Raja Ampat / SMY Ondina

[paul_morton]

Gents,

Andy, i am a very pretty experienced diver with almost 2,000 dives under my belt. Being experienced or not does not change the fact that Abraham (the DM and cruise director on the SMY Ondina), did a back-roll off the dingy almost every dive and immediately disappeared into the blue with no regard to the dive members in his supposed group. Maybe i was just on a "dud" cruise where Abraham and Ella would have preferred to be elsewhere than on the boat for those 12 days. It doesn't change the fact that put of the 30 some dives we did around i aborted around 8 early as Abraham was nowhere to be found. i was also not the only one that mentioned this on the boat, maybe the only writing about it but certainly not the only one that noticed! I like to think of myself as a "safe" diver and would like to be diving for may more years to come.

At the end of the day the trip that i was on was pretty ****ty. The SMY Ondina might say that there were many vegetarians on the boat, well there were a few that started eating "veggie" for all of two days but then reverted back to their heavy meat and pulse diet within a matter of days. I can't comment on the other food as i did not eat it but it did see everyone eating so it had to be ok. I was honestly the only "true" vegetarian on the boat that ate a "veg" diet for the entire trip, and in all honesty the food was not very good. for them to say, "

Most of the pax onboard were vegetarian and most of them have congratulated us for the food during that particular cruise" is an outright lie!! If most of the pax were vegetarian, then why did they may a "special" veggie dish only for me from day 4/5 onwards?? if the meals were not the same, then why was "tempe" the staple additive to every meal that was cooked? it was for this reason i stopped eating the food on the boat for the last three days as it was all the same.
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With regards to compensating for my regulator that was clogged with oil due to the regulator spitting out bad air.......to the SMY Ondina, "I'm not hard up for the cash" so thanks but i really do not need anything further from you, let alone the $100 for the reg to be cleaned, the damage has already been done! Regarding the comments on the "illegal operating" in RA that i supposedly have gone quiet on..... I'm guessing from the statement you want a further comment from me?! To jump on a boat and dive an area with no tags in my opinion is illegal, you might have mentioned the divers but we were still diving without the tags. If the authorities are happy with that then fine, but my question is this why were we issued with 2012 tags when we dived at the end of 2011? if we had been registered with the authorities why didnt they keep the tags for you for when you went to their office to pay them after ALL of the divers had left the boat? My feeling to this point is that from Abrahams' comment on the boat i dont feel we would have received the tags if i had not made a BIG deal out of this.

SMY Ondina, have also not commented on why Deb Fugitt asks for their cruise director, Abrahan and Ella, to be removed from the boat when she brings a group of divers on the boat. I am not the only one to have a bad experience and for a tour operator to ask the owners of the SMY Ondina to have staff removed from the boat when they book it kind of says it all!!

These forums are supposed to assist people in making informed decisions about boats/ trips etc etc. All that i can do is honestly comment on my experience, and hopefully those reading the comments can read through all of the nonsense. My experience with travelling with the SMY Ondina over the Xmas/ New Year that has passed has taught me to look into my bookings a lot more than simply choosing a boat on its cruise dates. This was my first trip to RA and will not be my last, i am already in the process of finalizing another trip at the end of the year with a different boat. The fact still remains that a lot went wrong on the boat in the twelve days that i was on it, if other people want to risk spending money and dealing with a boat like this then that is entirely their choice. I certainly will not do that again, i have learned my lesson and learned it well. I also never realized that the SMY Ondina was also one of the "cheaper" options for RA, as i mentioned i chose my trip based on dates i had available over Xmas/ New Year. This was a mistake on my part and i have learned what to look for and what NOT to book due to my experience.

We all have experiences as well as opinions, good and bad. I am simply passing on my experiences to those who have a willingness to listen. If you do chose the SMY Ondina i honestly hope that you have a better experience to what i had as i would not wish that kind of trip on anyone!

Happy Diving everyone!

 

[photog]

SMY Ondina, have also not commented on why Deb Fugitt asks for their cruise director, Abrahan and Ella, to be removed from the boat when she brings a group of divers on the boat. I am not the only one to have a bad experience and for a tour operator to ask the owners of the SMY Ondina to have staff removed from the boat when they book it kind of says it all!!

