Dive Review of VIP One in
Red Sea/Sharm El Sheikh

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VIP One, Apr, 2006, by Alan Mayfield, AE, USA ( Reviewer 4 reports). Report 2384.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity	N/A
Dive Operation		Shore Diving
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$	N/A
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	A wonderful trip. I made this return trip to Sharm to dive with this Liveaboard because they are affiliated with the Red Sea Diving College that I did Day Dives with a couple of years ago (see previous post). I expected quality service and I was not diaappointed. I traveled to Sharm with two friends from Athens through Cairo. The real adventure started at the Cairo airport with a midnight transfer from the international terminal to the domestic terminal. We traveled a day early hoping to avoid lost luggage and all the luggage made it with us. Upon arrival at Sharm airport, we were met by a driver from the Red Sea Diving College and transferred to our hotel. We checked in at the College and spent that day looking around. The next afternoon, we were transported to the boat. It was in a marina across town from the College. The accommodations were outstanding. Each room had a bath with shower. It was very well kept and the beds were comfortable. The common areas were very large and the only area that was crowded was the dining area. That was understandable though because there were 15 divers on the boat for that week. The Divemaster briefed us on the plan for the week and decided to reverse the usual itinerary, to put us on reefs when they were not crowded. This worked out very well, as all the sites we visited were practically ours alone. We had a day of bad weather, but as a benefit of a liveaboard, we were able to move into a small lagoon and dive inside the reef that afternoon without problems. The weather did delay our visit to the Thistlegorm by a day. However, with the change, we actually made an extra dive on this wreck. All the sites, except one were beautiful. The day we dove Jackfish Alley, we waited for several day boats to leave the area and the site looked "picked over". We attributed this to the fact that the Day Boats had just left the site. Overall, it was another outstanding trip to the Red Sea for me. I had talked about my last trip to Sharm with my friends here and they were not disappointed in this trip. I would highly recommend VIP One to anyone wanting a Luxury Liveaboard experience. The only disappointing factor on this trip was that two of us obtained Nitrox certification before we left for this trip and the nitrox compressor was not working after the first day of diving. The only suspicious thing about the Nitrox problem was that on the first day, we mentioned that we were told that it would cost 50 euros extra for Nitrox for the week and the divemaster told us that it normally costs 150 euros for a week of Nitrox. He said that he would call back to the college to check and when we returned from that dive, then we were told that the compressor was broken. That made me wonder if our quoted price for Nitrox may have played a part. The boat had just come out of dry dock and one of the improvements they made was that they installed a "Whip" to fill tanks. This allowed us to return from a dive and put our tanks (or should I say, 'have them put') in the tank holder near the bench where we kitted up. Before the change, you had to take your tank to the compressor and then move it back to your kit-up area. The service was outstanding and the food was excellent. Our Divemaster, James, led us to the good spots and also let us do our own thing. The divers were very experienced and the diving was great. I would dive this Liveaboard again and highly recommend it.
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	Over 1000 dives
Where else diving	California, Florida, Italy, Greece
Closest Airport		Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny	Seas	calm
Water Temp	70-74°F / 21-23°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	50-80 Ft/ 15-24 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	30 meter depth by the region.
Liveaboard?	yes	Nitrox Available?	N/A
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
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	A tank to rinse the cameras was available. There were no laptops to download pictures on, but many electical outlets to use.

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Dive Review of VIP One in Red Sea/Sharm El Sheikh

VIP One, Apr, 2006,

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 VIP One in
Red Sea/Sharm El Sheikh