Maldives Liveaboard - Scubaspa or Emperor Orion

[judyo1]

Hi. I'm looking at doing a week long liveaboard in the Maldives in march 2018. I'm looking at Scubaspa Yang for their "Central Atolls" trip versus Emperor Orion for their Southern Central 7 Atolls trip.

Any thoughts... as a boat Scuba Spa looks amazing, but does have a lot of people on board. I like the idea of diving somewhere more isolated whcih I understand the Southern routes are. I love love love Mantas - are they still there on the Southern route?

I will be travelling as a single woman.

THoughts / suggestions? Cheers

 

[Oceanic Dreams]

Hi Judyyo ,

There is high chance of seing Mantas and WhaleSharks within this routes.
Scubaspa is a beautiful boat but yes it can be a lot of people in just one ship.
Southern Route is one of the best route to take in Maldives for diving. I do have a similar route on Adora liveaboard which you might be interested to have a look .
I can offer Southern Atoll tour from 21st - 31st Mar 2018 . (10 nights) at a very special price. We have few spots available.
Please have a look at the link and drop me an email if you feel this boat is suitable and wish to get a good deal .

Fantastic Diving from the Maldives Liveaboard Adora

Cheers

 

[judyo1]

Hi Judyyo ,

There is high chance of seing Mantas and WhaleSharks within this routes.
Scubaspa is a beautiful boat but yes it can be a lot of people in just one ship.
Southern Route is one of the best route to take in Maldives for diving. I do have a similar route on Adora liveaboard which you might be interested to have a look .
I can offer Southern Atoll tour from 21st - 31st Mar 2018 . (10 nights) at a very special price. We have few spots available.
Please have a look at the link and drop me an email if you feel this boat is suitable and wish to get a good deal .

Fantastic Diving from the Maldives Liveaboard Adora

Cheers

Cheers. SOunds very nice. I am committed to a conference in Singapore March 22-24 so need to work around that. Am tempted to go with Southern route.

 

[PugHugger]

I was on ScubaSpa in June. We were almost at capacity. At no point did I feel too crowded on the boat. It's really large and beautifully fitted out.

If I can answer any questions about it I would be happy to

 

[Wiggsy]

I was on ScubaSpa in June. We were almost at capacity. At no point did I feel too crowded on the boat. It's really large and beautifully fitted out.

If I can answer any questions about it I would be happy to

Hi there - I'm looking into booking the whole boat in September 2019 for a mega-group trip. Probably 32 divers or so plus several snorkellers. Agree with the spaciousness of the boats and the cabins look fabulous. One question though - how would the dive Dhoni cope with 32 divers hitting the water at one time? I guess they advertise 5 dive master so groups of 5 or 6 is pretty good by Maldives standards. But would 32 (or so) be congested..?

 

[PugHugger]

Hi there - I'm looking into booking the whole boat in September 2019 for a mega-group trip. Probably 32 divers or so plus several snorkellers. Agree with the spaciousness of the boats and the cabins look fabulous. One question though - how would the dive Dhoni cope with 32 divers hitting the water at one time? I guess they advertise 5 dive master so groups of 5 or 6 is pretty good by Maldives standards. But would 32 (or so) be congested..?

Hi Wiggsy

Sounds like a fabulous trip. I think 32 would make the dhoni a little squeezy, but we had about 26 and it never felt too bad.

One thing they did do at a few sites (not all), was drop some divers off, move the boat, drop another group off etc. etc. so not everyone was hitting the water at once.

I did some snorkelling as I sadly got a cold and was benched for a few days. Fish life is amazing, corals not so much. But the snorkelling Scuba Spa had available (at different sites to the diving) was very pretty. My point is your snorkellers will go via the zodiac not the dhoni so you don't need to carry them also.

 

[Wiggsy]

Terrific - that is good to know. Particularly abut the snorkellers going out on the zodiac...I might try to swing the balance a little with a few more snorkelers and a few less divers. I've done trips on the Nautilus 2 the last two years, but Scubaspa looks pretty fabulous and I'm hoping it will appeal to my non-diving friends as well. This is my gallery from last years trip - South and North Ari and North Male atolls. KuduRah Thila was my favourite dive site and probably half of these shots come from the two dives we did there (we insisted on a repeat). https://photos.app.goo.gl/CP6AP0B6HZ6G3Nsn2

 

[PugHugger]

The boat is designed to appeal to non-divers as well. The on board spa is very nice - the therapist I had was okay but honestly not the best.

That said I understand there were no complainants about the other therapists.

There is morning yoga for non-divers, the on board spa, sauna and sunning area and then the bar and common area. I was sick for a few days and while I was miserable as I was not diving - the boat is quite nice for non-divers.

 

[Wiggsy]

Thanks so much for this. Very reassuring to have a valued opinion. I'll book it.

 

[SCUBAmv]

HI Judyo, if you are looking for boat with less divers consider MV.Crown we are available from February to March and will be in South.
Please click on the link for the schedulehttps://www.scubamv.com/crown do let me know the exact date we have an early bird offer upto 20% discount .