点评:The divining in the Maldives is spectacular, and I want to highlight how excellent our guide, Sam, was. Once we got to know him a bit, he opened up and we had some lovely conversations. Underwater, he was the appropriate balance of attentive and relaxed based on our dive experience. He was quite adaptable to only get our attention for certain things and let us explore for the rest. The boat was roomy and the shop was in good order. Unfortunately, there were some marked issues that we couldn’t get our head around. From the first time we walked in there was a sense of us almost being intrusive in thier day. As we had booked/paid in advance, I thought there may have been some welcome or acknowledgment, but we were apparently a surprise to the staff. Details were lose and the experience on the boat was wildly variable. Out of 3 days, we got one boat briefing (on the last day, oddly), we got coffee/tea twice, and the amenities (snacks and parka/towels) were sometimes yes and sometimes no. It was odd that there was no consistency or explanation, and we were left to fend for ourselves most of the time. Fresh water bucket for camera/masks, use of the head, use of the deck, fresh water shower, mask defog/soap… all things we had to find on our own or just take a guess. Not to get it twisted, I dive on my own with zero creature comforts and have over 2K+ dives, so these things are not mandated on any dive experience. However, I’ve never been on a boat or with a dive operator that HAS amenities/services and not told us about them, how to use them, or where they are. It felt like managment had set the bar high and the staff were not engaged enough to bring us into the fold. Dive briefings were communal, rushed, and felt perfunctory. As if they were meant to release the staff of liability vs provide dive information. Again, we could have jumped in and gone just the two of us, but it felt very odd that everything was being “phoned in”. To be clear, our guide Sam was not the problem, but the staff that checked us in, ran the boat experience, and ran our experience at the shop were very disengaged. End of the day- the dives were excellent, they were safe, the rented gear was in good shape, and my personal gear was tended to and cleaned. When I put it that way, it’s a 5/5. However, it felt like we were just tagging along at someone else’s party and had to raise our hand to get any answers, so I have to pull back for quality of service.
One last item, non shop related. Lea Spa Hotel (I can review separately) is to be regarded as a very basic hotel one notch above hostel. Nothing unsafe, but we checked out after one night. I’ve stayed at many of these in my time and dicing career, but it (like the shop) suffers from setting the bar too high with marketing.
If the entire experience were marketed as “budget dive excursions/accommodation in a world class location”… we would have known exactly what we were in for and could have had right sized expectations or chose otherwise. I find that dive operations/accommodations who overstate but underdeliver do not last in the long run as this is a competitive industry.
翻译:马尔代夫的占卜非常壮观,我想强调一下我们的导游 Sam 有多出色。我们稍微了解他之后,他就敞开心扉,我们进行了一些愉快的交谈。根据我们的潜水经验,他在水下保持了专注和放松的适当平衡。他非常灵活,只在某些事情上引起我们的注意,其余的让我们自己去探索。船很宽敞,商店也井然有序。不幸的是,有一些明显的问题我们无法理解。从我们第一次走进来,就有一种感觉,我们几乎打扰了他们的一天。由于我们提前预订/付款,我以为可能会受到欢迎或认可,但我们显然让工作人员感到惊讶。细节很松散,船上的体验变化很大。在 3 天中,我们只听了一次船上简报(奇怪的是,是在最后一天),喝了两次咖啡/茶,便利设施(零食和派克大衣/毛巾)有时有,有时没有。奇怪的是,没有任何一致性或解释,我们大部分时间都只能自己想办法。相机/面罩的淡水桶、头部使用、甲板使用、淡水淋浴、面罩除雾/肥皂……所有这些东西我们都必须自己找到,或者只能猜测。为了不让大家误解,我自己潜水,没有任何舒适的设施,潜水次数超过 2000 次,所以这些东西在任何潜水体验中都不是强制性的。然而,我从来没有上过有便利设施/服务的船,也没有和潜水运营商一起潜水,他们没有告诉我们这些设施/服务、如何使用它们或它们在哪里。感觉管理层把标准定得太高了,员工没有足够的参与度来让我们加入进来。潜水简报是集体的、匆忙的,感觉很敷衍。好像他们是为了免除员工的责任而不是提供潜水信息。再说一次,我们本可以跳进去,只有我们两个人,但感觉很奇怪,一切都是“打电话”的。需要明确的是,我们的导游 Sam 不是问题所在,但负责我们入住、管理乘船体验和在商店体验的工作人员非常冷漠。一天结束时,潜水非常棒,很安全,租用的装备完好无损,我的个人装备也得到了妥善保养和清洁。如果我这样说,那就是 5/5。然而,感觉我们只是在参加别人的聚会,必须举手才能得到任何答案,所以我不得不为了服务质量而退缩。
最后一件事,与商店无关。Lea Spa Hotel(我可以单独评论)被认为是一家比旅馆高一级的非常基本的酒店。没有什么不安全的,但我们住了一晚就退房了。在我的职业生涯中,我住过很多这样的酒店,但它(就像商店一样)的营销标准太高了。
如果整个体验被宣传为“世界一流地点的廉价潜水游览/住宿”……我们就会确切地知道我们想要什么,并可以有适当的期望,或者做出其他选择。我发现,夸大其词但交付不足的潜水运营/住宿不会持续很长时间,因为这是一个竞争激烈的行业。