kommisarrex
Contributor
I just got off the Emperor Voyager in the Maldives (11/4 - 11/11). We did the Central Atolls route. This was only my third liveaboard, having previously done the Fury Shoals route in Egypt and the Southern Maldives route out of Gan. First time diving with Emperor. I'm AN/DP certified with a bit over 200 dives. I traveled solo and paid a supplement for a single cabin.
Arrival
I landed at Male airport around 11am and was through immigration by 11:30a. Just in time for the complementary 12p transfer to the boat. I couldn't find the rep at first, but someone from another company asked me who I was looking for and had the phone number of the emperor rep. We connected with a few other people who had been waiting, gathered our stuff, and crossed the airport exit to the jetty and the waiting dhoni to take us to the boat.
After getting to the main ship, they want you to first unpack your dive stuff and set it up on the dhoni before boarding. There's probably not a better way to do it, but after a long flight and transfer, it's kind of a pain to have to unpack and get your gear sorted right off the bat. Everyone had a spot with a cylinder (AL80) and a crate. I think S100s we're available, but no one used one.
Once sorted, it was onto the boat with a welcome drink and lunch. Guests continued to trickle in throughout the day. There was the usual paperwork to fill out and then a general briefing around 6pm about how the week was going to unfold. There was no diving on arrival day.
Fellow Passengers
I believe the ship can take 20 people, but we got lucky with only 14 for the week. There was group of 10 from the UK, a solo guy from Slovakia, a solo lady from Italy, a solo lady from France, and me (America). The group from the UK was crazy experienced. The first guy I spoke to said he stopped counting dives after number 3,000. His wife was at about 7,000 and used to be guide in the Maldives back in the day (and did her PhD work on mantas). The rest of that group was very experienced and seemed to have been to every major dive destination on the planet, probably more than once and probably back when you could do solo 60 meter air dives in Cocos at night. Anyway, dinner every night was full of great diving stories. I felt bad for the guides because they had all done all the dive sites before and could brief them better
Guides and Crew
The head guide (cruise director?) was a British gentleman named Russ. He's clearly been doing this a long time and knows his stuff. He was joined by a German woman named Kati and a Maldvian guide named Naanu. My group of three ended up with Kati and she was consistently good the whole week. Really liked diving with her. Strong in the water, attentive without being a nanny, and helpful filling out the briefings with additional info and details. The rest of the crew were all Maldivian and all seemed very good and on top of things.
The ship
There's no way around the fact that the ship is showing its age. I was previously on a Blue Force ship and it was new, modern, and really well appointed. Voyager just isn't. It seems well loved and there was nothing wrong with it, but it's fairly basic and dated. Think 1980s wood motif. It got the job done and was mechanically sound, but this is not a "luxury" liveaboard.
Layout was pretty straightforward. Below deck there are five or six staterooms, then the main salon/bar/hang out/briefing area on the main deck, a covered outdoor dining area aft on the second wheelhouse level, and then a sun area on top. There is not an indoor dining area.
I was in a bow cabin with an elevated double bed and a toilet/shower with not a lot of room for much else. The toilet was positioned up some stairs against the hull, so you couldn't really stand in front of it. The shower ostensibly had hot water, but I never managed to time it or experience it. There was air con, too. Again, it was basic, but fine.
Battery charging tool place in the main salon and they ran a 24/7 watch. At night, the person on watch has to scan QR codes throughout the boat every 15 mins. For the downstairs cabins, there's a main stairwell to the aft of the salon and an escape hatch in the ceiling that leads to the bow of the salon. I'd have preferred an escape hatch to open air on the bow, but it is what it is. I really liked the concept of the QR scanning system.
The diving
We did a total of 17 dives. Four days with three dives, one day with three plus a nighttime manta dive, and a single dive the day before departure.
All diving is from the dhoni and usually only a five-minute run from the mothership. Fills were consistently 210 bar and 30% nitrox. You had to sign a sheet acknowledging the nitrox fill and afterwards they wrote down your max depth, bottom time, and ending pressure.
The guidance was to start your safety stop at 50 bar and back on the boat with 30 bar. Or 60 minutes. Max depth 30 meters. Given the profiles (consistently average depth of 18-20 meters with max around 30), this worked out really well. People who ran through gas faster were paired up at the end of the dive and surfaces together, allowing everyone to get their money's worth. Usually the guide would deploy an SMB at the safety stop, but if you were on your own, you were expected to do it yourself. And do it you better because it's a lot of heavy current drift diving with your next stop in Africa...
Usual run of show was a morning dive followed by breakfast, a mid-morning dive followed by lunch, and a late afternoon dive followed by happy hour and dinner.
We only repeated one dive site twice. Otherwise, it was a mix of pinnacles, channels, and walls. On four or five dives, you use a reef hook to plant yourself on a ridgeline and watch the life go by.
As for the diving itself, the Maldives (and crew) delivered. Mantas, eagle rays, sharks, jacks,and all the usual suspects. We got lucky and found a whale shark at a safety stop and managed to get back on the dhoni and then snorkel with it for about five minutes. Pretty magical moment. The night dive with mantas was also spectacular. Can't imagine it being better than the week we had. Current checks and pre-dive briefings were also excellent. The diving op was very, very well run and the highlight of the trip.
