Illini_Fan
Contributor
warning: long post
My son and I just completed our trip with Taka and I figured Id provide some notes on how things went. This is meant to be a review of Takas service and not the actual dives although the dives were great!!!!
We arrived in Cairns on a Thursday and spent the day relaxing and recovering from jet lag. We did walk down to the Taka shop to find out what time they would pick-us up on Friday. I was surprised when the office told us that we needed to get our self to their office (with our gear) on Friday. Given where our hotel was, getting to their office was not a big deal, but I was disappointed in the lack of communication from their office they web site indicates pick-up from local hotels.
Anyway, that was a minor inconvenience and we arrived with our gear in-tow at 4:30pm Friday. By 5pm, the small office had filled-up with divers and a mini-bus arrived to take us to the dock. On the dock, we were met by our trip-leader (Brad) and the crew unloaded our bags and placed them on the boat. Room assignments and general trip information were provided and then we boarded. Fairly standard dive deck set-up, we found two spots and attached our BCs and Regs to the tank. Crates were located below the bench for mask, fins, etc. Wetsuits were hung up on the provided hangers. The dive deck was decent size and provided room sufficient room even with the 28 divers plus staff.
I had booked us into a twin ensuite cabin. The beds were bunk style and there was space underneath the bottom bunk for suitcases and other storage. All-in-all the room was just fine for the limited time I was in there. It did have a TV and DVD unit, but we never used it.
After the gear was stowed, everyone meet back in the common room for drinks and a safety briefing. I cant speak highly enough of our trip leader and his great personality. He had the unique ability to be humorous and serious when needed. During this time, all divers were providing the crew with the certification information. Taka requires all divers with less than 50 dives to spend part of the first dive doing a skills review. Ill get to that in a second, but it was no big deal.
Thoughts about the ship
Once we completed our final dive Tuesday morning, we began the process of drying our rinsing and drying our gear. Fresh water bins (with and without detergent) are provided. Gear is hung from every possible spot (if you have a BC hanger and have space in your luggage, bring it). Cabins need to be emptied of all belongings by 12:30pm so they crew can clean. During the final time on-board, the bar bills, pay on-board charges for fuel and park fees and any rental equipment not prepaid are settled. Payment is cash or credit.
You disembark in the reverse order as you arrived namely, the crew will move your bags from the ship to the dock and you move them into the mini-bus. The bus then takes you back to Taka. I did find out after the fact that we could have been dropped off at our hotel (but not picked-up).
[FONT="]All in all, the trip was great and the price was reasonable. Like many other posters have pointed out, if you can book these trips after you arrive in Cairns, you can save a decent amount of money. We didnt have the flexibility in our schedule, so we did not take advantage of this. My only real complaint is the communication from the office regarding the departure information. I would have expected a short email telling us the process instead of me having to contact the shop. I think anyone considering Taka will have a great time. [/FONT]
My son and I just completed our trip with Taka and I figured Id provide some notes on how things went. This is meant to be a review of Takas service and not the actual dives although the dives were great!!!!
We arrived in Cairns on a Thursday and spent the day relaxing and recovering from jet lag. We did walk down to the Taka shop to find out what time they would pick-us up on Friday. I was surprised when the office told us that we needed to get our self to their office (with our gear) on Friday. Given where our hotel was, getting to their office was not a big deal, but I was disappointed in the lack of communication from their office they web site indicates pick-up from local hotels.
Anyway, that was a minor inconvenience and we arrived with our gear in-tow at 4:30pm Friday. By 5pm, the small office had filled-up with divers and a mini-bus arrived to take us to the dock. On the dock, we were met by our trip-leader (Brad) and the crew unloaded our bags and placed them on the boat. Room assignments and general trip information were provided and then we boarded. Fairly standard dive deck set-up, we found two spots and attached our BCs and Regs to the tank. Crates were located below the bench for mask, fins, etc. Wetsuits were hung up on the provided hangers. The dive deck was decent size and provided room sufficient room even with the 28 divers plus staff.
I had booked us into a twin ensuite cabin. The beds were bunk style and there was space underneath the bottom bunk for suitcases and other storage. All-in-all the room was just fine for the limited time I was in there. It did have a TV and DVD unit, but we never used it.
