Dive Review of All Star - Dune in
Indonesia

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All Star - Dune: "Very diverse and unique dive environements", Jun, 2023, by Kim Sass, MI, US ( 1 report). Report 12513.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	Aurora is a pinisi style wooded vessel, which is a traditional-designed ship built in Sulawesi. This is my second trip on a pinisi; the first time was exploring the Banda Sea and I didn’t overly love the watercraft. This time, however, I did like the ship. Perhaps it was because we were onboard for 13 days, giving me plenty of time to get used to the creaking. Pinisis are very loud ships. Some people used ear plugs for sleeping but I was reluctant to recommend them, fearing that in an emergency, they may not hear an alarm. Everyone thought the creaking lessened as the trip progressed. I’m not sure if we got used to all the noise or if the seas became calmer. I asked people to compared their experience on steel-hauled liveaboards to this pinisi. Everyone liked the ship and had no preference. There is a rugged charm about the Aurora and although not luxurious, it is perfectly adequate. When returning from a land excursion, the crew put up the sails, giving us a great photo op. Ultimately, there were many factors that made this an exceptional trip, the unique ship design, the attentive staff, especially Guillaume, plus diverse diving and a great group of travelers. There are nine cabins. C1: The Mexico cabin - my guess this is the most stable of the rooms for those who get sea sick and big for those with lots of cameras and drone equipment. C7: The Maldives cabin is the smallest and the loudest room. We also had a strong smell of diesel for the first 2 days. C4 is the big bow room and has oddly shaped, shorter beds. Do not put a tall person in this cabin. I wouldn’t put someone who gets seasick easily in this room either. C8 & C9: Be careful looking at the website schematics of the ship. It shows these cabins on the ‘upper deck’. The upper deck is actually located down a small flight of stairs. There is no large picture windows, which we had assumed it would. Like C7, there was a strong diesel smells in the rooms at the beginning of the trip. Perhaps the gas tanks were overfilled at the beginning and these rooms were located closest to the engine rooms??? Beds: Several couples had single beds which wasn't a bad thing. The double beds can be difficult to climb into, especially if you need to climb over your partner. Bedding was changed out once during our 12-night stay. Bathrooms: There is a dispenser with shampoo and liquid bath soap. Bath towels and hand towels were provided and changed out every third day. Do not flush the TP. There is a trash can beside the toilet that is emptied twice a day. The bathroom is a all-in-one design; when you take a shower, the toilet gets wet too. Because of that reason, no electrical outlets are in the bathroom. Blowdryers are not provided. Electric: The outlets in the cabins accommodate both US and European plugs. Voltage is 220. Storage: All rooms have a surprising amount of storage space. Cupboards were deep and I could easily slide my dive bags into them. If not, the crew will store the bags someplace else. Most rooms have a desk, drawers and a small closet with 5 hangers. A/C: Each cabin has an A/C unit so you can regulate the temperature. There are also port holes so that can be opened for fresh air when we were at anchor. Salon/Galley/Restaurant: This all-in-one area has many functions. There are two camera shelves, a liquor bar, a buffet table, a refrigerator filled with complimentary sodas, a coffee/tea station, four dining tables and a TV for dive briefings. Each dining table seats 6-7 people. Meals: Early breakfast is buffet style and consists of toast and fruit. After the first dive, a large breakfast is served. This is made-to-order; you place the order at dinner on the previous night. Options are always the same: Fried Eggs, Scrambled Eggs, Nasi Goreng (fried rice), Mie Goreng (fried noodles and my favorite), French toast, ‘American’ pancake (pancake stuffed with bananas), and crepes. You can also write in requests such as bacon, eggs cooked hard or sunny side up, etc). Lunch is buffet style with a pasta dish, white rice, 2 meat choices, vegetable dish and fruit. Snacks are provided in the afternoon. I overly enjoyed the fried bananas and fried pineapple, and can’t remember snacking on anything else mid-afternoon. I think it was because we changed the dinner routine. Dinner is plated. There are 2 options and you place the order at breakfast. The boat prefers to schedule night dives before dinner but our people didn’t like eating so late (8pm) so we requested dinner before the night dive. Night Snack: Because we reversed the dinner/night schedule, the boat provided us with huge late night snacks, like enough sandwiches to feed a village or a table full of pizza. Farewell Dinner: For the finale, we had a traditional Indonesian meal on the sundeck. Several people could not sit crosslegged so the staff set up a small table. I loved eating under the stars! The food was good, traditional Indonesian fare with some international cuisine options. I wouldn’t rate it as the best liveaboard food ever, but it was acceptable. Stern Seating Area: There is a cushioned, covered seating area at the back of the boat. Here, you can get sporadic and weak WiFi. It was enough bandwidth to send emails but not enough to upload photos and videos. Sundeck: The most beautiful sunrises and sunsets were enjoyed from this area. There are plenty of cushioned seats and lounge chairs. A canvas awning is put up for sun protection whenever possible and it’s definitely needed during the heat of the day. Dive Deck: This area is large and well thought-out. Each buddy team has a bin under the bench for storing personal gear. Wetsuits are washed by the staff after each dive then hung up to dry. Regs and tanks are set up on the first day. This gear is numbered. For example, I was #12 and it was taped to my BCD, on my regulator, fins and on the weight pouches. Two fresh water showers are located on the dive deck as well as a rinse tank for cameras and another one for wetsuits. There is minimal space