Looking for Liveaboard Advice - Cairns in July 09

[thespoons]

Greetings! I've been lurking for a little bit and trying to soak up the valuable information on offer. Thanks to everyone for providing such a great resource. A quick introduction before getting to my question. I'm a 33 y/o living in Minnesota and will be getting hitched in June to my wonderful fiancee. We're going to Australia for our honeymoon in mid-July with a focus on diving. She took scuba as a university class in 2003 and got certified. And then, of course, she didn't get to do anything with it since then due to being focused on graduating and then grad school. But now we're starting our lives together and want to make diving a big component of it. Both of us have always been very interested in it and have always wanted to do it, especially in the GBR. Embarassingly enough, though, I didn't even know how to swim when I first met her (beyond simple thrashing to get from point A to B and being able to float in place.) Over the last year, she has taught me to be quite a good swimmer. So now I'm about to start my SCUBA classes and will be certified quite soon.

Okay, so now that's out of the way, what I'm hoping for is comments on the state of various liveaboards operating out of Cairns. Keep in mind that both of us are complete novice divers and will be sticking to the GBR. Probably not a good idea for us to get in over our heads out in the Coral Sea or other more complicated places. We'll save that for a future trip! (If we can ever afford to go back to AU)

So I've been researching on the board and through google searches and such and have compiled a spreadsheet with all the liveaboards I've been able to find operating out of Cairns. We're flying into Sydney, arriving Tuesday, July 14th and taking another flight to Cairns that night. As such, that kind of rules out trips that leave on Monday or Tuesday, as we'd need to wait almost a week before we could catch them. Our basic plan is to do the liveaboard for a three or four day stretch, leaving a "decompression" buffer on each side between flying into Cairns and back to Sydney.

We're trying to do our scuba at the beginning of the vacation time to avoid the slim chance of getting injured and not being able to dive later.

So if we get into Cairns on Tuesday, we'd need to catch a liveaboard on Thursday or Friday, ideally. That means Mike Ball / Spoilsport, Prodive / Spirit of Freedom, and Prodive / Taka are out because they leave Monday, Monday and Tuesday respectively. (see Edit at bottom, though)

What that leaves is:

Prodive / ScubaPro I/II/III
leaves daily except Tue
Pellowe, Milln, Flynn and Thetford reefs
3 days/2 nights
9 day/2 night dives
USD$905

Cairns Dive Center / Kangaroo Explorer
leaves daily
Moore, Milln, Briggs, Elford and Thetford reefs
3 days/2 nights
8 day/2 night dives
USD$762

Deep Sea Divers Den / OceanQuest II
leaves daily
Outer Barrier Reef (including Norman and Saxon reefs)

3 days/2 nights
9 day/2 night dives
USD$848

4 days/3 nights
12 day/3 night dives
USD$1,085


ReefTrip / Reef Encounter
leaves daily
Hastings, Norman or Saxon Reef. Breaking Patches.

3 days/2 nights
8 day/2 night dives
USD$1,127

4 days/3 nights
11 day/3 night dives
USD$1,529

All the prices I've listed are grand total for both of us, including gear rental and other fees like fuel charge, etc.

Would anyone like to weigh in with their opinions of these? I read a fairly bad review of Reef Encounter here (can't post the URL because I'm a new user, but it's on this board under /forums/cruises-liveaboards-charter-boats/260144-take-care-booking-gbr-liveaboard.html), so I'm a bit leery of them. However, other people seem in favor. Still, the review mentioned bed bugs. That's not good at all.

Also, I should mention that since we are novices, some things that might annoy you experienced folks might not bother us as much (not talking about bed bugs here! ). We don't have nitrox training (too much to try to pack in all at once - another good thing for future dives), don't have our own equipment, won't be trying to push to the limits on diving depth and such. We might rent a camera sometime but we're no underwater photo experts.


Right now I'm leaning towards the OceanQuest for the 4 day one. It might give us the chance to skip more dives if we need to catch our breath, but still be able to get in a lot of dives total. My second choice right now is the Kangaroo Explorer. I have a little bit of a concern, though. The Kangaroo Explorer lists some reefs like Milln and Thetford that my guidebook says are Intermediate rather than Novice. The OceanQuest one was a bit vague and may visit some of the same places. You think that will be an issue for us?

So, what do you think, folks? Both of us are good sports and are looking forward to it as being an adventure. We're used to roughing it and aren't spoiled tourists. We just don't want to wind up with a bad experience due to signing on with a poor operation.

