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KLM Euphoria dive boat review
Traditional in silhouette but modern in features, the KLM Euphoria is sailing ship cruising the blue seas around Indonesia.
Indonesia’s Raja Ampat has been described by some as one of the richest places on the planet for biodiversity and marine life. Schools of thousands of fish species inhabit the area. And the waters are also known for passing pelagic animals – manta rays and sometimes the largest of all, the whale shark!
You can check the availability, schedule and prices for this Boat here.
Modernly equipped and made from the finest materials available, the KLM Euphoria is an elegant sailing ship built in a traditional ‘South Celebes Finisi’ style. She is 42m in length, 8.5m in beam and cruises at a speed of 9 knots. She is stylishly decorated and along with competitor MatahariKu, known to be one of the finest liveaboards operating in the area.
Cabins and Boat Layout
Euphoria is able to cater to 14 guests over her 7 cabins.
Euphoria Liveaboard Floor Plan
On the lower deck there are 5 cabins which are either double, twin or three-person, depending on individual cabin allocation.
On the upper deck there are 2 Master or ‘VIP’ cabins.
Eurphoria Cabin
As you would expect on such a luxurious vessel, every cabin has air-conditioning, a fully equipped bathroom featuring a hot toilet and hot shower and ample cabin storage for clothing and belongings.
Euphoria Liveaboard Master/VIP Cabin
The Master/VIP cabins on the upper deck are more spacious and bright with a glass window to the amazing vistas and shared terrace with the adjacent VIP cabin.
Outside the cabins on the very upper deck of the Euphoria is a sun deck where you can soak up the Asian sun in between activities.
There are other leisure areas on the boat. Lower on the vessel you’ll find a sumptuous air-conditioned common room/dining room. Here you can relax on a sofa and read or chat. Or, if you prefer, there is a TV/DVD and stereo system to enjoy. The vessel also has a computer for guests which is useful if you need to view or transfer photos.
Euphoria Liveaboard Dining Area
At the end of the day when the diving is complete there is a bar serving beers, wines and spirits where you can mingle with other divers and exchange stories about the day’s scuba diving.
Full catering is included onboard and a mixture of Western/European and Asian foods are on offer. And, vegetarian options are available and dietary requirements catered for on request.
Diving onboard KLM Euphoria
Diving in Indonesia and Raja Ampat is stunning and this a great way to enjoy it. Up to 4 dives a day take place utilising 3 dive boats that work with Euphoria. Equipment rental is available and additional training is available onboard is specified for a supplement.
Euphoria Liveaboard Rear Deck
Itineraries
A usual tour on the vessel is the 12 day/11 night Raja Ampat itinerary. This means that you may potentially undertake up to 44 dives and includes crossing the equator!
Expect to budget around EUR3,300 for the 12 day/11 night trip which, while on first glance appears expensive, is in fact competitive at only EUR220 a day.
Where does this liveaboard dive boat go?
Check out the fabulous places where this dive boat travels to.
Note: some destinations may not be listed below, please enquire for more details.
Raja Ampat
Richest Reef in the World, Amazing Biodiversity, Wonderful Coral, perfect place for underwater photography.
- If you have been diving on board this liveaboard dive boat in Raja Ampat, please share your review and let us know what you thought. Please post your comments in the review section below, by doing so you will help fellow divers to plan their next diving trip
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Friendly and helpful crew and good diving overall. Don’t expect much interaction with the owner of the vessel who seems mostly annoyed by the presence of the guests.
Food was adequate but you must like fish which is freshly caught. I am not sure what happens when the fishing is poor. Some chicken showed on the plate but the one attempt at beef was not good.
Ship needs a little work despite its youth. An early failure of the walkin cooler taxed the expertise of the crew and was never fixed and it seemed no attempt was made to call in outside help. This limited our menu since there was spoilage. One dive boat had continuous engine trouble and would barely run. The crew managed to keep it limping along and we found later that the boat had the same issue with a previous group. This fault was not addressed during the 4 day interval between groups. For some reason the aircon was never used in the dining salon which made for some very uncomfortable meals especially when windows were closed during rain storms. The aircon worked very well in the rooms though and sleeping was comfortable.
