I got off the boat this morning and I'm at Bandos Resort where is it absolutely pouring so I thought I'd take a minute to answer the rest of your questions. Interest in my post seemed limited so I won't do a full lengthy trip report. If people have other questions though I'm happy to answer them!
Actually I'd classify most dives as not deep. To me deep means 100+ feet. I'd say most dives were max 75 feet with about 2 around 90 feet. The liveaboard I did in the Red Sea was definitely deeper. We did 19 dives total. Dive time was capped at 60 minutes (by Maldives diving rules). Current was really really strong on a few dives so those lasted 30-40 minutes for most of us.
We did 6 days of diving. 3 should have been 4 dive days but the dhoni's engine broke one day so we missed one dive. The others were 3 with 2 on the last day. Only one night dive which surprised me, I thought there would be more.
Yes they have 15 liter tanks
There is wifi on the boat. It is $30 for 5gb. I failed in my pre-trip planning and didn't realize my cell phone provider (Verizon) doesn't provide data service in The Maldives. I've never had a problem with it before and planned to just use their $10 a day international plan but that wasn't an option. Everyone else on the boat was from non-US countries so they just bought SIM cards but of course Americans can't do that. The boat's wifi was sufficient for email/social media etc. but definitely wouldn't be acceptable for work stuff or anything where large file sizes are needed. I'm not sure what the solution is? Maybe other major US phone service providers offer data in the Maldives and this is just a Verizon thing? I'll have to do more research about this if I go back.
The food was okay. It was edible but definitely not fantastic and I got really sick of the same exact breakfast every days.
Yes we used reef hooks on at least 1 dive a day. The boat has more than enough if you don't have one. I had never used on before and it was pretty easy. My dive guide helped me the first time so i knew what to do but after that it was easy enough to get the hang of. They also make you deploy your SMB the first dive.
All of your dive gear is set up on the dhoni which is like a large mobile dive deck. It's really convenient. You'll set up your gear on the dhoni when you first arrive and then it stays there the whole trip. The dive briefings occur on the main boat then you get on the dhoni in your swimsuit and gear up. Just make sure you bring all your gear with you onto the dhoni or you won't dive! It won't return to the main boat until after the dive. There is a ladder down from the main boat to the dhoni then you get back onto the dhoni after the dive using another ladder.
None at all. Everyone here speaks English and so far I'm the only American I've encountered. The other people on the dive boat were from the UK, Singapore, France and Luxembourg.
All in all it was a great dive trip and I would come back to a different route on the Maldives and probably plan on trying a different boat though I'm open to others in the Emperor fleet. The weather has been gray and rainy the entire time so that puts a literal damper on things. I've seen huge mantas, rays and sharks that I would never seen the Caribbean so that's another reason to come here! And gotten great experience in current and diving with limited visibility. I think we're truly spoiled in the Caribbean so I'm glad I came and brushed up on diving in less than ideal conditions.
