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For Divers since 1975 The Private, Exclusive Guide for Serious Divers Since 1975 |
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Crystal Blue Resort: "Close, but no cigar", Dec, 2014,by Dan Benson, OR, US ( Sr. Contributor 24 reports with 14 Helpful votes). Report 8070 has 2 Helpful votes.
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No photos available at this time | |||
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best): |
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| Accommodations |  |
Food |  |
| Service and Attitude | |
Environmental Sensitivity | |
| Dive Operation | N/A | Shore Diving | N/A |
| Snorkeling | N/A | ||
Overall Rating |
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| Value for $$ | |
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| Beginners |  |
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| Advanced | |
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| Comments |
First the good: In my opinion the Anilao area of the Philippines offers about the best muck diving on the planet. It's definitely on par with Lembeh Straits. The diving is mostly very easy from small boats with maximum of 4 divers and one dive guide. Now that's my kind of diving! The dive guides are skilled at finding the critters, and with few people on the boat we could take our time photographing the subject. The food is very good, and the chef did a wonderful job of preparing tasteful vegetarian meals. Food is buffet style, three meals a day. The resort is small, with about 15 rooms. You can dive your plan, and there is no baby sitting of divers. The dive resort considers you adults and treats you as such. Now the rest! This resort is probably the most expensive in the Anilao area and simply doesn't measure up. Our orientation to the resort was minimal and we had to learn most of the procedures from other guests. (see below for my helpful hints). We stayed at the resort for 8 days and saw the manager for about 5 minutes. He waltzed in to the restaurant, did the usual grip and greet and . . . poof. He was gone! There was a underwater shoot out going on amongst the resorts in the area and he promised to bring the application packet and information for us. Never did. The air conditioner was broken in the camera room so they put ice in a swamp cooler. This situation looked like it had existed for awhile. Seemed to do nothing but raise the humidity in the camera room. Lights were burned out at a camera station. The oxygen for nitrox comes from large tanks that are hand carried up and down stairs to the compressor room. It's not customary to analyze the nitrox tanks, but once a person on our boat decided to press the issue and asked to see the analyzer. He was surprised to find that his nitrox tank had . . .AIR! So here are some things we wished we knew about the resort: 1. Tap water is not safe to drink. You can fill your water bottles from purified water stations 2. You get in to the resort about 9 a.m. and can do the afternoon dive. 3. Night dives go every night 4. A wonderful 1 hour massage is available for $13.00 5. Are soft drinks included? We still don't know! 6. While typically there is little current, the current can rip at full moon and new moon. 7. Secret beach has an area that is heated from the volcano. Eggs can be placed in the hot sand and will cook during a dive. If you want to engage in social engineering with your vacation money I would definitely recommend the Philippines over Indonesia. It seems to me that the Philippines have more environmental sensitivity than Indonesia. And this area has some of the best diving we've seen in the Philippines. You just might want to investigate some of the other resorts in the area. Perhaps this is as good as you can get. I just don't know. I do know that there is room for improvement. Close. But no cigar here! |
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| Websites | Crystal Blue Resort | ||
Reporter and Travel |
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| Dive Experience | Over 1000 dives | ||
| Where else diving | Indonesia (5 trips), Maldives, Red Sea, Hawaii, Caribbean, Malaysia, California | ||
| Closest Airport | Manila | Getting There | Direct flights from mainland USA get in very early morning. 2 1/2 hour van ride to resort. |
Dive Conditions |
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| Weather | sunny | Seas | choppy, currents, no currents |
| Water Temp | 82-81°F / 28-27°C | Wetsuit Thickness | 5 |
| Water Visibility | 40-70 Ft/ 12-21 M | ||
Dive Policy |
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| Dive own profile | yes | ||
| Enforced diving restrictions | Come back alive. | ||
| Liveaboard? | no | Nitrox Available? | yes |
What I Saw |
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| Sharks | None | Mantas | None |
| Dolphins | None | Whale Sharks | None |
| Turtles | None | Whales | None |
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best): |
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| Corals | |
Tropical Fish | |
| Small Critters | |
Large Fish |  |
| Large Pelagics | |
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Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best): |
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| Subject Matter | |
Boat Facilities |  |
| Overall rating for UWP's | N/A | Shore Facilities | |
| UW Photo Comments | Please see my review. | ||
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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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