simonk999
Contributor
I'm not qualified to say who's best, having only taken the Rhapsody just this past week; however, it's a good boat with an excellent staff.
The Rhapsody takes the least number of people of any of the boats running Similan trips. This is the #1 reason I chose it, and for the most part, they didn't disappoint, though there's one main complaint to be made, which they are planning to address -- the beds are awfully hard. Also, it's not a particularly quiet boat, in that even with engines off, the generator runs all the time and can be heard throughout. I don't know how other boats compare in this regard. Earplugs solved this for me quite easily though.
Anyway, 4 cabins -- two doubles and two bunks, with bottom beds of full size. I ended up, after a coin toss with my roommate, with the top single bunk. It was ok. My cabin was #5, I think the best positioned -- it's the rear cabin on the main deck with a door that opens to the outside. The other cabin on this deck ajoins the interior salon, and the occupants reported being bothered when the lights were turned out if someone came into the salon at night. The double cabins are on the lower deck. Top deck is a fully shaded outdoor seating and dining area, with a sun area forward of this.
The boat is of 1984 vintage, but last update was 2003, so kept up well, which is not to say that some things aren't a bit worn.
Food was very good -- with so few customers, they don't run a buffet type. Instead, you order from a menu. They like to advertise that they have more than 100 selections, which is true, but it's more like 10 sauceing variations (thai style) with a choice of 4-5 meats/fish/shrimp Plus salads and hamburgers and some other choices.
As for the trip itself, we were guided by Clive and Marie, who were both excellent. Marie especially was cheerful and in good humor constantly. The Thai staff were all very helpful during donning of equipment and after dives, doing things like putting on your fins, zipping up your wetsuits, etc. Also, twin fresh water hoses for after the dive rinsing off, plus hot towels. The boat captain handled the boat great. I doubt that's a problem on other boats either, but in our case, Richi, the captain, always got the boat spot on for drop off or pickup.
The dives were all great, though viz could've been better, and we didn't see any large stuff. Similans are mostly deeper dive sites, though of course options abound for taking shallower ones. The Similans are also very popular. We were fortunate in that the boat's schedule was flexible enough that we were able to avoid conflicting with other boats' divers, except at Richelieu, where we shared the water in a way that divers of other groups were almost like schools of fish floating around. A number of the boats seem to run tight schedules with fixed destinations and often find themselves at the same place at the same time. We saw this constantly while we were motoring off to different sites. One particular example is Elephant Rock. We didn't do that dive, instead doing one nearby that we were the only boat on. Elephant Rock apparantly isn't a great dive if there's lots of people + current, which there was that day, because there's only one sheltered area. That day, there were 4 or 5 boats, each with say 18-20 people on board = a lot of divers in a small space. This is a huge, huge plus for the Rhapsody having only 2 groups of divers to manage. Another example is at Richelieu. Our first two dives were shared with a number of other boats; however, for the 3rd dive, most of the boats took off for elsewhere (Koh Tachai, in this case), but we decided to stick around, and had the site to ourselves.
East of Eden was my favorite site. Nice deep area with a beautiful shallow reef to finish up. As mentioned, Similan sites are almost all deep, and these multiple deep dives can't be done without a computer, and there can be blue water drifting safety stops also, so that's something to be prepared for. For example, we did one day with two 100 ft dives followed by a 80 ft dive (I only did 3 max per day, but as to be expected, a night dive is also on offer each day). Of course, these dives had well managed profiles and in-between decent surface intervals, that didnt take anyone close to NDL, but it's not something table planning can handle. As it turned out, everyone except someone using a Mares computer, was using Suunto ones, so the algorithm was compatible. Last dive trip to Coz, I was led, rather incompetently, I might add, by someone who used an aggressive computer that, had I followed him, would have put my Suunto into decompression. This just by way of a vague comparison. In any case, the dive guides on the Rhapsody got an idea of everyone's air consumption, and after a couple of dives, was getting everyone up to safety stop level at the right time with just a few checks on people's air along the way. They were also good at finding things. Apparantly, this season, some critters that had been living for some time in the same spots, had moved, so had to be re-found. Some were found -- Marie seemed esp good at this, but Clive also found some interesting and not always seen creatures. They both know their fish books backwards and forwards. Some interesting things seen: frogfish, tiger seahorse, manta shrimp, along with the usual plethora of other reef life.
My fellow passengers were all capable and compatible divers, and we had no untoward incidents, just good diving. This was my first liveaboard, and for me, the main benefit is to be able to completely unwind during the SI -- get to take off wetsuit, etc, rinse off, dry off, change into comfy clothes, relax, perhaps take a nap, and eat a nice meal to boot.
Well, meandered along for perhaps too long, so I'll stop now...
