Lack of safety and no care for the environment
The crew overall was very nice and helpful, but as soon as the cruise was on the last day, nobody was there anymore. On our last night we couldn't even get drinks anymore because nobody was there. They were kinda fed up with the guests at the end. The diving safety was completely missing. there was not one Briefing about diving safety rules (missing diver eg), about safety regarding shark encounters and worse of all there wasn't one mention of how to dive environmentally friendly which was so disappointing. honestly, if not on the Galapagos Island where else would you practice care for the environment??? The dive guides had horrible trim and diving techniques, the guests followed them and sat down onto the stones and the reef, breaking corals, destroying all the microorganisms on the stones and disturbing animals. Reef Hooks should be rented on the boat and safe and environmental friendlay diving practices should be mandatory! This was such a disappointement. Even after talking to the guides there was no change in behaviour.
8 People per group for one dive guide is simply too much! It is impossible for the guide to keep track of all of them plus in really heavy currents (which we luckily only had twice) accidents are really easy and the guides would have absolutely no chance of doing something. Together with the lack of safety breifings this is horrible and really dangerous.
Apart from the safety, diving with 8 people in one group is just not a pleasure. I never encountered such big groups on a liveaboard before. We always had the same divesite which meant actually there were 16 people jumping at the same time.
For that the groups should not gear up together, but with a gap of say 15 minutes to ensure everybody has enough space on the dive deck and that the groups dive time is a bit further apart.
Food: I specifically ordered vegetarian food beforehand. we live in 2025 this should not be an issue! Not even in altinamerica! It was. The first 3 days I was served Zucchini, Paprika or Eggplant with cheese. Thats it. Then I got an Omelett for lunch and a Wrap woth lettuce and cheese for dinner. This is no proper vegetarian food. I said something and then finally I got served proper food. This is not okay. Vegetarian food should not be eggs, cheese and veggies. there is way more to that and if you're Chef there doesn't know how to cook it then hee needs a course or another chef! Same happened with my roommate, she was glutenfree because of celiac disease. It took the crew 4 days until she finally got dessert for dinner! Before she was never served dessert, she didn't have bread for breakfast and she complained every day until they finally catered to her needs. Absoluetly unacceptable!
Serving food as Buffet for dinner by the way is not great either. This is a 6000 USD cruise. You should at least serve a soup, main meal and dessert, not as a buffet where you're stuck behind a couch waiting in line with no room.
The rental gear was honestly shit. All of the Regulators always had issus which clearly came from male maintaining or not maintaining them at all. The BCDs need maintainance too! All of them leaked air through the inflator head or the buttons were hard to press or to easy to press. Fins were not enough there to provide everybody with the right size. You only rent shitty DSMBs without a reel?? On a liveaboard where it's supposed to have real heavy currents and the buoy is literally your live safer? No way! The diving computers some of the people rented were not working properly and were really old. Again, good maintainance would be the minimum.
The sound system needs immediate work! First of all the anouncements were not regular, which meant people missed some dives because you couldn't rely on the crew to make announcements. Plus the sound system was waaaay too loud in cabin #4 and not hearable at all on the upper deck. Obniouxnous cracks and horribly loud.
Overall not a great experience. I would not recommend this boat as you might think it is a luxurious ship for this price. No it's not. Plus you are expected a 500 USD Tip at the end. Pay your employees right!
The diving itself was truly amazing and mesmerizing, but if the rest is not great even a Galapagos Trip can be not great.
Mehr lesen8 People per group for one dive guide is simply too much! It is impossible for the guide to keep track of all of them plus in really heavy currents (which we luckily only had twice) accidents are really easy and the guides would have absolutely no chance of doing something. Together with the lack of safety breifings this is horrible and really dangerous.
Apart from the safety, diving with 8 people in one group is just not a pleasure. I never encountered such big groups on a liveaboard before. We always had the same divesite which meant actually there were 16 people jumping at the same time.
For that the groups should not gear up together, but with a gap of say 15 minutes to ensure everybody has enough space on the dive deck and that the groups dive time is a bit further apart.
Food: I specifically ordered vegetarian food beforehand. we live in 2025 this should not be an issue! Not even in altinamerica! It was. The first 3 days I was served Zucchini, Paprika or Eggplant with cheese. Thats it. Then I got an Omelett for lunch and a Wrap woth lettuce and cheese for dinner. This is no proper vegetarian food. I said something and then finally I got served proper food. This is not okay. Vegetarian food should not be eggs, cheese and veggies. there is way more to that and if you're Chef there doesn't know how to cook it then hee needs a course or another chef! Same happened with my roommate, she was glutenfree because of celiac disease. It took the crew 4 days until she finally got dessert for dinner! Before she was never served dessert, she didn't have bread for breakfast and she complained every day until they finally catered to her needs. Absoluetly unacceptable!
Serving food as Buffet for dinner by the way is not great either. This is a 6000 USD cruise. You should at least serve a soup, main meal and dessert, not as a buffet where you're stuck behind a couch waiting in line with no room.
The rental gear was honestly shit. All of the Regulators always had issus which clearly came from male maintaining or not maintaining them at all. The BCDs need maintainance too! All of them leaked air through the inflator head or the buttons were hard to press or to easy to press. Fins were not enough there to provide everybody with the right size. You only rent shitty DSMBs without a reel?? On a liveaboard where it's supposed to have real heavy currents and the buoy is literally your live safer? No way! The diving computers some of the people rented were not working properly and were really old. Again, good maintainance would be the minimum.
The sound system needs immediate work! First of all the anouncements were not regular, which meant people missed some dives because you couldn't rely on the crew to make announcements. Plus the sound system was waaaay too loud in cabin #4 and not hearable at all on the upper deck. Obniouxnous cracks and horribly loud.
Overall not a great experience. I would not recommend this boat as you might think it is a luxurious ship for this price. No it's not. Plus you are expected a 500 USD Tip at the end. Pay your employees right!
The diving itself was truly amazing and mesmerizing, but if the rest is not great even a Galapagos Trip can be not great.
Du kannst deinen Urlaub direkt auf diesem Liveaboard buchen