FairyBasset
Contributor
I booked a 6 day LOB trip on the Infiniti boat, with the planned schedule Malapascua and Leyte. The hope was to see the thresher sharks on Malapascua and whale sharks in Leyte. Well... that was the plan.
We boarded in Cebu Mactan yacht club which is a 5 or 10 trip from the airport and were greeted and shown around by Nik the Cruise Director who was extremely nice, helpful, communicative.
The boat is really big and spacious. Last year the Infiniti had a total overhaul and refit, so it’s really well appointed and set out.
They have bedrooms below deck, on the main deck and on the upper deck. On top there is also a large sundeck. The bedrooms were great, really roomy. They also have some triple rooms, if you wish to travel as a threesome or with a kid. The beds were very comfortable with really nice bed linen. Plenty of sockets to charge phones etc. Reading lights by each bed. Smallish wardrobe, so not brilliant storage for clothes but ok. The bathrooms were the best I’ve seen on a liveaboard. Huge spacious showers with shower gel and shampoo available. Air-con in the rooms.
The dining room was extremely spacious, huge tv, plenty of movies available. Free beer, wine, soft drinks, spirits so that was great. Hot brewed coffee, fresh ginger tea, plus other teas and hot chocolate as well as freshly baked cookies available all day and night. We all loved this service so much!
The food on board was excellent. Great mix of Western and Asian food and thankfully not much Philippino food, which is really not great. We had light breakfast before first dive, cereal, toast, fruit. Main breakfast after first dive, cooked breakfast. Lunch was often pasta, some meat or fish dish, salads, fruit etc. Snacks after 3rd dive included dim sum, sweet potato fries etc. Dinner was usually some meat, fish, veg, rice, salad, dessert. The quality was excellent and there was plenty available. Everyone was happy - especially with the free booze to accompany dinner!
Dive deck was well set up, most of us diving on nitrox. Plenty of storage space and hangers for wetsuits. Fresh water shower, toilet on dive deck. Free use of torches. Rental gear looked new and in great condition.
There were 4 dive guides: Nik the cruise director (Ukrainian), Athina (Taiwan), Dindo and Kikoi (Philippino). Kikoi was great at finding macro and super macro. All the guides were very good and helpful. We had some very different abilities, dive styles (especially dive etiquette) on board and they tried to set the groups up accordingly.
So... what happened.... first of all a tropical storm came through and so our trip north to malapascua was delayed. We went to Cabilao for the first day to stay out of the wind. As I’d already done lots of diving on Cabilao it wasn’t ideal, but at least the dives there are good.
After second dive, accident on board, diver accessing jump deck from dive deck. Not holding on to rail, slipped and broke ankle. So back we go to Cebu for trip to hospital and offload him onto plane home as x-ray confirms break. Poor guy, long way to come for 2 dives.
Then we started to head north to a tiny island Capitancillo as we still can’t go to Malapascua due to storm. Very mediocre wall dives, nice soft coral on top of reef. But 4 dives is overdoing it in this location.
Then both water pumps break and can’t be fixed. No water in showers or toilets. Back to port again in Bogo City to get pumps. However, after half day in the harbour with very little info about what is going on, another diver decides he is really sick and wants x ray on his lungs in case of pneumonia. So longer wait in port for the trip to the doctor.
In the end we go back to capitancillo so we can at least get one dive in on day 3! Here one diver ruptured ear drum due to a cold, but thankfully no trip back to harbour!!
At this point the team let us vote on whether to go north and risk not great dives at malapascua or just head south to Leyte. 8:7 chose threshers so we head north out to malapascua!
Monad shoal dive 1: green, 3-5m viz, one very fleeting glance of a single thresher. Second dive at Monad Shoal same thing. Not awesome. But we saw a thresher, which is why we picked the malapascua route, so that’s fine.
Then we went to Gato Island. Not great viz but really nice wall dive. Second dive was through a cave which cuts through the island and houses white tips and sea snakes. Opens up with two beautiful windows to other side of the island and sharks patrolling the entrance. Really cool view. Big rocks covered in orange cup corals, amazing soft corals in blues and purples along the reef. Lots of macro, neon pink anemones, bright red starfish, Spanish dancers and more. Best dive of trip by far!
On board, looks like one more ruptured ear drum and 3 cases of bronchitis. We rechristen the boat the Death Star! the healthy ones are now all using lots of hand sanitizer and Johnny Walker Red Label to kill the germs!
Last day of diving: planned to go to kimod shoal but due to high winds diverted to Malapascua Lapus Lapus island. Very, very average, poor viz, not much nice coral.
So, we missed Leyte altogether from the original itinerary, most dives had poor viz, not much sunlight, we kept having to change plans for many reasons. Bit of a shame really. However, the crew did a great job, they did their best to offer us good dives and entertain us. They were very helpful with all our invalids.
Would I do the trip again to see all we hoped for and missed? No. For me the visayas diving is ok but not my favourite type of diving. I preferred Apo Reef by far and Coron. Plus it’s so cheap to do it from land, no real need for a LOB.
I also think this December/Jan season can be tricky here. I’ve had two tropical depression/ storms in the 5 1/2 weeks I’ve been here, which basically meant 3 1/2 weeks of not great weather. Maybe I was unlucky, but I’d carefully consider the month to visit this area in the future.
I was glad I had booked the trip just after Black Friday and got a 40% discount. I don’t think this trip is worth 2.300 Euro plus 190€ fuel surcharge and park fees, which is the normal price. The boat etc is great, but for me the diving here really isn’t worth that price tag.
