Anybody dove Raja Ampat aboard the Pearl of Papua Liveaboard?

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Yes , I would recommend POP, cruise director is a young folk from Florida other DM are local indo, all are very prudent dive guide, we were offered to have a choice to do South or North Raja Ampat , majority from boat choose North,a bit off disappointment some sites on North was not very fishy.
 
Anyone more who had travelled with Pearl of Papua?
We are thinking of go with them but all the opinions I find are from some years ago.
 
I was on it in Nov 2015. Everything was fine for a budget boat except the sewage backing up out of the shower drain when everyone showered after a dive.
 
No sewage problem during my voyage plus the Raja ampat permit was only US100 much cheaper than other liveaboard .
 
And what about bugs and, above all, cockroaches?

I have read some post talking about people who have found some bugs and, even, cockroaches. All these comment are from 2013 - 2015 or so (I want to think it has been cleaned).
I can accept some bugs, but what I can't stand are cockroaches!!!

Thanks guys!
 
Hey, the POP is a budget live aboard - keep you expectations low and you will probably exceed it. FYI, the Raja Ampat conservation fee will increase in 2019.
 
I was on POP about 3 years ago (in June 2015) going to Cendrawasih Bay. I was in one of 2 top deck cabin (Trevally) so I didn’t experience with sewer backing up problem.

Ben was the Cruise Director then. Great guy. Very knowledgeable about the area & very helpful in providing any fish information & dive briefing. I enjoyed diving with him.

It’s good for a budget liveaboard. The food was great. SCUBA diving with whalesharks under the Bagan was awesome. Seeing schooling barracudas, WWII Japanese Zero & American Mustang airplane wrecks was amazing experience.

The only thing that I don’t like about the boat is the narrow step staircase to go to the upper deck & the sloping platform from dive deck to the dingy could be quite slippery. You just need to be very careful in going up or down.

On the last day I went to the top deck to hang dry my dive gears (wetsuit, reg & BCD). In late afternoon I went back to the top deck to pick up my dive gears. As I went down the stairs with my hands full of dive gears I miss one of the steps & fell to the main deck, landed on my right knee & split the knee cap into 2 pieces. The crew were very helpful to take me to the hospital in Manukwari & to the airport. I had knee surgery done in Jakarta. My business-class flight home (in order to keep my leg straight for the 24-hour flight to Houston) ~$5000, was reimbursed by DAN. Keeping the long story short, it was an experience that I’d never forget & would never want to repeat. Fortunately the accident was on the last day, so I didn’t ruin anyone else’s trip. The lesson learnt here is to be careful going up & down stairs. Watch your steps. Don’t be in a hurry. Most importantly is to always have 3 point contact at all time during walking on stairs, i.e., use hand rail!

For more recent experience with POP to South & North RA (2017), @guppyman wrote pretty detail trip report here: Raja Ampat-Pearl of Papua Trip Report
 
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FYI, the Raja Ampat conservation fee will increase in 2019.
I haven't heard that yet, any idea what the new fee will be?
 

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