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Dive Review of Aggressor Fleet in
Maldives

Aggressor Fleet, Mar, 2013,

by Alice Ribbens, MN, US (Contributor Contributor 19 reports with 21 Helpful votes). Report 6934.

No photos available at this time

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

Accommodations 5 stars Food 3 stars
Service and Attitude 5 stars Environmental Sensitivity 4 stars
Dive Operation 5 stars Shore Diving N/A
Snorkeling N/A
Value for $$ 5 stars
Beginners 2 stars
Advanced 5 stars
Comments This was our 4th Aggressor and we've also been on some other liveaboards, but had not been to the Maldives. We had an amazing week on the Aggressor! The boat is beautiful. Cabins were plenty spacious (we booked late and were told we were getting a smaller room, and we still felt like we had plenty of space) and the bathroom had a great shower--roomy with tons of hot water (they actually have signs in the showers warning that their hot water gets very hot--this actually turned out to be quite true!).

Diving was great. We only had about 14 divers on the boat that week. Occasionally, the divemasters divided us into groups based on ability and experience. Some of us were allowed to go off on our own on some of the dives as well. There were definitely some channel dives where the current was quite strong and experience with reef hooks came in handy. We had a great time with the variety of the fish and other critters--tons of different kinds of butterflyfish, eels, groupers, anthias, anemonefish, Moorish idols, Napoleon wrasse, etc. In some places the coral was phenomenal, in other sites it was not in great shape. We saw turtles and reef sharks on most of our dives, even found a leopard shark on one! The mantas did not disappoint at the locations where we expected to see them. We got to snorkel with two different whale sharks and then a couple of them showed up during a dive we did in the same area.

I would not recommend this boat/itinerary for new divers. The current and dive conditions seemed a little overwhelming for some of the less experienced divers on the boat. The currents on the channel dives, made those dives challenging, especially because the channels and hook-in sites were quite deep (90-100+ feet). That being said, the divemasters made it all work for everyone by dividing us into two groups when necessary.

As much as we found the week and the diving totally amazing, I get the impression that the diving in the Maldives can be a little fickle. One of the divers in our group had also been on the Aggressor the week before. He said that a number of the sites where they expected current (and big pelagics) had no current the previous week, so they did not see the mantas that we did. He said they also did not get to do much if any of the channel dives the previous week because of the experience level of the majority of the divers on the boat.

However, based on our week, we would highly recommend the Maldives Aggressor. the food was not as good as other boats we've been on, but it was good and plentiful, with a lot of variety every day. Shumi and Shah and Wassif are all great DMs and worked very hard to make sure all of the divers, no matter what their experience level, had a great time.
Websites Aggressor Fleet   

Reporter and Travel

Dive Experience 251-500 dives
Where else diving Fiji, Great Barrier Reef, Belize, Utila/Roatan, Hawaii, Cozumel, Palau, Sea of Cortez, Palau, Galapagos, Monterey, Key Largo, Grand Cayman
Closest Airport Getting There

Dive Conditions

Weather sunny Seas calm
Water Temp 78-82°F / 26-28°C Wetsuit Thickness 3
Water Visibility 50-100 Ft/ 15-30 M

Dive Policy

Dive own profile yes
Enforced diving restrictions 60 min max, 100 ft as max limit (although we were all deeper than that on some channel dives)
Liveaboard? yes Nitrox Available? yes

What I Saw

Sharks Lots Mantas Squadrons
Dolphins None Whale Sharks > 2
Turtles > 2 Whales None
Corals 3 stars Tropical Fish 5 stars
Small Critters 4 stars Large Fish 4 stars
Large Pelagics 4 stars

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

Subject Matter 4 stars Boat Facilities 5 stars
Overall rating for UWP's 4 stars Shore Facilities N/A
UW Photo Comments I'm not really an UWP (just have a little point and shoot), but the photographers seemed quite happy. There was a camera table and rinse bucket on the dhoni and a camera table and charging station on the back deck of the main boat. Staff would transfer everyone's camera to the dhoni (and back) for them.
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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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