Raja Ampat with Felicia?

Hi there,

I'm looking for a good value liveaboard trip to Raja Ampat around Christmas and am considering Felicia (Komodo Liveaboard Diving in Indonesia - Felicia Trips, Prices, Scheduled Departure Dates and Itineraries)

I've read some trip reports for its trips to Komodo, I know it's not luxurious but looks like it's safe and ppl had good dives. Anyone been to their Raja Ampat trips earlier this year have any comments?

I was considering SMY Ondina as well as I've seen decent reviews, until I realised their absolutely insane itinerary, where they force you to go onshore in the morning to basically feed the mosquitoes, and so reduce the #of dives to a ludicrous 3 per day (anyone have a guess why they do this?). As a result I figured you get ~36 dives at Felicia for a lower price compared to ~30 at Ondina at a higher price, so I preferred Felicia, as long as it is safe and well-run with nice, knowledgeable guides.

Any comments, suggestions from ppl who've been on Felicia recently is much appreciated!

Thanks heaps all.

gypsyinabigtown

I think 3 dives a day in Raja is quite common.
Most of the liveaboards travel around a large area and therefore it is unusual to get a boat offering 5 dives a day for the duration of the trip. Time is lost getting to different dive sites.Most of the websites i have checked seem to indicate 3 day dives and perhaps a night dive.

I have been on a 7 day Komodo trip on the Felicia in 2009. I would not repeat a trip on this boat. I would much rather spend a few more dollars and get better service.

I did a trip to R4 earlier this year, and can confirm Kevster's information that it's quite normal to do 3 dives a day on a R4 LOB. It's mainly due to travel time needed overnight. We got a couple of days of 4 dives when we were in the north and the dive sites for a few days running were relatively near one another.

We have been to RA 3x. Twice we did a budget liveaboard and once a nice one. I agree with Kevster. We learned our lesson about the budget boat and will not repeat that again. We did dive 4 dives a day on all 3 boats except for a couple of the days that we were moving. I would spend a bit more and you will have a much better experience especially since you have to travel so far to get there!

THe LOB felicia is for sale, anybody knows why ?

The LOB Felicia is for sale, anybody knows why ?

Hi Gypsy..I did RA with the Felicia in January, with the main drawing point being it's price compared to every other boat. The boat has, in fact, just changed hands as several on here had mentioned..I know this from just talking to them about Komodo...so someone going on the boat in the future could have a different experience than mine.

The good..the price definitely! It's great for some to say they'd rather pay a few more bucks, etc....but for others like me who likely would not be able to go to RA unless there was an affordable option like this Felicia was the ONE option that wasn't incredibly high priced. Food...good and varied, Crew...nice all Indonesian group of guys..always wiling to do whatever they can to assist you and enjoy getting to know you. They were very conscientious on trying to learn English and it was a lot of fun interacting with them. Rooms...nice enough..all with ensuite bathrooms and realiable aircon. Diving... guides were good and knowledgeable and, on my itinerary, which was just the North, I think we got in 4 dives on almost all days, with being able to give input on which sites you most wanted to dive. I didn't note any issues with safety during my trip.

The bad..the booking process was a mess, with lots of emails not returned anywhere close to promptly and a clear huge language barrier on the Felicia's end. I will say that has been completely different in talking to them a couple of times now about Komodo..they've gotten back to me right away and there hasn't been any miscommunciation. Overall organization on the boat I found to be pretty poor..keeping to a schedule such as one might be used to on most liveaboards just wasn't happening..but it wasn't anything that ruined the trip for me. And, for some odd reason, the guides appeared to be slightly afraid of the captain in deciding where to dive. I solved this by just talking to the captain directly (a perfectly nice guy) about options I was interested in..but I didn't like that the dms didn't appear to be as in control as they normally would be on a boat.

So does what I've described sound perfect? Probably not, but I've done over 20 liveaboards and I would go on the Felicia again....it to me is a perfectly acceptable option for those on a budget or those looking to save money.

Hi buddies!,
I would like to add our personal comment to the question of the 3dives per day. Let me just copy what we say in our FAQ question in our web page:
-------------------------
Why only 3 dives per day?
This figure is an average number of dives per cruise day. Some days we dive 4 and even 5 times, some others only 1 or 2, and this makes the average of 3 dives/day. The reasons for this are:
On the embarking day we can normally dive 1 or 2 times depending on the time the guests arrive (remember that this is remote Indonesia and sometimes there are very few options to get to the embarking port and many times flight are delayed).
During the cruise, SMY Ondina sails quite long distances to take you to the best diving places, this forces us to sail from 2 to 4 nights
every cruise and those days normally 4 dives and no night dive can be scheduled. When there is no night sailing we schedule an additional night dive and those days we submerge 5 times.
We normally go ashore 2 or 3 times during the cruise to visit spectacular places and to share some time with the local people
to show them that we can be a real part of their economy buying some handycrafts or food for the boat or just helping them in anything they may need. This way, together with the strong collaboration of SMY Ondina with all the Conservationist organisations in the area and your collaborations through the diving permits you pay for, we help in protecting these reefs we love so much. These days we can only dive 3 times.
Finally and extremely important, in such long cruises, with so many dives and having to fly the same day when disembarking or the day after, it is not convenient at all to saturate so much for safety reasons. On this last day of the cruise normally only 1 dive is scheduled.
So, unless weather conditions or any unexpected if you join a 10 nights onboard cruise with the SMY Ondina, you should expect to come back
home with 30 new dives in your logbook.
---------------
Please let me also clarify that our land tours are not mandatory, only reccomended and we hate mosquitoes as much as anybody who travels to this part of the world! It is good to know that just a few hundred meters from the shore there are none.
And to confirm the other buddies comments, it is true that in most routes in Indonesia you can only get an average of 3 dives/day with all LOB due to the big sailing distances, the only exception are the Komodo routes that normally allow for an average close to 4 even counting with the first and last day and the land tour to see the dragons in the National Park. A real must!
Safe dives everybody!
Enrique-SMY Ondina

I have been on several liveaboards in the Raja Ampat, and one that is outstanding, is Arenui. They have TOP guides, top food, top cabins, good knowledge of the area, and a very professional way of conducting their business.

raja ampat:

I have been on several liveaboards in the Raja Ampat, and one that is outstanding, is Arenui. They have TOP guides, top food, top cabins, good knowledge of the area, and a very professional way of conducting their business.

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Which other LOBs in RA have you been on?