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MV Amba dive boat review
There’s ample choice of liveaboard operating in the Indian Ocean around the Maldives. All shapes and sizes. However, the competitively priced and luxurious MV Amba deserves to be somewhere on your shortlist.
The Maldives offers great diving in the clear blue waters around the many atolls making up this island nation. Visibility can range from 15-20m to as far as the eye can see. The weather is tropical, hot and humid – so don’t forget your sunglasses! The azure blue waters are also home to some stunning marine life. Brightly coloured reef fish such as parrotfish, emperor fish, sweetlips and snapper circulate the coral outcrops. Giant moray eels, turtles, and shrimps make can all be found in the cracks and crevices around the walls and reefs. Alternatively, there’s a good chance to meet larger pelagic animals such as rays, sharks and, sometimes, an ocean giant such as the Whale Shark. An unforgettable experience and great diving is almost guaranteed.
MV Amba was constructed in 2004, is 33m long and a has a beam of 10m. This places her firmly in the same size-class as other mid-sized Maldivian vessels such as Sharifa and Virgo. Amba is propelled by a powerful Volvo Penta motor and cruises the Indian Ocean at 10 knots. As you would expect, Amba has all the latest navigation, communication and safety features; from GPS to fire extinguishers and first aid – every base is covered. And, for those who sometimes suffer with motion sickness, you’ll be heartened to learn that Amba is fitted with hull stabilisers ensuring a smooth voyage.
You can check the availability and prices for this Boat here.
Cabins and Boat Layout
Amba is home to 20 guests over a choice of 3 different cabin layouts and configurations:
- Standard Twin Room – with twin single beds, air-conditioning and fans, private bathroom with hot and cold running water, basin, shower, towels, linen and storage space. There is natural light through the porthole. There is 3-pin 220v power.
- Double Bed Room – this cabin has all the same great features but, alternatively, a double bed for couples and porthole or picture windows for additional natural light.
- Suite Cabin – for those who want a little more space and luxury. This cabin is a large suite located on the main deck with a large double bed and private sundeck. It of course has all the other great facilities of the standard and double rooms.
Standard Twin Cabin
On the main deck you can utilise the inviting and comfortable salon/dining area. It’s air-conditioned, has comfortable seating and is completed with a bar area – where, when diving is completed you can unwind with a cold beer – and an entertainment systems should you wish to watch a film. For a small fee, paid wi-fi is available onboard
Suite
Outside there is a tremendous amount of space to relax in-between dives. There are outdoor relaxing areas with seating – both uncovered and covered. And, of course, a sizeable sundeck with loungers for those wanted to return from their holiday bronzed by the tropical sunshine.
Salon/Dining area
Food is a mixture of local and western dishes served in a buffet style. Should you have any special dietary requirements, please specify at booking.
Diving onboard Amba
As is common practice in the Maldives, Amba has a spacious diving dhoni which tracks the main vessel’s movements. With plenty of space to put on your diving equipment, it then ensures you’re dropped in the optimum location for the dive. There is also a tender on hand as a back-up vessel.
Dive Deck
Diving dhoni
Nitrox is available to extend your bottom time; a real bonus with many dives in the 20-30m range. There are also rinse tanks and DIN adaptors to keep your equipment clean and correctly functioning with the local INT fitting tanks.
The crew speaks English and are always on hand to assist you with any procedural or logistical problems you may have.
Itineraries
Departing points and itineraries vary, with Amba tending to concentrate on some of the more exclusive northern atolls and sites. Dive site selection is obviously subject to the prevailing conditions.
Expect to pay around approximately EUR1,219 for a 8 day/7 night trip. This equates to EUR152/day, making Amba very competitive for the region. Please note that this does not include some extras such as port/marine park fees, crew tips, alcoholic drinks and equipment rental. Please contact us for further details.
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.
destination of the monthMaldives
Great Drift Dives, amazing place for underwater photography. Good chance of spotting Manta Rays and Whale Sharks!
