Dive Review of Ra Divers/Volivoli Beach Resort in
Fiji and Tuvalu/Bligh Waters, Fiji

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Ra Divers/Volivoli Beach Resort: "Great Resort But Poorly Managed Dive Operation", Dec, 2023, by tim nugent, CA, US ( 2 reports with 4 Helpful votes). Report 12867 has 3 Helpful votes.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity	N/A
Dive Operation		Shore Diving
Snorkeling
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	We chose the Volivoli Beach Resort based on past Undercurrent reviews, and Volivoli truly lived up to the term “Resort”. This place is very well laid out on a fantastic point of land with great island architecture, top notch construction quality and quite possibly the friendliest staff on this planet. All rooms have an ocean view. We had two rooms; a premium for my wife and I with a front living area and mini-kitchen and a smaller room (regular ocean view room) for our two adult kids. The kids’ room actually slept 4 people in a double and two twin beds. Their family villas and luxury ocean front villas were all booked when we inquired. The ideal room for a family of 4 would be their luxury ocean front villa. This would have penciled out a few thousand less than buying 2 rooms – and they have a private pool out front to boot! They book up early, so are hard to secure. We chose the half meal plan for some reason. It included a continental breakfast plus an option from the grill too and a three course dinner each night. It turned out to be more food than we would have ordered on our own and ended up costing a lot more than we would have spent had we simply ordered ala carte. Overall the food selection was good. About half of it didn’t quite agree with our palettes; but that’s not to say that it was bad, it just wasn’t what we were used to. One of my daughters has Celiac and is on a strict no-gluten menu. They assured us they understood and would have a full and appropriate selection for her. They were correct all but one day, where something she ate contained gluten and it affected her fairly severely, but with a short duration. She makes a very pleasant but clear point in every restaurant she’s in about her allergy and there is no ambiguity by the time she orders, so it appears some ingredients may have slipped past the chef once. Overall Volivoli is a first-class resort, and if we weren’t all serious divers we would be anxious to go back. As great as the resort is and as nice as the staff is, we still have to objectively discuss the diving’s shortcomings. RA Divers is their own on-site dive operation. It is very well staffed and they have 5 capable boats, from center console twin outboards up to ~ 32’ dedicated dive boats. Upon arrival we met with some of their dive staff who raved about the diving we were going to see out at the Marine Park. They have approximately 80 dive sites to choose from. The marine park is in the famous Bligh Waters, between Viti Levu and Vanua Levu and starts about 15 miles from shore. It takes about an hour to reach the park, depending on sea conditions. We were booked on their 27’ cat with twin 300HP outboards. It holds a maximum of 14 divers plus crew. On our first day of diving we were told on the boat that because there were new groups of divers aboard we would be going to the local reefs just offshore of the resort, about 15 minutes away. And if everyone checked out OK, then tomorrow we could go to the marine park. Or, if the divers didn’t measure up, then the rest of the dives may have to stay local to accommodate them. As soon as they announced the local reefs were today’s target, I watched the diver sitting across from me put his head down and exhale in defeat. I spoke to him afterwards and he told me the marine park diving the previous day had been fantastic; 80~100’ visibility and packed, healthy reefs with similar sea conditions to this day. Instead, what we experienced was 20~40’ visibility, hardly any fish life and nothing but rubble below 30’. The reef tops at 10’~15’ were very colorful and had dense hard corals. The multiple swim-throughs were packed with beautiful soft corals that Fiji is known for. Overall I was totally underwhelmed. I was told their 27’ cat holds 14 divers max, but on day 1 they packed 15 of us on there. It was mayhem; people tripping over each other and complete chaos. They need to run a second boat instead of overloading the first one. During the booking process and upon arrival, we indicated that we wanted to do at least 3 dives every day. Normally they only schedule 1 night dive per week, but they were flexible (since we are a family of 4, their minimum number needed) and got us down 3 nights. They have Fiji dancers and a BBQ 2 nights a week that precluded night diving on those nights. On day 4 we did make it out to the marine park and we got to experience some of Fiji’s best diving; 50~80’ visibility, densely packed hard and soft corals and enough fish to stock most of the world’s aquariums. These offshore reefs experience strong predictable currents that bring in the predators, so we saw lots of pelagic predators hunting above, below and alongside us. RA Divers’ boat staff are top notch watermen as well; clear briefings and good guides that found hidden animals. Dive times were pretty relaxed, with our dives lasting from 45 up to 80 minutes on some. They really only tried to get us out of the water at the 60 minute mark during the 3-tank days to keep us on schedule. Out of our 7 consecutive diving days, we only made it out to the marine park 3 times. To me this is a blatant Bait & Switch operation. We were told by 3 different staff members that each time a new group showed up they had to stay at the local reefs to check them out. Obviously there are a wide variety of skill levels in international divers, and a local, tame check out dive is warranted and a good safety idea on day 1. But they need to run additional boats for either the new divers or the more experienced ones instead of cramming everyone on one boat. This was my third dive trip to Fiji, with my previous diving being from the Nai’a back in ’07. Unfortunately the Nai’a was not available for us this time. In my opinion, the insistence on running as many divers as they can on one boat, to the local reefs is a business decision by the owner so they can save fuel and minimize crew costs. But their decision results in my subsequent business decision to never dive with Volivoli again. And to tell all my diving friends how you can be so close to Fiji’s best diving – but not actually get out to it each day.
Websites	Ra Divers Volivoli Beach Resort
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	Over 1000 dives
Where else diving	Extensive western & Indo Pacific, California, Caribbean, Canada
Closest Airport	Nadi (NAN)	Getting There	We did a code share between Fiji Air and American Airlines with a stopover in Honolulu. This was a mistake, as check-in procedures and baggage allowances are not contiguous from one airline to the next.
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, windy	Seas	calm, choppy, currents
Water Temp	81-83°F / 27-28°C	Wetsuit Thickness	2
Water Visibility	20-80 Ft/ 6-24 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	None
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	Lots	Mantas	None
Dolphins	1 or 2	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	1 or 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter	N/A	Boat Facilities	N/A
Overall rating for UWP's	N/A	Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	They have a dedicated camera room with pneumatics.

Report currently has 3 Helpful votes

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Dive Review of Ra Divers/Volivoli Beach Resort in Fiji and Tuvalu/Bligh Waters, Fiji

Ra Divers/Volivoli Beach Resort: "Great Resort But Poorly Managed Dive Operation", Dec, 2023,

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

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

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

Dive Review of Ra Divers/Volivoli Beach Resort in
Fiji and Tuvalu/Bligh Waters, Fiji