We were excited to book the Amr Ali Red Sea Defender, even though we suspected that it might be a bit of a gimmick. It is a dolphin/sea turtle research tour in the south Red Sea. It looked fun, and the itinerary worked decent for our flights. Our dates are pretty set in stone, though, as we are flying to Egypt after one week work trip in Italy.
Anyways, I pulled the trigger on Padi travel. Unfortunately, I just got word that they need 6 more divers to confirm. I'm kind of surprised, because I would think a research trip would already have marine biologists and such lined up, and that they wouldn't need us tourists to fill the boat to confirm.
We had originally looked at M/Y Odyssey and heavily considered them. There are very few reviews here, but I looked up the main company, Seafari International, and on facebook, they have a lot of positive interactions, along with the boat's facebook page. The only thing negative I could find on here was the thread about someone having a bad experience in the Maldives shortly after the Explorer wrecked. Some of the feedback on there was pretty bad, though. Recently, there were two negative reviews on the facebook page, again, about the Maldives trips. Apparently the dive instructor there lets the divers crawl all over the reefs, and this has been going on pretty consistently. They have quite a few pictures.
The boat looks amazing, and the itinerary fits our best flight options absolutely perfectly. We will be flying into Marsa Alam and out of Hurghada. This itinerary actually matches that. Should we just risk it?
The other options would be Amelia or Samira. Both of those are out of Marsa Alam, so on our departure, we'd just have a long transfer to Hurghada. Oh, my, but a big NEVERMIND there. They were caught feeding sharks back in November.
I don't necessarily want to support a company that doesn't respect the reefs, but a company that was/is feeding sharks is even worse, of course.
Anyways, I pulled the trigger on Padi travel. Unfortunately, I just got word that they need 6 more divers to confirm. I'm kind of surprised, because I would think a research trip would already have marine biologists and such lined up, and that they wouldn't need us tourists to fill the boat to confirm.
We had originally looked at M/Y Odyssey and heavily considered them. There are very few reviews here, but I looked up the main company, Seafari International, and on facebook, they have a lot of positive interactions, along with the boat's facebook page. The only thing negative I could find on here was the thread about someone having a bad experience in the Maldives shortly after the Explorer wrecked. Some of the feedback on there was pretty bad, though. Recently, there were two negative reviews on the facebook page, again, about the Maldives trips. Apparently the dive instructor there lets the divers crawl all over the reefs, and this has been going on pretty consistently. They have quite a few pictures.
The boat looks amazing, and the itinerary fits our best flight options absolutely perfectly. We will be flying into Marsa Alam and out of Hurghada. This itinerary actually matches that. Should we just risk it?
The other options would be Amelia or Samira. Both of those are out of Marsa Alam, so on our departure, we'd just have a long transfer to Hurghada. Oh, my, but a big NEVERMIND there. They were caught feeding sharks back in November.
I don't necessarily want to support a company that doesn't respect the reefs, but a company that was/is feeding sharks is even worse, of course.