Raja Ampat Cityseahorse Deb Fugitt Ondina

[Tonym]

Continuation...

SUMMARY

It was very unfortunate that Tom had a bad experience. For all of us. It was also obvious to us that these 3 divers were on the wrong trip after only 2-3 days. The crew kept asking me why they were there. I fielded many complaints about the diving skills of these divers as they often created sandstorms and ruined photos by finning up the bottom in sandy or shallow areas. I didn't specifically see Tom doing that, only the other two so I asked the dive guides to stop them and point it out when they saw it happening plus it was addressed in the dive briefings several times.

I'm not a travel agent that simply charters a ship, collects the money and off you go! I put years of effort into learning the dive sites, checking out the ship before ever sending anyone on it and working constantly with the ship's owners to improve the ship's facilities and crew to make it easy, safe and comfortable for the divers aboard to relax and enjoy their holiday. I have worked with SMY Ondina's owners for years. They always take my suggestions to heart, nearly always implementing them and occasionally even improving on them

On both Nov. trips the cruise director, 3 dive guides and special dive assistant/tender driver were freelance guides. They do not work for Ondina. They were there at my request with the permission and assistance of Ondina's owners. I've worked with them and the crew for 2-10 years. They know what I want for our guests so well that I seldom have to do anything except make a choice about the itinerary or time for a meal.

I don't want to minimize questions about my trips. I want to prevent unsuitable divers (those who will not be happy, who have medical problems, who are frightened of diving, etc.) from booking onto my trips!!!!! The trips are always full (fingers crossed with this economy).

Unhappy divers are not fun to be around... plus they write awful things on forums! I'm always aboard and the last thing I want to do for 12 days is be stuck on a liveaboard with someone who is not happy, complains or is rude.

My trips aren't for everyone. I wish I could do a 100% perfect job of matching divers to my trips. I try, but once in a while I miss one (or 3). And I wish that visibility, fish and critters weren't so darned unpredictable so that everyone could see on an 11 day trip what I've seen in Raja Ampat over the past 10 years.

It is extremely disappointing and disenheartening to put so much effort into providing a special trip and then find a review like this online.

I hope readers who are interested in Raja Ampat or a dive/photographers' trip to Raja Ampat will review other data and not base their choices on the angry comments of a dissatisfied diver who didn't do his research.

DebF
Deb Fugitt
www.cityseahorse.com/rajaampat


TRIP RESEARCH - MORE DETAIL

Pre-trip Tom stated that he and his friends were experienced divers with more than 20 years experience. 2 photographers, 1 not. He didn't ask any questions about the trip or the diving, only joking (I thought) questions about whether we could find a coelacanth for him to photograph, if there is a Starbucks and free Wi-Fi in the Sorong hotel for our overnight there and serious questions about the air travel, and how much freedom he and his dive buddy would be given to dive. I reviewed all the communications I had with Tom... that's it.

I did try to get them to let me put the non-photographer on another dive tender with other non-photographers so I could assign a different guide who would do tours of the dive sites instead of critter spotting and going directly to the best photo ops. Tom's group preferred to be assigned together so I complied with their request.

I ask each diver to complete a form that includes their food requirements. In addition to asking about allergies and intolerances there is a box "Meal Preferences. List likes, dislikes, diets. For example, do you like spicy Indonesian food? Can't tolerate it? Love fish, Hate fish? Vegetarian? Etc.". Tom's request was "beer, cold, lots of it".

The form also asks for goals so I can flag divers who won't be compatible with the trip or other quests and ask further questions to be sure they are on the right sort of trip. It is also used to help me assign compatible divers with the guide I know will be best for them. (1 guide for 3 or 4 divers). The text on the form is "What are your goals for this trip? (Get certain kinds of photos? See a specific creature? Relax & enjoy the diving? Have an adventure? We'll use this info to make a basic plan and group divers with others having similar goals.)". Tom filled his form with only "4 dives a day".

Once aboard, Tom barely spoke to me. I rarely saw him as I was doing most all the dives with my group while he skipped about half the dives. (His opinion of Raja Ampat's diving is based on about 25 dives or so).

When I was on board Tom was nearly always in his cabin, except at mealtime and he always sat at the other table. I asked his cabin mate if Tom was sick or upset! The answer was no, Tom was just quiet and seemed fine.

Tom didn't speak with me about the diving during the trip, nor did he speak to the cruise director (except for a comment on the last day). I checked again before writing this. Tom's friends were often in the lounge when I was there and we chatted a bit every day. They never asked for anything about the diving... but the kitchen was preparing special meals for them.

the end...

