The crew made this trip
My partner and me went on the 4 day Coral Sea and Ribbon Reef trip with the Spirit of Freedom at the end of September. The most amazing thing on this trip was the crew. They really worked around the clock to provide us with a fantastic experience.
We chose this liveaboards because it is one of the only ones which visits osprey reef en the ribbon reefs, and you get all necessary information before hand (suvh as schedule, dive sites, etc). The boat has all necessary amenities, with a large dining room and sun deck, a tv room and comfortable cabins. The food was amazing and abundant. The deck dive was really spacious and the diving well organized. A lot of attention was given to safety procedures. Crew even puts you fins on before you are about to enter the water, what a service. A nice group of divers, all age rangers and levels represented (but you are grouped with those having similar experience). You can choose to follow a dive master or go on your own, and dive masters are switched around. Many positive experiences, only a few minor points. Take into account that the trip to osprey reef is long and bumpy, and its assumable that you will get sea sick, so do follow the instructions of the crew. It would be good when boarding to immediately check the presence of passengers their belongings. We got the intro talk first and were already sailing for at least half an hour when multiple people discovered their belongings were not brought on board by the crew. Some of us get a bit stressed by this. The boat did sail back to pick up our stuff, leaving us behind on schedule. We did get a compensation which was nice gesture, and I hope the crew has adapted their procedures following this event to prevent this in the future. They forgot to give us the engine room tour at the end of trip, sad to have missed that. We were somewhat disappointed by the diving it self (corals, animal life). I can imagine that when there in mink whale season this might provide the necessary thrills. But overall a really nice experience, and probably the best liveaboard if you want to visit this area.
Read moreWe chose this liveaboards because it is one of the only ones which visits osprey reef en the ribbon reefs, and you get all necessary information before hand (suvh as schedule, dive sites, etc). The boat has all necessary amenities, with a large dining room and sun deck, a tv room and comfortable cabins. The food was amazing and abundant. The deck dive was really spacious and the diving well organized. A lot of attention was given to safety procedures. Crew even puts you fins on before you are about to enter the water, what a service. A nice group of divers, all age rangers and levels represented (but you are grouped with those having similar experience). You can choose to follow a dive master or go on your own, and dive masters are switched around. Many positive experiences, only a few minor points. Take into account that the trip to osprey reef is long and bumpy, and its assumable that you will get sea sick, so do follow the instructions of the crew. It would be good when boarding to immediately check the presence of passengers their belongings. We got the intro talk first and were already sailing for at least half an hour when multiple people discovered their belongings were not brought on board by the crew. Some of us get a bit stressed by this. The boat did sail back to pick up our stuff, leaving us behind on schedule. We did get a compensation which was nice gesture, and I hope the crew has adapted their procedures following this event to prevent this in the future. They forgot to give us the engine room tour at the end of trip, sad to have missed that. We were somewhat disappointed by the diving it self (corals, animal life). I can imagine that when there in mink whale season this might provide the necessary thrills. But overall a really nice experience, and probably the best liveaboard if you want to visit this area.