Dive Review of Ark Royal Maldives in
Maldives

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Ark Royal Maldives, Sep, 2011, by Todd Lichtenstein, NJ, US ( Contributor 12 reports with 5 Helpful votes). Report 6239.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity	N/A
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	The diving conditioins were not good on our trip. We saw no mantas at Hanifaru. The visibility on most dives ranged from fair to terrible. The dive sites in the Baa Atoll were crowded with at least 7 other boats diving the same site at once. The dive staff lacked organization. They seemed to lack the ability to judge the currents even when one of them would jump in to test them. They rarely pointed out critters for photographers. The boat was in a state of disrepair. The floor in our bathroom was flooded with water from a leak above. They did manage to fix it after two days. There was a strong odor of mold in our room which never dissipated the whole trip. Sometimes there was an odor of human excrement in the lower deck hallway. The air conditioning was not cold enough in our room or in the salon. There was peeling and bubbling wallpaper in our room. The water faucet in our bathroom was corroded and needed to be replaced. Some of the windows in the salon were cracked or obscured by badly applied sunscreens. The food was monotonous and the portions were meager. Sometimes they ran out of certain items before all the divers went through the line. There was a lack of graciousness on the part of the dining room crew. They never went out of their way to please the divers and they always had to be asked to refill the serving dishes when they ran out of food. The chaise lounges on the upper deck were missing cushions. Some were broken with screws sticking out. In fact none of the other wooden chairs had cushions either. Some of the cushions were missing from the banquet outside the salon. All the diving is from dhonis. We had 14 divers on this trip. All were using Nitrox. The Nitrox compressor on the dhoni lacked any storage capacity (air banks) so it took 3 hours to fill all the tanks. If we did 4 dives a day they sometimes had to give us air for the 3rd and 4th dive because they couldn't make enough Nitrox. The dive ladder is broken and there is sharp metal on it's railings. We were very disappointed with this boat. They claim to be a first class premier dive boat and they charge those kind of prices. This our 7th liveaborad. I think we can speak from experience in saying that this boat and dive operation has some serious problems which they must address.
Websites	Ark Royal Maldives
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	251-500 dives
Where else diving	Lembeh Strait, St. Vincent, Andaman Sea, Papua New Guinea, Cocos, Galapagos, Belize, Bonaire
Closest Airport		Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, dry	Seas	calm, choppy, surge, currents
Water Temp	82-84°F / 28-29°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	30-70 Ft/ 9-21 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	Limited to 1 hour dives, no other limits enforced
Liveaboard?	yes	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	1 or	Mantas	1 or
Dolphins	Schools	Whale Sharks	1 or
Turtles	1 or	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	Small camera area only serviceable for 4 people.

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Dive Review of Ark Royal Maldives in Maldives

Ark Royal Maldives, Sep, 2011,

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 Ark Royal Maldives in
Maldives