Instant coffee was supplied but we found later in the trip that there was indeed an espresso/latte/cappuccino machine on board but it was never used in the presence of guests, nor was it mentioned that it was even available for our use. It did get used as I found the owner with a bucket full of grounds one morning spreading it amongst his potted plants. Hmmmm.
Odd odors akin to pesticide were very strong in the rooms and contributed to headaches among some of the guests. I suspect that application of the chemical were curtailed after complaints and the smell dissipated, although it penetrated our clothing and we rediscovered the smell after we had opened our suitcases in Bali for the next leg of our adventure.
Everyone loved the crew which was entirely Indonesian. They are lovely folks and were always available to help us with anything we desired. They worked so hard and we tipped them well.
Euphoria Nov/Dec 2016
Boarded the Euphoria in Sorong on November 23, 2016 and disembarked the vessel on December 4, 2016
We were in the second of two groups of Canadian scuba divers that traveled Raja Ampat for 11 days on the live aboard Euphoria. The trip was originally booked approximately 2 years previous. We were a late booking as one of the original couples had to back out of the trip at the last minute. We took over their space on the trip in July of 2016 as it was a destination we had been reading about and this was an opportunity to finally get there.
Overall we found the condition of the boat to be acceptable. The housekeeping crew kept the staterooms and common areas clean and tidy. We found the dive guides and boatmen to be hard working and willing to do anything that was asked of them as long as it was within their realm to approve the request. The only issue with the crew that we had would be with the cook who we were told was a last minute replacement for the trip.
Our hopes that what was to be the trip of a lifetime were diminished by the self-described part owner/manager of the operation. One would expect that a person in the position of ownership or manager would lead by example and go out of his way to make sure that his guests left his boat at the end of their trip wanting to recommend his boat to friends in the diving community. We left the boat after counting down the last days to when we would get back to land.
Since getting off the boat I have been trying to put together the words that would accurately and fairly describe our live aboard experience on the Euphoria. As I wrote earlier we have no issues with the majority of the crew as they did whatever they could to make our experience memorable. I believe most will agree that the food is probably the most important aspect of life on a boat. At the beginning of the trip we found the food palatable but by about the halfway point in the trip it became mundane. You can only eat essentially the same menu which was for the most part fish, rice, beans or some sort of spinach type vegetable. Soups were essentially a tasteless broth and deserts were generally another tasteless dish. When we started choosing toast for dinner over the offerings from the kitchen it should say everything that needs to be said about the food. One night when most of the main course was left on the serving table led to a change in the menu from fish to chicken. Unfortunately it wasn’t completely cooked so we passed on that as well. One night there was a barbeque on the beach. It was an amazing scene to be sitting on a white sand beach in a tropical paradise with a roaring fire burning at the water’s edge. The chicken that came off the grill was again not properly cooked and in my case it ended up in the underbrush. At some point the water coming through the water maker started to taste of salt. Included in the trip was juice and soft drinks. One would have expected there to be more choices than Coca Cola for soft drinks and Tang or some powdered drink that was called juice. Sprite was also on board but we were told that was only to be served as part of a special drink.
Prior to each dive the manager Artur would give a dive briefing. It didn’t take too long to realize that his briefings were incomplete or didn’t match the site that we would dive. Dives we were told there would be a significant current were usually found to be calm and on dives that were to be calm we would run into a significant current. I understand that currents can be hard to predict but for someone who claims the experience that Artur claims to have in the area I would have expected better accuracy both of the currents and the bottom topography. As hard as it may be to believe one of our briefings was effectively roll off the boat, drop down and swim around for a while and come up and the boat will pick you up.
Of the two dive tenders one had engine problems. To keep it running one of the boatmen or dive guides would have to keep squeezing the primer ball. On days where that would no longer work we were towed to the site by the other boat. While we were diving the boatmen would continue to work on it and usually had it running again for our return. In talking to the boatmen I found that they were interested in trying to fix it but didn’t have the necessary parts. I made the suggestion that part of the problem may be that there was a leak in the fuel system someplace and they did replace a hose that made some difference but was not the full cure. Because we had people with us that were on the first trip we found out that they had the same problem during the previous trip. In between trips the boat stays in Sorong resupplying for 4 days which should have allowed for the repairs to the tender. It may be a nuisance when diving to have an engine that can’t be depended on to run at all times but should there have been an emergency on board those dive skiffs would be pressed into a potential lifesaving rescue service.
