Euro-Divers Kandooma Review

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First, the good: Holiday Inn Kandooma is a fantastic resort, with top-notch bungalows at reasonable prices and excellent service from the very friendly multinational staff. I would highly recommend a stay at HI Kandooma. The dive sites are quite good as well, especially if you like big fish. Not as ideal for macro, of course, given the lower biodiversity and the sometimes strong currents.

Now to the bad part – I cannot recommend the Euro-Divers at Kandooma. Unfortunately (as at all resorts in Maldives) they have the monopoly. I have dived with them twice, thinking that the first time may have been a fluke and wanting to give them another chance. My observations are below:


  1. The staff – Pedro and Oliver were overall friendly and competent. However, that was not the case with the others - Samir in particular was highly unpleasant to be around and the dives that he led were particularly poor. On one dive to Kandooma Thila (which is the top divesite in the area), we ended up seeing no large fish at all – quite an accomplishment!
  2. The biggest issue I had was the complete inflexibility of the staff, in particular Samir. It started right in the beginning – they insist on a “refresher dive” unless you have a documented dive within the prior three months. Quite extreme, but OK. Problem is, they don’t tell this to you anywhere, nor was it mentioned when I called them in the morning. So I walked to the dive shop, only to be told I have to go all the way back to get my gear to do the refresher dive. I asked – can I just do it right before the 2PM dive, instead of walking back and forth? The answer was: absolutely not – that’s not convenient for the staff. This was a recurrent theme, in fact – the dive center seems to be run more for the benefit of the staff, then the guests.
  3. Finally, in line with Euro-Divers philosophy of “the customer is always wrong”, they overcharged me at the end. They counted the number of dives wrong – I dove 13 dives, as I was aiming for the 12dives+1free package. They only recorded 12 dives and charged me a HIGHER price than for the 12+1 dives package. Despite discussing this issue with them THREE times, they refused to adjust the final price and I had to pay more than the correct amount. The difference was less than 5% of the total dive bill.

I still can’t believe that (a) they recorded the number of dives wrong and refused to correct it, then (b) they charged me MORE for 12 dives than for 13 dives – effectively overcharging me for NOT taking the “free” dive and (c) refusing to do anything about it despite the fact that I was visibly upset and complained 3 times. This last episode summed up the whole experience – avoid Euro-Divers at all costs!
 
I think what you mean by a refresher dive in this case is called an Orientation Dive ( Also known as a Check Dive) not a refresher dive. Normally you are asked to do a refresher dive if you haven't been in water for a few years, not 3 months.

From my past experience, Euro Divers offer a free Orientation Dive (At least the two island in Maldives I have been Kurumba and Fullmoon ) to check for your proper equipment size and not to forget the most important, to check how many weights you need and also to make sure you know how to use a Buoy. (It's a short dive in the lagoon of the island, about 15-20 min)

If billed wrong, that's Bad and Sad.
They will only loose clients this way.

So I think it's not all Euro Divers Centers are bad. Maybe you just had a bad experience.
 
Yep orientation dives are required by Maldivian Law for all OW, AOW, Rescue divers if they cannot prove (logbook) that they have dived within the past 3 months. Sometimes you have to pay, sometimes they're free.

This OD dive maybe the reason that your 13 dive was not billed as a "dive" dive. Maybe they just made a mistake.

Again required by law is a system where all divers' max depths, time, and air in/out are recorded. This should have been made available to you to check exactly how many dives you did.
 
Sorry you had such a bad experience with Euro Divers at Kandooma. That's completely the opposite of the week I just spent diving with them at Kurumba. The Euro Divers Kurumba staff was wonderful - always focused on making sure we enjoyed the dives, trying not to repeat dive sites except for going to see mantas, and taking our input and requests for where to go for the next dive. I think your experience is more a reflection of that particular operation and not all Euro Divers centers in general.
 
The orientation dive is mandatory in the Maldives, as Supergajin said, unless you can prove you dived in the past 3 months (logbook).

