Dive Review of Crystal Blue Resort in
Philippines

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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.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation	N/A	Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
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!
Websites	Crystal Blue Resort
Reporter and Travel
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
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
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	Come back alive.
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	None	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	None	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	N/A	Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	Please see my review.

Report currently has 2 Helpful votes

Subscriber's Comments

By carl berenson in WA, US at Dec 15, 2014 19:59 EST

where and when did you dive in Indonesia?

By Frances Lewis in MI, US at Jan 08, 2015 21:51 EST

You don't rate the dive boats very high. Why? What are entry and exits like? Is there a ladder? How do you get back into the boat?

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Dive Review of Crystal Blue Resort in Philippines

Crystal Blue Resort: "Close, but no cigar", Dec, 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 Crystal Blue Resort in
Philippines