Alexandra
Contributor
Trip report - Sat April 30 to Sun May 8
Flew out from Taipei on non stop flight to Palau at 10am on Far Eastern Air Transport. Note: it is kind of tricky booking with them as they do not have an online reservation system and you have to go through a local travel agent to have the ticket issued. They also only have the flight 3 or 4 days a week.
Arrival in Palau was not complicated, customs can be 20mins depending on how many people are in front of you. After that you pick up your luggage and exit. The Big Blue Explorer sends someone to meet you at the airport and bring you right the ship.
I then just unpacked and relaxed the rest of the afternoon, and had dinner on the boat with some of the guests and the dive crew.
The room: I stayed in a standard cabin on A deck. It was pretty small but since I was alone that didn't matter too much. The bed was a B in terms of comfort. Air conditioning worked well. The bathroom was fine except for A deck has very very low water pressure. VERY low. Basically I tried to rinse off as much as possible when the shower hose by the gear. No worries about storing your luggage, they have a seperate room for that.
The ship: Overall the ship is very well layed out and, from what others said, it is much bigger/roomier than other liveaboards. It has a nice tanning deck with a jaccuzzi, a good sized dinning area, a tv/rec room (where they also teach Nitrox in the evenings for those who aren't certified), a great camera room, 2 dive prep areas where you store you wet suit and dive gear. Your BCD pretty much stayed on the smaller chase boat you are assigned to all week. They have 2 chase boats so your dive team is pretty much max 8 or 10 people and 2 master divers. We had 7 divers on ours.
The food: It was pretty good and varied. It felt like we were eating non stop but then again you do expend energy diving all the time too. We had a lite breakfast (toast, coffee, juices) first thing in the am, a hot breakfast after the first dive (egg dish, rice, soup, pancakes/waffles/french toast, and a meat dish), lunch and dinner were along the same lines (salad, soup, rice dish, potato dish, meat dish, fish dish, veggies and desert) and snack time was usually cake and fruit. They give you free water, juices and sodas but you have to pay for alcohol ($5). And, once you drink, no more diving that day.
The diving: The crew was really fantastic. They are professional, safe and very organized. They give full dive briefing before each dive and check the tides before going in. The tides do tend to change in Palau so they either adjust the direction of swimming when in the water or have you go a bit against the current until it changes again. The dives were beautiful! First first day of diving is Sunday and they start out with a check out dive. There are then 3 other dives that day. Monday through Thurs they offer 4 day dives and one night dive and Friday had 3 dives because we went to Jelly Fish lake in the morning. The only spot we went to more than once was Blue Corner and New Drop Off. I have a full list of where and how long the dives were, if you want that level of detail.
We get back to dock on Friday and do shallow dives on Friday for those flying out on Sunday. On Saturday, check out time is in the morning and that's when you settle your bill: $150 for nitrox for the week, $225 if you took the class and dove nitrox, $75 if you buy their DVD of the week, $5 per wine/beer, Tshirts or other souvenirs, and tip (they suggest 10%).
I went to the Palau Pacific Resort (aka PPR) on Saturday and stayed there one night. It is indeed a beautiful resort. The main restaurant there is pretty good but far from cheap ($17 breakfast buffet, and $20 for lunch, ala carte is also an option). For dinner, I went to Krammer's for dinner and met up with a bunch of the dive crew. Highly recommend the blackened sashimi there!! Splash is the dive shop at the resort but Sam's or Fish n Fins are probably better organizations to go diving with if you are staying at the PPR. The resort has a small pool which was filled with kids but also have a beautiful beach with great swimming and snorkeling. In fact, I just walked around in the water and stared down at the fish around the coral. Very nice and relaxing. They also have tennis courts.
Sunday, I left back to Taipei and then connected to fly to Los Angeles. Do not bother getting to the airport in Palau more than 1h30mins ahead of time as they don't open the counter until 1h45 before the flight leaves.
Overall = It was an A+ vacation! Total cost about $3000.
A few suggestions:
Packing: don't bring too many clothes - relaxed casual wear. Definitely pack as many bathing suits as you can so that you can change into a dry one after each dive. No one got anywhere near dressed up in the evening. Basically shorts, beach dresses, sarongs... all day long. Bring sun block and sun glasses. shoes are not allowed inside but you can wear sandles/flip flops on deck. Remember to bring some sandle (with backs), or old sneakers to wear to Jelly Fish lake as you have to hike up and down a hill to get to the lake and it is much better to do with shoes vs dive booties.
DVDs: they have a few movies/dvds on board but if you bring something new with you everyone is usually pretty happy. You'll probably not be awake enough to watch something every night but it's nice to have on hand when you're in the mood.
Camera: don't forget to bring extra memory and batteries or be sure to download/recharge after the dives. It is a shame to be underwater and miss a photo opt because you have no more space or dead battery.
Photos: http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/alexandraintl/album?.dir=/2ef3&.src=ph&.tok=ph57O.CBJO4eiDuo
I'm happy to answer any questions.
