Diversion Dive Travel - Feedback from our clients

Don't just take our word for it here is just a short list of comments we have received from our clients. If you wish to contact some for reference, please e-mail us and we put you in touch.

Phil, Sybille, hi!
I just wanted to confirm that I had a very good diving and social time on the Undersea Explorer.
Weather was a bit bumpy at times but thankfully the really strong and gusty winds held off and
we were able to do most dives planned.
The (Minke-) whales kept their date with the boat, about 45 sightings in total, many of them within inches of my face as I held on (like grim death) to the 'lines' with my snorkel firmly in my mouth. Very touching experience to see a whale acknowledge you and do a 'belly roll' and 'head lift'!
Anyway, just to say thanks again for making my southern hemisphere diving experiences hassle free, and when hassle presented itself, for helping me sort things out.

Nice touch of you to send a follow up postcard. The trip was superb. The company, organisation and attention detail of Mike Ball's trip is superb. The boat and crew and barrier reef was excellent. We have now been enticed by the marketing skills of the crew and company and now looking at the PNG trip they do but hopefully bring our spouses too. When? Don't know yet.
Best regards
Martin , UK

Wow Sybille,

I thought Osprey was great. The dwarf Minke whale expedition is on a different tangent of greatness. Words just can't describe. The insights from the on-board marine biologists were like having immediate on-line access to the encyclopedia of Minkes. I would highly recommemend the trip if you haven't done so before, or anyone else with marine interests. Everything else (stay, side-trips) were okay within the context of amazing encounters on the Undersea Explorer. Thanks so much Sybille.
Mike, California

Hi Ken.

Thank you very much for the nice postcard. We were back in Germany since Tuesday.
It was a wonderful trip to australia and we want to say thank you for all
what you und your company had done for us, so that we really enjoyed our
trip.
It was one of the best diving trip we ever done. Absolute professional planing on your side.The Undersea Explorer and the crew are competent, professional and above all absolutly friendly.
Thank you for all.
Martina and Peter, Germany

Ken

Thanks so much for all your efforts to arrange ourfantastic trip.
Everything worked out really well. The Angsana was a great place to relax and recover from the jet lag and we now have a hankering to live in Palm Cove!

Diversity was a good few days of diving apart from the weather being too rough to get out to Osprey but this just means we will have to come back. We had just 4 divers on the boat and the sites we dived were superb. We saw our first sea snakes. The crew were all really friendly and helpful and we had the best liveaboard food we have ever experienced.

Then what can we say about Lizard Island? The place was amazing and exactly the kind of thing we were hoping for. While we had high expectations, I have to say the resort and the staff far exceeded those expectations. I have a lasting memory of sitting on a white, sandy beach with noone but us on it, eating our picnic of king prawns and drinking ice cold gin and tonic - what could be better.
Thanks again for all your help to give us a truly memorable honeymoon.

Hi Phil,

Got your postcard –I should have written as soon as I returned, but you know how it is. The Spirit of Freedom was perfect – the best vacation I’ve ever had! The dives were incredible, the crew & the boat fantastic. Thanks for all your help in getting it together, I can’t even begin to tell you how much fun I had.

Hi Phil,

I just had to let you know how much we enjoyed our trip aboard Diversity. You said that the snorkling would be good and it was fantastic. Even though I was very "uncomfortable" when I saw a large shark pass me, it makes a great story to tell my friends. And my husband was thrilled with his dive experiences. Since I made all the arrangements for the trip I think he will be indebted to me for a long time!

Jean, USA

Dear Sybille:

I just got your note for feedback on my trip to with the Undersea Explorer. FANTASTIC. I was just perfect! Food was great, vessel was good, friendly crew and spectacular dives. I specially liked that they have the “science/conservation” approach so I also learned a lot at the same timeas having fun. Thanks for arranging this for me.

I’ll keep your email address as part of my “service provider” network for the next time I’m in OZ or to refer you tosomeone else.

Dear Chrisje,

We had a great time on Taka and really enjoyed discovering the Great Barrier Reef!
We soon forgot our disappointment about the fact that the new Taka had after all not been launched yet.
The Taka team was really good and contributed to a good vacation.

The only downside was that the visibility was not always very good and on one dive, one of our regulators let water through, which made us interrupt our dive.

All in all, the live aboard will be unforgettable and was certainly one of the highlights of our trip.
We in general enjoyed the visit to Cairns and its surroundings very much. We enjoyed a day trip to Cape Tribulations as well as a safari through the rainforest and the Tableland!
You certainly live in a beautiful country with extraordinary nice people!!

Last but not least, we would like to thank you personally once again for all your assistance during our travel preparation

Dear Phil,

Many thanks for your info below and my apologies for beeing a year late in the reply !!!!
Yes, 2004 has fallen upon us ! The trip on Spoilsport was a real treat. The crew was a delight to deal with and took us to great dive sites always in high gear and good mood.
Just for future reference : do you have some diving beyond Australia ? Maybe in a year or two we may consider Papua New Guinea or other areas like Micronesia.
To you and all at your office,
Happy & lucky 2004,
Harry

Hi Phil,

Phil our holidays in PNG was "FUCKING FANTASTIC"(know I talk like Alan). We bring back about seven hour video film, 500 digital pictures and 300 slides.
Every new place we discover was great, everybody was really very nice with us and the diving was incredible good. The Febrina was the edge of our holidays : Alan and Jane was so nice with us and always anthousiastic and you can feel they organize everything you expect. We had a lot of fun with both of them and the crew. Our last night party on board was really crazy.