- If you have been diving on board this liveaboard dive boat in Maldives, 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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Other Liveaboard Reviews in Maldives
I’ve never had such a shitty dive experience like this one! You might not evenpublish this,so I will be blogging about it on my own.my back ground, former PADI divemaster, currently active SSI dive master, with over 9 years diving, and an avid underwater photo video dude. Let me say the massive maldavians on board were great, as was the service, and the food. What sucked was having a cabin on the lower deck 25th a bike that takes if Derian so bad the end result was a migraine the following day that cost me three dives. The solution of keeping my hatch open along with the emergency hatch didn’t work, so I ended up sleeping in the salon, and yes, at two thousand dollars you’re dam right I contacted the booking agent about this. After I requested a cabin on the upper deck, that problem was resolved, and again emailed my booking agent to inform them of that. However Liveaboard.com emailed the management; Jamin Neiderstrasse, and Tamara Neiderstrasser, who immediately got pissed of about it, and wouldn’t even hear me out about it, with the remark, “so sleep on the fly bridge”, which is a good answer if you paid 1000$ or less…I had brought up the stink the first day, and it was worse after they took in more fuel. I never met these two before and I wasn’t on a discounted price, so yes I stand up whatfor what I pay for. Now whether Jamin was bragging, our telling the truth of his arrest in Germany for selling drugs, namely ecstasy, combined with his unprofessional attitude I lost my trust in them, and having been in the US Navy, and creed multi million dollar yachts, my trust weren’t our the window, and then that rolls down to not trusting the crew, ask the way down to not trusting the tanks of Nitrox. I cab day if you want hash oil, Jamin cab get it for you as he suprised me with that, and I didn’t ask for it. I took pictures if it..but I digress.. I thought those two little immature a goes would have gotten over it, cut no, bad attitudes, faces, looks, etc. So yes, to geek with that, so not only did I stop diving, I told the booking director that they were making me nervous, and I wanted off..this wasn’t my first liveaboard, and when I do these trips, I go to 1, dive, 2, the pics and vids for my website, 3, I always make friends. Syu i couldn’t care less if they thought I was uncool..the booking operators again contacted them telling them I wanted if the boat. Syu the shalmootah Tamara goes in with calling me scared, acting like a bitch, etc..she rolled her eyes so much I thought I thought she was having a seizure. Her “convict” boy friend was skulking being the door listening, for what? I don’t have a criminals record and quirk privately as a dive guide for high end clientele. Syu I was able to pack and get off the boat. Outrageous!!! Any GiF captain would have found the source of the squawk leash, and the only reason these two don’t get kicked off, and married I’d because her family owns the boat, which I had my friends a former disc iOS from the German army, and working security was able to find out all about them in five minutes.. If I was unprofessional I would have smacked the taste out of her mouth to stop the eye rolling and tits her douche bag boyfriend over the side…I don’t feel standing yo for my two grand is being unprofessional, it’s my right! I even offered an apology over the first email, why, I shouldn’t have, they should have! In review, there are better boats out there to do a live aboard, and having been caked crazy, those two ate just at the train station, they have yet to get in my crazy train, and I’m half convinced to give a cask to the Malawian authorities to prove how “not cool” I can be…I’ve never experienced this low, no class, shit treatment, ever! I’m no aristocrat, I have served to militaries, so I don’t take shit Fein anybody, ex’s specialty two little immature twerps who should be working a fast food job, not managing the vessel. Mokter, the dude who served the meals and drinks should be running the vessel..the day white laughed and said he doesn’t understand English, attitude! He understood me one hundred percent. I’m even going to pass their names on to my police buddies in Thailand, Bali, Indonesia, Vietnam, and the USA, and will leave it the hands of the authorities..originally I requested a refund, but I’ll enjoy blogging about it more, and putting their pics and names on it…if I was so uncool, how cine the other divers are inviting me to start with them when I tour Europe this summer? Obviously I’m not the problem, good thing I didn’t die from oxygen toxicity/diesel fumes, our they would have to reimburse everyone booked thru 2017 when the authorities would come to investigate a death on board..so to hell with those two. I got a kick out of the bill, where at the bottom it said “not charged for an upgraded room” if those Jack asses would have sorted out the diesel leak the first day, I wouldn’t be writing this. I didn’t transfer the fuel, I’m not the engineer, they need to get their shit together and grow up..I do have a video statement from one of the divers who mentioned the over peering drink of diesel, so they can go such a bag of dicks!!
First the good, The boat is very comfortable. Cabins all have separate A/Cs and are controlled in cabin. The Amba and Dhoni captains and crew are above awesome. The food is plentiful albeit monotonous. Lots of fresh caught fish which is great but the preparation lacked any kind of flair. Also lots of pasta and more pasta. Breakfast was eggs every morning. We had some really heavy wind so the diving was a little on the disappointing side however this is obviously not the fault of the boat. 4 really really good dives, 5 or 6 that were good and the others were just ok. Nothing terrible just not jaw dropping.
The boat is owned and run by a German couple Nicole and Franco. Our trip was mostly German guests with the exception of 2 russian brothers and a Australian and his Thai wife however he spoke German. Dive briefings were done by Franco and the other dive guide. Franco always went first. When he was done all of the german guests would be up and talking and carrying about. This made it VERY VERY difficult to hear our briefing. The other problem is our guide was very very soft spoken so it was hard to hear and gave only the barest of details about the dive while it seemed Franco gave much more detail based on how long his briefings were.
The trip is listed as Open Water with minimum of 40 dives logged. This trip absolutely needs to be listed as ADVANCED with a minimum of 100 dives. The strong currents, the negative entries and the hook dives all dictate that to me. My sister is an open water diver with about 40 dives and she struggled. If you are accustomed to having your dive master or guide be aware of your group then this trip is not for you. On one dive my sister decided to sit out so I dove with the 2 brothers. One of them was unable to do a negative entry as he had some ear difficulties. The guide was aware of this as was Niclole who used a torpedo on every dive and stayed above the divers to make sure all was ok. The guide told us to just keep an eye on the groups bubbles and we would be fine. The water was very murky and this was impossible. We lost sight of the group. We hung out in 80′ of water and ended up surfacing and ending the dive. Once on board neither the guide nor Nicloe asked us what happened. Needless to say I was shocked that there was such little care as to the safety of there guests. Once back on the Amba we confronted Franco and wanted to talk about what happened. He was very very defensive and told us it was our fault and basically turned his back on us and walked away. This came from the owner of the boat who has the taken on the responsibility of providing a safe diving operation, in my opinion he failed miserably.
The other big big negative was the smoking on the boat. The smoking section was on covered back deck. This is the main area to sit and relax and hang out. Anyone who doesnt smoke will find this to be a very big deal as it severely limited our ability to have anywhere to go to hangout. There is the sundeck up on top but no tables or chairs. All in all I would not recommend this boat.