DebF (Deb Fugitt)
www.cityseahorse.com/rajaampat

 

[scorpiofish]

I see that the original poster has seen fit to post his report on multiple boards. Lest anyone here at Scubaboard take this as gospel, I need to add my "customer" review as noted on another U/W photography board.

1) Visibility - It is quite variable, even at its best it will never be 30m/100ft.

So what. Visibility is overrated. If you want great vis, try an Olympic size pool or even the Bahamas. Vis would rule Lembeh right out of the top ten.

2) Pelagics -

I find it difficult to find warm water sites that supply large pelagics, colorful hard and soft corals, schools of fish and great macro subjects. I don't schedule a trip thinking I'm going to cover the entire gamut of diving. The Mantas were a bonus. One can never expect great Pelagic activity. If one wants Pelagic action, then one should choose a destination which offers it as a prime consideration. I'm not sure if anyone has falsely claimed Raja as a great Pelagic destination.

3) Parking the boat and open deck is always preferred by some of us.

We don't have to prep gear for a specific dive time and we can take as long as we won't. The opposite is rigid schedules with rigid bottom times so the boat can move to another location. One photog complained constantly while on the Odyssea because of rigid follow the guide routine and 40-50 minute time limits.

4) Two entire days (10 hours per day), were spent at The Passage - a site with 35 ft maximum depth and 25 to 30 foot visibility.

Depth is even more irrelevant than visibility. Two days may be a bit much, but it is definitely a great location. We had some folks who didn't care much for it (they thought the best dive was riding the 7 knot current in the middle of the passage all the way back to the boat). I considered the Passage a great place to shoot both macro and wide angle.

5) Another entire day (10 hours) was spent diving in a mangrove area. Brown green water looking for critters amongst muddy tree roots, 25 to 30 ft viz and max depth about 40 feet. Get the picture?

I get the picture. I got a lot of pictures there. Without the Mangroves, I wouldn't have gone on the trip. I would have stayed there two days in order to catch different tides and light direction. The vis on my second dive was well over 50ft. I only spent 112 minutes on that dive, solo diving...from an open deck. If I had waited for a scheduled time, I would have missed the best vis. I can't wait to go back. I kick myself for shorting the second dive at 112 minutes as it was the best vis. I still had over half a tank. The 3rd dive had great light, but poor vis. I can't wait to go back. Granted, it's not for everyone. But I was looking for something different. The salt water mangroves are different.

6) Yes, we did dive Cape Kri, Mike's Point and Kaleidoscope. They were great and I wanted more. A few friends and I repeatedly requested the lead dive master and cruise director for more sites like these but to no avail. How many more like them do you think there are?

If there were equivalent sites along the way, you probably would have dived them. Theses are the big draw. I'm not sure where he could have taken you. The antithesis would be to keep moving to lesser quality sites in order to give you more variety of sites.

7) So, in summary, if you are a passive, sedate, complacent or sheep-like diver, content with kneeling in 35 feet on a mundane, ordinary reef dive after dive for yet one more photo of Nemo, City Seahorse tours with Deb Fugitt is for you.

I am of a completely different opinion. Spending a day in the Mangroves or Passage is for someone who doesn't want another picture of Nemo. Photographically, the trip delivered as promised. I took one or two Nemo shots out of 4000+ shutter clicks.

8) However, if you are looking for world class, high voltage, or adventure diving, you might find it at Raja Ampat but its unlikely you will find it with Deb Fugitt's charters.

Nice qualifier. "you might". What other Sorong to Sorong boats have you been on? I'm not sure what kind of "high octane" and "adventure" one might expect to find on another boat doing the same itinerary. I find this statement misleading.

Traveling to Raja isn't for everyone. Diving Raja isn't for everyone. The Ondina isn't for everyone. A Deb Fugitt trip isn't for everyone. You keep implying that you were mislead about the diving in general and the itinerary and yet provide no evidence of such. Then your final statement is that it might have all been different on another boat with no support for such a conclusion. Deb is quite clear on how she runs her trips. Her trips are for serious photographers. It is not for the non-photographer or casual shooter.

Deb's trip is exactly what you want if your objective is to get great photographs. It was my best photographic trip of my life, and I'm a published photographer. The report was a gross mis-characterization of the entire trip.

 

[mjh]

I think Debs answer is well thought out and succinctly put. We depart for Raja Jan 1st, with another carrier, but if we had known about Debs operation we would have booked it. Being photog geeks I guess we fall into the "passive...sheep like" category. We love open dive decks and staying at one site were we can play with different lenses and have the opportunity to go back and shoot something we didn't quite capture the first time.

