shelski
Guest
Hello all - you'll find a copy of this report attached to the thread "Baani Explorer - Maldives". I thought I'd start a new thread for anyone wanting information on it, they'd have to go through 80 odd postings to get to my trip report. Here goes .....
So, we spent a week on the Baani Explorer 2nd-9th March 2008. Extremely apprehensive due not only to the negative reports on Scubaboard, but also the fact that this was our first liveaboard experience (although Ive now clocked up over 200 dives so not an inexperienced diver as such).Greeted at Male by Charlie a very pleasant smiley guy who was great throughout the trip. We were allocated Cabin No.3 clean and no worse or better than I expected. 3 dive guides in total Charlie, Musa and Marios all 3 very pleasant, (never met Hussein who was mentioned in reports). One dive that day a check dive on a house reef. Every day after that went pretty much like clockwork, early wake up call, cuppa, biscuit, briefing, dive. Breakfast, chill, briefing, dive. Lunch, chill, briefing, dive. Dinner, beer, chat, bed . Repeat as above.
We found the food to be fantastic! Honestly! Couldnt fault it! It was varied, tasty, and second helpings always available. Definitely no upset stomachs! The cabins were cleaned/tidied twice daily. Bathroom was spacious but I suppose could do with a bit of an upgrade and the cabins could be brighter due to the dark wooden walls. Incidentals I know. Never had a problem with availability of hot water in the cabin now and again it went cool momentarily but I get that in my flat when someone runs the hot water in the kitchen! We didnt experience any problem with fumes except for a short while when the boat started up its engines or the when dhoni was parking in alongside. We certainly didnt have fumes at the back when we were eating. We spent a lot of time with another couple from the UK who were allocated Cabin No.1 who said they didnt have a fume problem. As far as Im aware, the generators are towards the back of the boat, where Cabin 1 is and again they didnt have a problem with excessive noise. Im a very light sleeper so the hum of the generator even at the opposite end of the boat may have been a problem for me but it wasnt. Anyhow, I never leave home without a supply of earplugs with me and I slept like a baby every night.
The dive sites were great lots of fish. Sadly we didnt get mantas or whalesharks but it wasnt for the want of trying. The crew/guides did their best to take us to the sites with the best chance of seeing them but as we were there during the change of the season, it was tricky. The highlight was the nightdive at Maaya Thila truly awesome!
DHONI: Nitrox was always available (though we didnt use it). The problem is that if quite a few people wanted it, the fills take a lot longer and this did result in us doing a dive later than anticipated one day so the light was very poor. We never had a problem with bad air fills. All the dive gear remains on the dhoni (the same as when you book consecutive boat diving in the red sea) so yes the gear goes unrinsed for the duration unless like some you took your BC onto the Baani now and again for a rinse. I thought this was the norm anyway so didnt have a problem with it. 45 minutes was the longest journey to any site we did on the dhoni so cameras, computers etc were always rinsed within the hour on the back of the dhoni where there was a fresh and a salt water tap.
There was a rather needy solo traveller on the boat who took up a lot of the guides attention on dives which resulted in a misunderstanding on one particular and a few of us being dropped too far from the reef and resulted in us getting lost. I was under the impression that a diver had to have logged a minimum of 50 dives before booking a liveaboard? I dont think this was the case the week we were there and Im sure someone was doing an AOW course, possibly even OW!
My main and only real gripe was the Jacuzzi or lack of it! Its advertised as quite a selling point for the boat on the website virtually every advertisement for the Explorer has the obligatory Jacuzzi picture. As far as Im aware, this has been out of action for some considerable time now the reason given is that they have to get an engineer over from Sri Lanka to fix it . SO DO IT! Its not good enough to just leave something unavailable because it may costly to have it repaired. Its being advertised as an additional feature to the boat so provide it! Some people may actually book this boat over another because of this one feature.
