Blue Voyager (Maldives Master), Maldives

My trip took place in late December 2023. Very experienced, professional and friendly cruise director onboard that week (Anke, female Dutch instructor and cruise director). She is a great person, capable of handling any situation. She gave a very good and thorough boat and dive safety briefing. Safety is taken very seriously on this boat which is very reassuring. The dive briefings were clear with good site maps and detailed information about the dive sites, the currents, the marine life. We also had an evening presentation about whalesharks which was the amazing add-on! I wish more liveaboards could hire dive guides that could share some of their knowledge about local marine life in evening presentations. The cabins have twin or double beds with enough storage space. The bathrooms are rather small, but functional, with plenty of hot water. The dining area is located inside and is large enough when the boat is full. Food was buffet style and was generally tasty. They tried to satisfy any special diet and they did a good job. I particularly enjoyed the spicy vegetables curries and some of the desserts. There are only two dive guides onboard for 20+ divers, meaning huge group underwater and no close supervision of the divers. Most boats I have been on before in the Maldives had 4 dive guides for 20+ divers, making a much better and much safer dive experience. The 2nd dive is Thiti, a very good Maldivian dive guide, very funny and enthusiastic above and underwater. It was a real pleasure diving with Anke and Thiti despite the big groups. We had very good dive and sailing condition on our week, and good visibility on most dive sites. The water was 28°C everywhere. Their 7-day itinerary is quite diverse with some outside reefs, some channel dives, some thilas (submerged pinacles) etc. A good diversity of corals (hard and soft) can be found. Whether you like big fish or small critters, Maldives has a lot to offer: lots of reef sharks (white tip, black tip), grey reef sharks, turtles, eagle rays, mobulas sometimes, manta rays at cleaning stations and at night, whalesharks in South Ari atoll (day and night), octopus, stingrays, marble rays, massive schools of fish everywhere etc. Currents can be strong depending on the tide, the Moon etc. so bring a reef hook if you have one. Nitrox is highly recommended as most of the dives are spent between 20 m and 30 m. The whole crew on the boat and on the dhoni are really fun and hard working. I would happily come back (with more dive guides onboard to have smaller dive groups).

I've got a special attention because of my age. The dive masters as well as boat crew were always there to help me out when jumping into and exiting out of the water. Without their help, I wouldn't enjoy my diving. The trip with Blue Voyager stays a memorable one to my life.