kneptoon
Contributor
Ship details:
My wife and I flew from Bali into Maumere where we met our fellow divers and the cruise representatives. After collecting all the baggage we were shuttled to the harbor to board Dewi Nusantara. This is a very impressive and imposing boat when you first see her in the water. She measures 57 meters which is around 25 meters longer than the pilsini liveaboards I have sailed in the past. It is a big boat. The cabins are big, the bathrooms are big and the dive deck is enormous. Is bigger better? Well, yes in this case definitely. I had to look out the porthole some mornings to even tell if we were moving or not. The engines are very quiet. The loudest noise was gentle creaking of the wood when the swells were at their heaviest. This is also the best maintained liveaboard I have ever been aboard. The showers are scalding hot, the beds comfortable, AC works great, the rooms well lit, the ladders and passages easily maneuvered. I saw one bug, and only one, on day 10. My wife summed it up. "Indonesia has spoiled us for diving anywhere else and this boat has spoiled us for any other liveaboard." This same clean, crisp professionalism is personified by the crew. Wendy the cruise director really runs the operation like clockwork. This is evidenced in the daily dive planning and the clear communication on what those plans are for the following day. Do they vary? Of course, and you are free to opt out of plans. Each dive plan is mapped out and throughly explained, including contingencies for current conditions. You are not free to opt out of the safety protocols which are established early on and followed every time you don equipment and descend the ladder to the two dive tenders. In the tenders, comfortably accommodating 12 divers, your gear awaits you. Getting from ship ladder to tender is safe and easy, because you follow the safety protocol. There is a short ride, 10 minutes max. to the dive site. The dives were usually max. of 60 minutes, though some shallow critter dives were extended. The program was the standard 2 morning dives, an afternoon dive and a dusk/night dive. This schedule was held except for the long passage from Alor to Komodo and the last 2 dives of the day were not possible. In the water there were 2 dive guides to each boat, or 4 divers per guide. You can dive guided or guide your own dive. There is a minimum of tank banging clanking and other nuisance noises. You can follow a guide, and these guys were fantastic finding critters, or cruise on your own. My wife is a photographer I am not. Wendy guided all of our dives (I know how does she do it?) Upon surfacing, the tender that dropped you off picks you up. Average wait was under two minutes. You hand all of your gear up to the deck hand and climb a decent ladder into the boat and then back to the Dewi Nusantara for a hot shower on deck and a quick back/massage before what ever meal is scheduled next. The food was very good. I particularly enjoyed the lunchtime Indonesian buffet. Meals are usually eaten at two large teak tables on the dive deck, weather permitting. If it was too windy or wet, we ate in the salon. The salon accommodated us all easily at dining tables at one end, built in sofas flank the wall at the opposite end where the photographers usually did their post dive editing. There are two sun decks, one always open to sun with hammocks the other is shaded. We were fortunate having mostly very experienced divers aboard. Nine came from the Rochester Aquatic Center. We all played together very well and there were some very good photographers on board. We also had the bonus of Gary Bevan's company as "Consultant" on this cruise. Wendy, together with Yan the ace dive guide, and the great comic wit of Gary, an old hand of Alor and Komodo, provided us a wonderfully unforgettable cruise. We disembarked on day 11 in Luban Bajo. Our baggage was all weighed, the excess pounds paid for and taken to the airport ahead of us. Like everything on this cruise it was so easy and perfectly orchestrated.
My wife and I flew from Bali into Maumere where we met our fellow divers and the cruise representatives. After collecting all the baggage we were shuttled to the harbor to board Dewi Nusantara. This is a very impressive and imposing boat when you first see her in the water. She measures 57 meters which is around 25 meters longer than the pilsini liveaboards I have sailed in the past. It is a big boat. The cabins are big, the bathrooms are big and the dive deck is enormous. Is bigger better? Well, yes in this case definitely. I had to look out the porthole some mornings to even tell if we were moving or not. The engines are very quiet. The loudest noise was gentle creaking of the wood when the swells were at their heaviest. This is also the best maintained liveaboard I have ever been aboard. The showers are scalding hot, the beds comfortable, AC works great, the rooms well lit, the ladders and passages easily maneuvered. I saw one bug, and only one, on day 10. My wife summed it up. "Indonesia has spoiled us for diving anywhere else and this boat has spoiled us for any other liveaboard." This same clean, crisp professionalism is personified by the crew. Wendy the cruise director really runs the operation like clockwork. This is evidenced in the daily dive planning and the clear communication on what those plans are for the following day. Do they vary? Of course, and you are free to opt out of plans. Each dive plan is mapped out and throughly explained, including contingencies for current conditions. You are not free to opt out of the safety protocols which are established early on and followed every time you don equipment and descend the ladder to the two dive tenders. In the tenders, comfortably accommodating 12 divers, your gear awaits you. Getting from ship ladder to tender is safe and easy, because you follow the safety protocol. There is a short ride, 10 minutes max. to the dive site. The dives were usually max. of 60 minutes, though some shallow critter dives were extended. The program was the standard 2 morning dives, an afternoon dive and a dusk/night dive. This schedule was held except for the long passage from Alor to Komodo and the last 2 dives of the day were not possible. In the water there were 2 dive guides to each boat, or 4 divers per guide. You can dive guided or guide your own dive. There is a minimum of tank banging clanking and other nuisance noises. You can follow a guide, and these guys were fantastic finding critters, or cruise on your own. My wife is a photographer I am not. Wendy guided all of our dives (I know how does she do it?) Upon surfacing, the tender that dropped you off picks you up. Average wait was under two minutes. You hand all of your gear up to the deck hand and climb a decent ladder into the boat and then back to the Dewi Nusantara for a hot shower on deck and a quick back/massage before what ever meal is scheduled next. The food was very good. I particularly enjoyed the lunchtime Indonesian buffet. Meals are usually eaten at two large teak tables on the dive deck, weather permitting. If it was too windy or wet, we ate in the salon. The salon accommodated us all easily at dining tables at one end, built in sofas flank the wall at the opposite end where the photographers usually did their post dive editing. There are two sun decks, one always open to sun with hammocks the other is shaded. We were fortunate having mostly very experienced divers aboard. Nine came from the Rochester Aquatic Center. We all played together very well and there were some very good photographers on board. We also had the bonus of Gary Bevan's company as "Consultant" on this cruise. Wendy, together with Yan the ace dive guide, and the great comic wit of Gary, an old hand of Alor and Komodo, provided us a wonderfully unforgettable cruise. We disembarked on day 11 in Luban Bajo. Our baggage was all weighed, the excess pounds paid for and taken to the airport ahead of us. Like everything on this cruise it was so easy and perfectly orchestrated.
