Long overdue!
Pictures here: Visayas & Malapascua (Aug 2022)
This was my second trip on the Philippine Siren after a great Tubbataha experience in end of March/beginning of April. Crew/service was 11/10 on that trip. Diving was maybe 8-9/10 since we fully missed out on the whale sharks but the walls were pristine.
They had a 40% off promotion so I rebooked the Visayas/Malapascua itinerary as it was much easier than island hopping by land. It was $2200pp w free nitro (+$155 park fees + a last minute +$150 fuel surcharge). So more expensive than a land-based trip but I think not by much, and much less headache.
This was a trip at the beginning of Aug and their last trip before going into dry dock. So sadly a lot of things were broken (fridge door would not stay closed, TV (where they show the dive map for briefings) died halfway)
My last trip to Tubbataha was cruise director Jona's last trip, and I met interim cruise director Amy (who is normally cruise director on the Indo Siren) at the end for the handover. My trip this time was coincidentally Amy's last trip on the Philippines Siren before she returns to the Indo Siren for the Banda crossings & Raja Ampat season. (We had a long discussion on her favourite place to dive and her vote is for Raja by a mile, some of the Raja videos she showed us was mind blowing)
Service this time was not quite as good - maybe 6-7/10. The crew tried their best but everyone was tired and (I think) overworked and (not their fault) SICK. There were a few safety incidents that I was not happy about which I will get into later.
Food was great as always - lots, good variety, and healthy. And an actual cappuccino every morning!
The average age of the guests this time was 65+, I was the youngest one at 30, my roommate + her friend were in their early 40s, and everyone else was retired 65-80.
A couple of the older guests were sick coming into the cruise (coughing heavily) but no one wore masks. Well no surprise a few days into the trip EVERYONE got sick - guests & crew. Luckily my roommate was a pharmacist and kept me de-congested and I powered through - us three were the only ones that did all 32 dives, everyone else did maybe 1-2 a day.
Diving wise I would say it's 10/10 for variety and maybe 7-8/10 overall.
The itinerary had 32 dives over 9 diving days. Most days were 4x a day (dives capped at 60min). We covered a lot!
Cabilao and Panglao I felt was just ok, decent reefs and macro but not amazing. Good easy check dives.
Balicasag had pretty good reefs, not as many turtles as I was led to expect, but still great WA dives. Apo was better.
Oslob dive was one of the two highlights for me - so many whalesharks (10+)! I think the snorkel would have been even better as they are all gathered at the surface being fed (as divers we cannot go above 5m). I had mixed feelings going into this but Amy said the sharks are free to leave anytime and this is just a small fraction of their diet so only the juveniles really stay for a few days before moving on.
Dauin muck diving was awesome - I just wish we did more. We did not hit a lot of the sites listed on their itinerary. We (us 3 youngsters) requested one full day in Dauin (vs Apo) but the other guests did not like muck (most could not see the tiny stuff). Saw my first starry night octopus.
Apo Island was also great - but one day would have been enough for me. We did 6 dives including some repeats on 2 days - 2nd day felt repetitive. Best reefs of the trip but not quite as good as Indo (Komodo, Bangka) - was not wow! for me after Tubbataha and Bangka.
Moalboal sardine dive was the other highlight - this is something really cool!
Pescador was sadly still destroyed because of the typhoon, and pretty disappointing.
In Malapascua we sadly had no luck with the threshers - the Siren makes 2 days of 5am thresher dives and we missed out both days. Amy said this has never happened before. I was in Malapascua pre COVID and saw them twice on a 4 day trip. If this is your main goal I think a longer land-based stay is better.
Mandarin fish night dive (Lighthouse) where 4 years ago you are almost guaranteed to see mating mandarin fish is no more.
Gato & Chocolate island had the colorful soft corals I remember but not as much macro as I remember. There was also one MACRO dive in a RAGING current where they said they could not switch sites because it's too far to go back to Malapascua - that was not fun and the second wasted dive of the trip.
