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Dive Review of Odyssey Adventures in
Micronesia/Truk

Odyssey Adventures: "Wrecks, wrecks, and more wrecks", Nov, 2016,

by Caroline T, MD, US (Reviewer Reviewer 4 reports with 1 Helpful vote). Report 9590 has 1 Helpful vote.

No photos available at this time

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

Accommodations 5 stars Food 5 stars
Service and Attitude 5 stars Environmental Sensitivity 5 stars
Dive Operation 5 stars Shore Diving N/A
Snorkeling N/A
Value for $$ 5 stars
Beginners 3 stars
Advanced 5 stars
Comments The Odyssey is one of the best live-aboards i have ever experienced. Even though its an old boat, the owners and crew keep it in top shape and are constantly upgrading it. Our rooms were spacious, with lovely bathrooms, and a flat screen TV that came with hundreds of movies. The food was delicious, which is a real challenge given the remote location. They had tea, coffee, snacks, treats, and all you can drink alcohol available throughout the trip.

The boat for the most part stays in the lagoon, so there is limited movement, which makes the whole experience of the live aboard much more pleasant. The boat is at anchor every night, so its much easier for the light sleepers to get a full night's rest. The boat moves during breakfast, so the first dive is around 9 or 10 am.

The only drawback is that the boat has limited outdoor space to relax during downtime, so we often found ourselves hanging out in the air conditioned dining room between dives. When i'm in a warm, tropical place, i like to be outside.

This is wreck diving. Really unlike any other wreck diving i have experienced. The wrecks are enormous and do take multiple dives to cover. Our group was made up of recreational divers who wanted to experience Truk, which did not seem to be the norm for the boat. We preferred to dive in small groups, with guides who would show us the sites on a particular wreck and ensure our precious underwater time was not wasted in an aimless search. The wrecks are usually on their side, so navigation is not as straight-forward as you think. The boat said guides were always available, but did not have a good system for signing up, beyond 'come let us know after the brief if you want a guide' Eventually we came up with a system by the end of the week, but it took a while.

Some of the guides, those who were ex-pats or were more experienced were great. I have never had a guide tell me he is going to take me to see 'the big beautiful urinals' and then actually show me big, beautiful urinals underwater. However, some of the guides, clearly didn't know how to guide, taking us to one site and then expecting to take us out of the water after we'd seen the engine room even though we'd only been in the water for 20 minutes, getting annoyed when we signaled we were done with the guided tour and going to go off on our own, or expressing frustration if we exited the wreck through a different route as we closed in on our deco. We just avoided those guides for the rest of the week.

The elevator is amazing. I thought they were kidding. Everyone in our group used it to get out of the water and our backs felt better at the end of the week.

Bring a second computer. You will go in to deco, given the depths and some computers lost their minds. A second computer confirmed you were in fact OK and allowed for you to continue diving.

The boat provides a unique nitrox mix of a lower percentage to allow for deeper depths. And for the last, deepest dive of the week, they lowered the mix even further.

Plan to do at least two night dives. Some of the most beautiful orange cup coral polyps cover the wrecks. They're on the underside of objects, so parts of the wreck, when viewed from below at night, looked like they were covered in sunflowers. It was amazing.

Our group enjoyed the shark feeding dive. We would have enjoyed a dive or two on the reef outside of the lagoon as well for a change of scenery. But that wasn't a part of the plan.

Finally a word on the Blue Lagoon Resort. It's horrible. Really bad, but better than anything else available on the island. Some of the rooms were fine, but many had non-functioning A/Cs, wreaked of mold, and/or were just generally gross. oh, and there was no hot water for the first few days. The food service was fine, but the food was nothing to write home about. I stuck to the fish filet as it seemed a safer option. Several members of the group had severe intestinal issues. The resort staff were also unresponsive, and sometimes misleading. It just didn't leave anyone with a pleasant feeling, but again there's not another option.

We dove from the dive shop at the resort for the first few days. They were great, but we visited the same sites we saw on the live-aboard, so didn't really get anything extra out of that experience.

We also went on a land excursion to see a Japanese bomb shelter that is now the gymnasium of the high school. It was not worth it, and several of our group members got sick on the drive.

So, if i were going to do it again, i would not do a pre-trip stay on Truk, i'd go straight to the boat.
Websites Odyssey Adventures   

Reporter and Travel

Dive Experience 251-500 dives
Where else diving Indonesia, Philippines, Truk, Caribbean, Galapagos, Egypt, and Florida
Closest Airport Getting There It's just really far. We flew through, Tokyo, overnighted in Guam, and then continued on to Truk. It's a slog, the flights are at weird times, and you go through customs a lot. so, just prepare yourself mentally. And definitely spend a few days somewhere (tokyo, guam, truk) acclimatizing to the time difference before you get on the boat.

Dive Conditions

Weather windy, dry Seas calm, no currents
Water Temp 85-88°F / 29-31°C Wetsuit Thickness 3
Water Visibility 30-50 Ft/ 9-15 M

Dive Policy

Dive own profile ?
Enforced diving restrictions none. just be back by a certain time when the boat would move to the next location.
Liveaboard? yes Nitrox Available? yes

What I Saw

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

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

Subject Matter N/A Boat Facilities N/A
Overall rating for UWP's N/A Shore Facilities N/A
UW Photo Comments [None]
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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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