DontLieToMe
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This year I took several trips on this boat and have posted several trip reports. In general the diving was very good. I like the boat and its people but the operation has several areas that need significant improvement. The following was sent to the boat's owner. No response was received.
1. Physical Plant
The boat in almost every respect is and looks tired almost to the point of being seedy. Everywhere you look there are stained and torn fabrics. I am not sure how much I noticed these when I boarded the boat in late February but they were very noticeable to myself and other guests throughout the last two trips. When you sit in the aft area you are confronted with a collection of tears, stains, and rips on every surface. This is accentuated by the appearance of the crew who were wearing what can only be described as filthy clothing. I wish I were being overly dramatic but this is not the case.
The situation also exists in the cabins. Many of the linens have stains to include blood stains. I was given a bed sheet with a blood stain by my pillow. Many of the cabins have other assorted stains, peeling fabric, and an assortment of problems both large and small. I listened to weeks of complaint about the shower/drain situation between cabins three and four. The problem with drainage in cabin three existed when I boarded the boat in late February. It was one of the reasons that I would not have ridden the boat if I had not switched to cabin five.
There is peeling paint and varnish in many areas of the boat. Carpets are ragged. The boat's library of underwater books re-enforces the overall feeling with bindings that no longer hold the pages as well as missing pages.
Several guests commented to me about the noise of the air conditioning units. I do not know the underlying problem but at times the startup of the air conditioner in my cabin for the last trip, cabin five, was very noisy.
2. Diving Operation
The areas that the Pelagian visits offers spectacular diving but the diving operation especially in terms of the dive guides is poor. The first and most obvious issue which quickly becomes apparent to the least discerning of divers is that the dive briefings are generally useless. Unless the lead dive guide has been recently "reminded" by the Captain, the briefings may or may not include a useful diagram of the dive site and words to the effect that its has coral, water, and sand. After one "reminder" the lead dive guide simply told guests they could expect to see water, "Ocean Trigger Fish", and coral.
More recently dive briefings have used a set of drawings that are done in pencil on some pads. The drawings had limited utility as they can't be viewed by most guests as they are too small and do not serve to allow the dive guide to really address any significant features or issues that might be present at a site.
The problems do not end with the dive briefings but are present throughout the diving operations. In four trips, and only on the last trip, after I repeatedly raised it as an issue, did a dive guide ever enter the water to determine what was actually happening. Repeatedly guests were put in at the wrong locations, forced to swim against currents, or generally unprepared for the conditions.
For example, at one dive site, Tri-Top, on two separate trips separated by seven days, the dive team did not check the situation and put the guests in the water too far from the actual dive site. At several other locations the process was repeated. On the first dive one the first day of my third trip the guests "check-out" dive consisted of a wild, and what could have been dangerous, ride in strong currents.
Performance underwater was variable. At times dive guides would show little interest in performing the function of finding or showing creatures of interests to guests. Dive guides would "disappear" or enter their own worlds.
3. Food
Even for a 15 day trip the food is repetitive but the problems are broader. For the last trip there was a German that was a vegetarian. I closely observed what was prepared and it was sad. The first couple of dinners featured a large, almost plate filling, mound of starch and a vegetable. The starch on both days was a potato - pureed or mashed. After several of these meals I said something to the Captain but the situation did not improve. Finally, I met with the guest and prepared a one page guide to preparing vegetarian meals. The meals improved for a few days and then deteriorated to the point where the guest simply told the kitchen specifically what she wanted on a given day. In the end this became either an omelet or pasta.
As noted the food is highly repetitive in content and preparation. On the last trip the same four soups (i.e., mushroom, tomato, asparagus, or corn chowder) were served. Of these four, three had the same basic cream composition and could for all intents and purposes be treated as identical.
More so than on any other trip the meals on the last trip were repetitive. The same Pork with Soya Sauce was served three or four times. The same can be said for Chicken with Chili Sauce. After complaining that too many of the dishes on the third trip were fried the result seems to be that the dishes that were not fried were simply repeated more often.
The galley shows no mercy to vegetables. They were often overcooked to the point of being mush. This was especially true of broccoli. My guess is that the galley does not know about steaming vegetables and that everything is boiled. Sometime the vegetables would be seasoned with chilies and other times would be entirely plain.
While I don't eat desserts I observed many of them and they were lacking. On the last trip I saw canned fruit, both pears and pineapple, repeatedly served in a sugary syrup. This is just another area where some imagination and variety is required.
The quantity of food was insufficient on several occasions. There was a desire for more salad and fruit at lunch but it was not available. In the United States, and many Pelagian guests are American, there is a food movement that reduces carbohydrates and it was true on this trip. The boat needs to look at its clientele and provision accordingly.
On nearly every boat I have been on there has been sliced fruit at every meal. On the Pelagian this is true only at lunch. While there is a fruit bowl it typically contains bananas, oranges, and apples. I asked the Captain why there was not more fruit and salad and he said it was a function of the boat's ability to store these items on a 14 day trip. The Pelagian is a big boat and it would seem that this issue could be addressed.
