Narayana, Philippines

Worse liveaboard ever !!

The cabins are not fit for purpose. I have done 25-30 liveaboard & this boat was the worse by a mile.The window wouldn't close properly in our cabin. When sailing the water would come in. Cabin 1 & 2 have an excessive engine noise & fumes coming through the floor. I thought that we might become another wreck! There is nowhere near enough outside space. The boat had only 12 guests but more than about 6 or 8 is cramped. Save a few quid & dive Malapascua instead. Much better experience for about half the price.

Recommended for

Our dive guide,Paul. The crew were really good. The chef is very good too.

06 Apr, 2025

It was a wonderful trip But no whale shark.

As a novice diver, I am often attracted to large fish species and group dances rather than macro or muck dive. whale shark was the most anticipated treasure of the trip, but it did not meet. But I could see the Manta ray, Barakuda, and Jackfish.

Recommended for

Reasonable price, friendly crew and dive master, small group

29 Jun, 2024

Amazing experience

Pristine coral reefs

Recommended for

Coral reefs, friendly crew, sharks

27 Jun, 2024

Good value, everything was to a very decent standard for price

Diving with hammerheads! Really liked dive gude Don!

Recommended for

Staff couldn't help enough, super friendly and social crew, food plentiful and quality

09 Apr, 2024

Would book again just for the lovely staff. Cabins left something to be desired.

The staff was really very friendly and helpful, though most were shy to speak in English so the foreign divers didn’t feel that as much as I did. I would book again though just to spend time with the staff again cause they really were very lovely. The cook clearly put a lot of love into his dishes, and I think the food would really shine with higher quality ingredients. I appreciated the small group (14 divers max). We had two dive groups and getting into the water was quick and efficient. The cabins were alright, but could be better designed and maintained. Some simple improvements can make a world of difference (thicker mattress, better pillows, doorknob instead of latches, cleaning stains from the windows and switches, etc). The bathroom has a “stale water” smell in my opinion – perhaps some coffee grounds would help neutralize that. But I really appreciated that the bathroom had a bidet! Staff would fix up our cabins every day which I also appreciated. Towels provided would shed like crazy — another easy but big improvement to make. I mostly avoided the cabins and stayed in the common area when I could, which was nice. If there were more space, some lounge chairs would be great. The biggest problems for me were: - The staff didn’t have their own beds or cabins. They had to sleep in the common area when the divers weren’t there. It isn’t comfortable, and it meant that the staff couldn’t rest at all during the day as the divers would be out and about then. I think small renovations to the captain’s area and a reserved cabin with an additional bunk bed for the crew would be great. It would mean 2 less divers could join, but the staff really made the trip for me. I imagine they’d make an even better impression on guests if they were properly rested. - The smoke coming from the engine. I could smell it when we were moving in the common area, and in the cabins as our AC was broken so we kept the windows open. Overall, I had a good time. I may go for a different liveaboard the next time around, but I don’t regret this trip. I loved the staff and the people I met on the group. I got to know them all quite well too since we were only a few people on board. My only recommendation if you join this boat, bring your own towel and a good amount of extra cash to tip the staff!

Recommended for

Staff, small group, toilets had bidets

26 Mar, 2023

Diving was great, boat needs improvement

There were a couple of things on the Narayana liveaboard that matched my expectations or went above them. First and foremost, the Tubbataha reefs, they are are awesome! So much fish to see, many sharks, turtles, and beautiful corals. On one of our dives we had a 10 minute encounter with a manta. On my trip no big schools of hammerheads, no whaleshark, but still amazing diving.The dive guides paid very good attention to safety in preparation, briefing, during, and after the dive, and they are also very helpful to ensure that everyone can enjoy the dive. And, the staff on the small boat and dive deck are awesome too! Very helpful, attend to any questions immediately, and working their ass off to make getting on and out of the water and boat as smoothly and safely as possible. Which posed some challenges as the dive deck is rather small and filled up with stuff, and people need to pass through divers gearing up to get to their cabin. Still, they did it, really heroes.But, there are things that I would like to have known before I booked the trip, and things to improve. We were picked up (in my case from the dive shop) and taken to a cafe in the harbor for check-in, where it was unclear how long we would stay there. Then we went to the boat where we got a talk from the "boss". After about half an hour the welcome drink suddenly seemed to be there (it was never offered). The boat safety "briefing" that the boss gave was very limited, only mentioning that there were life vests and where to gather in case of emergency. We had only one engine out of two on the way out, hence the journey to Tubbataha took much longer. There was also a problem with the compressor. Due to this, we missed 2 dives on the 2nd day.There were only two guides, we were diving in two groups of eight divers with one guide. Luckily all divers in my group had a lot of experience so we managed to do it safely. But smaller groups would certainly be safer and enable all divers to be close to the guide and see more stuff.There were some more problems with the boat. The door lock of our cabin hampered, took three attempts to get it repaired. Also, its not possible to secure the door when it's open. So if one of us was inside, we needed to close the door and lock, hence the other person couldn't get in when one of us was in the bathroom or trying to get some sleep.Our cabin was above the engine for the generator which runs 24/7. This space should not be a cabin for guests. It's noise and really uncomfortable, so when you book, make sure you're not in cabin 2.It took four days to finally repair the leaking airco in our cabin, our beds got wet every night for the biggest part of the trip. We reported it to the boat manager every day, but it wasn't taken seriously. When we made a big complaint on day five, the technical staff stepped in and solved it withing 15 minutes. Summing up, the reefs, dive crew, and boat crew are great. The boat needs a serious update and many repairs, it's uncomfortable up to unsafe, so its hard to relax and recover between the dives.

Recommended for

Tubbataha Reefs. Dive guides. Diving crew.

29 Mar, 2025