Oh, we did see the Viking at a couple of overnight moorings. A very nice looking boat, I must say!
-Simon
The Rhapsody takes the least number of people of any of the boats running Similan trips. This is the #1 reason I chose it, and for the most part, they didn't disappoint, though there's one main complaint to be made, which they are planning to address -- the beds are awfully hard. Also, it's not a particularly quiet boat, in that even with engines off, the generator runs all the time and can be heard throughout. I don't know how other boats compare in this regard. Earplugs solved this for me quite easily though.
Anyway, 4 cabins -- two doubles and two bunks, with bottom beds of full size. I ended up, after a coin toss with my roommate, with the top single bunk. It was ok. My cabin was #5, I think the best positioned -- it's the rear cabin on the main deck with a door that opens to the outside. The other cabin on this deck ajoins the interior salon, and the occupants reported being bothered when the lights were turned out if someone came into the salon at night. The double cabins are on the lower deck. Top deck is a fully shaded outdoor seating and dining area, with a sun area forward of this.
The boat is of 1984 vintage, but last update was 2003, so kept up well, which is not to say that some things aren't a bit worn.
Food was very good -- with so few customers, they don't run a buffet type. Instead, you order from a menu. They like to advertise that they have more than 100 selections, which is true, but it's more like 10 sauceing variations (thai style) with a choice of 4-5 meats/fish/shrimp Plus salads and hamburgers and some other choices.
As for the trip itself, we were guided by Clive and Marie, who were both excellent. Marie especially was cheerful and in good humor constantly. The Thai staff were all very helpful during donning of equipment and after dives, doing things like putting on your fins, zipping up your wetsuits, etc. Also, twin fresh water hoses for after the dive rinsing off, plus hot towels. The boat captain handled the boat great. I doubt that's a problem on other boats either, but in our case, Richi, the captain, always got the boat spot on for drop off or pickup.
The dives were all great, though viz could've been better, and we didn't see any large stuff. Similans are mostly deeper dive sites, though of course options abound for taking shallower ones. The Similans are also very popular. We were fortunate in that the boat's schedule was flexible enough that we were able to avoid conflicting with other boats' divers, except at Richelieu, where we shared the water in a way that divers of other groups were almost like schools of fish floating around. A number of the boats seem to run tight schedules with fixed destinations and often find themselves at the same place at the same time. We saw this constantly while we were motoring off to different sites. One particular example is Elephant Rock. We didn't do that dive, instead doing one nearby that we were the only boat on. Elephant Rock apparantly isn't a great dive if there's lots of people + current, which there was that day, because there's only one sheltered area. That day, there were 4 or 5 boats, each with say 18-20 people on board = a lot of divers in a small space. This is a huge, huge plus for the Rhapsody having only 2 groups of divers to manage. Another example is at Richelieu. Our first two dives were shared with a number of other boats; however, for the 3rd dive, most of the boats took off for elsewhere (Koh Tachai, in this case), but we decided to stick around, and had the site to ourselves.
East of Eden was my favorite site. Nice deep area with a beautiful shallow reef to finish up. As mentioned, Similan sites are almost all deep, and these multiple deep dives can't be done without a computer, and there can be blue water drifting safety stops also, so that's something to be prepared for. For example, we did one day with two 100 ft dives followed by a 80 ft dive (I only did 3 max per day, but as to be expected, a night dive is also on offer each day). Of course, these dives had well managed profiles and in-between decent surface intervals, that didnt take anyone close to NDL, but it's not something table planning can handle. As it turned out, everyone except someone using a Mares computer, was using Suunto ones, so the algorithm was compatible. Last dive trip to Coz, I was led, rather incompetently, I might add, by someone who used an aggressive computer that, had I followed him, would have put my Suunto into decompression. This just by way of a vague comparison. In any case, the dive guides on the Rhapsody got an idea of everyone's air consumption, and after a couple of dives, was getting everyone up to safety stop level at the right time with just a few checks on people's air along the way. They were also good at finding things. Apparantly, this season, some critters that had been living for some time in the same spots, had moved, so had to be re-found. Some were found -- Marie seemed esp good at this, but Clive also found some interesting and not always seen creatures. They both know their fish books backwards and forwards. Some interesting things seen: frogfish, tiger seahorse, manta shrimp, along with the usual plethora of other reef life.
My fellow passengers were all capable and compatible divers, and we had no untoward incidents, just good diving. This was my first liveaboard, and for me, the main benefit is to be able to completely unwind during the SI -- get to take off wetsuit, etc, rinse off, dry off, change into comfy clothes, relax, perhaps take a nap, and eat a nice meal to boot.
Well, meandered along for perhaps too long, so I'll stop now...
Oh, we did see the Viking at a couple of overnight moorings. A very nice looking boat, I must say!
-Simon
