Raja Ampat or Komodo - and which boat?
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44!!! Holy Mohly!! Its a good thing RA is such a vast area. But I can imagine the primo spots like Manta Sandy just getting swamped now days.
Get it while its good, is all I say.
Scorpiofish: I saw a no next to Ondina. What's wrong with that boat in your opinion?
Op: January sounds like R4 season to me!
Op: January sounds like R4 season to me!
OP
Diver Below
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Wow, all your comments and tips were extremely helpful!
Many thanks to you all, I will definately stick around here in SB to see where I can help others
Many thanks to you all, I will definately stick around here in SB to see where I can help others
Tippytoes12
Contributor
We loved Black Manta in the Similans and have just 're booked for RA at Christmas. Eating outside and particularly eating breakfast outside in the tropics , having just had an awesome dive and with a day of equally awesome dives to come is as good as life gets !!
Sideways
Contributor
I did the Black Manta in Thailand and really enjoyed it. When I was looking at RA, it was at the top of my list just because I KNEW what I was getting. Have a great trip!
First, the "no" column is a personal choice, not necesarrily that the boat is awful. I was on the boat for a Deb Fugit led trip. She advertises her trips here quite often. Our experience wasn't very good, which had little to do with Deb. The boat is simply not up to our standards. If you factor in price in order to get a value based preference, then it isn't that bad, but I'd rather pay more and get a better boat.
Here is what we experienced:
1) Incompetent and inexperienced cruise director (since replaced). After our experience, I believe Deb would get Norberto to be there for her trips. I don't know what the status is now.
2) The boat wasn't particularly clean. The girls were constantly cleaning the wood surfaces with Pledge like substance, which was quite odd.
3) Food was OK, but served buffet style and often tepid by the time it all got placed on the counter.
4) Marine heads. The bathrooms were atrocious. You didn't want to go in them. Marine heads require a lot of work and they are quite noisy, so you wake your mate when you pump it. Ours had issues and needed fixing twice. The standard comment is, "you must have put toilet paper in them", which was patently false. Marine heads just aren't that great. Haven't had them since being on a 50' sailboat or an even smaller Boston Whaler. The floors have wood grating. If anything fell into it, we would just throw it away. I'm not sure when the last time the grating was removed and the floor cleaned. No hot water in bathrooms. Only hot water was the shower in the bathroom on deck. You basically showered there after the dive. Nothing wrong with that, but I heard about a trip where the water heater went out. That means no hot showers for anyone.
5) Mattresses were 3-4" thick when new. Ours were so warn in the middle we could feel the base underneath. Deb says they were supposed to be replaced before our trip. They weren't.
6) You gear up on board and walk down the plank to the tender. It wasn't a big deal, but if you have a bad back, it could be a problem. I do think they could gear up in the boat if necessary, so ignore this one.
7) Limited lounging area with shade. There was a ladder (not stairs) to the deck above. The wood under foot could be quite warm. The tarp for cover was taken down while moving (the time you most want to lounge. The salon had A/C units, but were always off with windows open.
8) The boat may have a 9 meter beam, but it is noticeably narrower in the back than in the center. More so than other boats I have been on.
All phinisi's are not created equally. They start with a basic structure, then everything is optioned. The Ondina was built without a lot of options, or with the cheaper options.
Ondina fans will probably flame me for being all about stupid luxuries. I'm OK with that, but seriously, how many boats on the massive list have marine heads? Sorry, I'm not doing marine heads on a liveaboard. I've been on boats where you soap up and jump in the ocean to rinse, then do a fresh water rinse (cold) after on deck. I'm not into building my biceps by using the toilet. I'll pay for better. Our next trip was on the Seven Seas. Flush toilets. Hot showers. Covered outside area with cushioned seating. A real mattress. And yet the Seven Seas isn't in same class as some of the newer boats.
My spreadsheet doesn't include prices....yet. So, again there is a value issue. The Arenui may be close to 2x the price of the Ondina. It may be over the top nice. It may be more than I or most others would really want, but I'd rather pay the 2x and know I will have the ultimate experience. For example, the rooms on the Ondina were sized just fine, whereas the Arenui has rooms larger than you really need. So, you are paying for room you don't really need, but that's OK because you are also getting awesome cruise directors, awesome guides, over the top food.
Some things may be much better now than during our trip, but the boat fundamentals couldn't have changed. Even if we chose a lesser class than the Damai, Arenui, Dewi Nus., et. al., we would still look at something other than the Ondina, especially with so many other boats out there. Just my (our) opinion.
pughio83
Contributor
Thanks for the detailed insight for the ondina. I agree, you want a bit of luxury if you are spending that much time on a boat IMHO. But price does come into it and you get what u pay for. There are reasons dewi and arenui cost a lot lol!!
Shasta_man
Contributor
I think the point was that not wanting a marine head isn't wanting "luxury" instead. I'd suggest that several things listed should be basic requirements like decent food, decent bed for more than a week and somewhere to get out of the heat. My recollection is that Deb's pricing wasn't top dollar but not bottom either. If I want to go on a boat where there's no hot water, I'm eating Top Ramen for every meal and sleeping on a bench, then fine as long as the price reflects that.
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