M/V Mermaid II
I thoroughly enjoyed my first liveaboard trip with Mermaid II to Komodo from Bali. The crew and company aboard were great and made the trip a truly relaxing active experience. The dive sites in Komodo park were awesome and had great biodiversity - hard & soft corals, sponges, nudis, fish, crab/shrimp/lobsters, eels, rays, sharks, turtles etc - while my team didn't see any mantas others spotted them on our trip. Accommodations were fine. Bathrooms are a bit small - shower is basically over the toilet - but it's a boat and I don't have another reference point for this. That said, others have mentioned there was more bathroom/shower space on their prior liveaboad experiences in other parts of the world. Food was solid - hearty with decent options, cannot complain. The variety and quality didn't blow my mind though hence the 4 starts. The crew and dive operation itself were really solid - they definitely all went the extra mile - and the tenders really helped make the 3-4 dives a day a smooth operation. Hot chocolate offered on the back deck after the night dives really hit the spot and our individual post-dive towels were always dry and at the ready. While we lost an engine to a malfunction on the first night cutting the trip short by a couple dives, thankfully we were still able to get by on one engine given the close proximity of the dive sites in Komodo, and after a polite inquiry, Mermaid agreed to comp us our nitrox for the week in return. Overall a great experience, really delivered on my Indo expectations and would definitely consider diving with the Mermaid crew again - perhaps to Raj Ampat next time!
