Dive Review of Ducks Diving/The Three P Holiday and Dive Resort in
Philippines/Romblon

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Ducks Diving/The Three P Holiday and Dive Resort: "The Three P on Romblon - critters galore", Jul, 2017, by Frederick R. Turoff, PA, US ( Top Contributor 34 reports with 14 Helpful votes). Report 9671 has 1 Helpful vote.
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	Three P is run by three brothers, Philipp, Patrick and Peter who hail from Germany. The resort consists of a main building with spacious and nicely appointed guest rooms, a dining area upstairs and a dive shop. Next door is the dive prep area, and down the path are four bungalows that were being renovated for future use. Boats were a short walk from the prep area and through a mangrove tree root area that had a cleared path for our use in accessing the boats – that location depended on the tide. I was one of four divers there at the end of the season (rainy days coming) and was treated to terrific critter diving (best period is April-June, I’m told). It rained each night, sometimes quite hard. Cook David checked with us daily to see what we wanted for meals and made daily runs to the market to provide for us. And when in the Philippines, mango shakes are my drink of choice. Meals were served family style after the first day so we took only what we could eat and not feel bad about sending food back uneaten. In-room massage was easily arranged, and at US$12/hour, I treated myself to daily massages each afternoon. There was no camera room, but each guest room had a work area with a large table and power supplies. Open shelving provided clothing storage and the shower/toilet room was attractive. Each room had air conditioning. Camera rinse tanks were in the dive prep area, as were gear rinse tanks along with a shower. Dive/boat staff carried gear to and from the boats. They did the same with cameras at any chance. The Nitrox system wasn’t working so we dove with air all dives, however since none were deep for long, we didn’t care. Most dives lasted well over an hour and water temp was 84-87F degrees, quite pleasant. Visibility was often 60’+. We did three day dives and one night dive most days. The first two were separated by an interval at nearby Marlin bar/restaurant where one could snorkel or get a drink as we off-gassed. My one complaint is that boatmen and dive leaders smoked often on the boat, a common practice in this part of the world. Our two dive guides/spotters, Cyril & Repot, were excellent at finding unusual (for me) critters. I photographed new nudibranchs, shrimp and crabs, the latter of which were often only 3-4mm across. Hairy shrimp, looking like fuzz drifting along, are bizarre. Tiny crabs on light tan coral either matched color or stood out as light blue. Butterfly nudis of at least three cyerci species were found often - so named because their appendages look like butterfly wings which they flap as they move. Shaun the sheep nudis look like the cartoon character face that gives them that colloquial name. I found a dark flambouyant cuttlefish that displayed its psychedelic colors to me as I watched, and one diver stayed to watch it catch three small fish. The nudibranch melibe colemani looks like a clear plastic water-filled bag covered in lace. Another similarly-shaped but brown 8cm nudi slid over the ground lifting its head, opening its mouth and plunging down to vacuum the floor beneath it. Braun’s pughead pipefish hid among hard coral polyps, while snapping shrimp hid on soft corals. I finally got a good photo of Severen’s pygmy seahorse (there are four species there). The only large fish we saw were in the distance on several dives, and no sharks were sighted all week. Night dives provided more excitement. Numerous octopi were out, including a feisty duo that used a diver’s light to have sex twice. An eel used our lights to help it hunt one night. This was the first time I saw a Bobbit worm in action, and squat lobsters occupied every coral, it seemed. Small coconut octopi were found in shells often, with shrimp and crabs walking about. Bobtail squid flitted around. Sashimi shrimp are perhaps the size of rice kernels, look like miniature seals to me and come in a variety of colors. Having been in Puerto Galera the week before, instead of going back to Manila via Batangas and flying to Tablas Island, next to Romblon, I took the overnight ferry from Batangas. This was a surprisingly smooth trip which left Batangas at 10p and arrived at Romblon at 6a. When I left for home, I had to take a one-hour boat ride to Tablas, then an hour-long shuttle to the airport. The small boat ride was the only sub-par section of my journey, as there was no real seat and the boat motor was loud. The flight to Manila from Tablas was smooth and I left plenty of time to connect with my flight home, which departed from a different terminal (the Manila airport has three terminals, so be sure you know to which one to go).
Websites	Ducks Diving The Three P Holiday and Dive Resort
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	Over 1000 dives
Where else diving	USVI, BVI, lesser Antilles, Bonaire, all three Caymans , Coco Island, Revillagigedos, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Philippines, Micronesia, Red Sea
Closest Airport	Tablas Island	Getting There	Either fly from Manila to Tablas, then one-hour shuttle to boat and one-hour boat ride to Romblon or shuttle from Manila to Batangas then overnight ferry to Romblon.
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, rainy	Seas	calm, no currents
Water Temp	84-87°F / 29-31°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	30-80 Ft/ 9-24 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	?
Enforced diving restrictions	We always followed dive leaders as they constantly found interesting subjects. Eleven of 19 dives exceeded 80 minutes as we were shallow and finding neat animals.
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	no
What I Saw
Sharks	None	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	1 or 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics	N/A
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's	N/A	Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	There was no dedicated camera room, but each guest room had a work area with a large table and power supplies. Crew carried cameras unless one preferred to do it himself. Cameras were stored on boat floor carefully. Several dedicated camera rinse tanks were at the dive prep area. No rinse tank on boat.

Report currently has 1 Helpful vote

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Dive Review of Ducks Diving/The Three P Holiday and Dive Resort in Philippines/Romblon

Ducks Diving/The Three P Holiday and Dive Resort: "The Three P on Romblon - critters galore", Jul, 2017,

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 Ducks Diving/The Three P Holiday and Dive Resort in
Philippines/Romblon