Raja Ampat Cityseahorse Deb Fugitt Ondina

[popoia814@yahoo.com]

i have been on only 3 live aboards, one in galapagos, one in fiji, and one at raja w/ deb f.
i can honestly give the following grades to the experience;
1/ crew A+, can't say enough about how nice they were!
2/ food D-, i had a difficult time eating a lot of the food because of the poor quality, and too much fried food which makes me feel ill. snacks were unappetizing too. i like asian food, but come on, the food on the ondina was pretty lousy. there are a number of other divers who also remarked the food was less than desirable.
3/ accommodations D
4/ diving C
5/ willingness to listen to divers wants or needs D-
6/ very nasty fumes especially around dive dinghy's but also in cabins
comment; there is a lot of room for improvement. if asked would i ever go on the ondina again, i would have to candidly say no. my dive experience in both fiji and galapagos out-shined this ondina trip by a landslide. sorry to have to be so blunt... my suggestion is instead of countering everything that was previously said by attacking the person, use the comments to improve your live aboard so the next group does not have the same experience.

 

[tsongkapa77]

"instead of countering everything that was previously said by attacking the person, use the comments to improve your live aboard..."

That's a good point. twhi might be an a**hole but he's just one person with one opinion. No operator can satisfy every diver.

I've been on 6 liveaboards. One of them was really bad.

One operator in the Solomons proved to me you can provide very good food in a third world country. They also went out of their way to show us dive sites that were satisfying to both photographers and gung ho divers.

I guess its easier to attack someone than to try to seriously do something to improve your operation.

 

[Tonym]

i have been on only 3 live aboards, one in galapagos, one in fiji, and one at raja w/ deb f.

Quick comments. popoia814 is one of twhi's friend, on the same trip. I feel a bit sorry for twhi's friends since he must have misled them about the type of trip. However people need to be responsible for themselves. The friends should have done their own research and should have communicated their goals and expectations for the trip to me pre-trip. I could probably have identifed them as divers who would not enjoy one of the special trips.

use the comments to improve your live aboard so the next group does not have the same experience.

This is exactly what we have done. The trips have been tailored over the course of several years to provide great flexibility, diversity and photo/video opportunities that the majority of guests on the trips enjoy immensely.

Comment from Nick (same trip as twhi and popoia814) "Hope your second Ondina trip was as good as the first one."

The next group (3 days later) had very nearly the same experience and they loved it. Several signed up for 2009 trips. The difference is that those divers chose a trip that suited them. They also were more experienced divers who had been on many more liveaboards and many different countries.

Comments from some of those:

"I was on Deb's trip following the one discussed in this thread. I gotta say - it was probably the best trip u/w photo trip I have been on. snip

I learned more about wide angle photography on this trip than ever before. Deb and a couple of the more experienced photographers gave me some excellent advice on how to shoot w/a in the not-so-great viz. To that point, I am giving a presentation at our u/w photo club in February on this very subject.

The Ondina turned out to be a very pleasant surprise, I wish all liveabroads could be as accommodating as this one was. Deb, Noberto, Aan and the whole crew were super to my wife and myself. snip

I have organized several dive trips for our u/w photo club and like the song says, 'you can't please everyone'. But I sure was happy with our trip and I will be sure to say so to the 60+ members in attendance at our club meeting in February."

That's a good point. twhi might be an a**hole but he's just one person with one opinion. No operator can satisfy every diver.

That is certainly true. And we do not try to satify every sort of diver on these trips.

you can provide very good food in a third world country

And we do. Just a few didn't like it and did not ask for something different.

Comment from this thread on another forum:

"I never been on a trip whit Deb, but i have been twice on Ondina and i am going back in May 2009 for a third time!
I love the boat and the crew, the rooms are not 5 star but more then enough for a diving cruise in my opinion!
But the thing i do not understand is the food complain!!!
Man i love the food on the Ondina, for me this is the best food ever on a live aboard, been on enough Peter Hughes, Agressor, Maledives, Red Sea live aboards to compare!"

They also went out of their way to show us dive sites that were satisfying to both photographers and gung ho divers

But tsongkapa77, this particular report is not about that sort of trip. That would be done on a standard trip. Not one that is specifically organized for photographers, videographers and people who like that sort of diving in different environments.

This keeps coming back to a few people who made the wrong choice of trip and are angry/unhappy. There are always a few problems on any ship, but on this trip they were minor. These unhappy divers make them out to be earth shattering while there were only some inconveniences.


