Trip Report Trip Report: Mermaid 1 (Route: Bali-Komodo-Bali)

[AlMitch]

Your star rating standards are significantly higher than mine!! ha ha
As Dan and Mat said above Mimpi is a fantastic local run resort. We stayed there last year and loved our time there.
But as Centrals said, Tulamben (as good as it is) is not Komodo!

 

[divingdayz]

Thank you for saying that! I wanted to be fair and factual, so that members of this board could have the information and draw their own conclusions from the data. I also wanted to be sure to give praise where praise is due, as plenty of people (particularly those on the boat) weren't the responsible party and worked hard to accommodate, and the boat is also their livelihoods.

From what I've read on a few other threads, including other ID liveaboards, it does seem like Mermaid did a fair-to-very-fair job of providing an alternative diving option and covering additional costs. The compensation was loosely as follows:

- 3 days of replacement shore diving covered (though note that the accommodation was a 3-star hotel, definitely not the 5-star as they claimed in their official comms linked above; the hotel was the Mimpi Tulamben - Mimpi Resort

This sounds quite fair, although not enough to make up for the dissapointment of 3 lost days.

 

[Dan]

Your star rating standards are significantly higher than mine!! ha ha
As Dan and Mat said above Mimpi is a fantastic local run resort. We stayed there last year and loved our time there.
But as Centrals said, Tulamben (as good as it is) is not Komodo!

Tulamben is better than Sumbawa (Moyo & Satonda) and par with Sangeang. So, if Mermaid 1 skipped them on the way to Komodo, you were pretty much even Steven, except for Saleh Bay for diving with Whalesharks.

@jetsettingbarista did you dive with Whalesharks in Saleh Bay with Nermaid 1?

 

[jetsettingbarista]

Tulamben is better than Sumbawa (Moyo & Satonda) and par with Sangeang. So, if Mermaid 1 skipped them on the way to Komodo, you were pretty much even Steven, except for Saleh Bay for diving with Whalesharks.

@jetsettingbarista did you dive with Whalesharks in Saleh Bay with Nermaid 1?

No - the whale sharks dive was cut to focus on making up dives. And between rough seas and the length of steaming required to get to Komodo, we did spend multiple dives in Sangeang and Moyo on the way to / from the park

 

[Dan]

No - the whale sharks dive was cut to focus on making up dives. And between rough seas and the length of steaming required to get to Komodo, we did spend multiple dives in Sangeang and Moyo on the way to / from the park

That’s too bad. I’ve done this Bali-Komodo-Bali trip 3 times. If I were in your situation, I would’ve skipped Moyo & Sangeang and replaced them with Saleh Bay Whalesharks. The cruise director (CD) may have some good reason to do what they did. Who was the CD? Celso?

 

[Madacub]

@Dan, thanks for that. Fantastic with those Molas - that one allowed you to approach quite close! Was that with your GoPro?

Edited to ask: How was the resort at LDC at Lembongan? Link to your review?

 

[Dan]

@Dan, thanks for that. Fantastic with those Molas - that one allowed you to approach quite close! Was that with your GoPro?

Edited to ask: How was the resort at LDC at Lembongan? Link to your review?

Thanks! Yes, I’m using GoPro 11.

I stayed in LDC next door bungalows, called Scooby Doo. Pretty good place for $25/night.

 

[jetsettingbarista]

That’s too bad. I’ve done this Bali-Komodo-Bali trip 3 times. If I were in your situation, I would’ve skipped Moyo & Sangeang and replaced them with Saleh Bay Whalesharks. The cruise director (CD) may have some good reason to do what they did. Who was the CD? Celso?

Joss was the CD for our trip, and fwiw I was in agreement with the decision to skip the whale sharks in preference to making up more dives (I think we got approx an extra 2 bcs of it)

 

[Dan]

I don’t know Joss. My group would want to dive with Whalesharks. So, I’d make sure they are going to make it. We are a group of 12 divers who would be on 12-21 August (in less than 2 weeks from now) trip on Mermaid 1.

 

[jetsettingbarista]

I don’t know Joss. My group would want to dive with Whalesharks. So, I’d make sure they are going to make it. We are a group of 12 divers who would be on 12-21 August (in less than 2 weeks from now) trip on Mermaid 1.

Looking forward to hearing how it goes! Hope the trip is fantastic