I've recently returned from my 2 week trip to the Red Sea/Egypt, which included the Red Sea Liveaboard from All Star Liveaboards. Here's my report on the liveaboard portion of the trip (Red Sea South itinerary).
The boat - Originally, it was the Scuba Scene. That boat had a fire and was lost earlier this year however. We were later informed that we would be on the Sea Legend as a replacement of equal/better quality. When we arrived, however, we were put on the Tranquility. This was apparently changed in the last couple weeks before the trip but wasn't communicated to our group (9 of us). The boat was very nice and probably nicer than the Sea Legend. Safety briefing included pretty much every concern I'd have asked about in the wake of the Conception etc., including night watch, redundant exits, fire alarms/detectors, muster points, etc.
Two of us were diving rebreathers for most of the trip, which we had discussed with our contact at All Star prior to the trip to arrange what we needed, however those conversations apparently didn't carry over to the new boat as they were unaware/unprepared. They were able to get what we needed prior to departure however after we brought it up the night we boarded. If we'd have left that first night, I'm not sure if they would have been able to get our O2 tanks/supplies in time however. Fortunately that wasn't an issue.
Accommodations/food - the food was excellent. Breakfast was a buffet style with omelet station every morning, lunch was buffet style, and dinner was a multi-course sit-down meal each evening. As is typical of all the All Star liveaboards I've been on, the food was excellent. The only exception was that a number of items were overcooked (shrimp, lamb, and something else I can't recall off the top of my head were very overdone). The accommodations were excellent, except the common complaint from everyone in the group was that the beds were exceptionally stiff/hard. Most of us ended up sleeping on a comforter on top of the mattress for a bit of padding since the mattresses were just really, really hard. Air conditioning was in all the cabins and interior areas, though it struggled to keep up with the September heat and it was not unusual for someone to be found sweating some in the main cabin, despite the A/C being on continually.
Crew and guides - The crew mostly spoke Arabic, though the guides were fluent in English and some crew had a bit of understanding of English as well. Both guides were very knowledgeable on the larger sea life and the dive sites.
Diving discussed in next reply...
The boat - Originally, it was the Scuba Scene. That boat had a fire and was lost earlier this year however. We were later informed that we would be on the Sea Legend as a replacement of equal/better quality. When we arrived, however, we were put on the Tranquility. This was apparently changed in the last couple weeks before the trip but wasn't communicated to our group (9 of us). The boat was very nice and probably nicer than the Sea Legend. Safety briefing included pretty much every concern I'd have asked about in the wake of the Conception etc., including night watch, redundant exits, fire alarms/detectors, muster points, etc.
Two of us were diving rebreathers for most of the trip, which we had discussed with our contact at All Star prior to the trip to arrange what we needed, however those conversations apparently didn't carry over to the new boat as they were unaware/unprepared. They were able to get what we needed prior to departure however after we brought it up the night we boarded. If we'd have left that first night, I'm not sure if they would have been able to get our O2 tanks/supplies in time however. Fortunately that wasn't an issue.
Accommodations/food - the food was excellent. Breakfast was a buffet style with omelet station every morning, lunch was buffet style, and dinner was a multi-course sit-down meal each evening. As is typical of all the All Star liveaboards I've been on, the food was excellent. The only exception was that a number of items were overcooked (shrimp, lamb, and something else I can't recall off the top of my head were very overdone). The accommodations were excellent, except the common complaint from everyone in the group was that the beds were exceptionally stiff/hard. Most of us ended up sleeping on a comforter on top of the mattress for a bit of padding since the mattresses were just really, really hard. Air conditioning was in all the cabins and interior areas, though it struggled to keep up with the September heat and it was not unusual for someone to be found sweating some in the main cabin, despite the A/C being on continually.
Crew and guides - The crew mostly spoke Arabic, though the guides were fluent in English and some crew had a bit of understanding of English as well. Both guides were very knowledgeable on the larger sea life and the dive sites.
Diving discussed in next reply...
), 1 small group barely getting a look at a silky (I did get to be part of that) and a few manta sightings (those were quite nice, but we were primarily hoping for the pelagic sharks). The sharks just weren't coming around for most of it. However, at Elphinstone we did get some time with 3 different Oceanic White Tips (for which our guide Eska had a wonderful presentation on how to dive safely with them and all the other sharks).
