Any reviews, tips anything on the Sea Serpent? I'm thinking of going on it in May, I know tha Grand Sea Serpent is newer and nicer but the itineraries and dates don't match unfortunately so I'm considering the Sea Serpent. If anyone has anything on this vessel, please please let me know! Thank you SO MUCH!
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Anyone been on the Sea Serpent?
- Thread starter MissDoo
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pocketpeter@blueyonde
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Hi, we went on the Sea Serpent in 2010. The boat was a bit tired, for example in our cabin, handles were missing from drawers, we had bare screws only!!! The food was Ok, but the guides were excellent!
Thanks for that Peter,
They say that the boat was refurbished in 2010 so I wonder if it was before or after you went on it... I'm glad the guides were excellent though. Would you recommend it or do you have any other recommendations at all? This boat and the itinerary it's doing is the only only one tha coincides with what we can do and where we want to go. I want to go ahead with it but I am a bit apprehensive. I wonder though if perhaps the refurbishment has been since your visit and therefore it might be slightly better now....
They say that the boat was refurbished in 2010 so I wonder if it was before or after you went on it... I'm glad the guides were excellent though. Would you recommend it or do you have any other recommendations at all? This boat and the itinerary it's doing is the only only one tha coincides with what we can do and where we want to go. I want to go ahead with it but I am a bit apprehensive. I wonder though if perhaps the refurbishment has been since your visit and therefore it might be slightly better now....
pocketpeter@blueyonde
Registered
I don't know when the boat had a refit,sorry. When are you going and which trip? We have used the Blue Planet fleet fo 3 trips this year, so as you might guess we like their boats and guides a whole lot more than the Sea Serpent fleet, good though they are.
Our last trip was over christmas on the Blue Pearl down to St Johns and we had a fantastic time.
If you do book with Sea Serpent I am sure you will have great time, so go for it.:
Our last trip was over christmas on the Blue Pearl down to St Johns and we had a fantastic time.
If you do book with Sea Serpent I am sure you will have great time, so go for it.:
Hi again Peter,
We are going in May and for some weird reason the Blue Planet and Blue Pearl don't do the Daedalus, Elphistone, Brothers itinerary at all that month so I guess I'm going on the Serpent and hoping for the best...
We are going in May and for some weird reason the Blue Planet and Blue Pearl don't do the Daedalus, Elphistone, Brothers itinerary at all that month so I guess I'm going on the Serpent and hoping for the best...
Hi,
We were on the Sea Serpent in October 2011, mid October on a wrecks and reefs week. The boat had been refurbished, the floors and outside decks were all beautiful wood, and the boat generally was very nice. The lounges for dinner were comfy and very clean and nice. We booked a double cabin, there are only 2, both of which are on the sea level which was great because you opened your door early in the morning and all you could see was the vast ocean....the bed was small tho and we had to crawl from the end up to the top to get in but that was half the fun to be honest. It had a small bathroom with a hand held shower and the water drained out of the floor but it was cleaned every day. Towels were replaced once I think during the week.
Food was very good. Only one person out of 16 got sick the whole time we were onboard. The dive guides were brilliant as were all the crew. I was not diving but enjoyed the snorkeling and swimming and felt completely safe while hubby and everyone else dived..
There was a large deck at the bow which was flat and wooden and they had sun beds you could place there which I did every day. There was plenty of room on board so that you never felt on top of one another at all.
We went with scuba travel out of Gatwick which was the only little snag as Gatwick was a bit far away from Little Venice in London where we live and as the flight home got in at 1 am, no public transport, and we ordered a car which picked us up so it was better value than hoping to get a taxi and being ripped off!
A little bit of caution tho, we booked a 7 night onboard week. On the second last day we were told that we were going to a hotel for the last night. We were a bit put out to be honest and even more so when we discovered the reason, a group of guys from the Ukraine came on board literally as we left. We spent the night in a hotel which was not great and we had the whole of the next day there too with a swimming pool that got very little sun....we have since been told that it was allowed because tourism is so bad down there and the sea serpent people asked scuba travel if it was ok and they said it was...but no one told us until the second last day.
All in all I would recommend the Sea Serpent tho. If you have any questions just ask ok ?
Scarke.
We were on the Sea Serpent in October 2011, mid October on a wrecks and reefs week. The boat had been refurbished, the floors and outside decks were all beautiful wood, and the boat generally was very nice. The lounges for dinner were comfy and very clean and nice. We booked a double cabin, there are only 2, both of which are on the sea level which was great because you opened your door early in the morning and all you could see was the vast ocean....the bed was small tho and we had to crawl from the end up to the top to get in but that was half the fun to be honest. It had a small bathroom with a hand held shower and the water drained out of the floor but it was cleaned every day. Towels were replaced once I think during the week.
Food was very good. Only one person out of 16 got sick the whole time we were onboard. The dive guides were brilliant as were all the crew. I was not diving but enjoyed the snorkeling and swimming and felt completely safe while hubby and everyone else dived..
There was a large deck at the bow which was flat and wooden and they had sun beds you could place there which I did every day. There was plenty of room on board so that you never felt on top of one another at all.
We went with scuba travel out of Gatwick which was the only little snag as Gatwick was a bit far away from Little Venice in London where we live and as the flight home got in at 1 am, no public transport, and we ordered a car which picked us up so it was better value than hoping to get a taxi and being ripped off!
