What was your favourite liveaboard ever?

[ppatin]

Glad to see Turks and Caicos Explorer get some love in this thread. I only left her off because of the cabins. I like the rest of the boat and the crew personality is awesome. Food very yummy as well. Sweet diving, very relaxing, pretty, occasional shark swimming by.

The T&C Explorer looked like it had pretty nice cabins. The T&C Aggressor's cabins were nothing special, but if you're spending a bunch of time there you're doing a liveaboard wrong anyways.

 

[Wingy]

Like Bert - sailing on Private Yachts thru South Pacific around Aus over the top of Papua to Ambon down to Makassar thru to Singapore Straits onto Thailand and almost home (boat sunk). Private Yacht from QLD through Torres strait Arafura Sea to Timor Sea to Alor then home via Komodo - boat did not sink. Private LOB from Milne Bay around bottom of PNG to Solomons. Commercial boats - Tambora - enjoyed Ternate, Halmahera, Morotai to RA trip probably the most of the three routes Ive done on Tambora. Great boat.

 

[Oldbear]

My favorite was The Junk out of Phuket Thailand. The boat has a lot of charm. The crew was great and the staff awesome. The diving was good. Just an all around fun trip.

 

[electric_diver]

Truk Odyssey. Great wreck diving and a great attitude.

 

[Shasta_man]

Dewi Nusantara in Raja Ampat. Nai'a in Fiji. Both great trips and diving just kept getting better. Two weeks in RA is awesome

 

[outofofficebrb]

5 days on a Truth Aquatics boat out of Santa Barbara fits me best. Great diving, great food, good crews.

It's really interesting how one diver's favorite is another diver's least favorite. I have been on 4 liveaboards including Truth and I rate that as my least favorite...and I was only on there for 3 days/2 nights. The only reason I would return is purely for the diving...everything else except for the captain was forgettable and not good overall. It was camping at sea, but worse than camping, because I sleep and eat better when I'm camping. The shared bathroom and shower situation between that many people and the uncomfortable beds, mediocre food just didn't do it for me. However, it's good value and again, good diving for California.

Spirit of Freedom (Australia)
Raja Ampat Aggressor (Raja Ampat)
Truth Aquatics (Channel Islands)
Mastro Aldo (Komodo)

My overall favorite was the Raja Ampat Aggressor for crew, great food, facilities, diving, and the amazing group we were. Spirit had an excellent crew and facilities, good food, but diving does not compare to Indonesia. Mastro Aldo had great DMs, good food, and amazing diving but facilities were more basic.

 

[drrich2]

It's really interesting how one diver's favorite is another diver's least favorite.

True. My 5-day limited load live-aboard trip about Truth Aquatic's boat the Vision was really nice, but I'd read in advance about the local California dive boat culture. Compared to the 2 Caribbean live-aboards I've been on...

1.) The TA trip was much cheaper. Food was fine & plenty of snacks (candy bowl) put out. 'Room' was a bunk. Pick up dive setup (BCD on tank) from floor & carry to a bench to gear up. No dive guide. Solo or not, up to you, nobody requiring a specific cert. or solo gear that I recall. Rent your tanks & weights from the dive shop, separately from the live-aboard itself.

2.) The Caribbean live-aboards cost a lot more; crew in uniform, crew member made my bed, sun deck with lounge chairs was much more elaborate for laying out, one had a hot tub (but one didn't), a complementary chocolate on one's pillow at night I think I recall, hot chocolate with berries after night dives (even better than it sounds!), on one crew took my fins off before I ascended the ladder to exit, there was an optional-to-purchase video of the trip offered, free guide every dive, one one specifically no solo diving allowed (I don't recall about the other).

So, depending on what you're looking for, and are willing to pay for, one or the other could be highly preferable. I didn't really 'prefer' one over the other; I knew what I was getting each time beforehand, pretty much, and I got what I signed on for.

Richard.

 

[Saniflush]

The next one.

 

[tursiops]

The next one.

LOL.
This was Sylvia Earle's response when asked what her favorite dive was.

 

[Saniflush]

LOL.
This was Sylvia Earle's response when asked what her favorite dive was.

I can be more descriptive/objective when I have not had a 30 day surface interval.