Another Maldives vacation

We've just got back from another fabulous three weeks (almost) on Royal Island in the Maldives and the improvements that we saw this year included a lot of effort that had been put into the gardens, not that there was anything wrong with them before, but now they are better than ever. Also four years they've finally got new towels at last!! and very nice they are too. Thick and fluffy with a Royal Island logo embossed into them.

The costs were very similar this year and all the prices are still pretty good for most things – so no major changes there. But no more fancy table decorations for birthdays and anniversarys – we both had a birthday and our anniversary and got nothing special whereas all the other years we had something very special.

As always the staff are one of the very best reasons for coming here and are as happy and friendly as ever. They always remember all the little details that make you feel they really care.

The only real problem was too many Russians! I guess it's a sign of the times, or maybe this is an easy place for them to get to, but either way Western Europeans are greatly outnumbered by Russians. Many (but certainly not all of them) are quite unfriendly and can be very abrupt with the staff. They rarely seem to say much even though it seems they can speak English when they want to. One week we were there the same group of them would regularly completely take over the pool area leaving no chance for anyone else to use the sunbeds or general area.

One particular Russian family dominated the pool bar in the evenings and constantly (and loudly) played DVDs on a laptop for all their kids much to the annoyance of all around. When a German kid sat down with his phone on speaker the Russian mother really layed into him for annoying her kids, even tough she would spend the every evening strutting up and down the pool area yelling into her phone – I guess we were all supposed to think that was OK.

Maybe we just timed it badly but there were a lot of children there this year which also meant the pool area was a very noisy place to be (even if you were lucky enough to get a sun bed). Of course the parents, as always, are totally oblivious to the noise and nuisance their kids are causing to some people around them. There has to be a huge market for child free vacations.

Next year we'll go at a different time in a bid to avoid the Russians and the kids.