Silverswift Cruises day trip

The 3 day Minke whale trip is a great adventure. The boat is a good size for the number of people and the dive deck for the number of divers. Easy access in and out of the water. Beds comfy, food plentiful and tasty. Our skipper and all the staff very friendly and helpful. Our trip was pretty hairy in terms of weather conditions, but seasick tablets were available and they got us home safe. Most importantly we did see Minkes! Not as many as previous trips, but we did have one brief in-water encounter. The luck of the draw. The diving was lovely. Overall a great trip.
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I wish I had read some of the reviews from more experienced divers before I booked the 3 day liveaboard with prodive. Writing this review to cover the things I wish i knew before booking.The crew did their best with what they had but ultimately its just a low cost, low quality, high volume operation:- most divers on board were doing their ow certification, which I think influenced the sites we went to. We spent most of our time on flynn reef and only moved to milln reef for the last two dives. Not sure about the rest of the GBR but a lot of the sites were bleached and sad.- no guides are provided, and you're on your own to navigate to the sites and find interesting critters. Quite a few people I talked to didn't end up in the right place or see the things we were supposed to. Instead of enjoying the dives, a lot of it was trying to situate ourselves or look after the more inexperienced divers. If no guides are provided, than a minimum number of dives would be appropriate to ensure safety- no effort was made to buddy up solo divers based on experience and air consumption. It was uncomfortable seeing someone realise their buddy was highly inexperienced and try to communicate that they didn't feel safe or confident with them as a buddy as we were getting ushered into the water.- open water divers were on their own without guides/divemasters immediately after getting certified, and a lot of them looked pretty rattled. All the safety checks and head counts seem pretty pointless if they're happy to send out two extremely inexperienced divers out on their own- no idea why the staff didn't tell divers to take motion sickness tablets when we were checking in or before boarding the boat - they told us way too late when the boat was already in choppy waters, and 20+ people threw up for 2 hours straight.- this last point is being picky but the boat was at full capacity which meant uncomfortably cramped seating arrangements for meals, and being in each other's way when we were putting on our gear - this could easily be managed by staggering entry into water by groups rather than have all 32 people getting ready at the same time.
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Fantastic and well organised trip. I was doing my Advanced Open Water and Nitrox course (good combination!), and the diving and dive sites were great. Plenty of yummy food, and the crew looked after us really well. Particular shout out to Caleb as the AOW instructor - educative and in control without micro-managing - and Kevin as supervisor, who was equal parts entertaining and informative.
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