Raja Ampat Aggressor
The staff aboard the Aggressor is terrific and super friendly. It goes without saying that the diving here is amazing. Our dive guides, Jemy and Herry, knew all the best places to go and where all the good stuff was. They are especially adept at finding nudibranchs, which are a new view of the underwater world for me and a new obsession. Michal, our cruise director, is an excellent underwater photographer and I highly recommend taking the photography course from him if he is here while you're here. He is an excellent teacher and will show you how to get the best shots of the best stuff. Michal is first class.
A couple of issues occurred in a few rooms (air conditioning went out in one, a shower leak in the another, my toilet leaked). Aside from that, the hotel experience was good. Each of these issues was handled professionally and quickly, but would have been a serious issue if the boat had a full compliment of guests.
I am a vegetarian and my only negative experience here has been the food. And since it was an ongoing issue for 10 days, it was a big one. When I booked the trip, I made it clear that I was a vegetarian and was told it would not be an issue. But it was. If you are NOT a vegetarian, you will likely consider your meals to be excellent. Beef stroganoff, fish with white wine sauce, sirloin steak, chicken parmesan, calamari, and many more restaurant quality menu items - all prepared and presented with great care and attention to detail.
If you are a vegetarian, you'll get nothing like this. The kitchen staff clearly has little or no experience with vegetarian foods and doesn't even seem to try. I brought it up with the staff on the second day, and they said they would serve me better food. But from that point, my "main courses" ended up being ALL fried foods. I even once received fried tempeh covered in sauce that had bits of meat in it from the entree others were eating. While others were dining on fish, I got deep-fried tofu. While they ate steak, I ate deep-fried corn cakes. While they ate a nice Italian dish, I got deep-fried vegetables or tempeh. It's not like the tofu or tempeh was prepared in an entree. It was simply a plate of plain tofu or tempeh. That was it. And even though Michal constantly told the kitchen staff to prepare me proper meals, they were obviously uninterested in doing so, always serving me the same fried foods. Eventually, I just stopped eating it and ate more side items instead. It was only on the last full day of the trip that the chef finally prepared me a vegetarian lunch, which was great!
I'm assuming the food issues were just growing pains and I am fully aware that sometimes it just takes a good push to get things done. Having said that, I highly recommend the Raja Ampat Aggressor if you have no dietary restrictions. It really is fun and first rate. After 10 days at sea though, I was glad to get on land and eat a proper meal.
The TOTAL experience for me was amazing. It was still a trip of a lifetime. And, even with those issues I would go on this exact boat and do it all over again. That's how good it was, and it's why my star rating is high.