Any tips and info, no matter how short, are appreciated! And if I left out any liveaboards that are still operating this year, please do let me know!

Thanks again!


Edit:
The more I'm looking at reviews and such, the more I'm starting to lean towards touring Sydney first and risking something happening (yes, unlikely) to us before we fly up to Cairns. I'd like to go with Mike Ball, but the 4 day one says it's for advanced divers, so that leaves us with the 3 day, which has 11 day dives and 1 night dive. I'm afraid packing more dives into shorter time will mean it's likely we'll miss more of them. The other appealing option is the Prodive/Taka 4 day one. It has fewer overall dives, but having them spread out more might be better for us newbies. Plus it is one of the less expensive 4 days that go out to Cod Hole and the Ribbon Reefs. Considering how expensive getting to AU is and how future plans and kids might delay things, I want our possible one time ever there to be the best it can be.

 

[HuaGirl]

I absolutely LOVEd Spirit of Freedom! I just went with them this past November and they were heaps of fun! They were very knowledgeable in the dives and also very accommodating!

the dives themselves were just amazing! If you do the last few days of the liveaboard and meet at Lizard Island, the dives thereafter are just phenomenal! Osprey is the best with the Shark Feed!

You will love Spirit of Freedom! Not to mention they have a very good chef with some tasty meals and treats! Nothing like diving and food again and again!

 

[Damselfish]

I ran into the same issue when we were in Australia last year, our schedule didn't line up with the schedules or openings of liveaboards we really wanted to go on like Mike Ball or SOF. Since you can actually be flexible, I would modify your schedule to dive when you can get on the better liveaboard trips (and not worry so much.

 

[altaskier]

I would give a holler to both Spirit of Freedom and Mike Ball, or Taka as a third choice. Tell them of your experience and your concerns. Perhaps you can arrange for a guide for some of your first dives to give you tips, reassurance, etc. at the outset. You could even do the AOW course on the trip; I did that on the Mike Ball 4 day trip a few years ago and it worked out well for me.

I've both done the day boats and overnight transfer liveaboards out of Cairns, and the northern reefs on the Mike Ball trip. The northern reefs are definitely much better!

And sneak in as many local dives in as you can before then, to build experience.

 

[Damselfish]

We wound up on the Taka. On their Cod Hole trip they start diving at northern ribbon reefs and work their away back south to where the day and overnight boats go so we saw both on the same trip. There is a huge difference, further north was so much better.

 

[darkstar]

Was on Reef Encounter a few years ago and I would give them a pass. No bed-bugs, but the atmosphere was more like a floating cattle car. They supplement the crew with backpackers who basically work the boat for free diving. It's basically a floating motel and they use a day snorkel boat to ferry you out to and back in from the boat which eats up a 1/2 day of diving each way. On the plus side, the cabins are large by live-aboard standards.

There is no need to add a 'decompression buffer' on the way there. My time was really limited and so I chose the Reef Encounter because I could fly out to it on a helicopter. I basically stepped of the flight from Sydney, grabbed by bag and was driven across the tarmac to the helicopter. Within 15 minutes I was in the air again and 30 minutes after that I was standing on the deck of the Reef Encounter getting ready for my first dive.

 

[ApexLongimanus]

we did the kangaroo explorer. the cheapest liveaboard i've ever been on. and i must say, by far NOT the worst.
the issue for us was that these guys offer very flexible schedules. the downside is that they only allow 3 dives/day and food is rather basic. nevertheless, some of the dive sites we were diving on were in the top-ten of australia list. cabins were big and clean. we did see minke whales while diving, sharks and other stuff.

all-in-all....not to compare with the galapagos aggressor II ... but clearly a lot of bang for the buck. we would do it again.

 

[thespoons]

Thanks everyone for the comments!

altaskier: Just curious, why did you list Taka as third? I understand listing Mike Ball first due to some other threads I've read here, but what would you say the differences to you are between Taka and SoF?

I'm leaning towards Taka now due to it leaving on Tuesday, which would probably be better if we were touring Sydney first. Taka will also be a couple hundred USD cheaper. Can anyone compare the two?
Here are those two itineraries:
Spirit of Freedom
TAKA


Damselfish: Do you have any more comments on Taka you'd like to share? I'm an information hound, so anything you have to add will be of interest.

I'm wondering if maybe I shouldn't also post something to the Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands board. If people aren't about to take a liveaboard they might not be reading this forum. Anyone want to warn a newbie if it's considered rude here to crosspost or post something pointing people this thread? Thanks.

 

[thespoons]

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[thespoons]

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