Ritz Kids with Juan, our Executive Assistant Manager - Rooms

Welcome to Sangu Stories!

Today, we are unveiling an exciting project - Ritz Kids, a marvellous circular-shaped club with indoor and outdoor spaces, a water slide and a destination-inspired programme that will leave children asking to return back the moment they leave the resort.
Our Executive Assistant Manager for Rooms, Juan Serrano shares more about the Ritz Kids.

For any further information or assistance, please contact Aminath.Haadhee@ritzcarlton.com , Marketing Communications Manager.

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For more information about The Ritz-Carlton Maldives, Fari Islands, visit our website

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Transcript

Mark Hehir: 0:00

Welcome to another episode of Sangu Stories. One of the first things you'll notice about the island is its iconic circle, shape architecture. The villas and the spa have gained much popularity, but have you seen the Ritz kids? The architecture and design of the Ritz Kids transport you into a magical land filled with adventure. And today we have here our Executive Assistant Manager to join me, Juan Serrano is here to discuss this fascinating project, the Ritz kids, which is a Ritz-Carlton signature program as well. We added fun of the destination and the marvelous architecture bring an experience beyond the imagination to our young travellers. We're so excited to share with all. Welcome one to our podcast today. Finally, we are here working from the island.

Juan Serrano: 0:50

Mark, thank you for having me today. Uh, can't wait to play more about all the amazing things we've been developing in the last few months with the team I need to be honest and I am new here in Maldives. And I always thought Maldives was all about couples and being the perfect honeymoon destination. After meeting you, working with all of you, I also had to learn that my perception was quite wrong in a way as it also happens to be a great family destination. Actually I cannot say now for a better environment also hold the little ones, uh, what I can say also that we have put a lot of work on the kids programme and, and of course we are also as part of The Ritz-Carlton. We have the very well-known Ritz Kids programme, but we also wanted to do a bit of a Maldivian twist

Mark Hehir: 1:36

Looking forward to delving into questions today. More about that. In fact, uh, kids and children and families have become really important in the market in Maldives all of these over the last 10 years. Share with us one a bit more about the architecture and design of our Ritz Kids.

Juan Serrano: 1:52

Well, I will say Mark, uh, being very honest, the first thing you will see when you come to the resort, that it is actually very large, uh, and I can see how the designer knew how important these facilities were going to be, how important they were going to be for us in order to provide the best experiences for the little ones. Also, um, as you mentioned earlier, iconic-circular shapes, the theme of the hotel and this, uh, like in the spa, the villas, and I assure you the kids club. It's another one of that. It is an entirely circular-shaped building with both indoor and outdoor facilities. What I can also tell you is that, uh, the indoor it's outstanding, we offer reading corners interactive projection, uh, predictions calls from the stations are arts and craft and even a quite large kids' playground. But if you ask me my favorite part it's of course outdoor, we have a beautiful kids pool with a slide, even we have a climbing wall for kids and even a much larger playground than indoor. Also, uh, another advantage that we have in this kid's club is the location. And this is quite close to the recreational facilities, such as the dive center, the tennis, and also the gym, even nearr to Beach Shack, right? If so, if you are you're with your kid, you can allow them there to be there by themselves. And you get a moment of escape, which is also what you're looking for.

Mark Hehir: 3:15

You know, uh, we find, uh, over in the Maldives, so many families really enjoy that possibility where they, they know that the kids are taken care of and that, but they're nearby. And this has always been a challenge in some places we've worked in previous times. And here we are with the new Ritz Kids just situated on the Grand Beach, it's got a great location, as you mentioned. Uh, tell me more about the experiences because at the end of the day, it's the children's experiences, which will last a lifetime.

Juan Serrano: 3:46

Yeah. I cannot agree more. Uh, the experience is all about it, right? Um, you know, as we always say is, the kid is happy, the parents are happy. I can name a few, but if you ask me my favorite one will be the Ritz Kids Treasure Hunt where we're going to get the kids who are going to dress in pirates. We're going to provide in some tools, a map. And we will have to go on this pro the islands, right? Finding some clues, investigating until they finally get the, the hidden treasure, right. And sports activities are also going to be a big part of all the activities. Um, so, you know, we can name it from Safari biking around the resort from football and other main activities that we can do also in the kids club to the beach. But even we also plan to have the or professional in-house yoga to do a bit of a introduction to them.

Mark Hehir: 4:39

Great. Great. Yeah. There's so much to explore. And during festive and Easter, we've got a host of activities of daily calendars that really amplified, uh, for the family to interact together. As long as that happens all the way through the year as well, we really feel that it's something special. How will we bring to life the culture of the Maldives to our young trouble is how will they really feel Maldives? Tell us about that

Juan Serrano: 5:07

I'm glad you asked this question, Mark. Because as I mentioned earlier, we wanted to, to base this on the Ritz Kids programme, but being in Maldives, we also wanted to make this twist, right? I'll give you some examples. So my favourite one will be the Bodu Beru masterclass. The Bodu Beru is a traditional drum that is used here in the Maldives. And he, as you know, it also was used as inspiration in our resort, right? We want to teach the kids how to make one. I also tell you, that's not going to be easy tasks what we are gonna show them, they're going to like it a lot. We do also want them to feel connected to, with the tradition, right? So we also plan to host beach dinners at night, where we are going to get in and dressing with local costume. That will be also something quite, quite nice that I look forward to see, but another one would be for sure, a Maldivian bonfire stories where we're going to get a group of kids, we're going to put them all together near the hotel bonfire. And we're just going to tell this one amazing stories with these scenarios as soon, it's going to be something quite unique.

