Dive Review of Blue Tribe Dive Operation/Constance Moofushi Resort in
Maldives/Southern Ari Atoll

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Blue Tribe Dive Operation/Constance Moofushi Resort, Aug, 2014, by Rose Mueller , TX, US ( Sr. Contributor 27 reports with 13 Helpful votes). Report 7693.
No photos available at this time
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 will begin on a positive note. The people working at the resort and dive shop are extremely friendly and willing to please. You couldn't ask for a more pleasant staff. We booked this resort as divers. The Maldives was one of the last locations we hadn't been and had dreamed of going. It is a difficult expensive trip from the US. Most of the guests are Chinese with a few British, French and Russian mixed in. The resort is touted as 5 star. It is okay; clean and neat, but also lacking. The floor in the restaurant is sand and the fleas are busy. The décor leaves a bit to be desired. The food is buffet and there is ample quantity. As divers, the set up is difficult as lunch ends at EXACTLY 2:30 pm. There is a beach bar that is hot and in the sun with a limited menu that can be used until 4:00 pm. It is an all inclusive, including the liquor. They are not skimpy with either. The resort caters mainly to people on their honeymoon. The dives are set up to leave at 9:00 am. 2 days there was only 1 dive offered in the morning. The divers are advanced and beginners. There are small groups. The coral is dead and there is little soft coral. There is no knowledge or interest in macro life. There was no need to bring my camera. My husband's GO PRO was the answer. Everyone wants to see Mantas, Sharks, Mantas, Sharks. There was little interest in the condition of the corals or the life therein. An afternoon dive is offered, but it is on the house reef. The dives are 130.00 each. The boat is a "tugboat" and very slow. There is little water available on the boat and no bathroom facility. The currents are not only strong, but there are also a lot of down currents. One must be vigilant. The turtles look unhealthy. They are covered with a strange algae. There were only several gray reef sharks during the 6 days of diving. There were fewer than 20 white tips. There were 4 mantas and about 6 eagle rays. There were exceptional schools of butterfly fish, banner fish, spade fish and sweet lips. There was also a school of about 8 Napoleon Wrasse. The altheas and small blue trigger fish cover the rubble of coral. We saw a blue whale, an uncommon occurrence, on the whale shark trip. We finally managed to see 2 whale shark. There was ample time given to snorkel with them. They informed us that there are usually about 1,000 people at one time around them. We were lucky to be off season and the only boat there. The whale sharks were smaller than those off of the coast of Isla de las Mujeres. The guides are not well trained in marine biology. They are there to insure you get back to the boat. They also smoke on the dive boat. I have talked about the good and the bad, now I want to talk about the ugly. We had to leave our room at 12:00 and wait for the sea plane that was to pick us up at 6:00, Moofushi time, to take us to Male for our Qatar Air flight to Doha, Qatar at 7:20 pm, Male time. The sea plane didn't arrive. The assistant manager gave us the "gracious" offer of $575.00 for another night's stay at the resort. It wasn't their fault as it was "weather" related! There were 4 other guests with later flights that were going by boat to Male. We opted to leave just to be on Male. There was a 3 hour ride on rough seas in a stormy night with most passengers quite ill. The hotel representative met us and told us we'd not make the morning flight and needed to go the hotel, that he'd meet us in the morning with instructions. The hotel bill was $429.00 and no one offered to pay. That morning he told us they had only business class tickets available and they might discount them. We talked more and he made less sense. We hired a cab and went to the Qatar Air office in Male. A rude lady informed us we had to buy business class tickets for 3,000.00 plus each. I told her we couldn't buy them. Miraculously there were economy tickets. The cost was $1,920.00. She told us we had to pay as they weren't notified 3 hours in advance about our inability to make the flight. They were notified immediately when we knew the sea plane couldn't land about 10 minutes shy of the 3 hours. I asked to see the "RULES" she quoted and she couldn't provide anything. I asked to talk to the manager and she went into the back for over 10 minutes. I could hear them talking. She returned to say he was in a meeting. I felt it was like extorting 1920.00 from us as we couldn't leave the country without paying. We paid and left that evening. There were perhaps 10 empty seats on the flight. The flight from Doha had about 30 empty seats. NO ONE would take responsibility for anything that happened. The resort, the sea plane and Qatar air have a symbiotic relationship. Without one the others wouldn't exist. IF the rules about flying were such, why weren't we informed by our travel agency, Caradonna Dive Adventures, by the assistant manager at the resort. We had 6 hours we could have flown to Male and avoided this entire ordeal. Why couldn't Qatar Air with their 5 years of "EXCELLENCE" accommodate us by putting us on the flight at no charge? We e-mailed Caradonna several times during the ordeal with no response. We called after our return and the supervisor hasn't bothered to call us. Qatar Air now says the 1920.00 is the difference in price between the tickets purchased July 3rd and August 5th. They do not even mention the 3 hour rule. The sea plane company, Trans Maldivian Airways wrote a letter saying they are sorry there was bad weather. The assistant manager of the Moofushi resort is too busy shuttling the Chinese in and out of the property to write us. I would NEVER fly Qatar Air again and would caution anyone about doing so. In conscience I cannot recommend this resort or their sister resorts to anyone. I would NEVER take Trans Maldivian Airways. The adage that "rules are made to be broken" is certainly the case in point here.
Websites	Constance Moofushi Resort
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	Over 1000 dives
Where else diving	All of the best dive locations in the world
Closest Airport		Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	cloudy	Seas	choppy, surge, currents
Water Temp	79-82°F / 26-28°C	Wetsuit Thickness	5
Water Visibility	40-50 Ft/ 12-15 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	no
Enforced diving restrictions	It seemed that the dives were automatically timed for about 45 minutes. The divers were invariably taken deep-over 90'. It was expected to follow the guide.
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	1 or 2	Mantas	1 or 2
Dolphins	1 or 2	Whale Sharks	1 or 2
Turtles	> 2	Whales	1 or 2
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish	N/A
Large Pelagics	N/A
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	There is no set up for underwater photographers. They accommodated by allowing us to use a table in their shop so we didn't have to carry the camera a mile back and forth each day.

