Raja Ampat liveaboard trip on the Seven Seas

[edpdiver]

My wife and I took a 14 night trip on the Seven Seas through Raja Ampat. It was our third trip to Raja Ampat, and the diving was excellent, as was the boat. The crew on the Seven Seas was uniformly good. The dive guides were helpful and knowledgeable, and the rest of the crew were also good at their jobs. There were 14 passengers on our trip, 12 divers, and surprisingly, 2 snorkelers (who also had a great time). The boat was comfortable and the food was very good. I would strongly recommend going on this boat. We did three or four dives per day, which is less than some liveaboards, but just right for me. Basically, the schedule alternated with eat, dive, eat, dive, eat, dive, etc., starting with a pre-breakfast between 6 and 7:30am and the first dive typically starting at 7:45am. One bit of interesting information that we learned is that this is the last season (for the time being) that the boat is going to cruise Raja Ampat. They feel, justifiably, that the region is getting crowded with liveaboards, so they are going to substitute a new dive region into their plans starting next year. Specifically, they will dive the South Komodo region, and they are confident it will be a great area to dive, with aspects similar to Raja Ampat diving. Should be interesting.

Here are a few pictures from the trip.













and the whole set can be found on Flickr, here. (I am still adding to it at the time of this posting.)

 

[Andreni]

Great pics! Thanks for sharing!! Now I'm even more looking forward to our trip to R4 in late summer.

 

[gee13]

Grrat shots erwin. You saw orange rhinopia in Raja? I saw green frogfish! Wtf?

 

[Wisnu]

Waow,
Great shots
my fav is the first one, I tried but fail, the current push me to the fiishes

 

[jake11]

Awesome photos! I loved the black and white manta shot and of course the orange frog fish! All of them were great! Thanks for sharing!

 

[edpdiver]

Thanks, guys. Andreni, have a great time on your trip. I am sure that you will.
-Erwin

 

[scorpiofish]

Interesting. Raja is now very crowded. Diving some popular sites can take some coordination. While still a stellar boat, newer more luxurious entries make the competition challenging.

They were also looking to dump two rooms and go to a max of 12 guests, but scrapped that plan. I think this plan may have more merit. There are advantages to being where everyone else isn't.

How many guides did they have on the boat? Was it just Tommy and Karl? I found having 2 guides for 16 divers a bit of an issue.

Nice Rhinopias. Where did you find him?

 

[edpdiver]

Interesting. Raja is now very crowded. Diving some popular sites can take some coordination. While still a stellar boat, newer more luxurious entries make the competition challenging.

They were also looking to dump two rooms and go to a max of 12 guests, but scrapped that plan. I think this plan may have more merit. There are advantages to being where everyone else isn't.

How many guides did they have on the boat? Was it just Tommy and Karl? I found having 2 guides for 16 divers a bit of an issue.

Nice Rhinopias. Where did you find him?

I liked the boat very much. I know that there are more luxurious boats, but I had heard great things about the crew of this boat, and they really lived up to the reputation. I noted that many of their upcoming trips are booked for the next year or two, so I suspect that this reputation is still serving them well. It will be interesting to see how competition makes things shake out.

There were 12 divers and 2 snorkelers on the boat. The snorkelers had their own guide, and the remaining 12 divers had two guides. In practice, two divers did not follow the guide, so there were usually 4 divers per guide, which was great. I would guess that they always have at least 3 guides when they have a full boat. To answer your question, though, the guides on our boat were Tommy, Frengke (aka Frankie, not regularly part of the crew, but great; he is Irwan's brother, who is a regular guide on the boat), and Karl (also the cruise director). Also, Linda, the videographer, also went on most dives.

The Rhinopias was spotted by Tommy (a GREAT spotter) at Algae Patch II.

-Erwin

 

[gee13]

Algae patch, my favourite night dive in Raja..they should rename it Nightclub City, there were so many critters in that dive I felt like Id gone clubbing downtown in the inner city! Literally dizzy after that dive..

 

[reubencahn]

edpdiver, My wife and I were thinking about booking one of the south Komodo trips for next year. For the dates we want the upper deck cabins are unavailable. Did you hear any complaints about engine and generator noise for those in cabins 5 and 6?