Name: Yacht Fascination Maldives
Address: Hulhumalé Harbor, Male, Male, Male, 23000, Maldives
Rating: 9

24-hour reception

Ticket assistance

Television in lobby

Terrace

General

Concierge services

Luggage storage

Services and amenities

Breakfast

Restaurant

Meals

Free Wi-Fi

Internet

Airport transportation

Area shuttle

Transfer

Multi-language staff

Languages Spoken

Tour assistance

Tourist services

Library

Barbecue grill(s)

Picnic area

Barbeque

Recreation

Event facilities

Business

Pets allowed

Pets

Contactless check-in and/or check-out

Health and Safety Measures

Location

At the hotel

Male International Airport

Yacht Fascination Maldives

Male

child-bed

child-bed-fee

external-private-bathroom

private-bathroom

shared-bathroom

10-beds

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king-bed

queen-bed

limited-time

lounge

treatment

no-window

bay-view

bosphorus-view

canal-view

city-view

courtyard-view

garden-view

golf-view

harbour-view

inland-view

lake-view

land-view

mountain-view

ocean-front

ocean-view

oceanside

panoramic-view

park-view

partial-ocean-view

partial-sea-view

partial-view

pool-view

river-view

sea-front

sea-view

street-view

sunrise-view

sunset-view

water-view

with-view

annex

basement

main-building

1-bedroom

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not-guaranteed

wired-internet-access

smoking

sauna

duplex

safe

mini-bar

breakfast-for-1

breakfast-for-2

pets-allowed

wi-fi

kitchen

We had an amazing trip on the yacht. The crew were very professional and everything was taken care of for us. We snorkeled at a few locations and the kids loved all the fish, sting rays and even nurse sharks, it was just beautiful. We went to dolphin bay and the rains came, but the crew said lets just see what happens. The sky started to clear and we were in the middle of a pod of dolphins with their babies. They were jumping out of the water and my kids were again amazed. Trip of a lifetime for us, so grateful to the team at fascination Maldives.

First class day on the water in the Maldives, amazed at every turn

If you’re heading to the Maldives definitely give this Yacht a go! We were lucky enough to spend a day on here during our stay in the Maldives and it was the best day of our whole trip. 
We were treated like royalty from the moment we were picked up from our resort. Two of the staff members picked us up on the small boat which took us out to the yacht where 2 more members of staff were waiting with refreshing drinks and cold towels for our face! 
We said we would love to do a day of relaxing, a bit of fishing and snorkeling, that’s exactly what we did! We were lucky enough to snorkel with turtles and so many beautiful fish! We also stopped at a sandbank where the staff set up shade for us with drinks and on the way back to the resort they even stopped at a local island and gave us a walk around tour. We had a delicious freshly cooked lunch followed by a beautiful fruit platter. Later in the day we also had cake served to us and cups of tea and coffee! 

If we ever go back to the Maldives we will definitely do a week on the yacht and a week in a resort as it was perfect! Maxine was also really helpful when booking and answered all of our questions promptly! 

Thanks to everyone at Yacht Facination!

1000000% recommend!! Best trip ever

We had an absolutely wonderful time on the Fascination Yacht! The crew was AMAZING. Literally. Everyone - Saeed the Captain, Mohammed, Badel (the best!) and Mahin (the best chef in the world!) were absolutely fantastic, as were the dive instructors Ahmed and Mohammed. We truly appreciated how they made the entire week a wonderful experience. We were never lost, confused or in need of anything. 

You've got a special crew on the yacht and they deserve LOTS of praise.

Incredible trip with friends!

After a lot of planning and scheduling challenges (thank you Maxine for your patience with all my emails!), my friends and I booked a 6 day, 5 night trip at the end of April/beginning of May 2022.  IT WAS AMAZING.  We snorkeling average 4 times a day. Saw so many remote, untouched corals, fish, manta rays, turtles, etc.  Got to hang out on 3 different sand bars. Swam with dolphins and nurse sharks.  Fished off the boat and caught lunch & dinner! The food was amazing. The captain was really knowledgeable.  The crew was totally professional.  In my opinion, the BEST way to experience the Maldives.

Trip of a Lifetime!

I have mixed feelings about this charter.  I wanted to do a liveaboard for scuba diving followed by a resort stay in the Maldives for our honeymoon. Liveaboards were 5-7 day minimums and we didn’t have that many vacation days. So, I decide to splurge and book “a luxury private yacht” to do the diving before we checked into a resort.