It also helped having such an experienced group of passengers. Everyone's buoyancy was on point and everyone knew their stuff. I think I was the only one with a BP/W and the only one running primary donate 2nd stage. Seeing such a great group of experienced divers absolutely killing it with jacket BCDs, old-school 30-inch yellow hoses, console computers, and pink masks made me ponder a bit about how the diver matters much more than the equipment. Very humbling.
There were half a dozen camera rigs on board and photogs were well catered for. I just had a GoPro and was happy enough.
The food
Food was fairly straightforward and eaten around a single large communal table. It was buffet style with a couple of carbs, a fish, a meat, and usually a veggie option. They varied it up, and served ice cream twice, but it was still fairly simple. One night features a beach BBQ at a local island, but we got rained on, so it was canceled. Overall, the food situation wasn't amazing, but perfectly serviceable.
Departure
The second-to-last day is a single morning dive and then the crew rinses and dries all your gear. The boat then makes its way back to Male harbor where you spend the night. They also offer a "shore excursion" in the afternoon to Hulhamale for shopping or whatever. I skipped it--Male is not a particularly interesting or attractive city.
That night, you settle your bill (cash or credit card with a small fee) and leave the cash tip in an envelope. They recommend $150 for the tip.
It's then an early morning (7am) transfer to the airport and off you go.
Miscellaneous
Apparently Maldives liveaboard are pack animals because they all seemed to be on the same route at the same dive sites at similar times. There are so many atolls--why are they going to the same places? I think they could coordinate with each better to stagger times on the dive sites. It certainly wasn't the liveaboard zoo of the Red Sea, but I think there's more room to spread out here and an opportunity for an enterprising company to vary things up a bit.
Only one night dive. There are a lot of lagoon areas here--seems like they could have found a spot for another one or two.
Speaking of diving, it was three per day. That may frustrate some of you who want to do four or five, but given the deepish dive profiles, it probably isn't feasible. I was happy with it.
Down time is make your own fun. They did a happy hour most nights with 2 for 1 specials. We had a social group, but I could see how a solo traveler could get bored with a different group.
Beer was $5 plus tax per can. They also had beer on tap, along with wine and cocktails. Very reasonable price for Maldives. Also, you got a free glass of wine with dinner each night. A nice touch.
Finally, I tend to prefer land-based diving (partly because my spouse does not dive), but for the Maldives, I think a liveaboard is probably the way to go. I'm heading next to the "local island" of Rasdhoo to do some diving and see if that's a good alternative to a liveaboard or the jaw-droppingly expensive "resort islands."
Arrival
I landed at Male airport around 11am and was through immigration by 11:30a. Just in time for the complementary 12p transfer to the boat. I couldn't find the rep at first, but someone from another company asked me who I was looking for and had the phone number of the emperor rep. We connected with a few other people who had been waiting, gathered our stuff, and crossed the airport exit to the jetty and the waiting dhoni to take us to the boat.
After getting to the main ship, they want you to first unpack your dive stuff and set it up on the dhoni before boarding. There's probably not a better way to do it, but after a long flight and transfer, it's kind of a pain to have to unpack and get your gear sorted right off the bat. Everyone had a spot with a cylinder (AL80) and a crate. I think S100s we're available, but no one used one.
Once sorted, it was onto the boat with a welcome drink and lunch. Guests continued to trickle in throughout the day. There was the usual paperwork to fill out and then a general briefing around 6pm about how the week was going to unfold. There was no diving on arrival day.
Fellow Passengers
I believe the ship can take 20 people, but we got lucky with only 14 for the week. There was group of 10 from the UK, a solo guy from Slovakia, a solo lady from Italy, a solo lady from France, and me (America). The group from the UK was crazy experienced. The first guy I spoke to said he stopped counting dives after number 3,000. His wife was at about 7,000 and used to be guide in the Maldives back in the day (and did her PhD work on mantas). The rest of that group was very experienced and seemed to have been to every major dive destination on the planet, probably more than once and probably back when you could do solo 60 meter air dives in Cocos at night. Anyway, dinner every night was full of great diving stories. I felt bad for the guides because they had all done all the dive sites before and could brief them better
Guides and Crew
The head guide (cruise director?) was a British gentleman named Russ. He's clearly been doing this a long time and knows his stuff. He was joined by a German woman named Kati and a Maldvian guide named Naanu. My group of three ended up with Kati and she was consistently good the whole week. Really liked diving with her. Strong in the water, attentive without being a nanny, and helpful filling out the briefings with additional info and details. The rest of the crew were all Maldivian and all seemed very good and on top of things.
The ship
There's no way around the fact that the ship is showing its age. I was previously on a Blue Force ship and it was new, modern, and really well appointed. Voyager just isn't. It seems well loved and there was nothing wrong with it, but it's fairly basic and dated. Think 1980s wood motif. It got the job done and was mechanically sound, but this is not a "luxury" liveaboard.
