9.2 Superb
Urica L
United States

The Ari Queen is great value for money for world class diving!

1. Diving - pelagics, healthy reefs, varied sites, easy/challenging 2. The scenery - most beautiful place in the world 3. The dive guides and staff - very professional and fun to be around 4. The value for money - excellent 5. The experience of living on a boat to see the Maldives

Recommended for: 1. The diving 2. The route 3. The service

8.0 Very good
Aaron R
United States

Good value for the money

Hassan my DM was fun to dive with, and the crew is very hard working. I was pleasantly surprised by the space in my room and common areas, for the price relative to other liveaboards. Where I was disappointed is in the communication before and during the trip. And feeling rushed at times. I didn't mind the ship's itinerary but I wish I knew it ahead of time. I tried contacting the liveaboard staff in advance, but emails and messages were ignored (liveaboard.com as a middleman, did a good job of helping me where they could.) For instance, it would have helped me to know that the boat departed Male on Saturday morning and returned back Friday afternoon, as I could have planned my flights better. With that said, the liveaboard was a good value for the money.

Recommended for: The dives, hard working crew, plenty of space

8.8 Fabulous
Paul C
United States

First Liveaboard: Well worth it!

Of course the diving was the main highlight: lots of sharks, including up close and personal chances with nurse sharks on a night dive, manta rays, and lots of barracuda, tuna, Big eye trevally, moray and honeycomb eels, porcupine and puffer fish, bat fish, blue stripe snappers, Hawksbill turtles, etc. I really enjoyed the night dives. One night, there were several mantas feeding on plankton attracted to the surface by lights on the back of the boat and it was possible to get in the water to watch them and take pictures. The boat itself was very comfortable; even the "budget" type rooms on the lower deck were fairly spacious with their own bathroom/showers, air con and closet storage space. The boat staff, especially the kitchen/dining staff were very kind and professional. The dive guests were quite diverse and interesting to talk with: from Finland, Sweden, Italy, Israel, Australia, the USA, Japan, and Russia. We did a total of 17 dives, with one optional dive. One couple from Italy was making their 5th trip on this dive boat! Overall, this was a great value for the money and well worth it! It was my first liveaboard, but it won't be my last! I'm hooked (excuse the pun)!

Recommended for: The diving was very good, the food onboard was delicious, and the convenience of the "dhoni" dive boat was great!

10 Exceptional
Scott P
United States

Amazing Alejandra, Fire, Hugo, and Captain Adam are the best!

Alejandra, Fire, Hugo, and Captain Adam are the best! The rest of the crew is awesome as well. I cannot say enough about the professionalism that comes with the employees of this boat. They went above an beyond to make everyone's trip amazing. Manta Ray night dive was incredible as well as the Shark and Stingray night dive. Owner take note: Alejandra is awesome!

Recommended for: Staff, Staff, Staff.

10 Exceptional
Graziella E
Netherlands

Wonderful experience, I hope to do it again some day...

The nightdive with then sharks and rays; the bbq on the eiland, diving around South Ari Atoll; the manta ray coming in the evening to our boat; the amazing crew, who was always ready to fullfill any wishes; diving in the currents and seeing lots of sharks...and much more. The price made it possible for me to join; it is about the maximum I can afford...

Recommended for: Diving, very nice friendly crew with good service, and the boat and cabin comfort (including the nice hot shower).

9.2 Superb
Claude L
Australia

Best diving holiday ever.

Every dive we saw sharks. Whale shark, Mantas, rays & turtles. Alimatha Island jetty - night dive with 100 + nurse sharks, jacks and rays. Great beach BBQ. The boat offered great relaxation areas.

Recommended for: Great dive sites.Great divemasters and crew. Very comfortable boat.

10 Exceptional
Igor R
Israel

GREATEST DIVING WEEK EVER

Night dive with 100 sharks and sting rays

Recommended for: locations, instructor experience, great room

8.8 Fabulous
Stefan L
Sweden

Great diving, all crew on the boat where really professional,comfortable boat

Very helpful staff, diving and all divers on the boat. Good organisation.

Recommended for: Mantas, whale shark, food

8.8 Fabulous
Tomer L
Israel

A great week on the Ari Queen

The divings are amazing!