I don't think all Euro-divers dive center are like that. That can be the tricky part with big franchises like that, some can be really good, and some... well you said it.
Regarding the timing, I don't know if you had to take the boat or not for doing your orientation dive, but in the resorts like that, it can be tricky to take the boat when you're not supposed to, specially if the dive boat belong to the hotel and not to the dive center (and that happens). It means as well that the boat crew is hired by the hotel, doing some other things while not on the dive boat... No captain for driving the boat, no boat available...
If you had to go from the beach, maybe nobody was available at this time...
Saying to you that was not convenient for the staff was not the best idea, however, the working days in a resort like that can be crazy and you NEED your lunch break :D
Often, the orientation dive is not included in the package, maybe that's where the mistake is coming from...

I'm not trying to find some excuses for them and I agree that all of that is not the problem of the guests.

It could have been explained in a nicer way, and a little something could have been done for make you happier.

Happy bubbles anyway and don't give up the Maldives, it's a fantastic place for diving!
 
i dove with Euro-Divers in many places: Egypt, maldives, mauritius. The Staff is always well trained and the service is better than most other companies.
Since i've been to Kandooma last year, and had a great time with the team there, i cannot agree with the BigNut.

While diving with them, i got to see more grey reef sharks and rays than anywhere else in the maldives, and i've been to the maldives 12 times already!
The staff is friendly, and as mentioned very competent and entusiastic divers.
They will go out of their ways to make a nice dive possible, and are open for special requests (dive site, night dive etc).
i prebooked in advance, and had no issues whatsoever with their billing.

Also i can unterstand why they wont just let anybody do the od at different times. At the end a Divecenter is also a business, and needs to be eficient.
Seems to me that the problem in this case was one guide and not the whole team?


On the Website it is stated that the Orientation Dive is required by law, so sometimes its a good idea to google a place and its rules before arrival... And if you havent been diving in more than 3 months, or are not able to keep an up to date log book, i dont see where the trouble is with that? i myself got 2000+ dives, and checking my weights, new equipment etc. before jumping from the boats is just common sense....., and they give it for FREE! some Divecenters charge for the obligatory orientation dive, and THAT is a ripp off!!

What i unterstand from the comment is that you wanted the 13 dive package but ended up paying for 12 instead, because you counted the Free of charge Orienation Dive as a dive of the package, and the difference in the bill is of 5%?
sorry but again seems to me that you didnt get yourself enough information beforehand.
The maldives are a pristine location and not a Low Budget Destination, so those few bucks shouldnt spoil your holiday..
 
O2 you dont happen to represent euro divers by any chance being post no.1? .... Its a good operation and safety standards are high, just looking at the compressor room was impressive, cylinders looked almost brand new. However I dived at Eriyadu the 'German' resort. The check dive they insisted I do having just jumped off a 22 dive in the last week L.O.B was ridiculous even after I showed them my logbook. Also being non-german we felt we got a different type of treatment. The DMs there were arrogant. I much preferred diving with a Maldivian operation, it was more relaxed... Diving should be enjoyable. Its not about being in the military...
 
The maldives are a pristine location
Pristine location?
Hmmmh.. "O2" would you know by any chance what the word pristine means?
Do you have any idea of the number of dives made each day in the Maldives atolls compared to say Maluku in Indonesia?
Do you even have a remote idea on the number of charter flights landing Male airport every week?
I've dived in the Maldives with Eurodivers (South Male), can't say I was impressed though, the european gringos were doing their job hoping each morning the day would end quickly. The word "flexible" seemed totally out of their range.
Nothing like the kind of commitment you can find in many indonesian dive centers.
That is why they'll have to wait a long time before I am going to dive back in the Maldives on these charter tourists cattleboats.
 
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There are some areas in the Maldives which are more pristine than others. There is a new initiative to open the other atolls to tourists which were closed to foreigners until now.

There are pluses and minuses for resorts vs. local islands.

Do you have any idea of the number of dives made each day in the Maldives atolls compared to say Maluku in Indonesia?
Do you even have a remote idea on the number of charter flights landing Male airport every week?

It usually boils down to the ease of getting to a destination. The Maldives has direct flights to many countries, thus you'll see more people. To get to the Maluku Islands of Indo, you need a lot more time and effort. However the Maldivians don't use dynamite or cyanide, and have effectively stopped shark fishing- can't say the same for Indonesia.
 

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