Dive Review of
Ocean Rover in
Thailand/similan islands, surin, berma

Saba, Cozumel, Turks & Caicos, Belize, Cayman Islands, Venezuela,
Solomon Islands, Fiji, Bahamas

Dive Conditions

Restricted by nitrox only  

The Ocean Rover has more room for photography equipment than any other
liveaboard.  They process E6 slide film as well.  They have a CD burner if
you want to copy your digital pictures to CD, a DVD player and a TV in the
salon for viewing video.  Their photo pro, Mark Strickland, is one of the
best.  

Overall Rating

There is nothing bad about taking a trip on the Ocean Rover!  She was built
specifically for liveaboard diving, and is incredibly spacious for 16
divers.  The crew is the most helpful of any crew we've ever seen (we took
a vote).  The food is just incredible!

The diving in Thailand and Bermese waters usually involves current, so this
is not beginner diving.  There are two dinghies, so you never wait more
than a few minutes to get picked up (unlike divers on other boats that we
observed).  The crew helps you get into your gear, gets your fins and your
camera equipment for you, and rinses it all off after a dive.  The boat is
incredibly organized - each diver has a numbered locker, as well as a towel
and even designated water glasses!  They have cold water coolers on the
dive deck and upstairs on the sun deck.  There were ALWAYS great snacks
upstairs, in addition to the fabulous meals and fresh made snacks they
served us in the afternoons.

The cabins are very large, with plenty of storage.  The bathrooms are the
nicest I've ever seen on a liveaboard, with tile floors and normal sized
toilets.  They make enough water that you don't have to worry about it, and
each bathroom heats it's own water for your shower, so you never run out of
hot water!

The folks at Fantasea/Ocean Rover have received permission to dive in
Bermese (Myanmar) waters, which is awesome.  The diving in the Burma banks
is clear and great - still plenty of current, but great stuff to see.

We didn't encounter any whale sharks on this trip (but their numbers are
dwindling), but we did see leopard sharks, manta rays and incredible sights
like cuttlefish laying eggs (more than once), and lots of harlequin ghost
pipefish, as well as their endemic saddleback anenome fish and the amazing
mandarin shrimp!

This liveaboard is a MUST for any serious diver.  The charter just before
ours included Ned deLoach and Paul Humann - need I say more? 

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