Dive Review of Bilikiki Cruises in
Solomon Islands

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Bilikiki Cruises, Sep, 2011, by Douglas Hansen, CA, US ( Contributor 15 reports). Report 6780.
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 $$	N/A
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	The crew of the Bilikiki is wonderful. They were helpful, friendly, able to dispense advice when requested and willing to take suggestions for dive sites. The boat itself seems old and maintenance and upgrades would certainly improve the passengers experience. Our cabin door would not close properly, and I had to tighten the hinges myself to correct the problem. There are no windows or portholes in any of the guest cabins, and storage space is limited. The doors have slats in them, and some of the other cabin doors had broken or missing slats, so privacy was certainly limited. There are no individual controls for the air conditioning, so once we got used to the temperature outside, our cabin felt like a meat locker. The diving was very good. It got better as the trip progressed. There are a lot of very nice hard corals in the Solomon Islands. Soft corals are not as plentiful as they are in Fiji. At a site off of an uninhabited island, we were able to dive with large schools of barracuda and jacks. We also saw tuna and several sharks in this area. Disappointingly, the Bilikiki rarely dives WWII wrecks. We had the opportunity to dive a couple of WWII wrecks when we had to make an unscheduled run back to Honiara because one of our dive companions unfortunately got DCS. Some of the sites had pretty good muck diving. There were quite a number of different flat worms, and I found a number of headshield slugs in the sandy areas. We saw both ornate and robust ghost pipefish, along with pygmy seahorses. We also saw a wide variety of anemone fish, and we saw a few mandarin fish. Overall, we had a wonderful trip. I would recommend taking earplugs because the crossings are quite noisy, and if you are prone to seasickness you should bring anti-emetics also.
Websites	Bilikiki Cruises
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	501-1000 dives
Where else diving	California, Baja California, British Columbia, Hawaii, Florida, Cayman Islands, Bonaire, Curacao, Bahamas, Fiji, Indonesia, Palau, Papua New Guinea
Closest Airport		Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, rainy	Seas	calm
Water Temp	81-84°F / 27-29°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	30-80 Ft/ 9-24 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	Maximum one hour, come back with 500 psi
Liveaboard?	yes	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	1 or 2	Mantas	Squadrons
Dolphins	1 or 2	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	1 or 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 were dedicated rinse tanks for cameras, a dedicated camera table on the main deck and a small camera room on the upper deck. The crew was very cautious with the cameras. Easily one of the best setups for underwater photographers that I have seen.

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Dive Review of Bilikiki Cruises in Solomon Islands

Bilikiki Cruises, Sep, 2011,

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 Bilikiki Cruises in
Solomon Islands