TLDR; Everything was great, contact Ruth at Secret Paradise you won’t regret it!
Our first trip to the Maldives was a huge success, thanks to Secret Paradise Maldives Tours.
A huge thank you to Ruth for being very responsive and informative prior to us booking the trip and excursions! She answered very promptly (especially considering the time-zone difference), with relevant and accurate information and answers to all our questions.
We went to the Maldives for a week. We did not want to stay at a single resort. Instead we tried to maximize our exposure to different experiences and the local culture and food. Secret Paradise helped us tremendously by offering a huge variety of local experiences. We booked multiple day and part-day experiences through Secret Paradise: our boat dives, local island sightseeing, dining with a local family, etc. We also booked two day-passes at different resorts via Ruth.
The scuba diving was through a local (to Hulhumale) dive shop, and you could tell they had a good relationship with Secret Paradise. It was also easy to tell why Secret Paradise used them as their service was great, and the dives were fun and well guided. So much colorful fish, corrals, even a sea turtle!
Of the two resorts we went to via day-passes (Cinnamon Dhonveli and Embudu Village), Cinnamon was superior in terms of amenities and the service! They made us feel like valued guests and customers even though we were visiting on a day pass. They had lock-boxes for day-guests, and nice shower and bathroom/changing rooms we could use. The all-inclusive bar, snacks, and lunch buffets were also very nice. We spent half the day by the pool relaxing and enjoying drinks and snacks, and the second half of the day snorkeling. The snorkeling was pretty good, with some colorful fish and some coral. The dive store was very reasonable in rental price for the fins. (We had our own mask and snorkels).
The second place, Embudu village, was a totally different experience. From the first moment, we were treated like second class citizens. The package was sold to come with 'a beach towel and a large bottle of water' each. The towel we got were washed out, worn, brown shower towels, while the rest of the people that arrived with us got much larger white and blue beach towels. When we asked about the water we were told that we would not get the water until the lunch was served. They had no changing rooms or enclosed showers for day guests, and the whole service experience felt like it was setup to nickle and dime you. On the plus side, the buffet was huge (though day guests are placed immediately next to the dining area bathrooms), and the reefs and snorkeling was INCREDIBLE. We spent quite a bit of time swimming with a group (at one point 7 of them) blackfin sharks (small and "friendly" sharks that stay close to shore). It was a very cool experience and the whole time they were just swimming in and out of huge schools of silver fish, very docile and non threatening. For those that don't like the idea of sharks, they stayed at this one area the whole time. We also snorkeled around MOST of the entire island (no sharks). That was a 2 hour snorkel adventure without compare. So many different fish, and corals and mussels and anemones and so on. It was the best snorkel experience of the trip.
If Ruth was fantastic pre-trip planning and organizing in the background, her team of great local guides was every bit as good when we arrived! Every day they met us at our local guest. And every day they took great care of us, making sure all our questions were answered, informing us about the local traditions, politics, sights etc. It was a blast, and felt like we were island hopping with old friends of ours, instead of people we just met.
If you are still reading, you should stop reading and instead contact Ruth at Secret Paradise and get cranking on your tour plans! Whatever your goals are for the trip, Ruth can help you make it happen!