Capitancillo had decent macro - saw my first candy crab. So pretty!
Now on the not so good:
Of the 3 original awesome dive guides from my last trip - Donato, Kenneth, and Jona - only Donato was around and well enough to dive. Kenneth I was told is on break. These guys have been guiding these waters for 10+ years.
There was a new guide James who was sick from the very beginning and I think made maybe 5 dives on the whole trip. On one dive he took us down to 25m and left me and another guest (smoker with poor air consumption) ~10min into a dive signalling we should continue the dive but he has to surface. Visibility was poor and he did not tell us where to go - we were supposed to shallow up to a wall but we never found the wall. Another 20min in (during which we tried in vain to look for the wall and saw nothing) the other guest signals he was at 60 bar and we need to surface - he did not have an SMB so I had to go up as well. A completely wasted dive for me but one that my roommate (who was w Donato) said was great and they saw a ton of cool critters.
Amy was good for the first half but halfway through got so sick she could barely dive or even give briefings.
On one night dive there were only 4 guests and 2 guides - yet somehow 3 of the guests got lost 10min into the dive and both guides stuck with me with no attempt to go back and look for the others? IMO one should have gone back to look for the others.
The incoming cruise directors Roy and Maggie just arrived from the Maldives - this was their first trip on this itinerary. I think they were meant to learn the dive sites on this trip but because everyone was sick they had to lead dives by themselves - sites that they have never dived before! Groups that went w Roy and Maggie often got lost and saw much less than what Donato's group saw. This caused some drama amongst the guests. I kept getting moved around from group to group because another guest did not want to dive with Roy & Maggie - this left a bad taste and halfway through I just said nope. (That lady is blacklisted from the Siren fleet because of a whole host of other complaints).
If you want to dive this area I think doing it on the Siren is a great EASY way to do it. But it didn't quite stack up to the quality of diving I saw a month later in Komodo, so I don't think I will be making a return trip. It was fun but at full price not really value for money.
Pictures here: Visayas & Malapascua (Aug 2022)
This was my second trip on the Philippine Siren after a great Tubbataha experience in end of March/beginning of April. Crew/service was 11/10 on that trip. Diving was maybe 8-9/10 since we fully missed out on the whale sharks but the walls were pristine.
They had a 40% off promotion so I rebooked the Visayas/Malapascua itinerary as it was much easier than island hopping by land. It was $2200pp w free nitro (+$155 park fees + a last minute +$150 fuel surcharge). So more expensive than a land-based trip but I think not by much, and much less headache.
This was a trip at the beginning of Aug and their last trip before going into dry dock. So sadly a lot of things were broken (fridge door would not stay closed, TV (where they show the dive map for briefings) died halfway)
My last trip to Tubbataha was cruise director Jona's last trip, and I met interim cruise director Amy (who is normally cruise director on the Indo Siren) at the end for the handover. My trip this time was coincidentally Amy's last trip on the Philippines Siren before she returns to the Indo Siren for the Banda crossings & Raja Ampat season. (We had a long discussion on her favourite place to dive and her vote is for Raja by a mile, some of the Raja videos she showed us was mind blowing)
Service this time was not quite as good - maybe 6-7/10. The crew tried their best but everyone was tired and (I think) overworked and (not their fault) SICK. There were a few safety incidents that I was not happy about which I will get into later.
Food was great as always - lots, good variety, and healthy. And an actual cappuccino every morning!
The average age of the guests this time was 65+, I was the youngest one at 30, my roommate + her friend were in their early 40s, and everyone else was retired 65-80.
A couple of the older guests were sick coming into the cruise (coughing heavily) but no one wore masks. Well no surprise a few days into the trip EVERYONE got sick - guests & crew. Luckily my roommate was a pharmacist and kept me de-congested and I powered through - us three were the only ones that did all 32 dives, everyone else did maybe 1-2 a day.
Diving wise I would say it's 10/10 for variety and maybe 7-8/10 overall.