I think if Tom had taken advantage of all the info at the website he could have made a better decision.

 

[Darnold9999]

I also am on my way to Raj Ampat with another supplier. As a photographer the trip described sounds like a better trip as it is geared to a photographers needs rather than the "adventure diver" but this was the only one availabel in the time I had available so...we will see.

However, it doesn't sound like the "interview" that Deb says on her website that she uses to screen inappropriate divers is particularly effective. She is taking on the responsibility of doing an interview and assuring everyone that divers that don't fit will be screened out. Does not sound like this interview took place and or if it did it didn't work very well.

If someone says that they will be interviewing me to make sure that the trip will be an appropriate one for me, and they do the interview, then I would expect that the trip would be appropriate and have every right to complain when it didn't.

 

[Tonym]

I think Debs answer is well thought out and succinctly put. We depart for Raja Jan 1st, with another carrier, but if we had known about Debs operation we would have booked it.

Thanks for that! I had a look at your website. Some great wide angle there! Anyone can shoot macro but the wide demands so much more skill and creativity! I'm always encouraging people to shoot wide in Raja Ampat. On this last trip we had one or two confirmed macro shooters actually give up their macro rigs in spots where there were plenty of small critters to shoot wide. Beautiful images!

DebF

 

[Tonym]

Would it be out of line here to tell people where to subscribe to my newsletter? I send out just a very few every year with new schedules, announcing any bargins for cancelled spaces and always some news on Raja Ampat, travel details we've learned recently, etc.

I don't frequent this board, so am not familiar with what is acceptable.

DebF

 

[ScubaSeanMaui]

if you are looking for world class, high voltage, or adventure diving, you might find it at Raja Ampat but its unlikely you will find it with Deb Fugitt's charters.

Why would you go on a macro photo diving live aboard if you were looking for "high voltage" diving? There is definitely a lot to get excited about, but it's not like Palau or some big animal dive spot. Did you even take photos? I'm sure it would be unbearable to have to watch people take photos for 11 days if you don't take photos yourself (at least for me). As a UW photographer I think the trip sounds amazing, but I think TWHI picked the wrong trip and clearly had the wrong expectations.

Sean

 

[Tonym]

Why would you go on a macro photo diving live aboard if you were looking for "high voltage" diving? There is definitely a lot to get excited about, but it's not like Palau or some big animal dive spot. Did you even take photos?
Sean

Sean,

We offer a variety of types of diving on this trip. Its not all macro and not all wide. Our experienced guests comment that this is the place they've been that has the most variety.. and they are very well traveled divers who've been everywhere.

There is one spot we dive that is "almost" strictly macro.. yet we see manta rays, bull sharks, turtles, bumpheads and schools of silversides there too + there are some unusual wide scenics that are done.

Some of the shallow sites can be etiher macro or wide angle. That's a lot of the appeal of the place. Depending on your mood, your interest, the vis, time of day.. one can get really creative.. there are sooooo many options!

For example those awful sites mentioned in the review are the spots where either wide or macro is good. We have to make a decision whether to shoot some unique scenes (like the reef and rainforest shots.. or large trevally hunting silversides under the pier) or to shoot macro of nudis, pipefishes, cuttlefish, etc.

There are some high voltage, strong current dives as well. There are quite a lot of sharks around now and some divers in Nov. spent time watching and shooting some unusual shark behavior... got REAL photos of sharks that weren't being attracted by chum from a diver in mesh. Big fishes chasing small ones so we hear that whummmmh of a school of fish turning, getting immersed in a school of fish streaking past.. stuff like that.

I've been solely shooting video the last couple of trips. My super wide angle port that allows me to shoot wide or macro (even pygmy seahorses.. ie "pygs") on the same dive is a realy blessing to own.

Tom did have a camera. He did say he was a photographer and I saw him taking photos. He did not offer to share them with us so I have no idea what sort of images he got. The non-photographer in his small group of friends had a new P&S camera. The "non-photographer" took 2nd prize macro in the little photo contest we had at at the end of the trip. Mandarianfish!

DebF

 

[scorpiofish]

I also am on my way to Raj Ampat with another supplier.

However, it doesn't sound like the "interview" that Deb says on her website that she uses to screen inappropriate divers is particularly effective. She is taking on the responsibility of doing an interview and assuring everyone that divers that don't fit will be screened out. Does not sound like this interview took place and or if it did it didn't work very well.

Doubtful. She does it to the point of being irritating. There is no way this person should have been surprised by anything on the trip.

 

[Tonym]

She does it to the point of being irritating.

Err.. sorry about that!

DebF