We booked a trip on the Oceanic III which was just out of renovation and we were the second group on the boat. I knew this would be a budget trip but was not prepared for what we were about to experience. First of all, let me say that the staff on this boat are amazing, the food was out of this world. This ended up being one of the best dive trips I have ever been on despite the condition of the boat.

This boat has a stack that spews dark gray smoke and asbestos from the stack, so sitting up on the top deck was impossible if you were heading into the wind. The furniture in the rooms broke apart the first day and we were unable to store anything in the dressers, we had to just live out of our suitcases. The lock on the bathroom door was sticking and frequently my roommate or I would get locked in the tiny bathroom for 30 minutes or more until someone noticed us missing, or heard us banging on the wall. If one of us didn't show up for a dive or for a meal, they knew we were locked in the bathroom. The lock was eventually fixed but it took a few days. The door slammed shut so it was almost impossible to keep it open to avoid this. On one dive the bilge pump failed on the tender we were on and started sinking, we had to bail out of the boat and another tender had to come over to transfer our tanks so we could suit up for our dive. Luckily the seas were calm for most of our trip. The last three days of our trip the seas were very rough and water splashed over the sides of the boat to the point that you couldn't get to the staterooms on the main or lower deck without getting completely soaked with seawater.

But the diving made up for any inequities on the boat. We saw a large variety of sharks, and a whale shark. Some of the dives were sort of repetitive, but Tubbataha is a very beautiful place to dive. Just go on a different boat haha.

We did the shark expedition aboard the Quino El Guardian in November 2019 with shark researcher Mauricio Hoyos Padilla. If I could give 10 stars to the boat and crew I would, in every category. The boat is amazing, it isn't a luxury liveaboard, but has everything you need for an amazing trip. The dive deck and camera tables are more than adequate. The crew was very attentive, fun and safe. Our captain was Julio, safety is his number one priority. He was always available for questions, and kept us very informed on our itinerary based on the weather conditions. Dori and Joshua put out 5-star meals during the entire trip, they worked tirelessly to make sure everyone had a wonderful dining experience. I have food allergies and they were very careful to make sure I got an amazing meal each and every time. There were always plenty of snacks and drinks available.
The divemasters were very professional, Lois and Gabby know how to get the most out of Socorro so you will have an amazing experience.

The rooms on this boat are very small so don't bring a lot of extras. There is a place for you to store your luggage after you unpack so it doesn't have to stay in the room.

The diving in Socorro is second to none if you are looking for pelagics. The mantas made an appearance on every dive, they were so curious and seemed to hang around for the entire dive. We had fun playing with dolphins, swam with huge schools of tiger sharks, the Galapagos, silver tips, silkies, white tip sharks were always present. I don't think we had a dive without all of the above mentioned. We were at the beginning of whale shark season and the last day of the dive a huge pregnant female made an appearance and we dove with her for at least 30 minutes.

I would suggest going early in the season, there were only 3 boats in the area when we were there so the captains coordinated our locations so we were guaranteed to be the only boat at each dive site.