ClairevL
Registered
I went to the Maldives to do the Deep South liveaboard route on the Princess Rani a few weeks ago and didn't write a trip report yet, so it's about time to write one.
I went on a two week deep south trip with them and to be honest, the main reason why I chose to go with the Pirncess Rani is the price. I paid 2700 euro for a 2 week liveaboard including domestic flights from Male to Gan and from Laamu to Male and intercontinental flights. That was way cheaper than anything else I could find. We were told that the boat would not be a very fancy one, but the food and diving would be good. Since I go on liveaboards for diving and not to sit in a jacuzzi, that was an easy choice for me. We only had one tiny concern in advance: we heard that most guests would be Dutch and Belgian (we are Dutch), since the boat is chartered by a Belgian company. They do sometimes get people from different countries, but often there will only be Dutch and Belgians. We prefer to be in a more diverse group, but because of the price we decided to give it a try.
In Gan our dive guide, Mosti, and a few crew members waited for us at the airport and we used the dhoni to go to the boat. This dhoni is a very comfortable, stable boat that is also used as a diving platform. I was used to Zodiacs, but this is so much more comfortable. You can just sit down or walk around there before an after the dive and also put your gear on when you're on the dhoni. The Princess Rani is a beautiful boat: very spacious and well maintained. There was so much more space than on the Red Sea liveaboard boats we'd been on. We had a double room on the upper deck, which was nice and spacious and had an en suite bathroom. One drawback: we couldn't open any windows.
The next morning we went for our "check dive". On this dive we had a pretty strong current..so we had to go down very quickly, try to stay close to our buddies and manage to hook on close to the manta cleaning station and waited for the mantas that didn't show up. We saw a few grey reef sharks. On our next dives in Addu we also didn't see any mantas. The next morning, we went looking for hammerheads at the outer reef, but didn't see anything in the blue. We ended our dive at a reef where we saw a turtle and a few eagle rays. Later, we went to Foamullah (I had high expectations here), but we didn't have any luck there...too bad, I was desperately hoping for tiger sharks.
After a few dives with not so much luck we went to Gaafu Atoll, which was amazing. So many excellent channel dives. Usually, the current was strong, we'd go down quickly, hook on near the channel entrance (around 30m depth) and just watch the sharks. There were so many grey reef sharks, it was quite normal to see about 100 of them on a single dive. We also saw 1 tiger shark and a great hammerhead. I absolutely loved the channel dives. Then after a while we let ourselves drift inside the channel, sometimes there was quite a nice reef, sometimes it was mostly sand and rocks and then we had t make our deco stops. Unfortunately, nitrox is not available on these trips, so the dives were mostly deco dives.
The dive guides, Mosti and Dhaain, were excellent!! There had so much knowledge about the area, always knew how to find a perfect dive spot, and they were very enthusiastic. They always made sure we had a great dive and always picked amazing spots rather than average dive sites. Before each dive they checked the current to make sure we would end up at the right spot in the channel. Their briefings were very clear and they were amazing at spotting stuff. I usually prefer to dive just with my buddy, but on this trip we always stayed close to the guide.
The food was delicious! Always plentiful and healthy. During the lunch more local: fish, curries and rice and at night often more western: fish, pastas.
As expected, we didn't really enjoy the somewhat homogeneous group composition. I really prefer to be on a liveaboard with a mixed group that also mostly consists of people who came on their own or in small groups. This was one big group and a few other people. They were all really kind, but it was just a bit of a different atmosphere than what I was used to on liveaboards.
There were not many other liveaboard boats. We were in the water simultaneously with divers from another boat only once (which was enough, since they rudely hooked on right in front of us, even though it was a very wide channel, and therefore we didn't see any sharks anymore
).
Overall, I had a wonderful trip. If you like channel dives, strong current, and sharks, I'd certainly recommend to do the Deep South route!
I went on a two week deep south trip with them and to be honest, the main reason why I chose to go with the Pirncess Rani is the price. I paid 2700 euro for a 2 week liveaboard including domestic flights from Male to Gan and from Laamu to Male and intercontinental flights. That was way cheaper than anything else I could find. We were told that the boat would not be a very fancy one, but the food and diving would be good. Since I go on liveaboards for diving and not to sit in a jacuzzi, that was an easy choice for me. We only had one tiny concern in advance: we heard that most guests would be Dutch and Belgian (we are Dutch), since the boat is chartered by a Belgian company. They do sometimes get people from different countries, but often there will only be Dutch and Belgians. We prefer to be in a more diverse group, but because of the price we decided to give it a try.
In Gan our dive guide, Mosti, and a few crew members waited for us at the airport and we used the dhoni to go to the boat. This dhoni is a very comfortable, stable boat that is also used as a diving platform. I was used to Zodiacs, but this is so much more comfortable. You can just sit down or walk around there before an after the dive and also put your gear on when you're on the dhoni. The Princess Rani is a beautiful boat: very spacious and well maintained. There was so much more space than on the Red Sea liveaboard boats we'd been on. We had a double room on the upper deck, which was nice and spacious and had an en suite bathroom. One drawback: we couldn't open any windows.
The next morning we went for our "check dive". On this dive we had a pretty strong current..so we had to go down very quickly, try to stay close to our buddies and manage to hook on close to the manta cleaning station and waited for the mantas that didn't show up. We saw a few grey reef sharks. On our next dives in Addu we also didn't see any mantas. The next morning, we went looking for hammerheads at the outer reef, but didn't see anything in the blue. We ended our dive at a reef where we saw a turtle and a few eagle rays. Later, we went to Foamullah (I had high expectations here), but we didn't have any luck there...too bad, I was desperately hoping for tiger sharks.
After a few dives with not so much luck we went to Gaafu Atoll, which was amazing. So many excellent channel dives. Usually, the current was strong, we'd go down quickly, hook on near the channel entrance (around 30m depth) and just watch the sharks. There were so many grey reef sharks, it was quite normal to see about 100 of them on a single dive. We also saw 1 tiger shark and a great hammerhead. I absolutely loved the channel dives. Then after a while we let ourselves drift inside the channel, sometimes there was quite a nice reef, sometimes it was mostly sand and rocks and then we had t make our deco stops. Unfortunately, nitrox is not available on these trips, so the dives were mostly deco dives.
The dive guides, Mosti and Dhaain, were excellent!! There had so much knowledge about the area, always knew how to find a perfect dive spot, and they were very enthusiastic. They always made sure we had a great dive and always picked amazing spots rather than average dive sites. Before each dive they checked the current to make sure we would end up at the right spot in the channel. Their briefings were very clear and they were amazing at spotting stuff. I usually prefer to dive just with my buddy, but on this trip we always stayed close to the guide.
The food was delicious! Always plentiful and healthy. During the lunch more local: fish, curries and rice and at night often more western: fish, pastas.
As expected, we didn't really enjoy the somewhat homogeneous group composition. I really prefer to be on a liveaboard with a mixed group that also mostly consists of people who came on their own or in small groups. This was one big group and a few other people. They were all really kind, but it was just a bit of a different atmosphere than what I was used to on liveaboards.
There were not many other liveaboard boats. We were in the water simultaneously with divers from another boat only once (which was enough, since they rudely hooked on right in front of us, even though it was a very wide channel, and therefore we didn't see any sharks anymore
).Overall, I had a wonderful trip. If you like channel dives, strong current, and sharks, I'd certainly recommend to do the Deep South route!
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) for next year. I have read another report on this board about both the blue water dives and the reef dives being disappointing in Addu and Foamullah. Shall we just skip them and begin the trip in Gaafu Atoll?
