Bertaut had his eyes on a drone for quite some time, being a techie addict and big kid at heart who is always eager to get his next toy. Our epic journey to the Maldives seemed like the perfect time to go for it and finally make the purchase. He’d been saving his Best Buy reward points up for a long time so was able to purchase a DJI Phantom 3 entirely with points, score! He arrived to the beautiful Hadahaa island eager to try out his new toy somewhere other than our backyard, with slightly better views. 😉
Bertaut having fun with his new toy, a Phantom DJI 3 drone, at Park Hyatt Maldives
Day one of drone explorations was a success with some beautiful shots of the gorgeous water and coral reefs from above as Bertaut became expert in maneuvering his gadget. He photographed me snorkeling (while I was getting the worst sunburn of my life on my rear end) and swimming along the beach. He captured some fantastic views of the ocean’s many shades of blue from a drone’s eye view. Thankfully he downloaded the images that night and saved them to his computer, because day two of drone exploration took a turn for the worse which caused the rest of his images to be lost forever.
Bertaut was up before sunrise to capture it from the best spot around and had free range on the empty beach while everyone was still asleep.
After discussing drone strategies at breakfast with new friends, he set out to capture more amazing shots. I went back for more snorkeling and returned a few hours later to find out that he had lost his drone. He has been known to pull pranks on me, so I thought he was kidding. Sadly, he was serious. His beloved brand new drone had vanished out of the sky and dropped into the ocean.
The dreaded image no drone owner wants to see while the drone is in flight
How many leagues under the sea it fell we did not know for sure. Unfortunately he didn’t see exactly where it dropped so was unable to send out a drone recovery scuba expedition. Shout out to the Park Hyatt team and local fisherman who took their boats out to look for its, but unfortunately were unable to locate it. Bertaut’s best guess to what could have caused it to malfunction is that he heard a helicopter nearby flying from a private yacht to the island, and perhaps it interfered with the drone’s signal. At the bar that night, one of the billionaire yacht owners whose helicopter flew to the island shared that he has stacks of empty drone boxes that have disappeared on him also. We also heard a story of a drone getting stuck in a palm tree and the owner was unable to retrieve it, so there it rests in peace. As Bertaut’s sad yet kind of funny drone story circulated around the tiny resort, fellow drone owners offered to take some extra shots of us on the beach and to share some of their images with us. Here are some of the excellent images we received from our new friends and fellow drone owners in the Maldives. Thanks Gabe and Rohin for the amazing photos!
Park Hyatt Maldives Hadahaa from a Phantom DJI 3 drone’s view
Weeks after we returned home with our empty drone case, we received an email from Park Hyatt Maldives General Manager Mariano Sylvestri that our drone had been found! The resort’s marine biologist was scuba diving to check the water lines and found the drone at the bottom of the ocean. We made the decision to have the drone shipped back to us ($100 later) hoping that we might be able to get a refund since the drone malfunctioned. Bertaut shipped it to the manufacturer and they looked into whether it sank due to user error or if it malfunctioned. He was incredibly happy to receive an email from DJI after they did their research and discovered that indeed the drone’s motherboard malfunctioned and it was not user error. Bertaut received his brand new drone in the mail today, just in time for our next adventure… Let’s hope this one stays above sea level. To our fellow avid travelers and drone enthusiasts, what are your funniest and best drone stories? Please share in the comments. To see what else we were up to in the Maldives, check out our posts about the Manager’s Cocktail Reception, Valentine’s Day chocolate wrap and couples massage, romantic private beach dinner and movie under the stars, complimentary gourmet breakfast, Park Villa and Park Pool Villa reviews, and peek at the Park Water Villa. If you liked this post and would like to get tips to travel like a millionaire, please sign up for our email newsletter and RSS feed.
