I was onboard M/Y Vasco to dive Tubbataha Reef during the period 3 - 9 April 2014.
The service provided by the vessel was a total failure. I emphasized and underlined, it was TOTAL FAILURE.
Below was what I experienced.
(1). The sewage system was shameful.
- The toilet was very smelly. Even though I closed the toilet/shower door, I still smelled it in my cabin, like it had a dozen rotten eggs inside.
- Then the toilet started to make blobbing noise the whole night and when I passed my motion sitting on it, it spitted dirt water up to my bottom. It was so disgusting.
- And then, I flushed and the dirt water flooded back and overflown.
It was so disturbing and I ended up only spending time inside the cabin during the sleeping hours. I spent the rest of my time on the main deck using their only functional main deck toilet.
(2). I had a dive surfacing without the sight of the pick up dinghy. We blew our sausages and beeped our Dive Alert for over 15 minutes, there was no sight of our dinghy. We ended up being picked up by Palawan Discovery's dinghy and the nice kind-hearted boatman took us all the way to M/Y Vasco.
After our conversation with the cruise manager and the boatman, we found out that the DM and the boatman miscommunicated, the dive group drifted one direction, the boatman took the dinghy to the other direction with the mother ship in the middle blocking their views.
It was a clear day with minimal swell, we were lucky. I want to thank the Palawan Discovery's boatman for his professionalism in seamanship.
(3). The dive mastering standard was way below standard.
First of all, they only did briefing like this on the dinghy "max depth 25 meters, maximum dive time 50 minutes". Then once back rolled, they swam forward without looking back until the agreed dive time elapsed.
There was absolutely no interaction and engagement with the group underwater.
They were hard working though, was very keen to help divers during transiting between mother ship and dinghy, was very helpful to shift your tanks in the dinghy so that the donning was very easy.
At the end of the trip, I decided I will not come back to M/Y Vasco. Their service provided was SIMPLY A SHAME.
The service provided by the vessel was a total failure. I emphasized and underlined, it was TOTAL FAILURE.
Below was what I experienced.
(1). The sewage system was shameful.
- The toilet was very smelly. Even though I closed the toilet/shower door, I still smelled it in my cabin, like it had a dozen rotten eggs inside.
- Then the toilet started to make blobbing noise the whole night and when I passed my motion sitting on it, it spitted dirt water up to my bottom. It was so disgusting.
- And then, I flushed and the dirt water flooded back and overflown.
It was so disturbing and I ended up only spending time inside the cabin during the sleeping hours. I spent the rest of my time on the main deck using their only functional main deck toilet.
(2). I had a dive surfacing without the sight of the pick up dinghy. We blew our sausages and beeped our Dive Alert for over 15 minutes, there was no sight of our dinghy. We ended up being picked up by Palawan Discovery's dinghy and the nice kind-hearted boatman took us all the way to M/Y Vasco.
After our conversation with the cruise manager and the boatman, we found out that the DM and the boatman miscommunicated, the dive group drifted one direction, the boatman took the dinghy to the other direction with the mother ship in the middle blocking their views.
It was a clear day with minimal swell, we were lucky. I want to thank the Palawan Discovery's boatman for his professionalism in seamanship.
(3). The dive mastering standard was way below standard.
First of all, they only did briefing like this on the dinghy "max depth 25 meters, maximum dive time 50 minutes". Then once back rolled, they swam forward without looking back until the agreed dive time elapsed.
There was absolutely no interaction and engagement with the group underwater.
They were hard working though, was very keen to help divers during transiting between mother ship and dinghy, was very helpful to shift your tanks in the dinghy so that the donning was very easy.
At the end of the trip, I decided I will not come back to M/Y Vasco. Their service provided was SIMPLY A SHAME.