktail around 6:30pm - The drinks arrived - No Canapes - "You arrived 3 minutes late was the response" I mentioned this to one of the duty managers at dinner the next night - he explained that a 6:30 the chef has to go to the Italian. We have both worked in catering - All the Canapes are cold anyway - They could be stored in the fridge there and assembled by anyone. During the day , it was fairly quiet the first few days there, so we camped out there talking to another British couple. We skipped the 3rd day as we wanted to stay out of the sun. On the 4th day a family arrived and the guy was vaping on his sunbed - There is supposed to be no smoking in public areas. I think we went there on the 5th day and there were only 4 of us. Plenty of beds. We were in the pool chatting to the other couple on one of the days and comparing the various "Clubs" we had experienced around the world and we noted that no one seemed to ask if you would like a drink. Maybe AI was listening, beacuse a minute later a guy came and asked if we wanted drinks. That was the only time in the 3 or 4 days we actually used the Club that it happened. Empty glasses were strewn around the sunbeds, the staff seemed to hang around inside in the kitchen or sitting on a chair, occasionally they were out front on the desk. If you wanted a drink you had to get out with your wet swim gear on and go to the Club Doors and attract their attention to get a drink. We had eaten breakfast there a couple of times - Nothing really wrong there. But we decided to do breakfast in the Buffet restaurant that had more choice. On the way back one morning the Club was like a holiday camp - massive shark inflatable in the pool + other smaller inflatables, kids everywhere. I popped by the reception desk on the way to the villa and asked if inflatables were allowed in the Club Pool - They said they would check - Never got an answer. At that point we gave up and stayed in our lovely pool villa and peace an quiet. Yes it is a Club - If it was exclusive to just the Club Villas it would be a massive improvement. I know it is not an "Adults" only resort, but we have been to plenty of resorts with children, that do not allow large inflatables in certain pools and/or have adults only pools. There is already a large pool near the resturant. Also not quite sure where the delectable a la carte offerings were - Unless they mean breakfast ? There was a basket of towels for the sunbeds - help yourself - Suddenly on day 3 there were towels on the beds every morning with a flower petal ? We just felt the staff were going through the motions and they did not handle the basics, let alone going the extra mile. I know it was not a Executive Club, but leaving empty glasses lying around and not offerng drinks periodically is bad. Snorkling I was not 100% sold on the reef, the staff kept telling us it was a good reef, and I saw plenty of fish, just not as colourful and varied as some other reefs I have been to. But it is still spectacular, it was accessible straight from our steps. I swam right next to several turtles, and lots of reef sharks. I did not see any rays whilst snorkling, but I only went out about 4 or 5 times and we saw one from the reception boardwalk. I saw morray eels, lots of lovely coral - I means whats not to like - It is nature at it's best. I did see a lot of poeple standing up in the ocean and also picking stuff up which you are not supposed to do. Staff Munna - Our room boy, very polite, always smiling, room was spotless - we met him when he brought some more towels and a different size life vest. I asked him to swap the decaf coffee for normal. He remembered every day. No decaf in sight. He even brought my wife a flower petal on our last day. Anil - We Did not meet Anil until day two - He came round constantly topping up drinks (which was a first). Again always happy and smiling. Roks - Very funny - Great Limoncella on the Rocks (or should that be Roks) Habib - One of the more switched on waiters - Came across him in his Hawaain shirt helping out at the Italian - He was a constant at the Buffet restaurant - Remembered we preferred sparkling water with dinner, spotted we had no Orange Juice at breakfast etc Ashik in the Italian - Always smiling and helpful - The resort decided to shut all the restuarants 1 by 1 for "Essential Maintenence". So we get a call saying the Italian is shut on the 26th. I decided to try and swap our Thai and Italian nights - Part A of the plan worked - I could get the Thai on the 26th. But the Italian was by now full on the 25th (the next night). I went to reception, and after a few minutes Ashik came. He said he would get us in - As a compromise 8pm vs our usual 7pm. But I appreciated the effort. Sunny - Again very helpful and smiling - Organised our take out pizzas as well on a couple of occassion. The Bars We spent most of the time in the bar near reception. Pretty much desserted on the nights we were there. Tha main bar by the Buffet restaurant has a pool table downstairs and a games room upstairs. We popped in on karaoke night for a quick drink, it is a lot hotter inside there, although they do have seats outside on the deck with a nice breeze. In most resorts all the staff acknowledge you, either say Hi, wave, smile etc etc For the most part they did, but some just blanked you. For example - One night, there was a buggy coming towards me from reception pretty fast - The boardwalk is quite narrow - It was getting nearer and not slowing, so I edged to the side of the boardwalk, the guy never blinked, kept accelerating past without a thankyou, and I was so close to the edge by this point I almost went over. There were a few other staff that just blanked you, but they were in the minority Overall Most of the guests were Asian and of those the majority were Chinese. The staff seem to speak several languages so being understood was never a problem. Positives Location Location Good Club Sunset Villas Sea Plane transfer and just watching them Food - Did not really have any problems with it The floating breakfast was a great way to start our anniversary + our bed was decorated with Happy Anniversary and we got cake and a bottle of Cava. No insect bites. Negatives The Club - Not what we hoped and dreamed it would be. Tepenyaki is not included - It is in other Maldives and worldwide resorts we have been to. You are basically getting the same ingredients, steak, prawns, chicken etc so why charge extra - It should be a no cost A La Carte like the Thai and Italian on the App. No wine in the mini bar. Only peanuts in the bars (and you have to ask for those). You have to pay extra for the dolphin cruise yet if you stay 10 nights you get a sunset cruise. The other 2 Maldives hotels included a dolphin cruise for staying 7 nights. It lacked the "Wow" factor for us having been to plenty of nice hotels around the world, including the Maldives. That said, it is solid, the staff for the most part are nice. I just think some of them need more training and attention for detail. They don't appear to want to go the extra mile for the most part (The exception being the staff mentioned earlier). You will not starve. The wine list is limited, they did not have our favourite Disaronno brand of Amaretto (hence the switch to limoncella) but hey it's paradise and you are watching another glorious sunset. We knew it was not going to be the best hotel in the world, based on the price and reviews. We went with the mantra of "Hey it's the Maldives, what's not to like. But don't be put off - If this is your first time to the Maldives I think you will love it.

Alauddin Good for family Good for kids. Very nice place to go. Thai food is tasty. The sea and beach is very beautiful but The weather quite hot in April. We have seen whale shark , Manta and dolphin near hear. We choose the program whales shark combo with Manta. ……..

1. Delicious food, amazing marine creatures, and friendly people. 2. The room is clean, bed is great, which make us sleep very well. 3. The view is beautiful, we took lots of great picture. Also, it is great place to play snorkeling. 4. We have a wonderful vacation here.