Dive Review of Blue O'Two in
Red Sea/Southern Route, Red Sea

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Blue O'Two: "Blue Melody", Jun, 2018, by Ellen Marie Smith, MN, US ( Sr. Contributor 26 reports with 13 Helpful votes). Report 10634 has 1 Helpful vote.
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	Our itinerary was "Simply the Best" and we traveled in late June 2018. I had a strange problem with our booking -- after we booked I got a call asking if we would like to switch to a different itinerary during the same time frame to an itinerary we had already been on with Blue O'Two. I was told that the boat we were on was overbooked. I was quite adamant that we had paid our deposit and that we did not want to upgrade our room to the itinerary we had already done! All worked out in the end, but I found this troubling. I have received emails since our trip that they have a "new" reservation system. Let us hope that is true! Is is a huge puzzle putting together such a trip and that phone call was upsetting. We spent a few days diving in Hurghada prior to our boat departure. I found the diving rather disappointing there as there are too many dive operators in Hurghada -- each dive site has 10-20 boats tied to the reef (!!!) and divers are everywhere. Sadly, the fish are not. I chose to travel to the Red Sea in June because of the warm water and the possibilities of seeing the oceanic white tip shark. My itinerary was "Simply the Best" and it included the Brothers, Deadalus and Elphenstone. I was not disappointed - at Small Brother I saw an oceanic white tip, an oceanic black tip (very rare according to our divemaster) and an oceanic manta ray. I had glimpses of hammerheads. At Big Brother I saw a thresher shark at a cleaning station at about 115 ft, a large napoleon wrasse, an oceanic white tip under the boat and the elusive hammerhead (just too far to get a picture!). At Daedalus we encountered a large plankton bloom and spent a lot of time searching in the murky blue for hammers...but alas...they were just a bit out of reach for pics again. The beautiful walls had very healthy hard and soft corals. At Elphanstone Reef were saw amazing soft corals, a very healthy reef, turtles, lots of life and again, the oceanic white tip shark. My goal of getting good pictures/video of the oceanic white tip accomplished, I headed home a happy woman. Blue O'Two crew and boat provided an amazing experience. My kudos to divemaster Ahamed Hamad, who worked tirelessly and clearly loves what he is doing. The boat staff and crew were fantastic. We stayed at the Marriott Beach Resort on either side of our live-aboard experience. Since the exchange rate is so favorable currently, we opted to spend the last night at the Marriott instead of on the boat. The trip home is long! The only remaining problems we had were related to our departure.....we were dropped at the wrong terminal at the airport (which is an expensive mistake, one that we were not compensated for by Blue O'Two even though it was their error) and the cancellation of our return flight to Paris (as described in the travel area earlier). All in all, it was a great trip. Travel can be a hassle but I'll never stay home! Note: we used an Egyptian "handler" at the Cairo airport. Email me if you want that info. We found it helpful but it is an added expense. We felt it was worth it.
Websites	Blue O'Two
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	501-1000 dives
Where else diving	Red Sea (North and South), Galapagos, Hawaii, Caribbean (Cozumel, Belize, Turneffe, Utila, Turks & Caicos, St. Martin, Nevis & St. Kitts), California (Long Beach to Catalina), False Bay (South Africa), Cocos Island, Socorro Islands, Ustica (Italy), Yap, Palau, & Truk, Thailand (Surin Islands).
Closest Airport	Hurghada	Getting There	USA-Paris-Cairo (we flew Delta/Air France), changed to Egypt Air for Cairo to Hurghada. On our return, Air France cancelled our Flight out of Cairo and there was no one at the Air France counter upon our arrival so we took a hotel in Cairo. We spent the day at the Pyramids and the Museum. The next night we were able to get on the packed Air France flight to Paris and connect to USA. We complained to Delta Airlines and were given adequate compensation for our troubles.
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, windy	Seas	calm, currents, no currents
Water Temp	77-82°F / 25-28°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	75-150 Ft/ 23-46 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	60 minute dive. You could stay under the boat as long as you had more than 500 psi to view the white tip sharks. No swimming to the boat on the surface... ascend only at the ladder as the white tips get frisky to swimmers, even those wearing dive gear.
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	Lots	Mantas	1 or 2
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 2	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		Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	There are dedicated rinse tanks on the boat and a dedicated camera table. There were enough charging areas for everyone. The crew was careful with the gear. There was no compressed air.

Report currently has 1 Helpful vote

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Dive Review of Blue O'Two in Red Sea/Southern Route, Red Sea

Blue O'Two: "Blue Melody", Jun, 2018,

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):

Dive Review of Blue O'Two in
Red Sea/Southern Route, Red Sea