Liveaboard Similians MANTA QUEEN 3 vs MV CAMIC

[JacobD]

Hi!

These boats suit us best in terms of budget and schedule. Have any of you been on these boats?

Do you have any suggestions for livearboards in Similians?

This will be our first liveaboard and we don't have much experience.

Thanks!

 

[stevenl]

For not very experienced divers both boats are very good.

Manta Queen 3 is the more comfortable of the 2 boats.

 

[JacobD]

Manta Queen 3 is the more comfortable of the 2 boats.

Thank you for your opinion. Could you explain how the MQ3 is more comfortable?

 

[divingx]

Hi Jacob,

I don’t have personal experience in these two boats, but I had a liveaboard trip last year on MV Deep Andaman Queen. It was renovated last year but seems a bit too expensive. Generally speaking boats in Similans are not as good as those in Maldives or Caribbean. From what I saw, the rooms are relatively small. The bathroom is small. You can’t take a 30 min shower since you don’t have that much hot water. (10 min is fine) They offered both Thai food and western food. Bring some towels with you since they don’t offer enough. There’s no wifi and cell phone signal on most boats expect when you’re near some major islands. So tell your friend in advance that you’re not missing. You said it’s your first liveaboard. Are you a new diver? Sometimes dives in Similan could be hard.

 

[JacobD]

Hi Jacob,

I don’t have personal experience in these two boats, but I had a liveaboard trip last year on MV Deep Andaman Queen. It was renovated last year but seems a bit too expensive. Generally speaking boats in Similans are not as good as those in Maldives or Caribbean. From what I saw, the rooms are relatively small. The bathroom is small. You can’t take a 30 min shower since you don’t have that much hot water. (10 min is fine) They offered both Thai food and western food. Bring some towels with you since they don’t offer enough. There’s no wifi and cell phone signal on most boats expect when you’re near some major islands. So tell your friend in advance that you’re not missing. You said it’s your first liveaboard. Are you a new diver? Sometimes dives in Similan could be hard.

Unfortunately yes, Deep Andaman is too expensive especially that my girlfriend has to have en-suit bathroom. Thank you very much for useful tips, for sure I'll inform my close ones that I'll be off service and we will bring some extra towels. Yes, we're newbies with around 15 dives each. What difficulties can we expect in Similians?

 

[divingx]

Unfortunately yes, Deep Andaman is too expensive especially that my girlfriend has to have en-suit bathroom. Thank you very much for useful tips, for sure I'll inform my close ones that I'll be off service and we will bring some extra towels. Yes, we're newbies with around 15 dives each. What difficulties can we expect in Similians?

Last year we had pretty rough sea, but that was at the beginning of May, which is almost the start of rain season. Maybe you won’t have this problem. The current was strong in some sites that we had to do negative entrance to catch the mooring line. It was quite challengingly sometime. My girlfriend was like you, just finished her AOW. She quit the last dive at Richelieu Rock since she was to tired fighting the current all day. Anyway you probably won’t have this problem cuz you might go at high season?

 

[JacobD]

Last year we had pretty rough sea, but that was at the beginning of May, which is almost the start of rain season. Maybe you won’t have this problem. The current was strong in some sites that we had to do negative entrance to catch the mooring line. It was quite challengingly sometime. My girlfriend was like you, just finished her AOW. She quit the last dive at Richelieu Rock since she was to tired fighting the current all day. Anyway you probably won’t have this problem cuz you might go at high season?

Damn, that sounds bit more than hard for me We did one dive in the current and to be honest we didn't enjoyed it but with zero experience with current we didn't exactly know how to work with current not against it. Negative entry is something that my girlfriend will never do ( she got sometimes equalizing issues) i'm a little afraid to do it We will be going at the turn of November and December.

From what I read it is already the season. How was the vis with rough sea?

 

[divingx]

@JacobD
November and December should be fine. I don't think rough sea would be a problem at that time. The reason we had rough sea was there was a storm not far from us. But still there might be small current in some sites. Just do what the guide does and you would be fine. The visibility was quite good actually. It was just the surface. Underwater it was perfect.

 

[JacobD]

@QAQTAT

I think we will be ok with small current. It's the sea after all How is with depth of dive sites? I'm writing with operators there to ask about details and both suggested to do with them AOWD so we can go deeper then 18m. Is it really necessary to go deeper so we can enjoy dive on Similians or just them trying to up sell ?

One of the operators suggested that it is enough to do "adventure deep dive" so that we can go deeper. I do not understand it completely, it seemed to me to be able to dive up to 30m needs AOWD and not just "adventure deep dive"

 

[divingx]

@JacobD
Adventure diver course is like a subset of AOW course. Once you finish the adventure deep dive, you can dive to 30m. Most operators in Thailand can offer PADI course. Some operators even requires a minimum of AOW certificate. From my point of view, it's better to have AOW to dive Similans but it's not necessary. I just checked my dive logo. I had 9 dives with max depth beyond 18m. 3 or them was beyond 30m, because I was with my girlfriend, who was taking Deep Specialty which could allow her to dive to 40m. 3 of them were about 20m, which means you could still see everything I saw within 18m. The rest were 23m to 28m, which required you being able to dive to 30m. Of course the operator want to sell you the course, but it's your decision at the end.