A Review of MV Manta Queen 1 Liveaboard

Great trip. Diving was outstanding, fantastic underwater scenery, boulders, swim throughs, walls, masses of coral in good condition. The variety and quantity of underwater life is quite astonishing, from gorgeous little harlequin shrimps to 1m+ tuna and barracuda. At times there are so many fish around you it is quite overwhelming. No manta or whales sharks and talking to the guides it is clear these are very rarely sighted, I think some of the promotional material is a bit misleading about this. We hired all equipment, which was in very good condition, no issues at all with kit. Cabin on board was clean and comfortable. Catering on board was fantastic, we never seemed to stop eating delicious food. Thai crew were fantastically friendly and helpful, I didn't even need to rinse my own mask before diving and there was always somebody on hand to zip up my wetsuit. Dive guides were professional and knowledgeable and made sure we got the best from each dive site. Two comments on the commercial side. It was a bit disappointing that the first thing we were subjected to when we checked in was a hard sell of the PADI nitrox diving course at £200+ each, you absolutely do not need to be a Nitrox diver to enjoy this trip and if we had wanted to take a course we would have booked it up front. And we were a bit surprised to be told on the last morning that we were more or less expected to leave tips for Thai crew and dive guides of around £100 each. I have no objection to tipping and was happy to leave something in particular for the Thai crew but we already paid a fair bit for the trip and this was made to feel more like a surcharge than a voluntary tipping process.