The way the free wine works on the Spirit of Freedom is that it is offered to you with your main course over dinner, however, once you have alcohol (any), that's your days diving over with (same on Taka, just you have to purchase any alcohol there), so no night diving allowed and then also remember you are up at 6 ish to eat 1st breakfast and then start the diving day off, so I didn't see anyone that wanted drink excessively.
When you come back from the night dive, dessert and the wine is then available for all guests, how long it stays out I didn't ever check as I only had wine on the last night (when they steam back to port).
Anyway, I was there to make the most of diving, I figured I can have a drink anytime and I was doing 5 dives a day, so I really didn't want to increase the risk of DCS by drinking excessively, personally I'd see it as a nice gesture, rather than something to be the deciding factorn on the boat I chose.
I much preferred Spirit of Freedom over Taka, and the main reason was the crew, however I've posted the comments about that else where, from a pure boat/what you get perspective it boils down to:
Spirit of Freedom:
- Max of 4 Day dives & 1 night dive all limited to "back on the boat with 50 bar air pressure in your tank"
- 1 crew member in the water doing a current check with feedback to you as to current strength and direction on every dive, dives amended if needed (i.e. tenders take you out to drop you away from the boat so you can drift dive).
- Flashing beacon on night dives to lead you back to the anchor chain along with glow sticks along the chain.
- Each dive had at least 1 if not more crew in the water leading dives/safety diver
- Buddy teams put together based on experience and qualification
- Each room has an ensuite bathroom (even quad shares)
- Happy to send out Tenders to pick you up if required
- Warm dry towel after ever dive.
- Better quality of food - dinner is served to you (A la carte), rest are the meals are buffet and vast quantities.
- Minor (but nice touch) all mugs/plates are not plastic
- Sun loungers on the sun deck + free suncream + shaded area with comfy seats
- Rooms cleaned/beds made each day for you daily.
- Smaller but more luxurious feeling to the boat
Taka
- Max 3 Day dives and 1 night dive limited to 50 mins for day and 40 mins/16 meters for night dives.
- Only once did they send out a diver to do a current check and then didn't give any feedback as to what the result was
- Glow sticks on the anchor chain to help you find it
- Some dives they actively encouraged you not to request a crew member in the water, got the feeling it was more so they could dive in the guests surface interval.
- Buddy teams put together based on number of dives so some AoW and OW teams together without checking if they were ok with that.
- Most rooms shared the showers/toilets on the dive deck.
- Tenders were available but with the warning "if we have to send a tender out for you, it may stop us rescuing someone that needs it more than you"
- Towel dried once overnight, so dry for first dive only
- Food was more canteen style and not as much as the Spirit of Freedom plus all buffet meals style
- All mugs/plates are plastic
- Stack of plastic chairs tied together on sun deck - smaller shaded area available (home to smokers) no suncream
- Rooms cleaned on changeover days, sheet and blanket provided for you to make your own bed
- Bigger but more more budget feeling to the boat
Both dive crews counted you in and out of the water + had you sign for every dive you dived and those you didn't so they had the right number of heads, both had a spotter watching for divers, Spirit of Freedom was very easy to see the spotter, Taka less so, but they were there.
Diving sites on both were pretty similar, personally I felt that Spirit of Freedom picked better sites based on conditions and always had the boat moored as a stable on/off point when I was on there; Taka sometimes only had the front moored (one of these at the same site Spirit had had both front/back moored, but this could have been that Taka was a bigger boat, not sure) which meant that as there was a large swell, the back of the boat was continuously moving side to side, meaning that it was harder to get back to the boat.
The mermaid line that was put out at one point, but was taken back in as my buddy and I swam to it (meaning that we could have then used the line to get to the boat easier), not sure if they planned to re-throw it or not, but I didn't see it out again at that dive site.
The crew were the real deciding factor for me, as posted elsewhere I prefered the attitude and helpfulness of those on the Spirit of Freedom, there wasn't anything they wouldn't try and help you with, but I hope this list helps you decide if you want to pay the additional money for the nice to have extra's or save a little, if money is no object, I'd go with Spirit of Freedom, overall I really enjoyed that trip and will use it to benchmark all other liveaboards I go on.