Lissenung was very good too the diving was "top", we loved specially "Albatross and his Giant Grooper. Edith and Dietmar was more than nice with us.
Thank a lot again for you great work and organization. We have to think together about our next trip down there.

Read you soon... Agnieszka and Gaetan, France

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Hi Phil,

We're back in New York after a wonderful holiday in PNG. First of all, we wanted to thank you forthe efficiency and thoroughness with which you organized our holiday. We were both impressed with the expediency and precision of all the planning, and with how smoothly everything went onour trip. Not a hitch!

Everything about the dive week was great - the crew was very professional and friendly, the diving, of course, was fabulous (especially the B-17 Blackjack wreck), and the boat itself is about as luxurious as a dive boat gets. We had a wonderfully relaxing and pleasurable week on Paradise Sport.

Tani & Ajah, NYC

Hi Phil,
Just a note to say how much we enjoyed our stay at Jais Aben Resort in Madang.
We found the staff could not have been more helpful and the diving was superb. Tim and Leslie were very friendly and organised that we had the same dive master for all our 14 dives. The atmosphere at the resort was very relaxed and we came back promising ourselves a return visit .
Kind regards

Rosalie and David, Yorkshire, England

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Hi Ken,
Wanted to write and thank-you for all your help with my booking at Jais Aben. Our group had a lovely time at the resort and was a wonderful treat after being out in the rainforest building a house.
The staff were all really welcoming and friendly. The diving was fabulous!
Thanks again,
Alina Stubbs

MICRONESIA

Hi Phil & Ken,
I'm back in the UK and its freezing!I would like to thank you for all the holiday arrangements all of which went superbly.
I had a great time particularly Palau and had amazing diving.

Regards

Stuart

Hi Sybille,
A quick note to thank you for organising our trip. It was amazing!
The diving in Palau is extraordinary and the islands are spectacular. Palau Pacific Resort was very nice too. Great to have the beach. We didn't eat there much becuase it was very expensive. We preferred to go into Koror and eat at a bunch of great little restaurants. Fish n Fins were great. Fast comfortable boats, good gear. One thing to note. We have only dived in places where computers have been provided as standard rental equipment. This was not the norm at either Palau or Yap but we were able to rent anyways.

Yap was a wonderful experience. The diving was not as spectacular as Palau although vis was better. The mantas were amazing. Divers need to be happy though to go to the same site every day. Weloved it becuase we had had the Palau experience beforehand (ie coral, fish etc.).

Damian, Australia

Hi Dirk.........
Thanks for the Christmas card......or the card asking if we had a nice
holiday..........
Yes, it was fantastic......Truk was really good, excellent. Yap was what we really went on this trip for and on the morning of the fourth (4) day we had not seen a Manta....;^(.....but we were not disappointed, it was magnificent to be close to those majestic and beautiful creatures......

Dave Morgan, UK

Hi Phil and Ken,
Just wanted to send you a quick email thanking you for all your assistance
in planning our honeymoon trip to Yap and Palau. We had a great time!
Thank you also for recommending diving with MDA Divers in Guam. They were
great and were having a big sale while we were there so we bought lots of
new dive accessories.

Yap was wonderful. Trader's Ridge was an excellent choice. The hotel is very nice and the employees were very welcoming. I cannot say enough about diving with Beyond the Reef Divers in Yap. It was so great to be able to dive in such a small group (just Craig and I and 2 guys from the dive shop on the boat!). Our first day there we saw mantas and sharks. We knew we had made the right choice for our honeymoon! The dive leaders assembled and put away our gear every day and were more than happy to give us information on local culture and share dive stories. They were great. Too bad every dive shop isn't able to offer such personal service. We were even able to do an evening dive with the mandarin fish and a night dive which was by far our best night dive ever!

Yap was a great place and definitely our favorite island on the trip. It's such and interesting and friendly place. By the end of our 5 days there, locals were starting to recognize us!

Palau actually seemed huge and busy after our 5 days in Yap. We have some mixed feelings about our time on Big Blue. The crew was wonderful, the cabins were nice, the food was good and the diving was great. Unfortunately though, there were 27 passengers which made for a very very
crowded boat and very crowded dives (quite a difference from our days in Yap with Beyond the Reef!). The crew told us what a difference it was from the week before when the Big Blue only had 5 passengers! We were also able to dive Jellyfish Lake and Mandarin Fish Lake, but were unable to make it to Peleliu. We did not see any manta in Palau (too many divers swimming around probably scared them off), but we saw plenty of sharks (including some mating sharks!) and more fish than I could possibly name! The diving in Palau was absolutely amazing.

Thank you again to you and Ken for all your assistance in planning our honeymoon. All of our travel plans went smoothly including all airport transfers. It was truly a wonderful trip!

Mary & Craig, UK