Anyone been on the Philippine Siren?

[Wookie]

All Siren Fleet liveaboard yachts are subject to and finished to Lloyds Standards, undergoing thorough inspections prior to launch. Lloyds is the leading maritime body of the UK, where Worldwide Dive and Sail International is registered. Lloyd's Register - Yacht services

Our yachts, although built and maintained in Asia, are therefore subject to their stringent inspections and regulations. However to operate in various Asian countries the vessel must be flagged in that country. For example, a Thai flagged liveaboard vessel may not operate in Indonesia.

In many of the destination countries in which the Siren Fleet operates, it is the local regulation that the Captain originate from that country, as such it is not always the case that the Captain will speak English. To compensate for this all of our Cruise Directors and secondary instructors are fluent English speakers and in many cases speak several languages, as we also welcome aboard guests from European and Asian nations. It is they who communicate information to our guests both throughout the cruise or in an emergency situation.

All of your yachts are inspected and issued their IMO and SOLAS documents by Lloyd's Register? I am impressed indeed. I didn't think they would certify wooden boats. They say that they won't.

 

[beaverdivers]

Responding to my own post. Now having been on the Siren, I would not recommend anyone stay in Cabin 8 even with the 10% discount they offered since it was the last room left. Besides being very cramped, and the crew using the space under the bed for soda storage, the room smelled like diesel fuel every time the boat moved and you could hear noise from the kitchen early in the morning as they started breakfast prep. In addition, the stairs going to the room are very steep (and sort of spiraling) with no hand-rail and are treacherous in bad seas and likely will end up in a head bump for anyone over 5'5. Also, the layout of the bathroom means that you can't use the sink while someone is showering. Thankfully there was one other open cabin (#2 with two twins) which they let us trade for, which ended up being much better (despite the fact that we couldn't share the bed). There is a distinct difference in the main rooms and cabin #8 – even the furnishings in the other rooms seemed nicer.

The rest of the trip went well. The ship had just come out of dry dock and it seemed a few things hadn’t been completed in time so for example in cabin 8 the adhesive sealant on the bathroom was still tacky and there were items like lights and furnishings that were done after we were on board. As for the diving, two of the dive masters were great, one would just "zone out" - so all groups were vying to not be with him. They initially promised they would rotate groups each 3 days with the dive masters after we complained, but ended up with a funky rotation which worked out well for us, but not so well for other groups. Beer was plentiful and the crew really tried hard to make it a great trip. Only other complaint was that the food was all buffet style and tended to be a bit repetitive with a lot of fried and unhealthy options (lots of meat in different sauces). The cooks did make meals fun by presenting the food and providing entertainment, but by the end i was craving healthy food. Salads at dinner would have been a nice addition. Some of the desserts were strange and a lot were ice cream. Eva the tour director worked really hard and was working round the clock.

Final note, we did convince them to let us dive with the whale sharks (vs. snorkel) which I think was well worth it. They did say there could be currents that move you away from the sharks, but we must have lucked out. That was the best part of the trip!

Thank You for your trip report.

 

[Allison Finch]

All of your yachts are inspected and issued their IMO and SOLAS documents by Lloyd's Register? I am impressed indeed. I didn't think they would certify wooden boats. They say that they won't.

You just gotta love it when a competing liveaboard does something like this.

My father had a wooden sailing vessel that Lloyds looked after. Before you "slam the competition" with innuendo, post a link to where you say they won't certify wooden ships. My desire to book on your boat just diminished a bit.

 

[Damselfish]

are the Spree and the Philippine Siren really in competition?

 

[Worldwide Dive and Sail]

Responding to my own post. Now having been on the Siren, I would not recommend anyone stay in Cabin 8 even with the 10% discount they offered since it was the last room left. Besides being very cramped, and the crew using the space under the bed for soda storage, the room smelled like diesel fuel every time the boat moved and you could hear noise from the kitchen early in the morning as they started breakfast prep. In addition, the stairs going to the room are very steep (and sort of spiraling) with no hand-rail and are treacherous in bad seas and likely will end up in a head bump for anyone over 5'5. Also, the layout of the bathroom means that you can't use the sink while someone is showering. Thankfully there was one other open cabin (#2 with two twins) which they let us trade for, which ended up being much better (despite the fact that we couldn't share the bed). There is a distinct difference in the main rooms and cabin #8 – even the furnishings in the other rooms seemed nicer.

