I would love to hear your perspective on the boat and crew Ramsy. I'm booked on it later in the year.
AlMitch,
I will write a more detailed trip report and post it here on Scubaboard in the next few days. But, in a nutshell, I found no faults with the Indo Siren, its crew or the diving experience. Nor, did I wish that they had X. In other words, I was thoroughly satisfied and will dive with them again in the future.
Some quick thoughts. The crew of the Indo Siren is fantastic. The dive guides really know the area and dive sites. One of them in particular, Stany, is a pro at finding the special marine life at each dive site. So, stick with Stany if you can.
While I did not rent any gear from them, their rental gear looked quite new and in excellent condition. Some of the divers on my trip showed up with nothing but a dive computer and I heard no complaints regarding their equipment.
The boat and its amenities are well thought out. For example, if you are going to do photography on the trip, the boat has a photo area in the salon dedicated solely for camera equipment. That area already has converters for charging plugs. So, if you have 110 plugs, you don't need to bring converters as the boat already has them. It was very convenient.
Also, in the salon, there are storage lockers for each diver. So, we would keep things like, computers, batteries, books, sun tan lotion, chargers, etc. in these lockers so that we did not have to go to our cabin to get items. You also have a storage locker by your gear. So, you can keep you dive computers, pointers, lights, etc with your dive gear.
The food on board was 4 and 5 star restaurant quality. The dinner desserts were exceptional. The ship has a coffee/espresso machine that makes a good cup of coffee. This got used quite a bit throughout the day. Beer is included, but if you like, you can also bring your own alcohol. While you can purchase hard liquor and wine on the ship, due to Indonesia liquor tax, liquor on the ship is very expensive.
As for the diving, in general, there were no time limits on your dives, except night dives, which were limited to 45 minutes (but generally we still did 60 minute night dives). The rule was that you had to come back with a minimum of 30 bar or 400 psi. Most of the people on my trip seemed to use little gas while diving. So, dive times would run for most somewhere between 60 to 70 minutes. The boat will set you up with an aluminum 80. However, they also have several aluminum 100 tanks available. So, if you want more gas for your dives, just ask them to give you an aluminum 100 when you get to the boat.
Also, the range of diving went from muck diving to crystal blue water diving. The dives also ranged from nice relaxed dives to drift dives to super strong current dives. I liked the variety.
Finally, all of the cabins are very comfortable. I found them to be quite roomy for cabins on a ship. I also found the beds to be quite comfortable.
Hope this helps. I will post a dive report soon that will have links to photos and videos of my trip.
Otherwise, let me know if you have specific questions. I am happy to answer any questions you may have.
