Atlantis Dive Resort, Dumaguete
I was also on the same trip as the first reviewer cdub and I will once again try to avoid being repetitive.
The resort we stayed at was Atlantis and it has been the best resort I have stayed in so far. The resort picked us up from and back to the airport since we were staying one night on Manila and I really appreciated at how they made sure we had no problems checking into our domestic flights since none of us spoke the native language. They also gave us packed lunches for us to take into the airport. They were there in Dumaguete ready for us when we arrived and after that any questions or issues were resolved instantly. I would say the best aspect of this resort was the attention to the service. The staff was extremely helpful and very nice and they learned our preferences very quickly to make our stay more comfortable. The rooms were pretty standard, but very clean and the porches had tables and chairs to sit in. The meals were posted everyday and there was usually a western dish and more exotic dish. The food was so good none of us turned anything down. The chef apparently had worked in Dubai at a Gordon Ramsey restaurant and he deserved every compliment we gave.
Non diving activites included a morning trip to a local market and lunch there with local items. Nighttime activities were available in Dumageute and I had a great time socializing with the staff, I invited them to join us out on the town and the took us to some great spots and it was fun going out like a local.
The diving is great if you like to take macro photos like me. The muck diving seems at first disappointing but once you really look you see all of the tiny life and all of a sudden you can't spend enough time looking for subjects. If your thinking tropical reefs, this is not the best place for that. There are those spots and they are great but not the focus of the diving. This is a great place for playing Where's Waldo and looking for frog fish, cuttlefish, mantis shrimp, and we saw a blue ringed octopus. The water temps was about 80 degrees and visibility was in the 60 -80 foot range. We did spend a day going to Cebu to swim with juvenile whale sharks which is so far the best i've experienced. There were a lot of people but also a lot of whale sharks being hand fed by the fishermen. They tell you it is not allowed to touch them, but I was having trouble keeping them from touching me. We also went out to the outer islands to dive. Apo island was great and more in line when you think of a tropical dive. Another perk is even when we went on a day trip to the islands or Cebu the resort would bring a full crew and bring a full lunch spread for us. No simple grilled burger or sandwich with this group.
The photo room at the resort is the best photo room I have seen for divers. Plenty of stations with plugs, storage, and the each had a compressed air gun for cleaning and drying your gear. The dive shop was also spacious and they rinsed our gear every night and had it ready to go every morning.
Overall I am not sure I will ever go to another resort with this level of service, unless visiting their sister resort Atlantis Puerta Galera or their liveaboard the Azores. If you like to get your dives in, this is the spot as well. With 5 boat dives a day included, our group started to fatigue a bit on diving and skip some dives, even those of us who never have before.