We found Artur’s professionalism to be sorely lacking. He showed no interest in his customers in the short times that he was in the common areas. I realize that we are in a different country where customs are different but I don’t believe that can excuse him for keeping the company of a very young lady in his cabin. At first I hoped that it was his daughter that was coming out with her dad over the holidays but it didn’t take long to realize that was not the case. I had occasion to share my concerns regarding a couple of problems on the boat and found him to be disinterested at best. The first issue was when his guides insisted on swimming into the current. I can understand it when there is something to see and might be worth the effort but after it was repeated a couple of times I went to him and requested that he talk to the guides to change that (I would have talked to the guide myself but there was a language barrier). During the exchange I found him to be defensive and showed little interest in speaking to the guides. I effectively had to tell him that we would no longer swim into the current and if his guides insisted on doing so we would not follow them. The other issue was with the water maker. At some point in the trip the water started to taste salty. When he was told this his solution was to go to one of the large water containers in the galley and take a drink. He then pronounced the water just fine. In my opinion the correct solution would have been to change the membrane or serve the bottled water that was stored under one of the benches in the galley. Once found we solved the issue by helping ourselves to the bottled water. Both issues were resolved but not in a manner that could be called a display of customer service.
I expect Artur will question why there was no complaint made to him about the food. For me the answer to that is that the response by him to previous issues raised was poor at best. As well our experience was already negative and potentially making it worse during the last 3 days by making a request that probably was impossible to accommodate probably wouldn’t help the situation.
We have talked of going to Raja Ampat for a number of years. We have done the trip now and we enjoyed meeting the new people that our sport makes happen. We enjoyed our interactions with the crew on board and don’t hold them responsible for what could have been a far better experience. That responsibility lies at the feet of Artur our manager/owner as he is the person that can make the changes necessary to improve the atmosphere on his boat. At the time we booked the trip we looked on line to see if there were any comments regarding the Euphoria but found none of substance. I write this in the hopes that describing our experience will allow others to carefully evaluate their choice of a live aboard dive boat in Raja Ampat.
In talking to people in the local diving industry since our departure from the boat we now believe that we witnessed illegal fishing in the Raja Ampat marine sanctuary. We have been told that fishing is illegal within the sanctuary but throughout our trip we witnessed the crew fishing on a daily basis. We were also asked by these people what dive stood out the most on our trip. They were very surprised when we told them it would be the dives we did in Bunaken. They went on to tell us that we must have not done the best sites in Raja Ampat. They also told us that they were surprised that our itinerary took us to such a small area in the sanctuary. They told us that on 10 day trips that they put together the itinerary takes them to a far larger area than what we had seen. A recent article in Canada’s Diver Magazine describes a 10 day trip on the Raja Ampat Aggressor which took their patrons to Baljullol, Wayil Batan and Misool.
There is a fee to dive in the sanctuary. Before boarding the boat we were told that the fee was one million Indonesian rupiah. When it came time to pay the fee we were told that it was US $100.00 With the exchange rate that amount would come to about one million three hundred thousand rupiah. When I asked about the discrepancy I was told that the fee had been raised by the government. Since getting home I have emailed the Indonesian tourism website and have been told that the fee is one million Indonesian rupiah. When I checked on the Euphoria website it currently quotes the fee as one million Indonesian rupiah.
This was our first live aboard dive trip to Indonesia and it has left us wondering if we want to risk another to the area. In speaking to others that have travelled the area they tell us that theirs was a far better experience. We have long been told to choose a boat that has been in operation for at least a couple of years so they have time to fine tune their operation and in this case the boat began operations in 2012. In looking back now, when we couldn’t find any reports about the boat on line, we should have asked for contact information for those on recent trips on the Euphoria.
Euphoria Mar 2017
Excellent dive at Raja Ampat.
But this boat is not recommended for the following reasons:
1) Absolutely not client-oriented owner / manager Arthur
2) In the cabins stinks of exhaust gases and chemistry
3) The boat is far from 2012
4) Large cockroaches run on the ship
5) Permanent problems with engines of dive boats