There were certainly things I enjoyed, but the end of the trip left a sour taste in my mouth. The staff on the boat were kind and friendly. I had several memorable experiences. The candlelight dinner was beautifully set up and the photographs Saaed took were awesome. Great composition and framing. Badal worked really hard and was super attentive. He left us a beautiful Happy Honeymoon floral sign on our bed. Overall we had a good time. There were a few things that could have gone better.

1.) I mentioned several times not to give me a lot of meat. I’m not a vegetarian, so I don’t mind if meat is taken out of a dish or cooked in the same pan. I also don’t mind small pieces of meat mixed in with vegetables like with Asian cuisine. I grew up vegetarian and can only eat big hunks of meat in really high end restaurants prepared perfectly. I told them several times that I wanted a lot of vegetables, I realize that my message that said “We eat everything. I don’t eat a lot of meat, but I’m not vegetarian. My husband likes meat and will eat anything” may have not been clear. However, I told the staff after every meal, and I still got big chunks of fish, chicken, and beef and little or no vegetables dishes outside of a small side salad to start. I also clarified on board that when I say “meat” I mean seafood too. The food was super bland and had no flavor. I barely ate anything on the yacht which made me weak and I couldn’t sleep which left me more exhausted than I already was. The master bed was awful. It was a hard board with a super thin mattress. I maybe slept 3 hours a night and now my back is messed up.

2.) I booked a private charter to pick my activities, the locations, and to scuba dive. I was not given any opportunity to express what I wanted. I was told that I’m am doing “this” at “this time” and I just had to do it. 
- Naseem dictated everything and is extremely bossy and controlling. I told him I just want to relax. He said, “you can relax at the resort.” It’s not up to him to tell me on my vacation when to relax.
- First he told me what hat to wear for my photoshoot that wasn’t even mine. I don’t wear random hats and don’t want lice. He also made a snarky comment asking if we had nice clothes for the photoshoot. We were on the yacht wearing bathing suits, but of course we had nice clothes.
- We had a 48 hour journey where I didn’t get any sleep. As soon as we got on the boat, Naseem didn’t ask us if we wanted to snorkel or if a shark swim was ok. I never wanted to purposefully go near a shark. Dictator Naseem said I had to, so I did. I will say though it wasn’t as scary as I thought it would be. He overscheduled us everyday and never consulted us on activities. I have a go go go life at home. This is my vacation. I want to chill.

3.) I’m a PADI certified scuba diver and have been diving since 2007. I have completed an Olympic triathlon and multiple sprint triathlons. 
- I am big chested and my lower body is muscular, so my upper body floats and my lower body sinks. Buoyancy is an issue for me. I no longer knew how much weight I needed because I have lost 70 lbs.  He did not do a buoyancy check. I have been diving in Australia (Great Barrier reef), Roatan Honduras, Goa India, Tamarindo Costa Rica, Vieques Puerto Rico to name a few locations and never had an issue. He kept grabbing my arm and I asked him not to, but he would not stop. I needed my arm to help turn me since he didn’t do a buoyancy check. Holding my arm in the water is dangerous. I need to be able to maneuver for various reasons such as currents and dangerous marine life. I asked him to end the dive because he refused to let go of my arm. I’m not a child. I know what I am and am not capable of. I won’t even do something if I wasn’t confident I could do it. He continued to grab my arm during snorkeling trips and I kept asking him to stop. He cancelled our second dive because he didn’t think I was capable. The reality is he ignored everything I told him and just did what he wanted to do.  
- Feb 11, 2023 I said “We also would like to do a scuba dive or 2. I have to change the dates by one day to December 4–7 instead of 3-6. I can pay and book soon.”
- Feb 11, 2023 Maxine “I forgot about the diving we can stop off to a local diving center for the 1 or 2 dives, it’s not a problem, it usually cost 80$ per person per dive with all the equipment”
- Feb 11, 2023 Me “Ok…We’d like one night candlelight dinner and photoshoot on an uninhabited island. And dive on either the 5th or the 6th.”
- December 3, 2023 “Also have you set up the scuba yet? I didn’t want you to forget”
- December 3, 2023 “About the diving, we never discussed enough, are you certified with Padi and are you a regular diver ? And Because of your flight on the 7th you cannot dive on the 6th only maybe early morning”
- I don’t even need to explain the above. You can read for yourself. Naseem claimed they didn’t know because I said “dive” and not “scuba dive”. Then he proceeded to tell me the difference. If you read the above you will see I said “scuba dive” and Maxine said “dive”. It was very clear what I was talking about since she mentioned a dive shop. English is my first language and I used to teach English and was an English major in university. So it was funny that a Maldivian was “teaching” me English. Also scuba divers say just “dive”. Typically when you’re on the ocean in a tropical country known for scuba diving and you say dive, it does not mean jumping head first into the water.  I was not taken to a dive shop as promised, but Naseem took us out himself, 