My value added trips run differently than normal ones. The extra crew I bring for my value added trips know how I like to run trips after years of experience working together with me. I consider them to be among the top in what they do, whether it is putting divers into the water in the right place, dealing with problem guests, dealing with problems from local people, critter spotting, helping photographers, checking currents, doing dive briefings, organizing to get late-arrivers or delayed bags out to the ship while providing the promised diving at the same time, etc.

So, I like to have my own team of cruise director & divemasters on board for my trips, people I have worked together with for 6-13 years. I've tried leaving the regular cruise director and lead western DM on board several times (several sets of CD/DM, not just the ones Paul mentioned) but it is better to have them take a holiday so there are not two sets of leaders on board. As the saying goes "too many cooks spoil the broth". Plus it is just too many bodies on the ship with some of them having nothing to do. With the people who have worked with me for so many years, we all know exactly how to make the best trip for the divers who come for what my trips offer.

The group leader from the Raja Ampat March 5-15 trip that ended 5 days ago (one I organized for the group with the normal crew) sent me an email yesterday. They had a good trip. Said the ship was better than expected, liked the setup of the ship and thought the crew was great. He also mentioned that Abraham knows the sites very well and is a good guide. I had followed up after their trip to ask if there were any problems, what they liked, what they didn't. Maybe he will post something here, I know he and some of his group were reading this thread and Paul had them quite worried before their trip!

Another charter I organized for a group is going out in 2 weeks. It will be their second Ondina charter. As always, I'll be following them during and after their trip. I've sent the list of dietary requirements, dive teams, buddies, cabin assignments, allergies and so on to the ship's owner and cruise director already so they can have everything prepared well in advance. This week I'm also in the process of setting up a special charter in 2013 for divers who have been on Ondina with me multiple times over the past 8 years. The charter is their request.

Paul, you wrote me (by email) and many other agents and individuals offline about your trip the same day you posted first to scubaboard which is the reason I picked up on this thread. I keep track of what is going on with any dive operator I use, so corresponded with you for more info, checked with others who had been on the same trip, checked with the office about the diver tags for your trip in Sorong, and tried to get you in touch with the Ondina owners and the agent who sent you on the trip.

You are certainly entitled to your opinion, however it has not been confirmed by others who are traveling aboard the Ondina or by the tag office in Sorong that your trip was anything other than an unusual set of circumstances initiated by unusually bad weather.

My experience with traveling with the SMY Ondina over the Xmas/ New Year that has passed has taught me to look into my bookings a lot more than simply choosing a boat on its cruise dates. This was my first trip to RA and will not be my last, i am already in the process of finalizing another trip at the end of the year with a different boat.

I agree that divers should check more than cruise dates when booking a trip. A few years ago someone booked onto one of my Raja Ampat trips expecting Cocos-style high voltage diving with sharks. How he missed knowing what my trips and Raja Ampat are about, I'll never understand since I write FAR too much and give a lot of detail and even include a warning so I don't get people on the wrong trip. He didn't ask for anything special and then was not happy when the meals were organized based on the other guests' requests. That person went on a vendetta against me, insulting both me and the other divers on my trips. Fortunately for me a lot of divers who had been on my trips in the past and on that specific trip defended me and all the material available about my trips and Raja Ampat. In the end he apologized. Point is, he booked the wrong trip, was really angry about it and for some reason decided to take it out on me.

BTW some of the cruise directors and divemasters I sent on holiday from Ondina for my value added trips are now managing the diving on other higher-cost boats in Raja Ampat. I wonder if you will meet them on board your ship next trip?

Many years ago I had an exceptionally bad experience with a liveaboard, exponentially worse that what you describe. That experience has colored everything I do. Since then I've been super vigilant about dive operations and check up on things myself. Paul, if I change my option about Ondina, you'll be the first to know.