1. Physical Plant
The boat in almost every respect is and looks tired almost to the point of being seedy. Everywhere you look there are stained and torn fabrics. I am not sure how much I noticed these when I boarded the boat in late February but they were very noticeable to myself and other guests throughout the last two trips. When you sit in the aft area you are confronted with a collection of tears, stains, and rips on every surface. This is accentuated by the appearance of the crew who were wearing what can only be described as filthy clothing. I wish I were being overly dramatic but this is not the case.
The situation also exists in the cabins. Many of the linens have stains to include blood stains. I was given a bed sheet with a blood stain by my pillow. Many of the cabins have other assorted stains, peeling fabric, and an assortment of problems both large and small. I listened to weeks of complaint about the shower/drain situation between cabins three and four. The problem with drainage in cabin three existed when I boarded the boat in late February. It was one of the reasons that I would not have ridden the boat if I had not switched to cabin five.
There is peeling paint and varnish in many areas of the boat. Carpets are ragged. The boat's library of underwater books re-enforces the overall feeling with bindings that no longer hold the pages as well as missing pages.
Several guests commented to me about the noise of the air conditioning units. I do not know the underlying problem but at times the startup of the air conditioner in my cabin for the last trip, cabin five, was very noisy.
2. Diving Operation
The areas that the Pelagian visits offers spectacular diving but the diving operation especially in terms of the dive guides is poor. The first and most obvious issue which quickly becomes apparent to the least discerning of divers is that the dive briefings are generally useless. Unless the lead dive guide has been recently "reminded" by the Captain, the briefings may or may not include a useful diagram of the dive site and words to the effect that its has coral, water, and sand. After one "reminder" the lead dive guide simply told guests they could expect to see water, "Ocean Trigger Fish", and coral.
More recently dive briefings have used a set of drawings that are done in pencil on some pads. The drawings had limited utility as they can't be viewed by most guests as they are too small and do not serve to allow the dive guide to really address any significant features or issues that might be present at a site.
The problems do not end with the dive briefings but are present throughout the diving operations. In four trips, and only on the last trip, after I repeatedly raised it as an issue, did a dive guide ever enter the water to determine what was actually happening. Repeatedly guests were put in at the wrong locations, forced to swim against currents, or generally unprepared for the conditions.
For example, at one dive site, Tri-Top, on two separate trips separated by seven days, the dive team did not check the situation and put the guests in the water too far from the actual dive site. At several other locations the process was repeated. On the first dive one the first day of my third trip the guests "check-out" dive consisted of a wild, and what could have been dangerous, ride in strong currents.
Performance underwater was variable. At times dive guides would show little interest in performing the function of finding or showing creatures of interests to guests. Dive guides would "disappear" or enter their own worlds.
3. Food
Even for a 15 day trip the food is repetitive but the problems are broader. For the last trip there was a German that was a vegetarian. I closely observed what was prepared and it was sad. The first couple of dinners featured a large, almost plate filling, mound of starch and a vegetable. The starch on both days was a potato - pureed or mashed. After several of these meals I said something to the Captain but the situation did not improve. Finally, I met with the guest and prepared a one page guide to preparing vegetarian meals. The meals improved for a few days and then deteriorated to the point where the guest simply told the kitchen specifically what she wanted on a given day. In the end this became either an omelet or pasta.
As noted the food is highly repetitive in content and preparation. On the last trip the same four soups (i.e., mushroom, tomato, asparagus, or corn chowder) were served. Of these four, three had the same basic cream composition and could for all intents and purposes be treated as identical.
More so than on any other trip the meals on the last trip were repetitive. The same Pork with Soya Sauce was served three or four times. The same can be said for Chicken with Chili Sauce. After complaining that too many of the dishes on the third trip were fried the result seems to be that the dishes that were not fried were simply repeated more often.
The galley shows no mercy to vegetables. They were often overcooked to the point of being mush. This was especially true of broccoli. My guess is that the galley does not know about steaming vegetables and that everything is boiled. Sometime the vegetables would be seasoned with chilies and other times would be entirely plain.
While I don't eat desserts I observed many of them and they were lacking. On the last trip I saw canned fruit, both pears and pineapple, repeatedly served in a sugary syrup. This is just another area where some imagination and variety is required.
The quantity of food was insufficient on several occasions. There was a desire for more salad and fruit at lunch but it was not available. In the United States, and many Pelagian guests are American, there is a food movement that reduces carbohydrates and it was true on this trip. The boat needs to look at its clientele and provision accordingly.
On nearly every boat I have been on there has been sliced fruit at every meal. On the Pelagian this is true only at lunch. While there is a fruit bowl it typically contains bananas, oranges, and apples. I asked the Captain why there was not more fruit and salad and he said it was a function of the boat's ability to store these items on a 14 day trip. The Pelagian is a big boat and it would seem that this issue could be addressed.