for camera equipment on the dive deck but the salon camera area is close by so the staff staged the bigger systems from there. Tank sizes are 80cuft and 100cuft. Everyone used Nitrox and the blend was consistently 31%-32%. Attention to Cleanliness: Boat towels are labeled with your name so you never share it with others. Each tender has a cooler with water bottles. Each bottle is numbered, again, I was #12, so I never worried about sharing water bottles with others. Labeled metal water bottles were also handed out on the first day for onboard use. Wetsuit rinse tank water was changed frequently. Dive Schedule: There are 2 tenders that each make multiple runs. Dive sites are close by so typically, both boats dropped off the first groups, then rotated back for the second groups. They always leave one tender on the dive site at all times for safety reasons. Tanks, regulators, fins and cameras are loaded onto the tender by the staff. We walked onto the tender with just a wetsuit and mask. After the dive, you hand up your camera, then wt pouches, BCD and finally fins before climbing up the ladder. Drinking water is handed out after every dive. Dive Groups & Guides: They cater to small groups so our 17 divers were divided into 5 teams. Divemaster Recky is best for macro critters Ketut is also good for macro and a well-seasoned dive master. We dove with Tian, younger but very service oriented. Guillaume was the other dive master. He too, can find crazy small critters but likes to swim vs. explore small areas. Our preferred style of diving is relaxed and slow. Komodo’s crazy currents does not always allow for this. Itinerary: The beginning of the trip had a slow start. This was a transitional itinerary to move the ship from Bali to Komodo. On Day 1, departure day, there was no diving. On Day 2, there was one dive and a very fun whale shark snorkel. Note: The whale shark snorkeling is not part of the regular Komodo itinerary. Day 3 consisted of one beautiful morning dive and two mediocre afternoon dives. Day 4 was four muck dives. Finally on Day 5 -12, we had great dives with 3-4 dives offered daily. In total, we had 34 dives and two snorkeling opportunities. Dive Conditions: Komodo is for advanced divers. Currents can be very strong, even stronger than the Galapagos. Water temperatures range greatly, 73’F to 82’F. I packed a 3mm wetsuit and hooded vest. For the colder dives, the boat loaned me a 3mm shortie to layer up with. Visibility varies too, from 20ft to 80ft. This may all sound daunting but Komodo is so diverse and unique that it’s worth diving here. Colorful soft and hard corals thrive here. Despite the low vis, the colorful reefs were so unique and I loved the diversity of the dive environments. I photographed manta cleaning stations (10+ mantas at a time) with , snorkeled with whale sharks being fed, There is an aamazing amount of fish life , turtle cleaning station. cuttle fish, octopus, leaf fish, etc. Night dives are about macro stuff. I think Raja diving is better but Komodo is a great choice for people who’ve already been to Raja. Well seasoned diver will appreciate the diversity of dives. Guillaume: The cruise director gets his own write up. He is simply the best! I would do another trip on the Aurora just knowing he is running the program. Guillaume is french, so is Dune, the company that owns the boat. I thought Aurora was an All Star ship but they only represent/contract with Dune. It takes a while to understand Guillaume’s accented english. Initially, he didn’t make much of an impression on me, but as the week progressed, it became apparent how in-tune Guillaume is with the workings of the ship, the needs of the customers, the tricky dive conditions because of currents and the impeccable service given by the staff. Example givien: We had a non-diving, 73 yr old woman on this trip, and he made sure that she had daily activities (land excursions and snorkeling). Since this was a transitional trip, not the normal schedule, Guillaume had to research options for her. He is very intone to the operation.. I had ear problems mid-trip and Guillaume recommend several treatments plus gave me an electronic ear drier to use and medicated drops, then checked on me daily. He did the same for others who had minor medical issues. On the last day, our flight was rescheduled for a later time. Not only were we allowed to stay on the ship, he planned a snorkeling excursion and beach walk. Afterward, he put our wet bathing suits in the dryer so nothing would be wet when we packed for home. I could list endless small details that Guillaume did that made this trip special.
Websites	All Star - Dune
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	Over 1000 dives
Where else diving	Bali to Komodo transitional trip on board the Aurora Liveaboard run by All Star/Dune
Closest Airport	Labuan Bajo	Getting There	International flight into Bali's Depensar airport then an affordable island flight from Bali to Komodo's Labuan Baja airport
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, windy, rainy, cloudy	Seas	calm, choppy, currents, no currents
Water Temp	75-82°F / 24-28°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	20-80 Ft/ 6-24 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	[Unspecified]
Liveaboard?	yes	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	1 or 2	Mantas	Squadrons
Dolphins	1 or 2	Whale Sharks	1 or 2
Turtles	None	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	[Camera Area: Inside the salon are two camera areas. One area has 4 large shelves for big camera systems, the other has six small shelves, perfect for GoPro users. Each shelf has an electrical outlet that accepts U.S., European and USB plugs. On this trip, we had 4 large camera/strobe systems, 1 smaller camera system and many GoPro. This space would be adequate IF everyone stayed organized and considered other’s needs. Ideally, it would be bigger and/or during the orientation meeting, the staff would explain how to best utilize the space. ]

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Dive Review of All Star - Dune in Indonesia

All Star - Dune: "Very diverse and unique dive environements", Jun, 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 All Star - Dune in
Indonesia