Diving over, time to head home!
We boarded in Cebu Mactan yacht club which is a 5 or 10 trip from the airport and were greeted and shown around by Nik the Cruise Director who was extremely nice, helpful, communicative.
The boat is really big and spacious. Last year the Infiniti had a total overhaul and refit, so it’s really well appointed and set out.
They have bedrooms below deck, on the main deck and on the upper deck. On top there is also a large sundeck. The bedrooms were great, really roomy. They also have some triple rooms, if you wish to travel as a threesome or with a kid. The beds were very comfortable with really nice bed linen. Plenty of sockets to charge phones etc. Reading lights by each bed. Smallish wardrobe, so not brilliant storage for clothes but ok. The bathrooms were the best I’ve seen on a liveaboard. Huge spacious showers with shower gel and shampoo available. Air-con in the rooms.
The dining room was extremely spacious, huge tv, plenty of movies available. Free beer, wine, soft drinks, spirits so that was great. Hot brewed coffee, fresh ginger tea, plus other teas and hot chocolate as well as freshly baked cookies available all day and night. We all loved this service so much!
The food on board was excellent. Great mix of Western and Asian food and thankfully not much Philippino food, which is really not great. We had light breakfast before first dive, cereal, toast, fruit. Main breakfast after first dive, cooked breakfast. Lunch was often pasta, some meat or fish dish, salads, fruit etc. Snacks after 3rd dive included dim sum, sweet potato fries etc. Dinner was usually some meat, fish, veg, rice, salad, dessert. The quality was excellent and there was plenty available. Everyone was happy - especially with the free booze to accompany dinner!
Dive deck was well set up, most of us diving on nitrox. Plenty of storage space and hangers for wetsuits. Fresh water shower, toilet on dive deck. Free use of torches. Rental gear looked new and in great condition.
There were 4 dive guides: Nik the cruise director (Ukrainian), Athina (Taiwan), Dindo and Kikoi (Philippino). Kikoi was great at finding macro and super macro. All the guides were very good and helpful. We had some very different abilities, dive styles (especially dive etiquette) on board and they tried to set the groups up accordingly.
So... what happened.... first of all a tropical storm came through and so our trip north to malapascua was delayed. We went to Cabilao for the first day to stay out of the wind. As I’d already done lots of diving on Cabilao it wasn’t ideal, but at least the dives there are good.
After second dive, accident on board, diver accessing jump deck from dive deck. Not holding on to rail, slipped and broke ankle. So back we go to Cebu for trip to hospital and offload him onto plane home as x-ray confirms break. Poor guy, long way to come for 2 dives.
Then we started to head north to a tiny island Capitancillo as we still can’t go to Malapascua due to storm. Very mediocre wall dives, nice soft coral on top of reef. But 4 dives is overdoing it in this location.
Then both water pumps break and can’t be fixed. No water in showers or toilets. Back to port again in Bogo City to get pumps. However, after half day in the harbour with very little info about what is going on, another diver decides he is really sick and wants x ray on his lungs in case of pneumonia. So longer wait in port for the trip to the doctor.
In the end we go back to capitancillo so we can at least get one dive in on day 3! Here one diver ruptured ear drum due to a cold, but thankfully no trip back to harbour!!
At this point the team let us vote on whether to go north and risk not great dives at malapascua or just head south to Leyte. 8:7 chose threshers so we head north out to malapascua!
Monad shoal dive 1: green, 3-5m viz, one very fleeting glance of a single thresher. Second dive at Monad Shoal same thing. Not awesome. But we saw a thresher, which is why we picked the malapascua route, so that’s fine.
Then we went to Gato Island. Not great viz but really nice wall dive. Second dive was through a cave which cuts through the island and houses white tips and sea snakes. Opens up with two beautiful windows to other side of the island and sharks patrolling the entrance. Really cool view. Big rocks covered in orange cup corals, amazing soft corals in blues and purples along the reef. Lots of macro, neon pink anemones, bright red starfish, Spanish dancers and more. Best dive of trip by far!
On board, looks like one more ruptured ear drum and 3 cases of bronchitis. We rechristen the boat the Death Star! the healthy ones are now all using lots of hand sanitizer and Johnny Walker Red Label to kill the germs!
Last day of diving: planned to go to kimod shoal but due to high winds diverted to Malapascua Lapus Lapus island. Very, very average, poor viz, not much nice coral.
So, we missed Leyte altogether from the original itinerary, most dives had poor viz, not much sunlight, we kept having to change plans for many reasons. Bit of a shame really. However, the crew did a great job, they did their best to offer us good dives and entertain us. They were very helpful with all our invalids.
Would I do the trip again to see all we hoped for and missed? No. For me the visayas diving is ok but not my favourite type of diving. I preferred Apo Reef by far and Coron. Plus it’s so cheap to do it from land, no real need for a LOB.
I also think this December/Jan season can be tricky here. I’ve had two tropical depression/ storms in the 5 1/2 weeks I’ve been here, which basically meant 3 1/2 weeks of not great weather. Maybe I was unlucky, but I’d carefully consider the month to visit this area in the future.
I was glad I had booked the trip just after Black Friday and got a 40% discount. I don’t think this trip is worth 2.300 Euro plus 190€ fuel surcharge and park fees, which is the normal price. The boat etc is great, but for me the diving here really isn’t worth that price tag.
Diving over, time to head home!
