Similan Diving Safaris - Dolphin Queen

[Pyro_]

Just got back from doing three trips on the Dolphin Queen with Similan Diving Safaries this month. One trip to Myanmar(Burma) and two to the Similans. Had a great time on the boat and would deff consider going out with them again. Let me know if you have any questions and will see if i can answer them for you.

 

[Tippytoes12]

Thanks , great you had a good time. We went a few years ago , just after the coral bleaching and were disappointed....how was the coral ? Would you recommend Burma ? Did you see any big things .

many thanks in advance

best fishes

 

[Pyro_]

The Coral seems to be coming back. Would probably recommend Burma over the Similans. It is much more remote and we only saw one dive boat one day out of the 7 days we were out, unlike the similans where we saw up to 8 boats at one dive site all diving at once. Burma does however have worse vis and potentially stronger current than the similans.

As for big things, in Burma one group saw a manta at Black Rock, I unfortunately only saw its wing.
In the Similans saw a black tip shark, eagle ray and whale shark. People in the other groups also saw a manta and a couple of leopard sharks.

 

[Batfish]

There are quite a lot of low budget 'backpacker' priced boats operating out of Khao Lak. Dolphin Queen (and the Similan Explorer run by the same team) are the only ones we book customers on. Good boats, very well run, people are always happy.

 

[MikkelBC]

Hi Pyro_

I am interested in hearing more details about your experience with the Dolphin Queen. If you have time, I would appreciate if you could answer as many of the questions below as you like:

- How many guests were on board during your trips?
- Did it feel overcrowded on the dive deck?
- Did it feel overcrowded in other areas of the boat?
- Their website says they dive 4 divers to 1 guide. Was that your experience?
- How well maintained does the boat look up close?
- How would you estimate the experience of the guides? Brand new divemasters or with years of experience?
- Anything else you would like to mention?

I hope you can help me with some info from your recent experience.
Thanks a lot!
Mikkel

P.S. If anyone else has been on the Dolphin Queen recently, please don't hesitate to add your opinions!

 

[Pyro_]

They had 9-15 passengers on the trips that I did though this was at the tail end of the season so deft not peak time

They deff try to have 4 to 1 divers to DMs though on the smaller trip where there was only 9 divers they would do a single group of 4 and a group of 5

Dive deck was ok. One side has a bit more room than the other. They send down two groups at a time and rotate who goes first each day

Did not find it was over crowded at all while I was on there. When I was down in the quad bunk room there was only two of us in there. I could see it being a bit closer quarters if all bunks were full

All of the guides which where on there had a number of years of experience. Some of the guides had been on that boat for upwards of 4 years and really knew the sites. One word of note is that is they are doing DM training those trainees are working on the boat and leading groups with an instructor at the back of the group

Boat seemed to be well maintained and we only had one mechanical issue during the three weeks I was in there and that was a broken ladder on the dive deck so we could not get up on that side of the boat and had to use the other one. It was fixed overnight between trips while we were in port

There was deff a real difference between the two types of trips that they do. The Burma trips had a lot more experienced divers with their own gear and camera equipment. The similian trips had mostly newer divers with only a few dives and doing their first liveaboard. Almost all renting gear and next to no cameras in the camera dunk tank

Food was good though you had better like Thai food as that is what is served for lunch and dinner. It can get a bit spicy at times especially by the end of the longer trips

Let me know if there is anything else you want to know

 

[MikkelBC]

Pyro_,

Thank you very much for your replies! That is very helpful information and exactly what I was looking for. It gives me a much better feel for what the operation is like.

And I do like Thai food In fact, I sometimes chat in Thai with the cooks on liveaboards and get to eat with them instead of with the guests

Mikkel