We loved every minute! Boat: All excellent Diving: All excellent. Crew: It is clear both G and Lisa are as excited about showing us these wonderful places as we were to discover them! They run an efficient cruise, they are generous with their knowledge and do it all while being delightfully cheerful. The ship is beautiful, but the crew made the trip!! We could not be happier!!! Food: All excellent
Archives: Testimonials
Maria
Boat: All excellent Diving: All excellent Crew: All excellent. Wawan is the best! Food: Chef did a great job!
Kate and Greg
We very much appreciated the excellent wines (reds). We also loved the decor. We live on the island of Borneo and perhaps appreciate this wooden, local decor more, since we have been to longhouses, etc. The warm decor is conductive to bonding us as a really nice group. Many of us had not met before, yet we all know the organizer Greg. We got along really well. We were blessed with fantastic weather, calm seas, few currents and lots of fish. Boat: The bed was very comfortable. Plenty of nice big pillows. I liked the space around the bed to put small things :o) Our cabin Dayak was spacious. Every morning and again every evening our rooms were made like new! Including a chocolate for bedtime. The toilet waste bin was always clean. The lighting was a nice, subtle color, amber. The amenities (hairdryer, reading light, shampoo, conditioner and body soap) were very much appreciated. Diving: Best “check out” dives ever! The first three dives were shallow in Ambon, at Laha and full of interesting fish. Crew: Cruise Directors Lisa and G: always nice, cheerful, helpful, and best of all: knowledgeble and excited about dive sites, what we might see, and about life of things in the sea. Divemaster Ronald: always kept good “eye” on the 4 divers, always wrote on his slate anything I wanted to know. Saved me 3 times: caught my mask and computer when I dropped it while preparing to enter the boat and untangled my SMB and hook. Food: Always accommodated my special need of “no-dairy” by preparing foods for me, using either the almond milk powder I brought, or cooking differently (roasted potatoes instead of mash). My husband LOVED the lovely cappuccino in the morning.
Dorinda
Very memorable trip!!! Great crew!! Amazing Mantas!!
Kate
The video showing us the staffs pictures, names and where they are from was very helpful to us and also made us feel like a family. Special celebrations prepared by Arenui staff brought joy and bonding, putting the Arenui heads and shoulders above other liveaboards. Please continue! Chef Putu created an underwater fruit art for a divers 400th dive. We were so impressed! Watermelon base, manta (from watermelon rind, with red belly), butterfly fish (pineapple), corals (bell peppers), dolphin (pumpkin). We all took photos. Chef Putu made a lovely cake for one couple’s 35th wedding anniversary. Diver Dorinda brought her Italian diving giraffes Gia and Giuseppe, who posed by many fish, including one with a green rhinopia! G organized a fun photo contest, telling stories per photo of the divesite and with excitement of all we could see, how lucky we were (great weather, lot of oceanic mantas, silver sides, etc.) and about the lives of the fish, including behaiviours we couldn’t see. This information helped to educate us in a very fun way, again, putting the Arenui heads and shoulders above other liveaboards.
Eileen
I loved the SMILES from everyone! Everyone so kind and hearted! I had a fantastic time – everything was wonderful. Met some great new people including boat crew. Wawan is a gem! Kudos to Lisa and G for being so awesome! Diving: Awesome!!! Crew: Awesome!!!
Jack
Wow! I loved the entire trip. I want to bring back my family in a few years. Lisa and G are amazing. Best in 30 years diving on liveaboards. The maps at the end of the trip are wonderful. Boat: 5 stars! After 30 years diving in many liveaboards, like Agressor Fleet in Papua New Guinea, Galapagos, Komodo and Peter Hughes Fleet in Cocos Island, Solomon, Socorro and Truth Aquatics in Channel Islands, CA, etc. this is THE BEST BOAT AND SERVICE! Diving: Greatest variety ever seen! Crew: I was amazed by all the extra services by the crew! Waiters Anto and Kadek are terrific! Divemaster Joni was terrific! Tender drivers were great! G and Lisa are the best ever! Food: Great – I appreciate the gluten free food! :o)
Pat and Chris
Everyone works so hard especially the room boys/dive deck/massage. Always with a smile. The chefs seem to be working all day with fantastic results. Tender drivers are so strong and very helpful. Good at remembering little touches of how to help. As ever, Debbie and Jerry are EXCELLENT – always there and ever cheerful. Boat: thank goodness for AC in the saloon. The crossbars at the tables very welcome. Diving: excellent guiding and spotting of the tiniest critters to the big things out in the murk. Crew: this is our 5th trip on the Arenui and it just gets better and better. A special mention has to be made about the room boys Wenton and Wayan. Their help on the dive deck was far beyond the call of duty. Full assistance with putting on and taking off dive gear. I had a sore back and they did everything for me, including putting on dive boots. Thank you! Food: once again, it’s incredible how such fresh and delicious food is available all the time. How on earth does lettuce keep so fresh for two weeks?! The chefs excelled themselves every meal.
Summer
Everything was excellent. Can’t wait to come back and do another trip with Arenui!
Woody
I’ve been diving for 39 years and I’m a PADI IDC Staff Instructor. I have never seen underwater anything close to this level of beautiful and very healthy coral and this much marine life. I happen to love diving deep and searching for ‘the big stuff’ – sharks in particular. But until this trip I’d never seen a thresher shark. I told my incredible divemaster Ronald “let’s find the sharks”. We dove deep and into the blue and WHALA – hammerheads and two up close and huge thresher sharks in Run Island at 122 feet down out in the blue. I was screaming underwater with excitement! Crew: Cruise Directors incredibly knowledgeable. Divemasters amazing.