Great news from the hotel – the employee strike has been settled!

Last night at dinner – we could see sincere concern from the expatriate employees who wanted to see this end quickly as they realized what damage could be done if this continued on.

As I said in my previous post, the Conrad did a magnificent job of keeping the resort running at a bare bones by pulling employees from other sections of the island.

Now it’s time to return to relaxation!

PS Does anyone have a link or any information in regards to any upgrades you receive if you are a American Express Hilton Surpass owner? We received an email from the resort in regards to this prior to arrival but can’t seem to find it now and our island host was unaware of anything regarding this. Thanks!

This morning at about 4 am we heard rally cries from what sounded like a pep rally. It was really strange but we didn’t think anything of it.

We had breakfast at Atoll restaurant and there was completely new staff there and it seemed to be busier than usual. Afterward we found out that there is an employee strike going on (it seems to be the Maldivians rather than the foreign staff) and so the resort had pulled people from other sections of the resort to help out. There were people from the spa, the gift shop, and from the dive shop delivering food and helping out.

Due to the employee strike, all of the restaurants except atoll and Rangali Bar have been closed and all the excursions have been canceled. Other services such as housekeeping have been suspended.

Hopefully they’ll be able to resolve it soon – we were going to go on a dolphin cruise tonight and were scheduled to have cocktails at the underwater restaurant, Ithaa. Under the circumstances, I feel the resort has been doing really well to keep the place running.

UPDATE: Here’s a link to an article – a little unnerving with this quote:

The service in the island has not been disrupted. However, the strikers are threatening that they might have to disrupt the services to the inhouse guests if their demands are not met.

well, I’m finally here after quite a long trip. The bad news – my luggage didn’t make it with us. The good news – this place is absolutely gorgeous – even better than I had imagined.

We didn’t get upgraded to a higher room category but I’m pleased with the beach villa – it’s massive and has everything that we need to enjoy our stay.

The sticker shock of the food prices still hasn’t settled in – we met a guy who went to the underwater restaurant for lunch – the cheapest bottle of wine he could find was $110 so he drank the whole bottle. With food and gratuity his bill was $300!

Overall we’re having a great time – this place is fantastic

I posted here about receiving 500 Hilton Points for signing up. I wanted to report back that the points have posted for my daughter’s account and therefore it is confirmed.

St. Judes is giving 250 Hilton Honors points each month for 12 months with a 1000 point bonus at the end of the 12 months for a total of 4000 points.

You must sign up for at least a $19 a month donation to receive the points.

If you are in a position to give then please do so to a great charity – the points will be icing on the cake.

I am in the Bahamas and had the opportunity to stay at both the Hilton Nassau and at the Atlantis resort.

I stayed at the Hilton Nassau on points as a Diamond member. Two weeks before our arrival, I called the hotel to inform them that we would need a crib in our room. When we arrived, they had no notation in our reservation about a crib. This wasn’t that big of a deal, so we informed the check in person that we would need a crib.

We went to our room which was upgraded to a better view, but not on the Executive floor. We did have access to the lounge. We decided to walk around and look at the city. Four hours later we returned to our room and there was still no crib there. Another call to the front desk to ask about our crib and another hour passes with no crib.

Finally 6 hours after our initial checkin, the crib arrives.

For dinner we ate at Thai Lotus – a restaurant that is just across the street from the Hilton. It was very delicious and very well priced food.

The Hilton has a private beach and pool out front where we spent the majority of our time. The staff at the hotel was not very pleasant and down right rude most of the time. So much so that we decided to cut our reward stay short and head over to the Atlantis earlier than originally planned.

As we arrived at the gigantic Atlantis resort – we were quickly greeted as we pulled up in the taxi and our bags were taken right away. We walked up to the check in desk and were greeted friendly by the staff. My wife asked if it was possible to get a room with a view if possible. He typed away and asked if we wanted a harbor view or ocean view. We choose harbor view because it was on a higher floor. We asked for the crib at check in.

We walked up to our room and opened the door and we had been given a junior suite! The place had a walk in closet and was huge. Flat screen TV, huge king bed, balcony and a wonderful view.

Twenty minutes later we received a call from the front desk asking if our crib had arrived. It hadn’t and they said they would look into the matter immediately. Five minutes later, a knock at the door at the crib was here. The front desk called back ten minutes later to ask if everything was up to satisfaction. What customer service!

The difference between people’s attitudes has made this trip very enjoyable. The staff at the Atlantis goes out of it’s way to help, assist, and is generally very pleasant. The Hilton Nassau was the opposite. The Diamond level in Hilton’s program is supposed to be their top tier – their most loyal customers. To be treated that poorly makes me want to switch my loyalty to another program.

In summary, I would not recommend the Hilton Nassau property – especially not on a points stay.

I have been very impressed with the Atlantis resort and would definitely return to this fantastic place.

Enough of my complaints – time to head back out to the sun!

I always get really excited when it’s time to start traveling again. There’s something about getting ready for a new destination that gets my blood pumping.

I will be heading to the Bahamas for the first time. I will be staying at the British Colonial Hilton and at the Atlantis Resort.

I remember the Atlantis Resort most from the Amazing Race where on of the challenges they had to go down the huge waterslide through the Shark Pool. One of the contestants was so afraid that she refused to go down and the other team caught up with them and passed them and caused them to get eliminated.

Hilton is offering double points or double miles with every stay from July 7th through September 30th.

Registration is required.

Priority Club recently had a contest to determine who the “Luckiest Loser” is – that is, the person with the highest amount of Hilton Honors points.

Due to the recent devaluation of Hilton points for redemptions, Priority Club decided to make a contest of it.

In order to participate, you had to send in a copy of your recent Hilton statement. It was a brilliant contest as Priority Club now has the information of some of the highest Hilton Honors participants.

The person with the highest point balance won 2 million Priority Club points.

Priority Club gave away 20,000 Priority Club points to each of the next 20,000 people who had the highest balances.

Luckily, I was one of the 20,000 chosen few and received 20,000 Priority Club points.

With all of the programs out there, it oftentimes can get confusing keeping track of all the programs. Especially the ones that are seldom used.

I’ve done quite a bit of research on the easiest ways to keep track of all of your miles and points.

My new favorite website is Award Wallet. You can add all of your frequent flyer numbers and accounts and it will send you emails with your balances. The best part is that it will also tell you your expiration dates as well.

You can also enter in your whole family to track their accounts as well.

I spent this afternoon submitting everyone’s numbers in. Here are our balances:

My Delta 250,000
My American Airlines 200,000
My HIlton 200,000
My Priority Club 260,000
My Marriott 120,000
Both of my kids Delta accounts: 20,000 each
My wife’s Delta account: 40,000
My wife’s American Airlines account 200,000
We’re also in the midst of earning enough points with British Airways to fly anywhere in the world in first class.

The point of this is not to brag, but just to show what flexibility I’ll have for our next trip(s).

We’ll have Marriott, Hilton, and Priority Club properties to choose from and three airlines to get the best tickets on.

While it certainly helps that I travel quite a bit, I also take advantage of every offer I can to earn more miles. I’ve switch to DirecTV, opened up bank accounts, and bought gold coins all for the sake of miles.