DebF

 

[kneptoon]

I have been following this thread with interest. Probably because I did a Raja Ampat liveaboard shortly after Twhi's. Face it, these experiences are quite expensive and unless you're independently wealthy, blow a pretty big hole in your travel budget. I know that my expectations were commiserate to the travel and expense just to walk on board. I don't think our expectations for great diving and service are unfounded. We pay for it. We are half way around the planet booking these trips on faith. There are inconveniences and their are acts of God. The operator better take care of the inconveniences. I had to sympathize with Twhi's original post. I would have been very P.O.ed myself.

 

[popoia814@yahoo.com]

i was not mislead by anyone on deb/tony's trip. just telling the truth that my overall rating of the trip was unfavorable in comparison to other live-aboards. some people do not know asian food, and therefore they believe the food was ok. growing up in asia most of my life, tasting hundreds of different asian dishes, and being raised in a home with 2 gourmet cooks, i can attest the food was lousy. even the airplane food was better than on the ondina, and that tells you how bad it was. for anyone seriously considering traveling all the way to raja, i think it would be prudent to seek another live-aboard unless you have low standards. i can honestly say i would not take this trip again on the ondina. i know i am not the only one that feels this way. i can understand why deb/tony are so defensive and like to put twhi down. deb/tony have a vested interest in the ondina operation, therefore they will not take criticism lightly. twhi is a very kind/perceptive individual, and has more dive experiences and exposure to asian food and culture than 99% of americans. he is fluent in the language of thailand, and is a respected professional from the medical field. he is not an a-hole or trouble maker. buyer beware.

 

[sukadiving]

iam indonesian living in australia and i am a diving maniac. I ve been diving in most of the best reef in the world on liveaboards . As far as i can tell you Ondina crews and food are as good as any others, and their original Indonesian local food and desserts are as good as you can find locally. It is not easy to please everyone, especially our dear American friends who demand 7 stars service. I have great memory with people around the world who i dive with and i love diving with the spainards who are easy going . i believe every crews on Ondina as well as any other liveaboards are doing the very-very best to serve we all . I found it inappropriate to put someone else business in jeaopardy, because you are the minor number of people who are not satisfied and having expectation too high. I am not a UW photographer and i had joint with groups of selfish UW photographers in some liveaboards before , but I know how to make myself as enjoyable as possible and see think positively. Life is too short and be positive. enjoy diving!

 

[Wayan]

The food on Ondina is good. What a lot of people seem to forget is the area they are going to. It does not have a wide selection of food available and like through most of Indonesia (even Jakarta) you can go into a shop one and but some lets say taco sauce or good tomatoes and the next there is none and they may not restock the item for 3-4 months. It is just the way of the beast when in these areas. Shipping (flying) the stuff in, well I know that when I ran a live-a-aboard in Raja that it was a nightmare to say the least, must fly perishables off load and left to rot etc etc.

Yes the quality of food is a measure of the chef however they are severely limited by what they can and they are not all 5* star chefs but do the absolute best with what they have to work with.

Ondina is a great boat and one of the few I would go back on that operated in Indon waters

 

[popoia814@yahoo.com]

no american has demanded 7 star quality food. our expectations are not too high. i suppose if you are eat poor quality food every day in indonesia, the ondina food is great. if the local indonesian airline can serve airplane food that is 10 times better than the ondina, then you know you are being served lousy food. as twhi said, everything was fried. this is not only unappealing, but it is very bad for the health of your heart. fried food causes the production of free radicles, chemicals known to cause cancer. even the sedona hotel had food that was a million times better, so we are not fooled by anyone. i think the boat's owner is serving this type of food to keep operating costs low, and profits high. if the boats in fiji and galapagos can serve excellent food, then there should be no reason the ondina can't do the same thing. the gas fumes in the cabin added to my feeling of sickness after eating their food. they are not even 1 star cooks. they are what we would call fry cooks in the u.s., where they have no formal training in meal preparation. they are just told to fry up whatever they can scrape together. lastly, it is a lousy uncomfortable boat with a pretty good crew. buyer beware.

 

[SnappyTheDiver]

There is no excuse for poor food based on the "this is what we can get" argument on higher end boats. The better boats fly in whatever food is required. I have been on 14 day trips out of Sorong, Maumere, Ambon, and other ports and had fresh salads and vegetables and a while section of mains.

 

[kneptoon]

We were on a different liveaboard at the same time and starting in Sorong, basically doing the same trip as City Seahorse and dealing with the same difficult logistics of getting much of the provisions flown in. We didn't have any complaints regarding diving or dining, and I believe we paid less.