Not Good Enough
Nov 20, 2024 BtotheJ Cannock, United Kingdom
Our Experience at Kandima - We’re a family of 3 with 1 young boy (3) and have been to the Maldives 4 times in the last 5 years so I’d like to say we have a good idea of what to expect.
Kandima was the worst of all 4, by quite a distance I’m afraid. We stayed for 9 nights on All Inclusive - Dine Around.
Check in, travel, and welcome to the…
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Our Experience at Kandima - We’re a family of 3 with 1 young boy (3) and have been to the Maldives 4 times in the last 5 years so I’d like to say we have a good idea of what to expect.
Kandima was the worst of all 4, by quite a distance I’m afraid. We stayed for 9 nights on All Inclusive - Dine Around.
Check in, travel, and welcome to the island were all great, no issues at all.
The room (sunset beach villa with pool) was OK, but no black out blinds was an issue - and the blind over the sofa bed didn’t shut properly. That fact combined with the Villa porch light being on all night (with no way to turn off) meant the room was pretty bright all night long. We raised this issue 4 times with reception before giving up as nothing was being done.
The mini bar, included in the All Inclusive, was a couple of cans of beer and 2 Bounty’s - 5* luxury.
They did not provide shampoo, that’s pretty basic for even a 4* hotel, they had something called ‘All Wash’ which was exactly the same as the hand wash by the sink. They also didn’t tidy or clean the vanity/sink area for our whole trip, except for when the rats knocked it all over and I asked them to on the last day.
Room turnovers were poor, empty cans and food plates etc were all just left in the room.
On our final night we had rats in the bathroom, it’s outside so I’d expect a little wildlife, but they managed to trap themselves in the shower and were pretty loud all night long, also all over the sink and vanity area. I know other villas had the same issue and had to be moved rooms because of it.
The biggest problem was the food, the buffet’s were just terrible, the same food every day for lunch and dinner, mainly Tuna. We are pescatarian, but if we didn’t eat seafood, it would have been a real struggle. Everyone we spoke to had the same view on the food situation. If we wanted poached eggs at the buffet, sometimes we would wait up to 25 mins, they didn’t have enough staff to cope with the demand. The a la carte restaurants were better quality, however, we booked the all inclusive dine around, and when we got to each a la carte restaurant, half the menu was unavailable to us, and we were offered 20% off these items.
This was a running theme we found with the island, they just wanted to make money out of us at every opportunity. Every other island we’ve been to, All Inclusive means All Inclusive. It was $6 + service + tax for a coconut, the island was FULL of coconut trees, it’s just greedy.
Service - Simply wasn’t 5 star, we sat by the pool or on the beach every day for 9 days, and I would say twice we were asked if we’d like a drink. I would go to the bar to order, where there would be 5 staff stood around doing nothing. With the exception of 3-4 staff members, who I’ll name at the end, the rest just weren’t upto standard.
Kids Club - Mainly a good experience here, and our boy loved being there after making friends on day 1. We’ve never left him alone before, but he loved it so we thought we’d try 30 minutes. We explained clearly to staff that if he got upset, to call us straight away and we would come back.
We arrived back 30 mins later to a cut foot, hysterical tears and no phone call as he was being pushed around in a car by a member of staff crying. Unaware of blood dripping from his foot and didn’t have a clue how long he had been crying when I investigated. Absolutely, not good enough, and really upset both him and us.
For the money we spent, we literally could have gone anywhere in the world. Maldives is supposed to be special, and this island doesn’t do it any justice at all.
We raised these complaints throughout the trip, but on day 8 I asked to speak with a manager. Nasr was friendly, but he didn’t really grasp that it was too late to change our minds. He kindly let us have anything from the menu in one of the A La Carte’s on our final night, but it was just too little too late by then.
I also requested some sort of compensation, but all he could offer was an upgrade and a discount on our next stay… Obviously there will never be a next stay.
The Maldives should be a luxury 5* holiday, Kandima, unfortunately, is far from either.
Those staff members that went above and beyond were Zain, Muaz & Song. They were excellent and friendly throughout.
I would also highly recommend the islands Cinnamon Donveli & Atmosphere Kanifushi when staying in the Maldives, don’t make the same mistake we did.
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