Duke of York 船宿, 马尔代夫

Good and spacious liveaboard. Diving dependant on your allocated guide.

Pleasant trip with good food on a comfy boat. Fabulous to be able to enjoy the meals outside on the main deck. Cabin #12 is the only cabin with a double bed and seems to be slightly bigger than the other cabins. According to another guest excellent massages from Antonella (Instructor's wife and therapist). While the dive dhoni was spacious for only 13 guests on this trip, service could improve in this area. We got a handy aluminum water bottle as awelcome present, that you could bring, but there was no water, tea or coffee on the dhoni as on other liveaboards where those three plus some fruit skewers were the minimum. They had some coconut bits to nibble on though. Free nitrox was good We dove with a freelance dive master which didn't seem as enthusiastic as the other guest's diver masters / instructors. All in all a pleasant trip on a comfortable boat with good food in a pleasant ambiance, expert massages but room for improvement on the diving / dhoni part. We really enjoyed the lively presentations from the accompanying marine biologist as this was a Manta Trust Expedition.

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The food was excellent for a maldivian Live aboard. However the flexibility towards vegetarians could improve.. Spacious cabin (#12). The only cabin with a double bed... Interesting Manta Trust lessons (Manta Trust Expedition).

An excellent liveaboard

The Duke of York is a spacious and comfortable boat with good cabins, surprisingly roomy bathrooms, a pleasant dining area, a very comfortable lounge, a reasonably priced bar and an excellent sundeck. The food, which I had thought might just be survival rations, is a fantastic buffet and excellent given it is made in a small boat kitchen with the limited produce available in the Maldives. This really made each meal feel like a luxurious part of the holiday. One of the guides mentioned that the thing he particularly likes about the boat is how very stable it is, whereas other liveaboard boats might rock around a lot. There were great little touches too, like being provided a warm face towel after returning to the main boat following each dive. One thing to note that is not made clear on this page, is that the boat is run by an Italian company and briefings, meetings and activities all run primarily in Italian with English translations available for guests. It seems common that the majority of guests are Italian with one or two English speakers. The staff and other guests worked really hard to help me with this, but it was not quite the experience I had been expecting and meant I could not communicate with quite a few people on the boat. I think the company could make this clearer on this page as there is no mention of it at all. The dives were generally very good, especially for sightings of reef sharks, sometimes even in big groups. I especially loved the dive by the dock with huge groups of rays and sharks. Our guides were very knowledgeable and keen to share that knowledge. Coral life was good on some dives, but still recovering following heat waves in earlier years in other places. There are lots of anthias, morays, lionfish and rays. I had hoped to see whale sharks and manta rays on the trip in January, but it seems like they are less easy to find at this time of year; I did not see any whale sharks but we did have a night dive where mantas were attracted with lights. I think unseasonable rough weather may have also limited the dive sites we were able to visit. With payment for full gear rental, a large tank, a few beers, taxes etc. all my additional costs came to $550, which is what I had been expecting. Overall, the Duke of York made for a really comfortable and relaxing liveaboard that really felt like a holiday.

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Strengths were the food, the comfortable boat and the professional staff.