Layout was pretty straightforward. Below deck there are five or six staterooms, then the main salon/bar/hang out/briefing area on the main deck, a covered outdoor dining area aft on the second wheelhouse level, and then a sun area on top. There is not an indoor dining area.
I was in a bow cabin with an elevated double bed and a toilet/shower with not a lot of room for much else. The toilet was positioned up some stairs against the hull, so you couldn't really stand in front of it. The shower ostensibly had hot water, but I never managed to time it or experience it. There was air con, too. Again, it was basic, but fine.
Battery charging tool place in the main salon and they ran a 24/7 watch. At night, the person on watch has to scan QR codes throughout the boat every 15 mins. For the downstairs cabins, there's a main stairwell to the aft of the salon and an escape hatch in the ceiling that leads to the bow of the salon. I'd have preferred an escape hatch to open air on the bow, but it is what it is. I really liked the concept of the QR scanning system.
The diving
We did a total of 17 dives. Four days with three dives, one day with three plus a nighttime manta dive, and a single dive the day before departure.
All diving is from the dhoni and usually only a five-minute run from the mothership. Fills were consistently 210 bar and 30% nitrox. You had to sign a sheet acknowledging the nitrox fill and afterwards they wrote down your max depth, bottom time, and ending pressure.
The guidance was to start your safety stop at 50 bar and back on the boat with 30 bar. Or 60 minutes. Max depth 30 meters. Given the profiles (consistently average depth of 18-20 meters with max around 30), this worked out really well. People who ran through gas faster were paired up at the end of the dive and surfaces together, allowing everyone to get their money's worth. Usually the guide would deploy an SMB at the safety stop, but if you were on your own, you were expected to do it yourself. And do it you better because it's a lot of heavy current drift diving with your next stop in Africa...
Usual run of show was a morning dive followed by breakfast, a mid-morning dive followed by lunch, and a late afternoon dive followed by happy hour and dinner.
We only repeated one dive site twice. Otherwise, it was a mix of pinnacles, channels, and walls. On four or five dives, you use a reef hook to plant yourself on a ridgeline and watch the life go by.
As for the diving itself, the Maldives (and crew) delivered. Mantas, eagle rays, sharks, jacks,and all the usual suspects. We got lucky and found a whale shark at a safety stop and managed to get back on the dhoni and then snorkel with it for about five minutes. Pretty magical moment. The night dive with mantas was also spectacular. Can't imagine it being better than the week we had. Current checks and pre-dive briefings were also excellent. The diving op was very, very well run and the highlight of the trip.
It also helped having such an experienced group of passengers. Everyone's buoyancy was on point and everyone knew their stuff. I think I was the only one with a BP/W and the only one running primary donate 2nd stage. Seeing such a great group of experienced divers absolutely killing it with jacket BCDs, old-school 30-inch yellow hoses, console computers, and pink masks made me ponder a bit about how the diver matters much more than the equipment. Very humbling.
There were half a dozen camera rigs on board and photogs were well catered for. I just had a GoPro and was happy enough.
The food
Food was fairly straightforward and eaten around a single large communal table. It was buffet style with a couple of carbs, a fish, a meat, and usually a veggie option. They varied it up, and served ice cream twice, but it was still fairly simple. One night features a beach BBQ at a local island, but we got rained on, so it was canceled. Overall, the food situation wasn't amazing, but perfectly serviceable.
Departure
The second-to-last day is a single morning dive and then the crew rinses and dries all your gear. The boat then makes its way back to Male harbor where you spend the night. They also offer a "shore excursion" in the afternoon to Hulhamale for shopping or whatever. I skipped it--Male is not a particularly interesting or attractive city.
That night, you settle your bill (cash or credit card with a small fee) and leave the cash tip in an envelope. They recommend $150 for the tip.
It's then an early morning (7am) transfer to the airport and off you go.
Miscellaneous
Apparently Maldives liveaboard are pack animals because they all seemed to be on the same route at the same dive sites at similar times. There are so many atolls--why are they going to the same places? I think they could coordinate with each better to stagger times on the dive sites. It certainly wasn't the liveaboard zoo of the Red Sea, but I think there's more room to spread out here and an opportunity for an enterprising company to vary things up a bit.
Only one night dive. There are a lot of lagoon areas here--seems like they could have found a spot for another one or two.
Speaking of diving, it was three per day. That may frustrate some of you who want to do four or five, but given the deepish dive profiles, it probably isn't feasible. I was happy with it.
Down time is make your own fun. They did a happy hour most nights with 2 for 1 specials. We had a social group, but I could see how a solo traveler could get bored with a different group.
Beer was $5 plus tax per can. They also had beer on tap, along with wine and cocktails. Very reasonable price for Maldives. Also, you got a free glass of wine with dinner each night. A nice touch.
Finally, I tend to prefer land-based diving (partly because my spouse does not dive), but for the Maldives, I think a liveaboard is probably the way to go. I'm heading next to the "local island" of Rasdhoo to do some diving and see if that's a good alternative to a liveaboard or the jaw-droppingly expensive "resort islands."