Recommended for: Diving Staff Comfort

9.6 Exceptional
ishwar A
India

An amazing experience

One of the better Liveaboard I have been on . The deletion of dive sites were top notch. Despite the rain and the bad weather playing it’s hanky panky we still had such an amazing time and would most definite recommend this live aboard to divers who want to experience the beauty of the central atolls of the Maldives . Thank you Hugo and Sara got Making this trip so memorable . I promise I will return soon

Recommended for: The selection of dive sites. The care for details and the care for safety

7.2 Good
Zoé G
Switzerland

Great week and amazing dives

We spent a great week with amazing 17 dives, 2 night dives among them. Plenty of grey reef, white tip and nurse sharks, quite each dive we saw several of them. 3 dives with manta rays, and twice eagle rays. We dived an interesting wreck also. The boat is quite large with nice rooms and plenty of space for relaxing. The crew was very kind and helpful. The diving conditions and briefing are for experienced divers, particularly with the current, some inexperienced divers were slightly left without much assistance.

Recommended for: The dives, the boat configuration, the crew

8.4 Very good
Alexander P
France

Nice dive week

super night dive at Alimatha Island jetty - with nurse sharks, jacks and rays.

Recommended for: dives

8.0 Very good
Liz P
New Zealand

Best way to see the maldives

Really enjoyed the night dive with the nurse sharks. Great comfortable and spacious boat

Recommended for: Sharks on every dive, variety of dive sites, relaxing

7.6 Good
Samantha S
Canada

Last minute Steal!

This was a wonderful trip worth every penny! I would do it again! Below is the nitty gritty of the boat and the trip: Diving was very nice. The sites are very crowded however, I think a bit of communication with other boats could help with this. There were unfortunately cockroaches on the boat. In the rooms and on the buffet :/ . At times I felt very rushed around and found it a bit difficult to relax in this setting. It felt a bit like being pushed through a dive machine. The diving was very safe boat crew seemed professional and experienced if a bit stiff. Our DM Sara was an exception to this seems very professional but very friendly and relaxed. I think she achieved a better balance of professional and companionable.

Recommended for: Great Diving!Sara was a wonderful DM and great company- I hope to dive with her again ? Seeing my first whale shark and Manta

8.8 Fabulous
Dean G
United Kingdom

Excellent boat

Load of Mantas (not just at cleaning stations), Whale Sharks, lots of sharks and turtles. Evidence that marine protection works compared to other places we've been.

Recommended for: Diversity of marine life, boat atmosphere, relaxed diving

10 Exceptional
Becky Y
Canada

I’ve never seen so many sharks just swimming around (and they are not feeding)  40+ of them!

Going into my cabin in the hold of ‘Ari Queen’ is like walking into a modern hotel room, with 2 beds, not bunk beds. If you don’t look at the round porthole, you’d never guess that you are on a dive boat! The light fixtures, color scheme, the modern bathroom and the ample storage area are great. Even though I was sharing the room with another diver, I never felt that it was cramped. And there were ample of convenient electrical outlets in the room for the 2 of us who had camera, torches, cell phones, etc. to charge at all times. Very nice design! We had wonderful crew and dive masters. We had very thorough dive briefing with charts, maps and drawings and detailed explanations...for every dive! And if something needed to be fixed, the crew would get right on with it efficiently. Now, the kitchen staff especially impressed me as our large group of divers were very diverse and some have very strict dietary requirement and they needed food cooked in separate pots and pans and prepare differently from the rest of us for every single meal. Yet, the kitchen staff took it in stride and did it perfectly for a whole week, with no mistake or complaints and everyone was happy and well fed! Bravo, guys! A really well-run boat! I truly believe that ‘Ari Queen’ attracts nice people who keep coming back to the same liveaboard over and over again! The divers I’ve met on other liveaboards were also friendly people, but frictions did occur from time to time, Yet, on Ari Queeen, everyone got along famously, even though we were all from different backgrounds and spoke different languages! Our love of diving tied us together and it was such a special and warm experience that I’d go back to ‘Ari Queen’ just to be with my fellow divers and the terrific crew again!

Recommended for: Cabin like a hotel room, crew especially the kitchen staff , friendliness of my fellow divers.