4.) There were lots of bait and switches and lack of communication about charges. 
- I booked through Trip Advisor and after the price was quoted, Maxine cancelled the quote and upped it by $200. When I asked why, she mentioned it was a fuel surcharge. Nowhere on the listing did it say there will be an extra  charge for fuel. Her words, “Because of the fuel consumption to where we are traveling for 3 nights. It is the price I sent to you before for the 3 to 6 , same price quotation.” This sentence didn’t make sense, but it was $200 so I obliged. I wouldn’t have thought twice about it, but after getting on the yacht, money grubbing became the norm. Naseem complained about me booking through tripadvisor constantly because he had to pay a fee to them. Then take the listing off, you are the ones that listed it there. You’re also paying for marketing and getting bookings through TripAdvisor. 
- We were only supposed to be charged for alcohol and soft drinks. I got charged for juice, nobody told me that this was chargeable, and it was a surprise charge when I was closing out my bill the last day. I asked as soon as I got on board if juices were included, and I was told yes.
- I was told in writing that the dives would be $80 including equipment. On the yacht I was told $85 then on the last day Naseem wanted extra $30 for equipment. He said that he paid for it himself out of pocket. In my conversations following the trip with Maxine, she told me she bought the BCD herself in France. He ended up not charging us for the dives. So we appreciated that.
- I received a message before the trip that I had to pay a tip in cash and that 10% it was $700. The mandatory service charge is baked into the prices at the resorts. This also was not mentioned on the listing and was an extra undisclosed charge that was sprung on me after booking. I paid $6060 so 10% is $606. That’s almost a $100 difference she tried to swindle. 
- I gave the staff 10,000 of local currency ($651 US). I also gave $40 to one staff member that went above and beyond. I ended up very close to the $700 amount. I usually tip well over 10%. Usually 15% - 20%. But the moment someone asks me to tip a certain amount it rubs me the wrong way. It’s just tacky. It would have been more ethical to bake in the 10% into the price or disclose it in the listing like the resorts do.
- I had my backpack stolen a few months ago in Oregon during a trip and $2000 was lost. It is not safe to travel with a lot of cash and I will not do it again. I brought $375 with me. I took our money at the airport and it came out in local currency. I had already paid fees to take it out and my bank account balance was super low. Naseem kept insisting I can only pay their tip in dollars. Paying in American dollars is certainly not part of the new service charge law.

5.) The communication about where to meet was terrible. One message said to meet at the jetty and the other said Badal will get me with a sign. 
“We will pick you up with the yacht in front of the airport jetty. Our crew Badal will be waiting for you at the arrival.” then “We will be waiting for you at the arrivals at 14:55 your flight QR 674 with a sign of the yacht Fascination and the crew will have a white polo with the name of the yacht.” There was no sign and I had not phone service or internet to contact Maxine. Maldives didn’t have an international pass with my phone which I use when I travel internationally. I was extremely frustrated and panicked because I couldn’t find the yacht, and nobody knew where Fascination Yacht was. It would have been nice to get a detailed message with instructions, directions, additional charges and fees, and rules.

Again, the staff worked really hard and were really nice. I’m sure some travelers won’t mind having Naseem as a cruise director, but I’m very independent and honestly paid a lot of money, but had minimal control of the itinerary. I paid more per night for that yacht than I did for an all inclusive 5 star resort with a 290m² over water ocean villa with a pool. 

When we got off on a local island Naseem wouldn’t let us walk without him. My husband asked what time we should meet them, he said we’re coming with you. I don’t need a babysitter. I have traveled all the around the work and even by myself since I was 18 and I’m 47 now.

I originally wasn’t going to leave a review at all, but Maxine asked me how it was and I told her the good and the bad. She didn’t apologize. Instead argued with me and got super defensive. This lady has no business being customer facing. She literally didn’t listen to me about how I should have been weighted for my body type and claimed all women have the same body.

Yacht Fascination Maldives

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