Mark Hehir: 6:10

That's wonderful. I guess also those stories are also told by different experts and other characters that work with us in the island. So I think there's lots to explore, reaching out to whether it's Jean-Michel Cousteau, other stories about the ocean and more information, as well as, uh, stories about some mystic moments that may have happened in the Maldives history. I want to know a little bit more about what and how the kids or the Ritz Kids will differentiate opposed to other clubs in the moment. I mean, there's lots of amazing kids clubs here in the Maldives, what's different about the Ritz Kids club.

Juan Serrano: 6:51

I think the main difference, uh it's we have outstanding facilities, as I mentioned earlier, it's it's really outstanding back when we were working, uh, I will say in May last year and I was already looking at the renderings, I was really quite, quite amazed about it. But once we arrive here to the site, it is, it is truly something outstanding. But I think also it's, we need to go back to how the Ritz Kids programme is designed, right? And we go back to how The Ritz-Carlton hotels will be doing this, right? This is based in four pillars, land, water, environmental responsibility, and culture. Uh, and we put all of this into practice in every single activities. And there is a purpose. I think another difference, which is quite a special, uh, compared to other resorts, for example, here in the Maldives, we have really, tailor-made all of our toys. Um, some of the products that we offer, uh, to this specific resort, right, is we took the ocean and the wish to explore as inspiration. I can tell you, for example, we have created an outstanding, really beautiful Ritz-Carlton lion, which you will happen to see one in every single Ritz-Carlton worldwide, but we have also take, uh, something a bit more different path, right? We here in the Maldives, the Ritz-Carlton is well known for the lion. So we created the lionfish for our resort and that's going to be a beautiful toy. Yeah. As you seen it already, it's quite beautiful. We want to ensure we're going to be showing this to everyone sometime soon and ensure everyone, you know, we're going to have kids asking for it the moment they check in, in the hotel. Um, but we also, uh, to, uh, inspiration from the famous Ritz-Carlton Safari programme, right. And we really had engaged it into our way and we will look forward to also translate these into the insight the guests villas, right. We just know when I leave everything inside, the Ritz Kids club some sort of more like a journey of discoveries for the kids on that part. But if you ask me what is really their highlight, and one makes a big difference it's to of course, partner with Jean-Michel Cousteau Ambassador of the Environment. This is going to allow kids to truly learn more about ocean and environmental conservation, which is as you know, one of the fundamentals in our resort.

Mark Hehir: 9:06

Mm mm. And it's really implanting and building up, uh, a really important part of the future. Uh, really needs, young children's minds around protecting the environment, which Jean-Michel Cousteau is so passionate about. And that partnership with Austin has been one of his key focuses is, you know, the children need to be solidly part of the programme. And, and it's good to see it starting to come alive in the kids, uh, kids club and, and Ritz Kids has really embraced it, uh, worldwide. Now, when we look at other experiences, uh, that families can enjoy together on the island. Tell us more about that.

Juan Serrano: 9:43

Well, I think as we were talking about last year, we wanted to, we wanted all the activities to be done. We don't either with the kids only, but we also want the parents to be here just on occasions. Right. So most of them, uh, can be done together. Let's go, for example, to The Ritz-Carlton treasure hunt, right. You can do this as a family activity and I am sure they are going to have a great time with that. The cooking class, even we had created a Mocktail class, right. We plan also to do picnics trips, sandbank excursions and even yoga as a family. Right. Um, if you asked me again, my, my highlights will be in that movie nights. Uh, we have an outstanding outdoor cinema, and I think families would love to have some, some quality time with, uh, with a great movie under the stars of course, with popcorns.

Mark Hehir: 10:33

Yeah. So it's really all-encompassing. Now, this Ritz Kids clubs coming alive, right beside us, where we're sitting today and I, every day we walk out and see what the next surprise is, is they're finishing. And that we're really excited to see the unveiling of the Ritz Kids and also the arrival of Haneef taking care of the whole recreation, but really a specialist here at moldy is a local, more deviant running the club. I think that's a great addition to our team and really making sure that it, the indigenous Maldivian element comes alive in a marriage with The Ritz-Carlton, uh, philosophies and that emotional connection to, uh, our people and our customer is alive there and, and really, uh, finding ways to bring Maldives alive to them, you know, and that's special to me,

Juan Serrano: 11:23

I'm actually super excited to have Haneef from the team because he's been working already on the programme for, for quite a time. And I assure you the moment I show him everything that we had done, he was already giving him even better ideas. Right? All these Maldives twists recreation activities, concern him. And actually we look forward to even creating even more in the future. Like we want to encase it, especially for example, when we have Festive coming like Easter, like Christmas, this is going to be not a one-stop journey, but they will be quite many more coming in the future.

Mark Hehir: 11:58

No, I'm looking forward to having him here. And then we can talk more now next podcast about the activities that we'll be doing on, on the island and share more about our plans for football camps and festive planning for the end of the year. And as you mentioned, Easter as well, these are special times for families, which we really appreciate all about customers coming out to spend that 10 days of precious time with us. And we take it really seriously that it really needs to be amplified in an, in a really beautiful and engaging way. So thanks for your time today. One, I appreciate that. And I know that we're going to talk more in future discussions about all other parts of the resort, but today it was about the Ritz Kids club. And, uh, thank you for joining me

Juan Serrano: 12:44

Mark. The pleasure is mine. And I, I look forward for, for, to hear what our guests are going to be saying about, or, or programmes and or facilities I need to say all is looking truly stunning. Thank you so much for having me here.

Mark Hehir: 12:57

Thank you and have a great day. Take care. Thank you. Well, I hope you enjoyed today's podcast. Join me next time. When we discover more about the roots farming islands.