Hi Snoobles

We are pleased to read that for the most part you enjoyed your trip aboard the Philippine Siren and thank you for your candid comments regarding the cabin, food quality and Dive masters. We can only apologize that one of the DMs was not up to par and have forwarded your comments to our general dive operations to investigate what happened there! Good to read that Eva our cruise director is continuing to do a good job for you and that you enjoyed the visit to Oslob- we do try to be as flexible as possible

Regarding the cabin structure on the boat, we understand that cabin 8 is not as spacious as our forward cabins and therefore offer a discount for this cabin, some people like to be separate and actually request this cabin however for the most part we have found guests do not prefer this and will in the future be adjusting the cabins along the style of the Indo & Palau Sirens whereby all cabins will be forward.

Food preferences can be tricky but again we take your points on board and will attempt to give a greater and more healthy selection in the future. For evening meals we offer a choice of 3 main protein dishes with vegetable accompaniment (and steamed rice!) whilst salads are served at lunch time and there should always be fresh fruit available. If this was not the case for your cruise please do let us know so that our local operations can ensure this does not occur again on future trips.

We thank you again for you feedback, please feel free to contact our team at any time should you wish to add anything further.
Best wishes from the Siren Fleet

 

[Darnold9999]

Food preferences can be tricky but again we take your points on board and will attempt to give a greater and more healthy selection in the future. For evening meals we offer a choice of 3 main protein dishes with vegetable accompaniment (and steamed rice!) whilst salads are served at lunch time and there should always be fresh fruit available.

You may want to rethink your meal choices. More and more poeple are eating less and less meat. A choice of three protiens and no salads for the evening meal is not attractive at all. Also have to say that I will be VERY upset if there is not fresh fruit available for all meals as your web site says. I live on fruit, salad and cheese with a bit of meat on occasion. Understand cheese is not something served much in asia so not expecting that at all, but like p salads to be available at evening meals. Sounds like I might be starving on this trip - leaving in two weeks.

 

[Allison Finch]

are the Spree and the Philippine Siren really in competition?

Maybe not directly, but all liveaboards compete for customers and hope to entice them to their location/boats. What I was most upset about that post was that this operator all but called this business a liar (by innuendo) without offering any proof. I find that pretty poor business.

 

[Adonama]

Hi,
With my wife and another couple we spent 10 days on the Philippine Siren Dec 2011-Jan 2012.
We had a great time and loved all the diving. Great crew on the boat doing whatever they can to make it a good experience.
I've also been on the Indo Siren before which is essentially the same boat design. The whole experience is very luxury.

On the Philippine Siren me & my wife were actually in cabin 8 (sometimes called the "owners cabin") and had were not bothered at all by smell of the engine or the kitchen. Actually I think some of the regular cabins are even closer to the engine room and sometimes can get quite hot.
For me the discount given on the cabin was very welcome and the cabin was very comfortable. And it has the added luxury of having your own entry/exit to the cabin

Cheers,
Ad

 

[mlsantos]

hmmmm... am i hearing this right? there were only salads with dinner?... theres something wrong there... I used to work on the p.siren and was actually onboard with allison for 20 days in 2010 (the trip she keeps raving about... thanks allison ), I always made sure there were great veggies onboard for all and the meals were pretty diverse as the chef I had onboard had come from a number of liveaboards from around the world when he joined us. Money spent on food frank once told me was not to be skimped on, sometimes on the more difficult itineraries like this one you just got back from it is hard to get a good stock of veg from small towns like coron and anilao so that may have palyed a role in the so-so food you had. As for cabin 8... no explanation for that because even when it was unoccupied and I had the option to take it, I still would prefer to sleep in the salon.