Alexandra
Flew out from Taipei on non stop flight to Palau at 10am on Far Eastern Air Transport. Note: it is kind of tricky booking with them as they do not have an online reservation system and you have to go through a local travel agent to have the ticket issued. They also only have the flight 3 or 4 days a week.
Arrival in Palau was not complicated, customs can be 20mins depending on how many people are in front of you. After that you pick up your luggage and exit. The Big Blue Explorer sends someone to meet you at the airport and bring you right the ship.
I then just unpacked and relaxed the rest of the afternoon, and had dinner on the boat with some of the guests and the dive crew.
The room: I stayed in a standard cabin on A deck. It was pretty small but since I was alone that didn't matter too much. The bed was a B in terms of comfort. Air conditioning worked well. The bathroom was fine except for A deck has very very low water pressure. VERY low. Basically I tried to rinse off as much as possible when the shower hose by the gear. No worries about storing your luggage, they have a seperate room for that.
The ship: Overall the ship is very well layed out and, from what others said, it is much bigger/roomier than other liveaboards. It has a nice tanning deck with a jaccuzzi, a good sized dinning area, a tv/rec room (where they also teach Nitrox in the evenings for those who aren't certified), a great camera room, 2 dive prep areas where you store you wet suit and dive gear. Your BCD pretty much stayed on the smaller chase boat you are assigned to all week. They have 2 chase boats so your dive team is pretty much max 8 or 10 people and 2 master divers. We had 7 divers on ours.
The food: It was pretty good and varied. It felt like we were eating non stop but then again you do expend energy diving all the time too. We had a lite breakfast (toast, coffee, juices) first thing in the am, a hot breakfast after the first dive (egg dish, rice, soup, pancakes/waffles/french toast, and a meat dish), lunch and dinner were along the same lines (salad, soup, rice dish, potato dish, meat dish, fish dish, veggies and desert) and snack time was usually cake and fruit. They give you free water, juices and sodas but you have to pay for alcohol ($5). And, once you drink, no more diving that day.
The diving: The crew was really fantastic. They are professional, safe and very organized. They give full dive briefing before each dive and check the tides before going in. The tides do tend to change in Palau so they either adjust the direction of swimming when in the water or have you go a bit against the current until it changes again. The dives were beautiful! First first day of diving is Sunday and they start out with a check out dive. There are then 3 other dives that day. Monday through Thurs they offer 4 day dives and one night dive and Friday had 3 dives because we went to Jelly Fish lake in the morning. The only spot we went to more than once was Blue Corner and New Drop Off. I have a full list of where and how long the dives were, if you want that level of detail.
We get back to dock on Friday and do shallow dives on Friday for those flying out on Sunday. On Saturday, check out time is in the morning and that's when you settle your bill: $150 for nitrox for the week, $225 if you took the class and dove nitrox, $75 if you buy their DVD of the week, $5 per wine/beer, Tshirts or other souvenirs, and tip (they suggest 10%).
I went to the Palau Pacific Resort (aka PPR) on Saturday and stayed there one night. It is indeed a beautiful resort. The main restaurant there is pretty good but far from cheap ($17 breakfast buffet, and $20 for lunch, ala carte is also an option). For dinner, I went to Krammer's for dinner and met up with a bunch of the dive crew. Highly recommend the blackened sashimi there!! Splash is the dive shop at the resort but Sam's or Fish n Fins are probably better organizations to go diving with if you are staying at the PPR. The resort has a small pool which was filled with kids but also have a beautiful beach with great swimming and snorkeling. In fact, I just walked around in the water and stared down at the fish around the coral. Very nice and relaxing. They also have tennis courts.
Sunday, I left back to Taipei and then connected to fly to Los Angeles. Do not bother getting to the airport in Palau more than 1h30mins ahead of time as they don't open the counter until 1h45 before the flight leaves.
Overall = It was an A+ vacation! Total cost about $3000.
A few suggestions:
Packing: don't bring too many clothes - relaxed casual wear. Definitely pack as many bathing suits as you can so that you can change into a dry one after each dive. No one got anywhere near dressed up in the evening. Basically shorts, beach dresses, sarongs... all day long. Bring sun block and sun glasses. shoes are not allowed inside but you can wear sandles/flip flops on deck. Remember to bring some sandle (with backs), or old sneakers to wear to Jelly Fish lake as you have to hike up and down a hill to get to the lake and it is much better to do with shoes vs dive booties.
DVDs: they have a few movies/dvds on board but if you bring something new with you everyone is usually pretty happy. You'll probably not be awake enough to watch something every night but it's nice to have on hand when you're in the mood.
Camera: don't forget to bring extra memory and batteries or be sure to download/recharge after the dives. It is a shame to be underwater and miss a photo opt because you have no more space or dead battery.
Photos: http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/alexandraintl/album?.dir=/2ef3&.src=ph&.tok=ph57O.CBJO4eiDuo
I'm happy to answer any questions.
Alexandra
