I’m looking into the Undersea myself. Was it well organised? How were the crew? Food and drink situation? Any details would be very appreciated! Not a big fan of big boats with lots of divers so this looks like it fits the bill?
Which Liveaboard for Socorro?
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I will start by saying that I found diving in the Revillagigedo archipelago as very impressive and without doubt worth the time and effort. However, I would recommend using a different boat than the Valentina, which was a disappointment for the following reasons:
- The Valentina is long overdue for a renovation. It has clearly known better days. I had a total of three doors in my cabin, two of them did not latch properly, a problem for a moving boat. On several occasions it released toxic gases from its port side into the air that caused nausea to several people. The furniture you see on various websites like Liveaboard.com is different and more basic in real life. The grand finale during our trip was one of the boat’s two engines (or its clutch?) died on the way there. We were later told we will do five instead of six days of diving and will not make it to Roca Partida.
- The boat owner, Enrico? is not a guy I would recommend getting involved with in any capacity. After missing Roca Partida and a day of diving we all expected a partial refund. Instead, the owner/s chose to give us the middle finger, with a $300 store credit that of course will not be used by most/all because my fellow guests are very unlikely to ever get on this boat again.
- The crew showed below average motivation for a dive boat. While they seemed like good people and some of them did a fabulous job, others were less motivated. Door latch fixes took forever, cabins were not cleaned every day, camera station air pressure was not turned on after about half the dives (although its just a switch in the engine room). I assume that if the owners treated us, the guests, as described above, no reason to think they treat their team any better.
- The SJD airport customs organized shakedown of divers. The SJD customs, has invented a world first charge of 19% of the value of underwater camera housing as customs duty! Although it clearly arrives and departs with the divers. The Valentina team was obviously aware of it in advance. Their solution was to provide us with a document that was supposed to prevent us from having to pay customs. I showed it to the customs agents who brushed it off and charged me the 19%. Instead, the Valentina team should have told me to avoid Pelican or similar hard case luggage which they seem to hone-in on and/or arrive in the domestic terminal through a Mexico City connection. They don’t seem focused on that particular shakedown in the domestic terminal.
They've recently raised the park fee significantly too.
revdoc
New
With regard to MS Valentina -- STAY AWAY!!!
I took a trip with them last month, and the problems were legion:
1. Despite having had to cancel the trip just prior to ours for mechanical reasons--and pulling the ship out for dry dock repairs--one of the two engines failed after one day. That meant that instead of 6 days of diving across 3 islands, we got 5 days of diving across only 2 (couldn't get to Roca Partida because it would have taken too long with only one working engine, and then had a 2-day--rather than 1-day--journey back to San Jose Del Cabo).
2. Despite losing 15% of our diving--and paying a fuel surcharge on a much larger amount of fuel than actually used, given the abbreviated trip--the company refused to give any refund whatsoever. They only offered $300 off another trip on Valentina, a boat I wouldn't get back if you paid me.
3. Randomness: It was really weird how things happened only sometimes. Hot water on the deck shower? Sometimes. Power on for the pneumatic drying tools on the camera table? You had to ask. Hot chocolate after the 7 AM dive? One day yes--thank you!--but never again. The promised "snack" after the 10 AM dive--since lunch usually didn't come around until 2:30 PM? Chicken wings one day--thanks!--but otherwise it was up to you to rummage through the candy bar bin. The menu chalkboard next to the kitchen? At first, it just had a question mark on it, as if to heighten suspense. (Which there was, as on multiple occasions after peering at the plate set in front of me, I had to ask a member of the crew: "What exactly is this?") But then the question mark was erased and the board was just blank the rest of the trip.
4. Food: This was my fourth liveaboard, and always before the food has been consistently very good, occasionally amazing. On Valentina, it was consistently terrible with every once in a while rising to the level of decent. Every single meal was drowned in buckets of sauce, so much so that I was almost tempted to throw a PFD to the fish or the pork or whatever it might have been, to save it from drowning. Thankfully, one meal had a buffet so you could determine how much (or any) sauce to add, but only one meal, with the rest plated and drowning.
5. Doing their own thing: Want to be clear: the divemasters were very good and professional. But out of the water, the boat had a different feel. There's only one interior community area, for instance--the salon/dining room--but it was hard to spend much time in there because the kitchen guys were blasting heavy metal so loudly I couldn't even think, so I just went outside.
I previously went to Socorro on Rocio del Mar, which was a vastly superior experience.
I took a trip with them last month, and the problems were legion:
1. Despite having had to cancel the trip just prior to ours for mechanical reasons--and pulling the ship out for dry dock repairs--one of the two engines failed after one day. That meant that instead of 6 days of diving across 3 islands, we got 5 days of diving across only 2 (couldn't get to Roca Partida because it would have taken too long with only one working engine, and then had a 2-day--rather than 1-day--journey back to San Jose Del Cabo).
2. Despite losing 15% of our diving--and paying a fuel surcharge on a much larger amount of fuel than actually used, given the abbreviated trip--the company refused to give any refund whatsoever. They only offered $300 off another trip on Valentina, a boat I wouldn't get back if you paid me.
3. Randomness: It was really weird how things happened only sometimes. Hot water on the deck shower? Sometimes. Power on for the pneumatic drying tools on the camera table? You had to ask. Hot chocolate after the 7 AM dive? One day yes--thank you!--but never again. The promised "snack" after the 10 AM dive--since lunch usually didn't come around until 2:30 PM? Chicken wings one day--thanks!--but otherwise it was up to you to rummage through the candy bar bin. The menu chalkboard next to the kitchen? At first, it just had a question mark on it, as if to heighten suspense. (Which there was, as on multiple occasions after peering at the plate set in front of me, I had to ask a member of the crew: "What exactly is this?") But then the question mark was erased and the board was just blank the rest of the trip.
4. Food: This was my fourth liveaboard, and always before the food has been consistently very good, occasionally amazing. On Valentina, it was consistently terrible with every once in a while rising to the level of decent. Every single meal was drowned in buckets of sauce, so much so that I was almost tempted to throw a PFD to the fish or the pork or whatever it might have been, to save it from drowning. Thankfully, one meal had a buffet so you could determine how much (or any) sauce to add, but only one meal, with the rest plated and drowning.
5. Doing their own thing: Want to be clear: the divemasters were very good and professional. But out of the water, the boat had a different feel. There's only one interior community area, for instance--the salon/dining room--but it was hard to spend much time in there because the kitchen guys were blasting heavy metal so loudly I couldn't even think, so I just went outside.
I previously went to Socorro on Rocio del Mar, which was a vastly superior experience.
Any recent reports from solmar V? Historically a good rep, but a few nasty reviews last year with engine issues and water purifier failures. I can really only plan vacations about a year in advance, so most of the Nautilus boats are not an option for me.
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