Subscriber's Comments

By keith brashear in FL, US at Aug 08, 2014 12:08 EST

I flew Qatar for 5 years when working out of Doha. I thought the airline was great

By report author: Rose Mueller in TX, US at Aug 08, 2014 12:24 EST

I believe that one could have a good experience given the fact there were no complications in dealing with them. I said that their stewards and stewardesses are excellent. Were you ever a "no show?" I still stand by my comments. We had no one to help us and felt that we should been alerted to their policies about the inability to make a flight. I've NEVER had an airline refuse to put us on another flight because of missing one through no fault of our own. I have never had an airline employee treat us as rudely as the Qatar employee in Male. We have been in business for 43 years and would never treat someone the way we were treated. There are exceptions to every rule, don't you think? They could have honored our original tickets and rebooked us on the flight we were charged to take. It's hard to pay twice!

By Ms Lynda Durfee in VA, US at Aug 17, 2014 20:49 EST

Did you buy trip insurance before hand? DAN has an excellent travel insurance policy (separate from the dive insurance) that would have covered delays, missed flights, etc. I even recovered $2000 in medical bills not covered by my basic medical insurance when I was hospitalized over Thanksgiving weekend on a family visit (not dive travel).

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Dive Review of Blue Tribe Dive Operation/Constance Moofushi Resort in Maldives/Southern Ari Atoll

Blue Tribe Dive Operation/Constance Moofushi Resort, Aug, 2014,

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):

Subscriber's Comments

Dive Review of Blue Tribe Dive Operation/Constance Moofushi Resort in
Maldives/Southern Ari Atoll