Cindy & Leroux Similan Trip

Hi Vincent,
Just a quick word to express our sincere appreciation for a fantastic trip on the White Manta. We have just come back from the Similans. Firstly we start off with thanking Max for all his time and patience with my many, as Leroux would say, 'high maintenance' emails. Having been in the hospitality industry we know how much time and planning goes into the logistics of such trips, and dealing with people and their various needs and requests is not easy. Max, as always you are quick and efficient in your dealings and correspondence. Thanks too for co-ordinating our Dive course materials and our practical dives with Mike during our trip. As I'm sure you are aware, we have just received one of our Dive certificates and eagerly await the other 2 once you are able to have them signed off by
Mike.
Secondly, thanks to Mike. We have had the pleasure of diving in many wonderful parts of the world, with many different Dive Masters and Teachers. However, you were by far the best! The time, effort and dedication you put in, not only as a group Dive Master, but also as a teacher, made diving and learning a memorable experience - thank you :-) Last but not least, Chris. Your briefings and reconstructed reefs were great. You manage a good team. Your Dive staff are as always helpful and friendly. The ladies did a great job of all housekeeping aspects. The Food was absolutely fantastic. It a remarkable achievement cooking such yummy food, in limited space, and creating varied and tasty food selections for so many people. Good Job Guys and Gals. Looking forward to joining you in the not too distant future. Hope to catch up for a casual drink when next you guys are in Singapore.

Safe Diving Cindy & Leroux

Ken Brown, Dec 2011, Raja Ampat

The boat was great as was the crew... and of course the diving! I was impressed with the leadership shown by Cedric - he seemed to be comfortably in control at all times, always putting us in the water at the correct point. He did a great job of mingling with all the guests at meal times and in the evenings, always ready with appropriate advice or comment. The rest of the crew were always friendly and helpful - especially Stella and Eta.

It is always nice to be on a boat that has recently been refurbished where everything works and is fresh. I was most impressed by the spaciousness of the entire boat, the size of the cabins, and the bathrooms in the cabins were also large and plenty of headroom (I am 6 feet 4 inches tall). It was very nice to have an effective AC in the cabin also, I have been doing liveaboard trips for the last 20 years and it's the first time I have seen individual split AC's - definitely a selling point in my mind considering the ambient temperature in the high 30's.

Another great selling point was the omelet's cooked to order in the dining area "al fresco" every morning during breakfast. Such a simple idea but yet I have not seen it done before on a liveaboard (not even on the Aggressor/Hughes boats).

All in a fantastic trip - I am sure you will continue to be successful with Black Manta.

Regards, Ken

Sorry it has taken so long, but I was hoping to provide some feedback on the trip. We had a fabulous time.

In particular, I wanted to commend Cedric and the crew for the fantastic service – from pick up to drop off. It was really lovely of Cedric to help us all get checked in. He even negotiated the overweight luggage fees for those of us with overweight luggage. Sometime dealing with us all was like herding cats (especially that first night for dinner at Sorong), but Cedric never lost his cool. The whole crew worked really well together, providing a seamless service. Complements to the chefs – the food was excellent.

I don’t think there is anything that you could do to improve the experience.

FYI – you should probably take the reference to “Visa and Mastercard, if available” out of the information below given that credit card facilities aren’t available. It gave me false hope!

Regards Sabrina

19-23 Nov, 2011 on New White Manta Similans island

irst, let me just say the trip, divmasters, food, boat and the crew were all amazing.

We had an excellent time and I just can't say enough positive things about it! We have been gone for four hours, and I've already met another couple who I recommended White Manta to, I should have left with a stack of business cards.

By Laura Fleischhauer

I'd also like to take this chance to say thank you for providing such wonderful diving possibilities - I was on the last (and very stormy) trip of the 'old' BM to the Similans in March and then on the refurbished BM for Komodo in September - both trips were the best diving experiences I've ever had, and that's not just because of the dive sites - It's the complete package of vessel, accommodation, boat directors (Chris and Cedric are just great), crew, service and food, including backoffice organisation by Max.

I'm certain that I will dive with you again in future and hope to enjoy a voyage on the White Manta someday.

Cheers, Bernard

Trip 23 Sept 2012 to Komodo

Thanks You Black Manta crew!!!
We really had a wonderful time and your warm smiles made us feel at home. Special thank you to our patient and knowledgeable dive master!

The cooks for every wonderful meal, we ate like kings. The captain for getting us there and back again.

The ladies, for all the hot milo and lovely massage and everything else! The speed boat guys, for all the pick-up’s and drop off’s. Take care and we hope to see you all again soon!!

Johannes & Renee

Sep 1, 2011,Pierre Rebufat

ust came back from Komodo on BM, and wanted to let you know that I was very impressed with the quality of the operation, which is particularly impressive given that the boat has only been operating for a month with its new crew. The crew was very friendly and professional, dive guides have very sharp eyes to find critters and Cedric does an outstanding job at planning and managing it all with a lot of enthusiasm.

We had quite a number of truly memorable dives during the week, and all of them were very well planned. Obviously helped that we had many great sightings (including mola-mola and dolphins in addition to the expected mantas, sharks and macro), but even without those I would have only praise.

Very well done. Regards Pierre

Komodo Black Manta 11-15 August by Patrick Kelly

The Komodo trip was very good and enjoyable.

Crew, accomodations and services were top notch, as always. Cedric ran and organized things very well, in my view, and he's a very nice guy. He was responsive to requests and questions, and helped make it a great dive trip.

To be honest, I don't have anything other than good comments, so no recommendations or suggestions on ways to improve from me. I'm looking forward to diving with WM/BM again in the future. Raja Ampat and Layang are on my list.

Thanks, Vince.
Pat