Tubbataha Reef
Spent 6 nights on the Philippine Siren at Tubbataha Reef. Boat is comfortable but not 5 star. The liveaboard has a huge dive deck though. Great food and friendly staff. No night dives at Tubbtaha Reef due to all wall dives & current so generally made 4 dives a day with both a early AM dive as well as a sunset dive. Up at 0530 to 0600 most every day. If you don't like wall dives, you will be disappointed.
Not very much macro stuff. Lots of small sharks - whitetip, blacktip & grey reef sharks. They were generally sleeping and approachable and sometimes even saw them schooling up to a dozen at a time. A few folks saw a hammerhead shark in early morning, though tough to catch them here-generally shy & mostly deep and early morning.
Marbled rays were my favorite and new for me here. I missed the macro here, though a little was available.
Saw lots of large dog toothed Tunas, some jacks, anthias and moorish idols. Many huge spiny lobsters that would let you get as close as you wanted to photograph them. Moray eels and several spots with garden eels. Occasional bumphead parrotfish.
The diving conditions: Visibility was generally good, though some days was only average. Currents variable and some dive sites (Washing Machine) were a big challenge even for an experienced diver. There are 2 small Islands that you dive here so after getting here not much travelling is needed, so there is not a lot of cruising after the first night.
While this is a good spot for scuba diving especially for bigger stuff, I have to say that Indonesia - especially Raja Ampat & Komodo were much better than the Tubbataha Reefs national park, especially when you favor in how remote a spot this is and how long the connecting flights are. This is known as a site for big stuff, so for macro you wouldn't come here anyways.
