My Best Maldives LOB So Far – Maldives Siren Trip Report

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mantajohn

Contributor
Messages
267
Reaction score
61
Location
Newbury, UK
# of dives
500 - 999
I’ve recently returned from a great holiday on Maldives Siren. I’m fortunate in having dived the Maldives many times - this liveaboard was the best overall combination of high quality accommodation/food plus serious diving that I’ve experienced – so I thought I’d share the details in case they are helpful to anyone planning their trip.

Flights

Qatar Airways via Doha. Everything fine on all 4 segments. In flight entertainment is pretty ordinary; I suggest loading a tablet with your entertainment of choice. My tour operator (Blue O2) have a 40kg weight allowance on Qatar – so no problems in that regard.
Be aware: Qatar Airways default offering is for a very tight connection in Doha (55 mins). Instead I chose a 6 hour layover. I paid £25 to use the Oryx lounge for these 6 hours. Good decision: food, alcohol on request, flat beds, immaculate toilets/showers, wifi.
My caution paid off. Upon arrival in Male, I was the only passenger ex London who had luggage. All of the people opting for the 1 hour connection arrived – but their bags did not.

Itinerary

I definitely like 10 day lobs esp. for long haul. Chose this boat as its itinerary was an internal flight to Laamu (a southern Atoll) then spend 10 days on a one-way trip back to Male. I am well acquainted with the central atolls. Hence, booking this trip to see some new southerly less dived sites. Alas, on the day before departure, we received an em to say that due to mechanical problems the prior week, the boat was not in position to do the one-way itinerary but instead would be doing the standard Male to Male central atolls route instead – bother.
A bit disappointed, but as SWMBO pointed out, I was still going to the Maldives for great diving & if the problem had occurred during our week, it could have been much worse impact.
Siren dealt with this fine. Lovely, happy welcome in Male; put us in a (nice) lounge for 4 hours. Comp drinks/breakfast, shower facilities. Free wifi. We had pre paid for the internal flight. Siren netted this off against bed tax/fuel surcharge. Roughly balanced – slightly in guests’ favour. Everyone seemed fine with this.

Diving Set Up

Very spacious dive deck with personal lockers. Non-slip matting everywhere. Crew rinse wetsuits for you & hang up after every dive. Cold fruit juices after every dive.
12 & 15s available. Note they are currently using Dhoni not zodiacs. Unlike most other Maldives lobs the compressor is on the Siren not the Dhoni. This works fine but requires de-kitting up to 3 times a day, which some of my buddies would definitely find annoying. Good selection of weights inc. v small ones to help get weighting spot on. Free Nitrox.
4 dives offered every day plus check dive plus 2 dives on penultimate morning. A cracking 34 dives offered in 9 full days on board. Some fantastic sites/dives. Old favourites e.g. Fish Head Maaya Thila, Rasdhoo Madivaru plus I really enjoyed Vaavu Atoll & South Ari. Highlights were diving (not snorkelling) with whale sharks. Leaf fish every day. Lots of stone fish. Plenty of UMS. Many grey reefs. Alas despite spending 3 full hours at cleaning stations – no Mantas.
I really liked the mix of channel (high energy) & scenic dives. A couple of the night dives were a bit rubbish – it is v difficult to find good current-free night dive sites in the Maldives.
A real plus was Thomas the Cruise Director. He did a great job varying sites/dive times to minimise impact of other lobs. There are a lot around nowadays. Also, he showed much flexibility adding extra night dives to compensate for small glitches e.g. no beach bbq or missed dive site on am dive. I’ve done a couple of Maldives lobs without Cruise Directors & the difference is really noticeable.
Missing the beach bbq was a good call. 9 lobs were attempting to use the same speck of beach for their sunset bbq!
There were 12 guests divided into 2 dive groups. I was in a group with 5 German/Swiss divers. They were excellent divers & really nice people to spend 10 days with. They kindly spoke English on board to include me in conversations.

Boat Facilities

7 cabins for max 14 divers. All cabins wood panelled with good individual air con. Rooms are not spacious, but big enough & noticeably larger than e.g. standard Aggressor sizes. Endless hot water for showers all day & proper loos.
Very comfy lounge. Outdoor shaded seating in dining area.

Food/drink

3 hot buffets per day plus afternoon sweet & savoury snacks. Multiple fish & meat choices at lunch & dinner. Generous quantities. Free soft drinks & beers. Wine was Euro 25 but was not that popular. Double whiskies/brandies at Euros 5 was a bargain nightcap.

Any negatives

  • Their maximum Nitrox mix was 28%. Often 26/27%. For repetitive diving in Maldives, I would prefer the usual 32%.
  • There was only 1 guide with expert local dive site knowledge. This meant that after 2 days they abandoned the 2 groups of 6 approach & we dived in a single group of 12. A quality lob should have 2 guides who have expert knowledge of the dive sites.
  • I would really have liked to dive the itinerary that I booked. But – stuff happens. I’ll try the Southern itinerary again before long – and I’ll choose Maldives Siren for that trip.