After the gear was stowed, everyone meet back in the common room for drinks and a safety briefing. I cant speak highly enough of our trip leader and his great personality. He had the unique ability to be humorous and serious when needed. During this time, all divers were providing the crew with the certification information. Taka requires all divers with less than 50 dives to spend part of the first dive doing a skills review. Ill get to that in a second, but it was no big deal.
Thoughts about the ship
- The vessel is fairly new and well maintained. I didnt encounter anything that wasnt working.
- Smoking is allowed outdoors (the mid-deck and the sun deck) which was bothersome.
- Food was decent, with some meals being very good and other meals not being ideal for my taste buds. But I was always able to walk away full.
- Passengers are fed buffet style and encouraged to take as much as they want, then crew members eat and then passengers are allowed to get seconds if there is any left.
- Water, coffee and tea are provided free of charge all soda, bottled water, beer and wine are purchased and the balance gets settled at the end of the trip.
- All dives are limited to 50 minutes and a maximum of 35 meters
- A crew member will record your entrance time (giant stride from side of boat) and will record your dive time and depth when you return.
- Taka requires buddy pairs for all dives no triples. If you are a single diver they will pair you up with someone with similar dive experience. If your buddy sits out a dive, they will pair you up with an instructor / guide.
- Their recommendation is that divers begin the safety stop with 70 Bar and surface with 50 Bar although this is not monitored.
- Taka provides safety packs and places them in the right pocket of your BC. Their kit has a sausage, whistle and glow stick. If you have your own safety gear, then you dont need their pack
- The check-out dive is approximately 10 minutes of the first dive. All impacted divers will be assigned an instructors group. You run through a partial mask clear, full mask clear, reg recovery and demonstrate buoyancy skills. Our group had six divers and 2 instructors working in concert to get through everyone as quickly as possible. It probably didnt even take 10 minutes and then you and your buddy were off on your dive.
- All passengers can request to have a guide (one of the three instructors) for each dive. Each guided dive is limited to 6 divers, so the entire boat cannot have a guide for each dive. We used the guide for one dive where we were going down to 30 meters other than that we didnt use their service.
- For the two night dives, Taka will provide a torch and a glow-stick for your tank. We brought our own primary and secondary lights, so we didnt use their equipment, but it is there if you dont want to transport the gear.
- Sat, Sun & Mon are four dives a day, with two dives between breakfast and lunch and two after lunch. Sat and Mon have night dives, so dinner is later on those days. Tuesday, the first dive is before breakfast and the second is mid-morning. This is to allow the rest of Tuesday afternoon to be spent packing and getting your belongings ready for the arrival back in Cairns.
- We didnt use any of their rental scuba equipment or wetsuits, so I cant comment on the quality of those
- We did rent an underwater digital camera and I do not recommend renting on-board. The cameras are standard point and shoot digital cameras, which are fine, but they were extremely slow to power-on, they would quickly go into standby mode and they had a very long lag between the time you press the shutter and when the picture is taken. Also, the recovery time between each picture is very long.. I would recommend stopping at any of the shops in Cairns the day of your departure and looking for better camera if you are going to rent.
- Our dive briefings were excellent and contained information about the site, plus information about the anticipated sea life and were certain things could be found..
- Our trip leader provided a nice reef talk one afternoon this is not a typical Taka service, but if you are on a trip with Brad, it is a nice benefit
- During dinner, the next days schedule is posted on a white board in the common room.
Once we completed our final dive Tuesday morning, we began the process of drying our rinsing and drying our gear. Fresh water bins (with and without detergent) are provided. Gear is hung from every possible spot (if you have a BC hanger and have space in your luggage, bring it). Cabins need to be emptied of all belongings by 12:30pm so they crew can clean. During the final time on-board, the bar bills, pay on-board charges for fuel and park fees and any rental equipment not prepaid are settled. Payment is cash or credit.
You disembark in the reverse order as you arrived namely, the crew will move your bags from the ship to the dock and you move them into the mini-bus. The bus then takes you back to Taka. I did find out after the fact that we could have been dropped off at our hotel (but not picked-up).
[FONT="]All in all, the trip was great and the price was reasonable. Like many other posters have pointed out, if you can book these trips after you arrive in Cairns, you can save a decent amount of money. We didnt have the flexibility in our schedule, so we did not take advantage of this. My only real complaint is the communication from the office regarding the departure information. I would have expected a short email telling us the process instead of me having to contact the shop. I think anyone considering Taka will have a great time. [/FONT]