The itinerary had 32 dives over 9 diving days. Most days were 4x a day (dives capped at 60min). We covered a lot!
Cabilao and Panglao I felt was just ok, decent reefs and macro but not amazing. Good easy check dives.
Balicasag had pretty good reefs, not as many turtles as I was led to expect, but still great WA dives. Apo was better.
Oslob dive was one of the two highlights for me - so many whalesharks (10+)! I think the snorkel would have been even better as they are all gathered at the surface being fed (as divers we cannot go above 5m). I had mixed feelings going into this but Amy said the sharks are free to leave anytime and this is just a small fraction of their diet so only the juveniles really stay for a few days before moving on.
Dauin muck diving was awesome - I just wish we did more. We did not hit a lot of the sites listed on their itinerary. We (us 3 youngsters) requested one full day in Dauin (vs Apo) but the other guests did not like muck (most could not see the tiny stuff). Saw my first starry night octopus.
Apo Island was also great - but one day would have been enough for me. We did 6 dives including some repeats on 2 days - 2nd day felt repetitive. Best reefs of the trip but not quite as good as Indo (Komodo, Bangka) - was not wow! for me after Tubbataha and Bangka.
Moalboal sardine dive was the other highlight - this is something really cool!
Pescador was sadly still destroyed because of the typhoon, and pretty disappointing.
In Malapascua we sadly had no luck with the threshers - the Siren makes 2 days of 5am thresher dives and we missed out both days. Amy said this has never happened before. I was in Malapascua pre COVID and saw them twice on a 4 day trip. If this is your main goal I think a longer land-based stay is better.
Mandarin fish night dive (Lighthouse) where 4 years ago you are almost guaranteed to see mating mandarin fish is no more.
Gato & Chocolate island had the colorful soft corals I remember but not as much macro as I remember. There was also one MACRO dive in a RAGING current where they said they could not switch sites because it's too far to go back to Malapascua - that was not fun and the second wasted dive of the trip.
Capitancillo had decent macro - saw my first candy crab. So pretty!
Now on the not so good:
Of the 3 original awesome dive guides from my last trip - Donato, Kenneth, and Jona - only Donato was around and well enough to dive. Kenneth I was told is on break. These guys have been guiding these waters for 10+ years.
There was a new guide James who was sick from the very beginning and I think made maybe 5 dives on the whole trip. On one dive he took us down to 25m and left me and another guest (smoker with poor air consumption) ~10min into a dive signalling we should continue the dive but he has to surface. Visibility was poor and he did not tell us where to go - we were supposed to shallow up to a wall but we never found the wall. Another 20min in (during which we tried in vain to look for the wall and saw nothing) the other guest signals he was at 60 bar and we need to surface - he did not have an SMB so I had to go up as well. A completely wasted dive for me but one that my roommate (who was w Donato) said was great and they saw a ton of cool critters.
Amy was good for the first half but halfway through got so sick she could barely dive or even give briefings.
On one night dive there were only 4 guests and 2 guides - yet somehow 3 of the guests got lost 10min into the dive and both guides stuck with me with no attempt to go back and look for the others? IMO one should have gone back to look for the others.
The incoming cruise directors Roy and Maggie just arrived from the Maldives - this was their first trip on this itinerary. I think they were meant to learn the dive sites on this trip but because everyone was sick they had to lead dives by themselves - sites that they have never dived before! Groups that went w Roy and Maggie often got lost and saw much less than what Donato's group saw. This caused some drama amongst the guests. I kept getting moved around from group to group because another guest did not want to dive with Roy & Maggie - this left a bad taste and halfway through I just said nope. (That lady is blacklisted from the Siren fleet because of a whole host of other complaints).
If you want to dive this area I think doing it on the Siren is a great EASY way to do it. But it didn't quite stack up to the quality of diving I saw a month later in Komodo, so I don't think I will be making a return trip. It was fun but at full price not really value for money.
