OZEN Reserve Bolifushi review: where the marketing and reality diverged

Why I wanted to see OZEN Bolifushi

After a teary goodbye to the Gili Lankanfushi team, we set forth towards our next resort this trip: Ozen Reserve Bolifushi.

ORB is an interesting resort for me as, back when it was Jumeirah Vittaveli, it was one of the very first resorts that caught my attention (easy transfer, seemingly good reef, and back in 2014 it had some of the largest and most opulent villas), and we were very close to booking a weeklong stay here but instead opted for Moofushi.

I was also extremely interested in visiting this resort because it’s one of the few resorts where my clients are totally split: I get either excellent reviews (for example, some of my clients who are regulars at Ozen Life and then come here totally love it for the generous AI), or some also seem to mention that it was not entirely for them… a bit of a Marmite island that really piqued my interest.

Arrival and transfer

We met the ORB rep on arrival and were escorted to the “lounge,” which in reality was a small, sparsely decorated room with some A/C and a couple chairs that were way too large for the space (it felt pretty overcrowded with hardly any seats open). Thankfully, we were the last guests to arrive and stayed in there for about 5 minutes before making our way to the Ozen “Luxury Catamaran.”

Yes, unlike any other resort in the Maldives who uses a yacht or a boat, Ozen uses a “Catamaran,” which to their credit is a pretty smart move as it sits a lot higher than the average speedboat, which minimizes the impact of sea sickness should the sea be a bit… rough. Stay tuned for our Patina entry for more on that.

Ozen, like Gili, is located close to Malé but in the opposite direction, about 25 minutes south of the airport on the northwest tip of South Malé Atoll. I had somewhat high hopes for the location as we visited Velassaru and SO/ a couple of months ago and had no issues, and with Ozen being further away from Malé, I was actually hoping the location would feel a bit better.

The construction context

Right? Wrong!

Ozen, unfortunately, sits in the exact center of what feels like a minefield of construction. The island is oriented with most of its beaches north/south rather than east/west (so no… the sunset villas don’t actually face the sunset.. The oldest marketing move in the book that I so wish resorts would stop using), and you have two options when it comes to views: the horrible Mandarin Oriental construction site, which is so much closer than any picture could ever depict (the "sunset" side), or the Malé skyline with a side of burning trash at Thilafushi, amongst other construction activities like the India/Maldives bridge that is being built (the "sunrise" side)

Turns out the latter is actually the better and cheaper option, as at least it is further away than the MO, which is really super in your face.

First impressions and check-in

Anyways, let’s move on… we reached Ozen to one of the most wonderful arrival ceremonies I ever remember witnessing: drums, a flower lady throwing rose petals at all the arriving guests, ozen stamped coconut water, a foot massage ritual with flowers, a team serenading us with a traditional Maldivian tune… I don’t really think they could’ve done more if they tried? So A+ for effort! I love it when resorts at least try.

We were shortly thereafter informed by our butler that our villa (despite having arrived at half past noon) was still not ready, which I found to be a bit odd.

I soon came to know that the resort was operating at ~100% capacity and their standard check-in time is actually 3pm and not 2pm.

Interestingly, Ozen has been operating for most of june and july especially at 100%, with 95% of their clientele being Chinese or Russian (but mostly Chinese). This also means that they have an incredible amount of villa movements per day, since almost all Chinese guests split their stay 2 nights WV and 2 nights beach villa. In turn, this causes significant chaos as the bars and restaurants become overrun with “roomless guests” as they wait for their room to be ready (since checkout is at noon, and then check-in again is at 3pm). The beach bar effectively becomes a check-in/check-out lounge, which is not quite the “luxury premium AI” experience that the resort advertises across their marketing.

We had a quick lunch at Sangu - the a la carte lunch restaurant. The food was tasty, the service was very attentive, and the drinks were good. What stood out to me the most was the loud Ibiza-style music that was playing in the background and the pretty unfortunate color scheme.

Design, villa and view

Now, I admit I am incredibly difficult to please when it comes to design and perhaps have been spoiled by the very lovely, natural tones that COMO, Soneva, Joali Being offer… but something about bright lilac and purple cushions does not really scream “relaxing” to me - this same colorscheme is unfortunately present across the resort with these same neon hues also showing up in the evening. Sangu turned out to be by far the better option than the Vista Del Mar lunch buffet which, sadly, was of extremely mediocre quality (as was the breakfast), had a really poor odor in the indoor cold room, and featured probably the ugliest chairs I’ve ever seen in my life.

Our room (a Sunset Earth Pool Villa) was ready about an hour after arrival and I have to give credit to Jumeirah here: they built a really lovely villa, especially considering it is turning 15 years old this year. The entry-level villa feels very grand and very luxurious, with a huge pool, a lovely covered lanai/cabana, and a sit-down sleeping area. These rooms can comfortably sleep 3 adults or 2 adults and 2 kids with some room to spare. This is the only part of the resort that to me actually felt 5*s, which I guess is also a lot of what you’re paying for.

But sadly, I had a problem with the view.

This is absolutely not Ozen’s fault, but the MO is in the process of building an extremely large and intrusive resort (which was supposed to be ready years ago) right in front of ORB. The fact that the resort is also unfinished adds to the chaos because the island looks very industrial and not green, and the villas are just boxes of cement.

It is an extremely unpleasant view from this side of the island (perhaps if you’ve not been to MV before you might be ok with it, but I reckon that most guests who are allocated on this side in some way, shape, or form complain). The construction is also incredibly loud (with banging occurring every so often) and is clearly audible from the “sunset” side (but not the sunrise side).

So we asked to move to the other side. Thankfully, they had 1 villa left, and while not perfect, it was at least a bit more open and not as congested.

Food and execution

Our stay here was quite short, so we had a chance to also dine for dinner at Soyi and Origine. Soyi, despite the setting, which is in a glass indoor restaurant and reminded me very much of a sandals restaurant in the Caribbean, was delicious and offered the best dining we had at the resort - lovely dumplings, a great beef dish, and lovely drinks. Origine, their alleged fine dining restaurant, had too much of a “wannabe” feel for my liking, trying to be something that it so clearly is not. A perfect example is the fact that they serve Taittinger (great!), except that the Taittinger is obviously recycled from the night before (not opened on the spot) and was extremely flat. OR that the lobster that they served was very visually appealing and plated super nicely, but was of very low quality and tasted bland and rubbery.

I could go on, but that was really the theme here: This resort is trying way too hard to be a “luxury” property but absolutely not delivering where it needs to.

Reef and all-inclusive plan

What I actually did really enjoy, however, was the snorkeling. This really took me by surprise as I’d figured with all the construction going on the reef would be mostly dead. The reef runs beautifully across both sides of the island and is teeming with fish life and some really nice coral formations. The resort sits on a channel, so in retorspect that’s not so surprising after all, but my snorkels were filled with lovely fish soup, rays, huge Napoleon fish, and tons of sharks. I would rank the reef here a solid 7 or 7.5 out of 10.

I also did find that the main USP of the resort (their AI Plan) did live up to expectation in terms of inclusions -- the drinks list is extensive and all the cocktails we had were excellent… and I am sure that is a big draw point to this resort.

Final verdict

So what is my Final Verdict: Ozen is a resort that is absolutely not for me (not surprising, I don’t really do AI in the Maldives), but clearly they are doing some things right as they are consistently very full and people seem to love it, and several guests were even crying upon departure (insert confused emoji)