A little bit of caution tho, we booked a 7 night onboard week. On the second last day we were told that we were going to a hotel for the last night. We were a bit put out to be honest and even more so when we discovered the reason, a group of guys from the Ukraine came on board literally as we left. We spent the night in a hotel which was not great and we had the whole of the next day there too with a swimming pool that got very little sun....we have since been told that it was allowed because tourism is so bad down there and the sea serpent people asked scuba travel if it was ok and they said it was...but no one told us until the second last day.
All in all I would recommend the Sea Serpent tho. If you have any questions just ask ok ?
Scarke.
Scarke thank you so much!!! I feel a lot better about it now that I've read your review. The last night in a hotel thing is worrying me a bit though but I guess there's nothing I can do about it. We've booked through scuba travel as well and have the exact same problem with the LGW flight landing so late. We are by Tower Bridge in London, so same problems... Will have to figure that one out. We are planning to stay an extra week after the liveaboard in an all inclusive resort somewhere and do a bit more diving. Any recommendations at all? Or did you fly straight back? Thank again for everything!
We flew straight back from Hurghada....the flight was at 9.30 pm but we were collected at something like 5 pm, and it was only 20 mins away from the airport..Hurghada airport is not my idea of fun. word of warning, take lots of tissues as the toilet facilities are possibly amongst the worst I encountered in all my years of traveling.
We paid 140uk to prebook the car altho my hubby says it can be done for 120 thru most of the companies. We used a company that we trust so we figured it was worth the extra knowing that he would 'track' our flight and be there to collect us in a beautiful car so it was worth every penny....
be careful with your luggage...the flight over and back, the baggage allowance was being rigidly enforced...we were way under as alan had not brought his own scuba gear but other people had problems being over the limit. they also weighed the hand luggage too!!
the Marina in Hurghada is a nice place to hang out in the evening time with lots of bars and restaurants but it was not busy at all while we were there.
We were put up in the Sol Y Mar suites hotel for the last night...we were not impressed with it, food was awful and the staff were very surly...we have heard tho that other people find it ok so it just depends I guess...we really liked being on the ocean so didn't want to go back on land at all.
I can't wait to go back in early summer.
We paid 140uk to prebook the car altho my hubby says it can be done for 120 thru most of the companies. We used a company that we trust so we figured it was worth the extra knowing that he would 'track' our flight and be there to collect us in a beautiful car so it was worth every penny....
be careful with your luggage...the flight over and back, the baggage allowance was being rigidly enforced...we were way under as alan had not brought his own scuba gear but other people had problems being over the limit. they also weighed the hand luggage too!!
the Marina in Hurghada is a nice place to hang out in the evening time with lots of bars and restaurants but it was not busy at all while we were there.
We were put up in the Sol Y Mar suites hotel for the last night...we were not impressed with it, food was awful and the staff were very surly...we have heard tho that other people find it ok so it just depends I guess...we really liked being on the ocean so didn't want to go back on land at all.
I can't wait to go back in early summer.
I just asked Martin from Scba Travel to let me know what allowances we get as part of the package. On the Thomson website I saw that it's 20 kilos, is that right? As we'll stay another week, we'll want to pack extra clothes for going to dinner etc plus our dive gear. It may get tricky... I do hope we don't end up in a hotel the last day. Is there no diving on the last day then? Are they doing the deco day thing for you? We did a liveaboard in Thailand and we did a dive on that final day. I guess over there they leave it up to you to sort your deco out. Probably most people don't leave straight away I guess... Thanks for all that!
Hi, yes the allowance was 20 kilos each but a lot of people were over it from what we saw. Also they did weigh hand luggage too...We had no diving on the last day (Friday)..in fact our last dive was early on the Thursday morning, then we spent all day getting back to the Marina..where we got into it at 2 pm, off I think at 3.30ish and in hotel from around 4pm...we were not happy I can tell you..some of the other people had been on many liveaboards before and felt we were not treated right.. this was our first one so were not sure...at the beginning of the week, we arrived late on the fri night, straight to the boat...one girl was joining us on the sat morning. her flight got delayed so we hung around in the marina waiting for her til lunchtime. then her bag got lost...so we lost possibly two dives that day as well hence some people at the end of the week when they heard we would only have one dive on the thursday complained which was only right. you pay for 7 nights on the boat...and for all the dives and for them to then adapt and change, well its ok to a point but a lot of the seasoned divers were not happy. we also booked this as a 'beginners week'..my hubby has open water and wanted to upgrade to advanced on the boat. and he had notified them of this and all was grand..but it then transpired that 2 others had only open water and they were not upgrading.. one of the other divers complained to me that this was not good enough, that they are not trained to go beyond a certain depth and that they should not have been allowed to. I suggested to her that it was advertised as being open to beginners and so there was not much she could do about it. the two girls who had only open water did not know that they could upgrade their skills ?? How is beyond me because it was very simple for Alan to arrange it.
from what we saw in Hurghada near the hotel when we went out to try and find somewhere to have a drink, it was all very casual..jeans and tops.. nothing fancy at all..in fact it was rather cheap and nasty if you know what I mean!!!
from what we saw in Hurghada near the hotel when we went out to try and find somewhere to have a drink, it was all very casual..jeans and tops.. nothing fancy at all..in fact it was rather cheap and nasty if you know what I mean!!!
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