Booking/Tour Op

This was my 3rd trip in last 2 years with Georgina at Blue O2. Excellent, well informed, friendly service; good prices. Very happy to recommend.

Hope there's some useful info in here?

Cheers

John
 
Lol... This sounds familiar. We did the Nov 10-19 cruise with WWDS and the Maldives Siren. I suspect we were the group that had the cruise before you where the mechanical problems happened.

I can attest to your report. Good attitude to dealing with unforeseens, and mostly to the guests favour. We had superb service, and very knowledgeable guides. (The guides we had disembarked after our trip) Our group was very experienced, and were allowed to controll our own diving to our liking. (LOVE that!)

Max Nitrox was also 28%

I loved the chefs food, and there were always choices for meat/fish/veggies...
 
Thanks for the trip report and for including information about Qatar airlines. As much as I love, love, love Singapore Air, Qatar has some very convenient flights going from my hometown (D.C.) to a lot of the places we want to dive. Good to know!
 
Hi Mantajohn

Thanks for your detailed trip report and for joining our team on the Maldives Siren. We apologise once again for the mechanical issues and that we were unable to make the itinerary as scheduled, but are pleased that in spite of this our team were able to be flexible and provide some excellent dives for you and the other guests aboard.

Thank you for pointing out the low nitrox mixes, this is something that our operational team will look into and in regards to the dhoni we hope that our regular zodiacs will be back in operation shortly and cause less disruption for changing & re-setting equipment.

We look forward to welcoming you back once again,

Best wishes,
Siren Fleet

---------- Post added January 14th, 2014 at 10:45 AM ----------

Lol... This sounds familiar. We did the Nov 10-19 cruise with WWDS and the Maldives Siren. I suspect we were the group that had the cruise before you where the mechanical problems happened.

I can attest to your report. Good attitude to dealing with unforeseens, and mostly to the guests favour. We had superb service, and very knowledgeable guides. (The guides we had disembarked after our trip) Our group was very experienced, and were allowed to controll our own diving to our liking. (LOVE that!)

Max Nitrox was also 28%

I loved the chefs food, and there were always choices for meat/fish/veggies...

Hi Imla

We are sorry that you and your group experienced the issues aboard the Maldives Siren but pleased to learn that in spite of this our team were able to provide an enjoyable dive vacation and great service.

We hope to welcome you back aboard in the not so distant future,
Best wishes,
Siren Fleet
 
Imla - yes we were the trip following yours. I agree, the food was excellent. Also, one of the things that I really like about Siren Fleet is how they react when things go wrong.

Siren Fleet - thanks for your reply. Are you sure you want to revert to Zodiacs? A good dhoni works really well in Maldivian situations. Almost everyone uses them. With Maldivian dive sites, there can be a big time & distance difference between diver retrievals. A good dhoni ride for the post dive pick ups really beats bobbing around in a zodiac - especially the cramped, basic zodiacs that you were using on Indo Siren when I was there.

The negative points I raised are small ones. The title of my post indicates that I'm a very happy customer!
 
basic zodiacs that you were using on Indo Siren when I was there.

You need to come to Fiji and check out the new tenders we have there :wink: dinghy 2.jpg
 
Now that's more like a proper RIB!

The ones on Indo Siren were really 'IBs' as there was absolutely nothing rigid about them.

Fiji Siren is on my wish list - but its a long trip from here. One day!

Re the Maldives. I appreciate that Siren use zodiacs everywhere else in the world, but it is worth considering using dhonis in the Maldives. The dhoni trip is an integral pat of Maldives diving - most people I've dived with consider it an integral part of the Maldives diving experience.
 
Thanks for the info, John. If we could only drag the Maldives a bit closer to the USA...but well, we have easier access to Southeast Asia, etc. :)

Siren Fleet: I'm wondering how you get back in the Fiji RIB. Is that a ladder at the back? On the Nai'a, they had a ladder but usually just yanked us out of the water. However, one of the skiff drivers hurt their back doing that. I'm just surprised it doesn't happen everytime since it's an ideal movement to blow your back out.
 
Siren Fleet: I'm wondering how you get back in the Fiji RIB. Is that a ladder at the back?

Hi Shasta_man

Yes there are 1 or 2 ladders on the back of the Fiji RIBs so you can climb out easily with gear on or opt to take gear off- pass that up to the driver and then climb up the ladder easily ;-) dive tender.jpg
Many times skiff drivers can pull people out of the water in full kit but we advise them not to do it so keep themselves safe - otherwise yes back problems can be an issue.

Our tenders in other destinations have ladders on the side rather than the rear - but we follow the same procedure - guests can choose gear on or off.dinghy.jpg
 
If we could only drag the Maldives a bit closer to the USA...

The Maldives can be wonderful, but I rarely recommend it to friends in North America. Its 2 back to back overnight flights from N California. If you head west or South West, you have a great choice of diving destinations a whole lot nearer.

That said, I did a lob on Carpe Vita Explorer a year or so back that had guests from both USA & Canada - they all really enjoyed the trip.
 
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