Dive Review of Mike Ball Dive Expeditions in
Australia/GBR, Coral Sea

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Mike Ball Dive Expeditions: "Fun times", Nov, 2023, by Janice Culbertson, OR, US ( 2 reports with 4 Helpful votes). Report 12713 has 3 Helpful votes.
Photos Submitted with this Report Click on an image to see an enlarged version and captions
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	I have dived with Mike Ball several times. Not much has changed over time. COVID has changed a few things - neg test required prior to boarding, no more dive deck towels (which I missed). Also you had the option to not have your room cleaned except on request. Now the stuff that really matters. The Spoilsport looked to be in good shape. The cabins had new mattresses and linens. Clean and comfortable - not large, but big enough. Food was plentiful and very good. I was on a 4day/7day trip, so I had 2 different chefs. The meals were very good, served family style, plentiful. We did have a couple big eaters on our trips so had to get in line before them. They didnt have much clue that the food was for everyone. They still have the last night bbq, but pavlova is not on the menu (bummer). My cabin mate had food allergies (as did others) and food was marked or separated to accommodate them. Diving - The dive deck has a place for cameras. We didn't have as many photographers as I expected. There were several big rigs, but many more smaller cameras so there was room for everyone. It was requested that you only charge batteries while you were in your cabin, or charge in the main salon. I have no idea if this was followed - we did follow this rule. You are assigned a spot on the deck and once you set up your gear, pretty much you don't have to do anything but put on your gear and dive. There is assistance getting in/out of the water (especially helpful for us with older knees). Check out/in is good. You are checked and buddy checked before you go in. WHen you exit the water, you must physically sign that you are on board. There is also a verbal name call before the boat leaves. We had a few dives where we used the tenders, but most diving was done from the Spoilsport. There was always a tender in the water if someone got off course or into current (of which there wasn't much). There was always an anchor line to follow to the reef. However, viz wasn't always so good that the line could be easily spotted. We just made a note of depth and were always able to get back to the line. We saw tons of cuttlefish, nudis, sharks, expected reef fish. Only a couple turtles, rays, eels. I did a couple guided dives, just so I had a break from navigating. My only criticism is the guide swam so fast there was no time to look at things. If I stopped to look/take a pic, I had to really fin to catch up. There is a photo guy on board. You get a free dropbox video/stills of the trip. I had a malfunction with my strobe and he knew less about the strobe than I did. Oh well, bring backups of everything... It was a good 11 days, nice folks (US, Australia, German mostly). Great weather, mostly calm seas, only ok viz. Good way to dive a lot - some days we had "open deck" which meant we were allowed to dive as many times in alloted (for example, open pool at 11, be done diving by 3).
Websites	Mike Ball Dive Expeditions
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	Over 1000 dives
Where else diving	Solomon Islands, Australia, Hawaii, Curacao, Mexico, Fiji, Bonaire
Closest Airport	Cairns	Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, dry	Seas	calm
Water Temp	78-79°F / 26-26°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	30-60 Ft/ 9-18 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	60 minutes. But if you asked, 70 min max.
Liveaboard?	yes	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	Lots	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
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	I have one complaint - why do people think that their big camera is more important than my smaller camera? Several times the big rig cameras were just plopped over smaller cameras. ALso, I bring my own lint free rags to clean my camera. Several times other divers took my rags and I had to go chase them down (I put them on my camera and they had my name on them). Have a little respect for other people's things.

Report currently has 3 Helpful votes

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Dive Review of Mike Ball Dive Expeditions in Australia/GBR, Coral Sea

Mike Ball Dive Expeditions: "Fun times", Nov, 2023,

Photos Submitted with this Report

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 Mike Ball Dive Expeditions in
Australia/GBR, Coral Sea