Trip Report Red Sea Serpent Grand Egypt

[berndo]

Although I agree you have some legitimate complaints, stuff like small cabins, ...

There are pictures of the cabins on the website. It's kinda like getting (and paying for) a happy meal at McDonalds and than write a review in which you complain about them not having filet mignon and no white table cloth in the Restaurant.
Same with the no fish/sharks complained... at the Brothers and the south tours you likely see sharks but it's much less likely on the north tour (which he apparently took as he dove the Thistlegorm).
15 min of googling would have told him about virtually all the 'issues' beforehand... and any random 3rd grader could have told him that it's very hot and dry in summer a in country that's basically all desert.
This write up is just bashing the boat and the diving in Egypt. Egypt has great diving, he just didn't bother to do ANY research about where to go and about the trip in general.

 

[also_anon_dc]

There are pictures of the cabins on the website. It's kinda like getting (and paying for) a happy meal at McDonalds and than write a review in which you complain about them not having filet mignon and no white table cloth in the Restaurant.

I think you're misinterpreting my post. I'm saying OP has legitimate complaints (like the food being bad) but complaining about the cabin sizes is not one of them since that, and the other things I list, are par for the course in the Red Sea.

 

[berndo]

I think you're misinterpreting my post. I'm saying OP has legitimate complaints (like the food being bad) but complaining about the cabin sizes is not one of them since that, and the other things I list, are par for the course in the Red Sea.

Ok, I did misunderstand that part.

 

[scubadada]

Hi @reefseeker2

I appreciate your honest assessment.

I did back to back weeks, Daedalus and south and BDE, on the Red Sea several years ago and had none of the criticisms you listed in your report. The food was very good, smoking was limited to a single area, fresh warm towels after every dive, nice rooms, small dive groups, good RIB procedures, good camera facilities, and, best of all, good diving with many sharks, all but Oceanic Whitetips.

Of course, the boat I took caught fire and sank about 3 1/2 years later.

 

[deeper thoughts]

Thnx for your review. It really helps

 

[Parlem]

I appreciate your review. It adds perspective. When it comes to liveaboards, you get what you pay for, I think.

 

[scubajasonr]

Thanks for taking the time to write a trip report, always good to read.

It reminds me that I need to finish writing a write up from a liveaboard I did in the summer on the same Northern route. In comparison we were on a small cheap boat, which takes 16 divers, but only 8 of us onboard. Food on our trip was very good, with an experienced and passionate chef who loved talking to the guests about the food he had cooked.

I have done about ten Red Sea liveaboards. The Northern route definitely has less in the way of marine life and far more dive boats. I was amazed this summer at the number of day boats, mainly snorkelling but also divers heading out of Sharm each day. We didn't see any sharks, but on most night dives we were accompanied by giant trevally who were hiding behind us and then using our dive lights to hunt fish.

I think every Red Sea boat I have been on has been hit by big waves at some point, meaning items in the cabin have been thrown about. This year we had it crossing from Hurghada to Sinai, apart from that our trip was generally calm.

 

[reefseeker2]

Thanks for the report. I also love the Indonesian area and boats for diving and culture.

The food issue sounds annoying since you've got no other choice for food. I also like the opportunity to eat the local food, but the fact that you were in Egypt and the better food was hot dogs and pizza says a lot.

Your comments about fish life was interesting as it is difficult to gauge people's description of diving areas unless you know their experience they are comparing to. I'd heard positive to glowing comments previously so your description is interesting.

Who was smoking, the guests, the crew or both? Living in CA, I didn't realize how good I had it and naively thought the world had changed somewhat given we've had decades of "smoking is bad". Europe came as a shock last year to find so many people still smoking everywhere. I thought Southeast Asia was king of per-capita smoking numbers, but Europe is a serious challenger if not king.

Literally all but maybe 4 people were not smokers. Crew and Guest. I was surprised also.

 

[reefseeker2]

So you didn't do any homework before booking and now you do nothing but complain, while taking no responsibility for your lack of research.
Yeah, North tour isn't good for sharks and lots of fish, Egypt is dry and hot (it's a desert country, duh), Europeans and Egyptian smoke outside, you can't bring drones and should have looked up what you can bring into a foreign country, rooms are small and no boat in that area has 20 crew for 20 divers, people mostly don't wanna dive with a guide, etc.
All of this and more you could have looked up beforehand.

The only legitimate piece of critizism here is that the fish was dry. This is really more just whining than a review.

I'm also calling BS on the claim of yours that 'boats of similar size over the last 20 years have typically had over 20 crew members for a similar number of divers'. So, same size of boat with 40 plus people but bigger cabins? Sounds like you haven't traveled much other than to Indonesia.

White Manta Diving - KM Blue Manta - FYI for your BS 22 guest - 20 crew - I have been on this boat many times. never more than 18 divers, sometimes less but always 20 Crew. White Manta and Blue Manta. BTW do you have any idea how big Indonesia is? You could not dive all the sites in a 100 lifetimes. My guess is you never had a really good dive guide, a good one makes a big difference. For sure my bad on the drone. Funny boat had a fight deck for drones. Laughed when they told me, said some get thought.

 

[reefseeker2]

It sounds like you're used to high quality Indonesia liveaboards and this was your first trip to the Red Sea. You really can't expect Indonesia standards on Red Sea liveaboards. Although I agree you have some legitimate complaints, stuff like small cabins, using the same towel, no hairdryer and lower crew to guest ratio is just standard in the Red Sea. Perhaps if you had booked an uber luxury liveaboard (do those even exist in the Red Sea?) you would have had a better experience.

Yea first time. I thought I was booking one of the top best boats. Can't believe everything you read. Oh well, did it once. I am spoiled and too old.