chicagoshark
New
My husband and I travelled halfway around the world to experience a world-class, luxury liveaboard with the Orion for our 10 year anniversary. It may have been an off week, but the diving experience was disappointing and at times even dangerous. Some of the more major issues: up to 10 divers with 1 guide; at least 5 divers put on Nitrox who were not certified, given training, or given a choice; several such individuals had completed several dives before even being told they were on Nitrox; after clearly reserving dive computers for my husband and I, there were none available for our first few dives; there were issues with broken and run-down equipment; for new divers such as ourselves we were left to take care of ourselves and received little care or attention even when we repeatedly asked for basic help; there was a scary lack of organization or accountability with the dive guides (besides the chaos on the boat, the same folks also left two fellow passengers behind at the airport after they checked in -- these passengers had to find their own way to the boat after waiting for hours). Additionally, one of the reasons I chose the Orion was for the onboard masseuse. There was no masseuse on the boat, nor an explanation why. With all of these issues (and plenty more), we were still nickle-and-dimed for extra expenses at the end of the week, and certainly never received any discounts, even for the basic rentals that were not even available for a portion of the trip due to package pricing! On the bright side, the Orion itself was very nice and service onboard was good. We also had the pleasure of diving with plenty of whale sharks, mantas, and even found ourselves surfacing amongst a huge pod of dolphins!
. A liveaboard is typically more money than most dive vacations (I am not debating the worth here....just stating a fact) so maybe people expect more than they maybe should. Just spitballin'.....