 

[SMY Ondina]

Mr. Morton....I surrender! If I just had been so persistent and had chased that beautiful bird at the High School I would probably be married to her now or had been smacked hard many times....Impressive! Congratulations! Anyhow, I am happy to tell you that after your "unlucky" cruise we have provided some more great cruises being one of the "cheaper" options for R4.....some clever buddies joined us and wanted to safe some money for taking their couples out for dinner when back at home. I will just drop the final line on reply to the only thing that really interests me to clarify from your comments after having accepted what had to be accepted, after having ammended what could be ammended and after having repaired or replaced what went wrong. This is about the diving tags issue. Mr.Morton you may be a "pretty experienced diver with almost 2,000 dives under your belt" but do not seem to know the distance between Ambon in Maluku, where you started your cruise in 2011 and Sorong, Papua, where you ended up your cruise in 2012, neither to know that Maluku and Papua are different "Propinsi" (provinces) with different regulations even at the level of each "kabupaten", or district, within. It is obvious you cannot have the experience to know that you cannot buy in Maluku the diving tags for diving in Papua. It is normal, you do not live or operate there, but we do, but I am sure you can make out that if you buy the diving tags in Papua in 2012, after disembarking, (they still do not have floating ticket-offices in R4), they should be issued in 2012, not in 2011 ......Well, Mr. Morton, Do as you feel you have to do posting more about your disgraceful experience despite other buddies' opinions being completely different than yours......I surrender!..... but, do everubody a favour and forget about continuing spreading false accusations about us operating in any way illegally. Will you?
To all buddies reading these threads: Yes, many things went wrong in Mr. Morton's cruise (as I have posted many times already) but we are still here after eleven years operating in this beautiful country offering nice cruises, having tens of repeaters every year and being active participants in protecting the incredible reefs in the inner seas of Indonesia....as Mr. Morton says........."it kind of says it all!!
Best and safe dives everybody!
PD: Anybody wants to post about the beautiful shots of the whalesharks in Cenderawasih bay in our facebook page? They are nice!

 

[oscar27573]

Again, I feel the need to reply about the negative comments about this cruise. This time about Abraham the director cruise and dive guide in Ondina.
I hope to have a dive guide like him in every cruise to come !!!

 

[tsvetanstoev]

I returned from RA trip with Ondina 05-15/03. After trip report of Mr.Morton I worried about conditions on the boat, as also I chartered Ondina. Boat was really better than we expected. Thank`s god we had good weather and very beautiful dives.Verry strongs currents, also...Staff on the boat and all organisation on the trip was exellent /Thank`s Debb/, food also was nice. We had plenty of snaks in the afternoons and nesspreso machine My english is not good, sorry for this, that`s why I would like to share movie of our trip WWW_RAJA AMPAT.mp4 - YouTube.
Cheers,

p.s Debb, already shared my impressions of our trip on Ondina

 

[photog]

I returned from RA trip with Ondina 05-15/03. ... all organisation on the trip was exellent /Thank`s Debb/, ...
p.s Debb, already shared my impressions of our trip on Ondina

Tsvetan, I'm glad you had a good trip, but I did expect it!

Abraham told me the currents during your 10 day charter were the worst he's seen in the time he's been working in Raja Ampat. Your video makes me homesick to go diving there again! I have to wait until October to go with my own charters.

It was a pleasure to work with you to organize the charter for your group. Always great to find someone so organized and who cares so much that divers in their group are happy. I appreciated the detailed information about food likes/dislikes and requirements; diving preferances, photo equipment, experience levels, etc. that you gathered for me before your trip. The more info I have about the divers on a charter in advance, the better we can organize it for you.

I heard Abraham found some nice seafood for you.. and many other things about your trip as well.. from the day you arrived and sometimes from your divemaster during the trip as well. Abraham is probably sick of me asking him to do things for the charters I organize!

I know most of your group preferred to dive with the big schools of fishes and nice coral scenes. But in the video I do see that your macro photographers got some great shots too! Nice pygs, toadfish, gobies, nudis, etc. from Stephan in that video.

I would be very happy to help you organize for your group any time. AND.. I also would recommend to anyone thinking about taking a trip with Tsvetan.. DO IT! He spent a lot of time organizing everything on his end to be sure his group had a great time.