Dive Review of Truk Blue Lagoon Resort in
Micronesia

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Truk Blue Lagoon Resort: "Blue Lagoon Resort August 2017", Nov, 2017, by Ellen Marie Smith, MN, US ( Sr. Contributor 26 reports with 13 Helpful votes). Report 9954.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food	N/A
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	Traveling from Palau to Truk requires a stop in Guam and is an all-night endeavor. We had a three hour layover in Guam and arrived in Truk in the early hours of the morning. The island of Chuuk (aka Truk) was a stark contrast to Yap & Palau. It is ‘real’ third world country and doesn’t feel safe from the moment you set foot in the airport. The three-mile trip to the Blue Lagoon Resort is slow due to terrible road conditions. Our driver wasn’t friendly and there is an “unwelcoming” feel to the people, probably due to the abject poverty that most of them from island face each day. The sights on the way to the resort say it all and we were told not to venture off the resort by many people we met both in Yap and Palau. The resort resembles a northern Minnesota fishing resort. Not fancy, but has what you need. Air conditioning worked and there was the occasional warm shower. Once we were safely ensconced at the Blue Lagoon Resort there really was’t anything to do but relax and have a cocktail. (no diving after staying up all night for me!) The property is safe for the most part, though there was an attempted break-in on the upper floor one night during our stay. The Australian guys staying in the room woke up and the thief ran away, probably to the water side of the resort. Their dive gear was out on the balcony and the thief opened the door to their room, which indicated that he was after cash (required to pay the exit fee when leaving the island). We decided on our last night to dry our gear inside our room so that it wasn’t obvious that we were leaving the next day and to keep our cash in the office safe. Needless to say, don’t bring anything of value (other than your gear!) on this trip. Now about that gear: the first day we went diving there were some people on our boat who rented gear. Two pieces of gear had major problems. None of the gear looked to be in good shape. Note to self: in remote locations, bring your own well-maintained gear! The dive shop at the resort had some nice t-shirts and a few other necessary items. There is a small “convenience” store on site and a resort gift shop as well. The restaurant is good (we heard secondhand the best on the island) and we didn’t feel the need to go elsewhere. My husband loved the fresh sashimi and sushi. There is a nice bar and drinks are not overly expensive, even though there is a 50% tax on alcohol on the island. The diving: We had two guides for most of the week: Robert Hanzer and Sam Francis. Both were exceedingly helpful and calm. At times I wasn’t, because of the silt on the wrecks we had a few “missing diver” situations. My buddies and I hadn’t done this type of wreck diving before and our plan wasn’t adequately verbalized, causing some angst on my part. I would have appreciated a clearer plan during our briefing. The wrecks were fabulous! I cannot say enough about what you will see – stunning penetrations, tanks on the decks at 100+ feet, bulldozers, jeeps, airplanes, cases of beer & sake, huge propellers, machine guns & torpedoes and more. The wrecks are encrusted in coral and the sea life on the wrecks is outstanding! Some of the things I had read about (like the skull embedded on the Hoki Maru) had been recently removed. Some other things that clearly shouldn’t have been there were placed on the tops of these wrecks. Shell casings, dishes, and various other small artifacts were removed from their original location placed on the top of the wrecks. This was upsetting and I wish this were not the case. There were two instances that I was skeptical about: once our divemaster Sam pulled a skull out from behind something and another time he pulled a book out. The skull could have been real, but would likely have been collected by now and the book just couldn’t be original (it was in too good shape, I could still see Japanese writing). I know I’m not the first person to see these wrecks, and not being a technical diver, it is impossible that I would see it all, but I don’t feel I required a “show” to make it feel authentic. Since we were there on the “off” season we only saw one other group diving the same site the whole five days. We dove the Fukikawa Maru, Heian Maru (largest wreck), Betty (airplane), Shinkoko Maru (twice), Sankisan Maru, Kiyosumi Maru, Kensho Maru, Rio de Janerio Maru, “Emily” flying boat, Nippo Maru, Gosei Maru, Haien Maru, Hoki Maru, and the Yamagiri Maru. We did 3 dives a day for 5 days. I wish I had another week, as I feel like there was so much more. For a future trip, I would try to book on the Truk Odyssey, logistics and timing with that in mind. The end of our trip was a little disappointing. United Airlines routing takes you to Hawaii with 4 stops (Phonpei, Kosrae, Kwajalein & Majuro) and takes 12 hours. The crew bought us subway on one of the stops, as there isn’t enough food service. In business class we didn’t have lay down seats and you experience the shortest runway in the system at Kosrae Island. It is like landing on an aircraft carrier! We arrived Hawaii in the middle of the night, trekked all the way across the airport (with our bags!) to find that we couldn’t check in for two hours. Once checked in, we went to the United club and waited for it to open. After all I paid for the business class ticket, this seemed ridiculous. (First world problems, I know!) On to San Francisco and finally home in Minnesota, I noticed that there was a group of Trukese who had travelled all the way with me. I spoke with them and discovered there is a population of Truk people in Milan, Minnesota. Who knew? [mprnews.org link]
Websites	Truk Blue Lagoon Resort
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	501-1000 dives
Where else diving	Red Sea, Galapagos, Hawaii, Caribbean (Cozumel, Belize, Turneffe, Utila, Turks & Caicos, St. Martin, Nevis & St. Kitts), California, Cocos, Socorro, & Ustica (Italy), Yap, Palau, & Truk.
Closest Airport		Getting There	From Palau - fly to Guam, connect to Chuuk (Truk) in the middle of the night
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny	Seas	calm, no currents
Water Temp	84-86°F / 29-30°C	Wetsuit Thickness
Water Visibility	50-100 Ft/ 15-30 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	no
Enforced diving restrictions	Stay with divemaster, surface with group. (There was a deco line and a spare tank hanging from the boat at 15ft)
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	None	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics	N/A
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	You may need to ask for a rinse tank on the boat. Boat crew was careful with my camera.

Subscriber's Comments

By Graham McGregor in Kilmacolm, GB at Nov 05, 2017 11:23 EST

We stayed at Blue Lagoon in October 2016. It is undoubtedly the best land-based option on Chuuk. We didn't leave the resort other than to dive and I wouldn't feel entirely comfortable doing so. We saw evidence of vehicles that had been attacked by locals. We were told they do this sometimes when they get drunk. The boat trips to the sites were on average 20 minutes, so I'm not convinced of the need to be on a liveaboard. The resort dive operation was OK although we had our own gear. Our guide was fine but while we dove on "thin" Nitrox (N28) he was on air. On most wrecks this meant he showed us the wreck for 30 or so minutes then disappeared back to the surface and left us to complete the dive. This wasn't a problem but was a bit odd. We asked for and got 4 day dives each day.

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Dive Review of Truk Blue Lagoon Resort in Micronesia

Truk Blue Lagoon Resort: "Blue Lagoon Resort August 2017", Nov, 2017,

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 Truk Blue Lagoon Resort in
Micronesia