So, that was our week on the Baani Explorer very enjoyable, great diving. I wouldnt hesitate to book it again and would certainly recommend it. I appreciate that a few have had less favourable weeks. Maybe they have been unlucky, maybe we have been lucky. However, if the negative reports have resulted in improvements then surely thats a good thing isnt it? Regards, Shelly
So, we spent a week on the Baani Explorer 2nd-9th March 2008. Extremely apprehensive due not only to the negative reports on Scubaboard, but also the fact that this was our first liveaboard experience (although Ive now clocked up over 200 dives so not an inexperienced diver as such).Greeted at Male by Charlie a very pleasant smiley guy who was great throughout the trip. We were allocated Cabin No.3 clean and no worse or better than I expected. 3 dive guides in total Charlie, Musa and Marios all 3 very pleasant, (never met Hussein who was mentioned in reports). One dive that day a check dive on a house reef. Every day after that went pretty much like clockwork, early wake up call, cuppa, biscuit, briefing, dive. Breakfast, chill, briefing, dive. Lunch, chill, briefing, dive. Dinner, beer, chat, bed . Repeat as above.
We found the food to be fantastic! Honestly! Couldnt fault it! It was varied, tasty, and second helpings always available. Definitely no upset stomachs! The cabins were cleaned/tidied twice daily. Bathroom was spacious but I suppose could do with a bit of an upgrade and the cabins could be brighter due to the dark wooden walls. Incidentals I know. Never had a problem with availability of hot water in the cabin now and again it went cool momentarily but I get that in my flat when someone runs the hot water in the kitchen! We didnt experience any problem with fumes except for a short while when the boat started up its engines or the when dhoni was parking in alongside. We certainly didnt have fumes at the back when we were eating. We spent a lot of time with another couple from the UK who were allocated Cabin No.1 who said they didnt have a fume problem. As far as Im aware, the generators are towards the back of the boat, where Cabin 1 is and again they didnt have a problem with excessive noise. Im a very light sleeper so the hum of the generator even at the opposite end of the boat may have been a problem for me but it wasnt. Anyhow, I never leave home without a supply of earplugs with me and I slept like a baby every night.
The dive sites were great lots of fish. Sadly we didnt get mantas or whalesharks but it wasnt for the want of trying. The crew/guides did their best to take us to the sites with the best chance of seeing them but as we were there during the change of the season, it was tricky. The highlight was the nightdive at Maaya Thila truly awesome!
DHONI: Nitrox was always available (though we didnt use it). The problem is that if quite a few people wanted it, the fills take a lot longer and this did result in us doing a dive later than anticipated one day so the light was very poor. We never had a problem with bad air fills. All the dive gear remains on the dhoni (the same as when you book consecutive boat diving in the red sea) so yes the gear goes unrinsed for the duration unless like some you took your BC onto the Baani now and again for a rinse. I thought this was the norm anyway so didnt have a problem with it. 45 minutes was the longest journey to any site we did on the dhoni so cameras, computers etc were always rinsed within the hour on the back of the dhoni where there was a fresh and a salt water tap.
There was a rather needy solo traveller on the boat who took up a lot of the guides attention on dives which resulted in a misunderstanding on one particular and a few of us being dropped too far from the reef and resulted in us getting lost. I was under the impression that a diver had to have logged a minimum of 50 dives before booking a liveaboard? I dont think this was the case the week we were there and Im sure someone was doing an AOW course, possibly even OW!
My main and only real gripe was the Jacuzzi or lack of it! Its advertised as quite a selling point for the boat on the website virtually every advertisement for the Explorer has the obligatory Jacuzzi picture. As far as Im aware, this has been out of action for some considerable time now the reason given is that they have to get an engineer over from Sri Lanka to fix it . SO DO IT! Its not good enough to just leave something unavailable because it may costly to have it repaired. Its being advertised as an additional feature to the boat so provide it! Some people may actually book this boat over another because of this one feature.
So, that was our week on the Baani Explorer very enjoyable, great diving. I wouldnt hesitate to book it again and would certainly recommend it. I appreciate that a few have had less favourable weeks. Maybe they have been unlucky, maybe we have been lucky. However, if the negative reports have resulted in improvements then surely thats a good thing isnt it? Regards, Shelly
