Horizon 3 Liveaboard, Maldives

For the price paid Horizon 3 is a perfect liveaboard. It is an older boat but the facilities, dhoni and dive management were all excellent. The staff all worked really hard to make it a great trip. The food was excellent and the bonus of a glass of wine with dinner was a nice touch. Drinks and extras on board were very reasonable, even outside happy hour. Our only suggestions would be to have a little more knowledge sharing about the sea life and sea life behaviours, as the guides just guided the dive. Also the last two nights were spent in Male harbour as the last two dives were a shark tank harbour wall. They were not great dives and the setting of the harbour was not scenic, light pollution, no option to swim. We also spent the first night there too. It would be much nicer to get out to an island mooring, you don’t have to go far!

Ich war 7 mal auf Malediven mit Divingsafari auf unterschiedlichen Boaten. Es war die beste Safari. Das Team war superkompetent, seht proffessionel und Hilsfsbereit von erste bis letzte Stunde. Ausgezeichnere Kenntnisse von Tauchplätzen, Strömungen und hiesigen Fischwelt. 2 Wochen lang von 3 bis 4 mal Tauchgängen pro Tag , jedes Mal 1 Stunde lang. Geräumige saubere Kabinen, sehr gutes Essen mit kostenlosen gutes Kaffes und Wein, frischem Obst und Salaten.

We booked HORIZON 3 because of the nice discount and the guide-to-divers ratio. Horizon 3 is said to have 4 guides on board, however there were only 3 guides there. The boat was not fully booked, but the groups were not divided in even numbers, so we ended up with 8 divers in our "experienced" and nitrox group, the other groups were divided in 4 and 5 divers per guide. Horizon 3 management knew in advance both the experience of the divers and which divers would use nitrox. It was clear that there were no even groups possible, and a 4th guide would have been necessary. The safety while diving - no problem in our group and with our guide, who has been the only one who could get the current check correct. The two other groups - well - we saw people breathing from the octopus of the guide after 30 minutes. usually when low on air situation occurs, its time to abort the dive. The tidiness of the boat - there was a moldy smell in the cabin (treated every night with air freshener), and mold everywhere in the bathroom corners. Dust was piling up under the bed. Overall its not cleaned thoroughly. Crew and guides were friendly throughout the whole trip. A big plus is the cruise director Cha-Cha, without him everything would have been a lot more unorganised and chaotic. He made some good choices, e.g. changing to anticlockwise trip due to weather conditions, and make the crossing to ari atoll instead to south male/ vaavu. He had to be everywhere - as the other guides needed supervision, as well as keeping an eye on the complete iterniary on board of the ship. The food was good and had a good variety. Hidden costs - on the booking confirmation it says that GST is included. It is only in the trip price, not on onboard purchases, there GST (tax) and service charge to be added. (e.g. 112$ for nitrox is after all a 143$ after addition of GST+service charge). What has to be pointed out very clearly - there is a OBLIGATORY service charge of 150$ per person added to the bill at the end of the trip although the service charge is already been added on every purchase (beverages, nitrox etc.) so this is a very ambitious gratuity for only mediocre service. On the booking confirmation it also says that "approximately" 17 dives are included. This applies only downwards. If you do 16 or less, there is no refund, but if you do 18, like we did, Horizon 3 charges you additional 45$ for that dive. Overall we had some good diving in the week, we were lucky with our guide Cha-Cha, but I would not book Horizon 3 again, as there are boats around with a much better value for money, even with this 50% discount.