My wife and I are sitting on the deck of the sipadan-kapalai resort right now. I thought I would post some feedback from our experience since the 19th of December.
When we arrived the resort only had 40 divers, divers on the resort could dive almost every day, definitely every second at Sipadan. It soon boomed to 120 divers and the dive board was maxed out.
The dive crew here and the man in charge "George" really does do his best to ensure that everyone gets at least one dive. By today the ratio of diving is one trip to Sipadan every 4 days on the resort.
From the trend we see on the board this resort has about 16 licenses per day but we got the scoop that they buy licenses from other resorts if available. for example one day they had the usual 16 license plus one boat of 10 from North Borneo divers and 12 from AB(which is SWV).
These guys really do their best to accomodate most guests. After so many days on the resort I almost feel sorry for the staff who have to deal with angry or upset divers often begging for an extra day's dive at Sipadan.
One thing is for sure, the permit system for Sipadan has made the experience of going that much more 'special'
If your primary purpose of coming here is diving at Sipadan and not Macro hunting - then I would suggest coming during the off season.
Let's not forget that this entire area is a piece of heaven, diving around the other islands like kapalai, mabul and samali is not Sipadan but it's also pretty good.
Oh I will also take this opportunity to tell you that when we did dive Sipdan on the 22nd we saw a baby WHALE SHARK at south point!
When we arrived the resort only had 40 divers, divers on the resort could dive almost every day, definitely every second at Sipadan. It soon boomed to 120 divers and the dive board was maxed out.
The dive crew here and the man in charge "George" really does do his best to ensure that everyone gets at least one dive. By today the ratio of diving is one trip to Sipadan every 4 days on the resort.
From the trend we see on the board this resort has about 16 licenses per day but we got the scoop that they buy licenses from other resorts if available. for example one day they had the usual 16 license plus one boat of 10 from North Borneo divers and 12 from AB(which is SWV).
These guys really do their best to accomodate most guests. After so many days on the resort I almost feel sorry for the staff who have to deal with angry or upset divers often begging for an extra day's dive at Sipadan.
One thing is for sure, the permit system for Sipadan has made the experience of going that much more 'special'
If your primary purpose of coming here is diving at Sipadan and not Macro hunting - then I would suggest coming during the off season.
Let's not forget that this entire area is a piece of heaven, diving around the other islands like kapalai, mabul and samali is not Sipadan but it's also pretty good.
Oh I will also take this opportunity to tell you that when we did dive Sipdan on the 22nd we saw a baby WHALE SHARK at south point!