9.2 Superb
Sara D
Italy

Personalized service great crew and amazing diving experience!

We really appreciated that the crew staff aloud us to do all the diving excursions taking care of eight months daughter. They were friendly, reliable and very helpful. Something to improve is the boat that although is comfortable it needs some renovation 😃

Recommended for: Diving sites, quality of the crew service and seafood

8.8 Fabulous
Bingnan J
China

The divetrip was awesome.

We saw 6 mantas in just one dive,more than 10 nurse shark in night dive.At some dive sites the water was very clear we saw eagle rays flying around and groups of yellow fin fishes.We also saw several turtles some octopus and lobsters. The temperature is always 28 degree and the current is medium,you will have a lot of fun. The food onboard was good and you will have 5 meals per day. After all the trip was awesome and it's value for money.

Recommended for: Crew service was perfect,Cabin was comfort,Diving was marvellous.

6.4 Review score
Joshua G
Canada

Ari Queen is neither great nor terrible and is a decent way to enjoy the Maldives.

The trip was off to a slow start by spending the first day in Male port. Things improved once we headed out and got to enjoy South Male and Ari atolls. The dive sites seemed to either be for large pelagics (jacks, sharks, rays) or reef. There are some good coral spots and large schools of fish and of course mantas are great. This boat would benefit from an "outside perspective" as the local manager and divemaster Hugo has room for improvement. The boat is in good shape although lacking some attention to detail. This isn't a fancy operation but the crew does their job. If the price is good and you're focused on the diving than this is right, but if you enjoy more niceties than perhaps not.

Recommended for: Diving, Diverse group of guests, variety of sites.

8.8 Fabulous
Sebastien P
France

Great diving and great boat

Mantas Nurse Sharks Wrecks

Recommended for: Diving, boat, crew

8.0 Very good
mijung B
South Korea

good

definitely dive sites, most point were good

Recommended for: crew, dive site, wifi available

6.0 Review score
golan C
Israel

Very good diving experience. Boat can do much better with the small details.

Dives where very good, food and service onboard too. First 24 hours without hot water in the shower and had to ask a few times to repair. Boat ran out of beer to days to the end. They could have participated and avoid the discomfort. When you’re on vacation, especially a costly one, you expect everything to be perfect. Generally we had the feeling we had to ask everything more than a couple of times if we wanted it to happen.

Recommended for: Vacation. Dives. Food

8.0 Very good
Cara W
New Zealand

Unforgettable manta diving

All round amazing experience with manta dives and whale shark spotting on more than one occasion

Recommended for: The diving, most of the staff were amazing and I got my own room

9.2 Superb
Usei S
Japan

No manta ,no whale shark, but enjoy

The weather is not good, but I enjoyed my diving.I think Air Queen provides quality service. And it's affordable. I think I'll patronize the ship next time.

Recommended for: Crew, boat, service

7.2 Good
Emily B
Canada

Good value for money

One afternoon a group of nurse sharks swam right underneath the boat and we jumped in the water to snorkel with them. Amazing!

Recommended for: Nurse sharks night dive, drift dives and good food

7.6 Good
YUN X
China

cost-effective trip

staff were super nice and responsible. room is always keep clean.

Recommended for: nice staff, clean room, warm shower water

8.0 Very good
Eunbe K
South Korea

reasonable mid-price liveaboard

it was generally good. Crews were doing their best, however, the weather was terrible for first few days so I can't have the best experience. And I felt that guiding was one-way communication(we miss diving location twice).. and some of rooms had small problems(no hot water, smells.. )

Recommended for: food was great and crews were kind

9.2 Superb
Joaquin R
Spain

friendliness & organization = triumph

Check dive: Tiger shark & bull shar All the week: Sharks and more sharks Amazing !!!!

Recommended for: Guide, crew and organization

5.2 Review score
Sandra S
United Kingdom

Dissapointing

The sunset dive with giant manta's, the dive with nurse sharks and the dive with a large shoal of yellow snappers, the variety of fish and Tiger shark.

Recommended for: The climate, the clear turquoise water and some of the dives

6.8 Review score
andre V
Netherlands

Decent but not so well organised

-very cracking boat -no nitrox -big storm at night

Recommended for: food, the weather and visibility

Ari Queen, Maldives

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