Dive Review of
MV Rhapsody in
Thailand/Phuket

 Sipadan, Galapagos, Philippines, Indonesia, Australia, Truk, Palau, Yap,
Florida, Cayman Islands & more 

Dive Conditions

Depth limits  

Small Camera table, adequate rinse & charging stations  

Overall Rating

[NMV Rhapsody Livaboard, Phuket, Thailand
January, 2004
John Crossley

The MV Rhapsody is a medium size wooden V hull livaboard that primarily
does four and five day trips out to the Similan Islands from Phuket. It’s a
pretty good ship but not quite as nice as one of the better ships of the
Aggressor fleet. There are only four air-conditioned ensuite cabins for
eight divers, and there is pretty good space though not many shelves.  It
lacks a decent camera table so you have to do your camera work in the
spacious salon.  The dive deck is small, so we suited up four divers and a
guide in each of two groups. A definite highlight is the food, which is
cooked to order from your choice on a huge menu.  Its excellent food too,
with plenty of western and Thai choices.  Overall the ship is very clean
but it does rock a bit in even normal seas.

Rhapsody’s dive operation is very well organized and safety oriented.  Its
dive guides are decent but not great at finding critters.  Visibility was
typically in the 60 to 90 foot range, with a high of 100 plus and a low of
about 40.  Dive sites were the typical popular locations, with nice corals,
lots of colorful fish, some nice formations to swim though and interesting
macro critters.  However we did not find the Harlequin Shrimps found on
previous trips.  On the other hand, we had several up=close encounters with
Leopard Sharks, and a dive at Koh Bon Ridge in beautiful water on a sunny
day with three huge mantas that circled around us for 30 minutes.  Overall
this ship is a good value because it’s better than most, but not quite at
the reputed level and price of the top rated Ocean Rover.

one] 

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