Princess Basma
We spent a week travelling and diving in Egypt on the ship Princess Basma (or as it now says on the side of the boat "Princes") of My Sun Dreams agency, so I'll write a quick review.
The ship is the usual liveaboard ship, cabins at the bottom, dive deck and lounge-dining area in the middle, a few more cabins and "terraces" above, and a sun deck at the top.
Supposedly the boat has undergone a complete rebuild in the last year, but unfortunately there is little evidence of this. The paintwork is cracking badly, especially on the settees at the bow, but the exterior tables are also showing the signs of age, as the occasionally falling out cabin windows (at least one), broken air conditioning vents, and the wooden floor of the diving deck that is bouncing up, or just simply fallen out. Overall, not too bad, but definitely not freshly rebuilded.
Unfortunately, these were only minor problems, the most serious problem was with the condition of the engines, because one of the two engines simply failed, so we didn't even got to the planned Tiran 8only to Ras Mohamed), because we had to wait a whole day in Hurghada in the port for the repair, and then the "repaired" engine broke down again after half a day on route...
We don't know whether it was because of the engine or the crew that for example made it impossible to moor at Thislegorm (only further away with only 4 boats stationed there), or when the only way to hoist the anchor was to use a winch of a foreign ship after our entire crew had gone over there.
In addition, the generators were not up to the task either, we constantly had to choose between filling the cylinders and using the air conditioning. Something was also wrong with the electronic system, as not only some sockets were shocking (on the diving decks), but also the whole length of the railing on the back terrace.
The food was ok, both in quality and quantity, maybe it could be better if there would be meat and fish at every meal, it happened more than once that those who don't like fish can't eat anything except rice, because even the salad is fishy.
Unfortunately the crew is also half-hearted, the initial engine difficulties were hushed up, the main culprit was the military command in port (which can happen anyway), then it turned out that the engine was not working, and even after arriving at 8 o'clock on Saturday evening, they were still loading the ingredients for the meals that had just arrived on Sunday afternoon. As it turned out, they were so unprepared for the meal that not only was the cook not on the ship, but the freshly ordered pizza did not arrive until midnight, after waiting for about 4 hours.
To mitigate the mistakes we were offered unlimited dives, but this was never more than three a day (plus an optional evening) due to the boat and crew, as either the boat did not arrive on time or the bottles were not filled in time. That said, usually, on other boats there are 4 dives in Egypt plus an optional night, so unfortunately the number of dives was not what was expected. Let alone the promised "unlimited"
And one last word: The nitrox varied randomly from 24% to 35% percent (from the planned 28% to 40 meter MOD), while the pressure was more consistent between 170 bar (which is quite low...) and 220 bar.
Not the worst liveaboard in Egypt, but something was very off with both the ship and the crew too.
The ship is the usual liveaboard ship, cabins at the bottom, dive deck and lounge-dining area in the middle, a few more cabins and "terraces" above, and a sun deck at the top.
Supposedly the boat has undergone a complete rebuild in the last year, but unfortunately there is little evidence of this. The paintwork is cracking badly, especially on the settees at the bow, but the exterior tables are also showing the signs of age, as the occasionally falling out cabin windows (at least one), broken air conditioning vents, and the wooden floor of the diving deck that is bouncing up, or just simply fallen out. Overall, not too bad, but definitely not freshly rebuilded.
Unfortunately, these were only minor problems, the most serious problem was with the condition of the engines, because one of the two engines simply failed, so we didn't even got to the planned Tiran 8only to Ras Mohamed), because we had to wait a whole day in Hurghada in the port for the repair, and then the "repaired" engine broke down again after half a day on route...
We don't know whether it was because of the engine or the crew that for example made it impossible to moor at Thislegorm (only further away with only 4 boats stationed there), or when the only way to hoist the anchor was to use a winch of a foreign ship after our entire crew had gone over there.
In addition, the generators were not up to the task either, we constantly had to choose between filling the cylinders and using the air conditioning. Something was also wrong with the electronic system, as not only some sockets were shocking (on the diving decks), but also the whole length of the railing on the back terrace.
The food was ok, both in quality and quantity, maybe it could be better if there would be meat and fish at every meal, it happened more than once that those who don't like fish can't eat anything except rice, because even the salad is fishy.
Unfortunately the crew is also half-hearted, the initial engine difficulties were hushed up, the main culprit was the military command in port (which can happen anyway), then it turned out that the engine was not working, and even after arriving at 8 o'clock on Saturday evening, they were still loading the ingredients for the meals that had just arrived on Sunday afternoon. As it turned out, they were so unprepared for the meal that not only was the cook not on the ship, but the freshly ordered pizza did not arrive until midnight, after waiting for about 4 hours.
To mitigate the mistakes we were offered unlimited dives, but this was never more than three a day (plus an optional evening) due to the boat and crew, as either the boat did not arrive on time or the bottles were not filled in time. That said, usually, on other boats there are 4 dives in Egypt plus an optional night, so unfortunately the number of dives was not what was expected. Let alone the promised "unlimited"
And one last word: The nitrox varied randomly from 24% to 35% percent (from the planned 28% to 40 meter MOD), while the pressure was more consistent between 170 bar (which is quite low...) and 220 bar.
Not the worst liveaboard in Egypt, but something was very off with both the ship and the crew too.