7 days ago
We spent £10k on a dream Maldives honeymoon but left early – we were so disappointed & fled to Dubai instead
MANY people dream of flying to the Maldives for a picture-perfect honeymoon - but one couple claim they were left "disappointed" by their £10,000 trip.
Newly married Sophie and her husband jetted on what they thought would be a trip of a lifetime, but decided to leave early when it didn't live up to expectations.
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In a clip which has racked up over a million views, Sophie shared exactly why they didn't love the Maldives.
On her @sophiegrace_24 account, she shared how she had forked out over £10,000 for an 11-night stay, but left after a few days.
She had known it would be expensive but it had been somewhere they had always wanted to go and she used a 'well-known travel provider in the UK.'
The newlyweds were told about a new island that was opening in March, ahead of their July honeymoon, and there was an introductory offer they could snap up.
They were sold, given it had seven restaurants and two islands joined with a walkway.
Sophie added that she had checked in April that all the facilities would be open and construction would have finished.
She claims she was told that due to a delay, it would be opening on July 1, just ahead of their July 8 arrival, but that everything would be ready for their arrival.
However, this is when things went downhill for her.
In her video, she explained: 'So we turn up and the island's absolutely beautiful. Staff are there to welcome us. Everything you expect as you pull up to your island in the Maldives.
'And then we found out we were the only people staying on the second island, the first and only people to have ever moved in.'
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At first, they thought it would be great to have what felt like a 'private island' - but they soon changed their minds.
She explained: 'On our first night, we decided to go to the buffet restaurant. And on our walk there, there was just so much construction work going on around us. Lots of noise, lots of people. Wasn't great.'
When they arrived at the buffet, this had been cancelled due to not enough people being on the island, and they were given a set menu.
Four of the restaurants were also not open, and the ones that were had reduced menus.
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Sophie said the lack of guests also meant that service was over-bearing - although the staff were friendly.
She added: 'This is a really weird one, but the staff were too attentive. And I think that's because there wasn't enough people on the island. And they were new to their job on the island.
'I just felt like every time we sat down to eat, we were being watched. Luke was carrying two glasses of water to our table at breakfast. And they stopped him two metres from the table, took them off him and said, 'oh, let me carry those for you.''
She reasoned that some people may like that type of service but they wanted to be 'left alone a bit.'
DUBAI PIVOT
The couple decided to leave after just four days to fly to Dubai instead - and got refunded for the seven days they didn't stay there.
This follows Molly Mae's sister Zoe Rae cutting her honeymoon in Bali short after 48 hours to fly to Dubai instead, as things didn't feel 'quite right.'
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Understandably, when you go on your honeymoon, you want it to be your dream trip and to get your money's worth, and Sophie said this was why they made the switch,
Sophie explained: 'When you are expecting a certain thing and you have paid for that, to turn up and not have it, we just felt like it was disappointment after disappointment.
'But it was our honeymoon. And I didn't want that to be our experience of the Maldives. We like Dubai. We've been to Dubai plenty of times before.'
SOCIAL REACTION
Many people supported her in the comments, with one saying: 'The construction work would tip me over.'
Another added: 'Ah this is sad sorry you didn't get the experience you paid for!'
However, one pointed out: 'Madam, you need to be grateful for being able to afford an expensive journey to Maldives and shouldn't complain about little negative stuff.
'Do you know that 90% of the world will never be able to go to Maldives.'
A second added: 'Leaving Maldives for Dubai is wild.'
