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Dive Review of Emperor in
Red Sea/The Brothers, Deadalus

Emperor: "Shark Surprise", Oct, 2016,

by Carol Sommers, IL, US (Sr. Reviewer Sr. Reviewer 8 reports with 6 Helpful votes). Report 9235 has 2 Helpful votes.

No photos available at this time

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

Accommodations 4 stars Food 4 stars
Service and Attitude 4 stars Environmental Sensitivity 4 stars
Dive Operation 4 stars Shore Diving N/A
Snorkeling N/A
Value for $$ 4 stars
Beginners 2 stars
Advanced 4 stars
Comments The trip was the Best of the Best and I was pleasantly surprised that it included hammerheads--seen on 3 out of 3 dives at The Brothers, including a school of 20-- and oceanic white tips that were waiting to play with us at the Daedalus site. We swam with them on arriving, did a wall dive and finished our air under the boat with them. We dived 3 times a day, getting up at 5:30 or 6:00, but only had one night dive because it's not allowed in the Marine Park. We had a 7-hour and an 11-hour ride between the two big sites. Very good dive briefings. Times, depths and air consumption were checked after each dive. Most dives were wall dives. Nice soft and hard coral.

No other large fish, but a big school of barracudas. Eight nationalities as divers (CH,UK,ES,US,DE,LU,NL,CN) and Sonia, the Swiss divemaster, spoke fluent English, Spanish and Arabic. Momo (short for Mohammed) was our Egyptian divemaster. The "student" divemaster, Simone, did not stay close to us when we were wall diving and there could be more fairly simple safety measures. I had inquired and was not allowed to bring my Nautilus Lifeline for communicating with the boat. No divemasters carried them and didn't even have a slate and pencil to communicate underwater. The zodiacs had no ladders, so I was flipped into one three times like a tuna--not fun. Still, there were many dives from the roomy dive deck and usually zodiacs took us to a site and we swam back to the mother ship underwater. There was no gangplank at one area, so getting on and off the mother ship was difficult at port.

The food was fine with free wine at dinner, but the only good bread was the pita. The problem was that meals were expected to be eaten fast and several times they tried to take my plate before I finished! (A cultural thing--another diver told me that at a fancy dinner given by a sheik diners commented that it was such a long party--lasting 2 hours from coming in the door until leaving.) Overall, great trip for the money.
Websites Emperor   

Reporter and Travel

Dive Experience 251-500 dives
Where else diving Bahamas, Cayman Islands, Grenada, Cozumel, Belize, Florida, North Carolina, Curacao, Lake Michigan, Philippines, Sea of Cortez, Palau, Yap, Dominica, Hornby Island in British Columbia, Bonne Terre Mine
Closest Airport Hurgahada Getting There Cairo to Hurgahada, Pick up by dive operator there for a 3 hour drive to Port Ghalib in Marsa Alam (no daily flights)

Dive Conditions

Weather sunny Seas calm
Water Temp 78-81°F / 26-27°C Wetsuit Thickness 3
Water Visibility 50-100 Ft/ 15-30 M

Dive Policy

Dive own profile yes
Enforced diving restrictions You could dive your own profile and either follow the divemaster or buddy dive, sending up a safety sausage when you wanted to be picked up. Care was necessary and sausages needed to be sent up underwater because of a lot of boat traffic. Twelve dive boats at Daedelus site but no underwater crowds.
Liveaboard? yes Nitrox Available? yes

What I Saw

Sharks Lots Mantas None
Dolphins None Whale Sharks None
Turtles 1 or 2 Whales None
Corals 4 stars Tropical Fish 3 stars
Small Critters 1 stars Large Fish 2 stars
Large Pelagics 4 stars

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

Subject Matter 4 stars Boat Facilities 4 stars
Overall rating for UWP's 4 stars Shore Facilities N/A
UW Photo Comments Dedicated camera rinse tank, roomy countertop in living room area for charging batteries.
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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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