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Dive Review of BlueOTwo in
Maldives/Indian Ocean

BlueOTwo: "It could have been great...but it wasn't", Feb, 2016,

by Gilbert Montoya, CA, US ( 1 report with 2 Helpful votes). Report 9212 has 2 Helpful votes.

No photos available at this time

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Accommodations 1 stars Food 3 stars
Service and Attitude 1 stars Environmental Sensitivity N/A
Dive Operation 1 stars Shore Diving N/A
Snorkeling N/A
Value for $$ 1 stars
Beginners 2 stars
Advanced 5 stars
Comments My 5 star rating of the diving applies to the MALDIVES as a dive destination, NOT this trip or this operator. The Southern Maldives are NOT a good site for beginners as currents are strong and depths are deep!
My wife and I have been diving in the Maldives on several occasions; previously we had gone with Carpe Vitae, Carpe Diem fleet and had good experience both with the vessels, crew and, of course the diving.
I want to say that the Maldives have consistently provided some of the best diving we have experienced.
We went with Blue O Two (after seeing their ad in a British Dive Magazine) to Egypt/Red Sea in 2010 and had a fabulous experience: the boat was beautiful, the crew was competent and helpful and the Divemasters/Instructors excellent. We did our Nitrox cert with them.
I had high expectations for diving with them in the Maldives as, again, they had advertised a beautiful boat.
The experience was around "1-2 star". The boat itself was a wreck: their excuse was it had travelled from Egypt to Maldives in stormy conditions and different humidity. The decking was torn up in multiple areas rendering the vessel dangerous to move around and extraordinarily uncomfortable. In addition, the boat they had was NOT the boat they advertised (they had the nerve to say it was "better") AND we did not receive the cabin type we had originally paid for (they did refund the difference but we had a much less comfortable cabin than we'd planned for).
The worst thing was the totally incompetent crew. The native crew seemed 100% inexperienced and were worse than useless. They were directly responsible for damage to my wife's brand new Scuba Pro BCD rendering it unusable after day 1. They were unable to help people properly to and from the "mother boat" <-> "dhoni" (boat used for the actual dives). They were clueless how to assist people in and out of the dhoni pre and post diving. People were in constant danger of injury due to the poor crew and poor condition of the "mother boat".
The Instructors were indifferent to passenger/customer complaints. I can't really speak for others aboard but the general impression I had were the others were as unhappy as we were.
On top of that, the cabins were totally sold out but they had the nerve to include 2 additional "divemasters in training" from their Egypt operation that were sleeping in the public lounge space rendering it unusable for the paying guests. These individuals were extraordinarily rude to the rest of us. On top of that, they were not diving in conformity with the Instructor's diving instructions and ended up ruining shark dives for paying customers by not following the dive profile outline (stay low on the reef, not out in the blue). They showed not even "common courtesy" to paying guests.
The Instructor in charge of the operation essentially told us to take our complaints to the company when we returned home. We did so and received a totally indifferent response. They offered some nebulous "credit" for the future without specifying any amount. We thought they should have made a substantial refund (50%) based on the poor condition of the vessel and the total incompetence of the dive crew, not even mentioning the rude company people that usurped space, food and ruined some of our dives.
It may be obvious that that was our LAST trip anywhere with "Blue O Two".

Reporter and Travel

Dive Experience 501-1000 dives
Where else diving Indonesia (multiple sites), Caribbean(multiple sites) Australia (GBR and Ningaloo), Red Sea, Egypt, Galapagos (among others)
Closest Airport Male, Maldives Getting There

Dive Conditions

Weather sunny Seas calm, choppy, currents
Water Temp 27-29°C / 81-84°F Wetsuit Thickness
Water Visibility 30-0 M / 98-0 Ft

Dive Policy

Dive own profile yes
Enforced diving restrictions Depth 30 meters, up with 50 bar air
Liveaboard? yes Nitrox Available? yes

What I Saw

Sharks Lots Mantas Squadrons
Dolphins Schools Whale Sharks 1 or 2
Turtles > 2 Whales None
Corals 5 stars Tropical Fish 5 stars
Small Critters N/A Large Fish 5 stars
Large Pelagics 4 stars

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Subject Matter N/A Boat Facilities N/A
Overall rating for UWP's N/A Shore Facilities N/A
UW Photo Comments [None]
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Note: The information here was reported by the author above, but has NOT been reviewed nor edited by Undercurrent prior to posting on our website. Please report any major problems by writing to us and referencing the report number above.

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