Dive Review of Odyssey Adventures/Blue Lagoon Resort in
Micronesia/Truk Lagoon

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Odyssey Adventures/Blue Lagoon Resort, Aug, 2013, by Barry Fox, CA, US ( Reviewer 3 reports with 3 Helpful votes). Report 7103 has 1 Helpful vote.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$	N/A
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	My dive partner and I were aboard the Odyssey from August 18 to August 25, 2013. We arrived on Chuuk two days before boarding Odyssey to make sure of a couple of things one to acclimate to clear the jet lag from California and just in case our luggage was lost in transient. Luggage made it fine. We stayed at the Blue Lagoon Resort (BLR); while the BLR is not a Five Star Resort the staff were outstanding from the check in process to the time we left Chuuk. The rooms are very basic with clean sheets, A/C and a warm shower, the beds are a little hard for my liking but not horrible. We didn't leave the resort we'd seen enough of Chuuk on the 30 minute drive from the airport to the BLR, so we ate at the dining room at the BLR, again nothing fancy but good enough food. We chose not to dive before our week on Odyssey; (the dive operator on site is the Blue Lagoon Dive Shop) so I have no opinion on their operation. Odyssey: The Odyssey’s Captain, Captain Nelson met us in the lobby of the BLR promptly at 5pm on Sunday the 18th we were asked if we had luggage? If so where was it located we told him where it was and a crewmember from Odyssey carried it out the boat to the Odyssey. Odyssey is moored just off the BLR. We took the short boat ride out to Odyssey. Once we boarded Odyssey we were given our room assignments and asked to go up to the dining area to show our dive cards. We were greeted by Kelsey who was the assistant to the chef she was giving out nice cold wet towels. The 2nd Captain Todd was behind the bar asking us what we wanted to drink. Great first impression of the Odyssey crew, they made us feel real welcome. First off the crew aboard Odyssey was top notch, very professional, also they were all very kind and giving from the very first interaction with the Captain, Captain Nelson who met us in the lobby of the Blue Lagoon Resort until we departed the following Sunday. The crew for the week consisted of, Captain Nelson, Assistant Captain Todd, Chef ? Assistant to the Chef Kelsey, Engineer Mike, dive masters Kent, Ken, Mika, and Nelson. During our week on Odyssey we had the maximum that she’ll carry 16 divers and with crew of 9. There were 13 Australians from three different dive clubs, with 3 from the US, my dive buddy, myself, and a gentleman from the Denver, CO. area. It was a good mix as we all got along wonderfully during the week. Our accommodations were in cabin #9 it is a bunk bed setup with a full bed on the bottom and a twin bed as the top rack. It worked well for the two of us as I am 6’4 ½” tall and my dive buddy is about 5’6” tall so he took the top rack and I took the bottom. The beds were comfortable both had reading lamps. Each day during the first dive they beds would be made by a crewmember, something I didn’t expect. Each cabin aboard has it’s own bathroom with a shower and toilet, our cabin had the sink in the cabin, there was an A/C unit in each cabin with it’s own thermostat. I have no complaints about the cabin; we did have one small issue with the A/C as the condenser froze up one evening. I mentioned it to Todd he asked us to turn off the unit for about a half hour. We did as requested and it seemed to work all right for a few hours, when it froze up again, this time I told Mike the engineer. Mike came to our cabin took the panels off the unit then got a blow torch and heated up the condenser to thaw it out, after that the unit worked fined the rest of the week. The food aboard Odyssey was fine, nothing real fancy but good and plenty of it. During our orientation Captain Nelson told us the times of the meals. A continental breakfast was served from 6am to 6:30am then a full breakfast from 6:30am to 7:30am was served. During the full breakfast you could order eggs any style including omelets with sausage, bacon, hash browns basically anything you would get at a stateside restaurant. Lunch was served from 12:30pm to 1:30pm, again there was plenty of food during the week we had a variety of selections for lunch including hamburgers, sandwiches, taco’s etc. Dinner was served from 6:30pm to 7:30 pm as with breakfast and lunch there was a good variety during the week not repeating the same thing twice. In between the scheduled meals there would be snacks set out along with fresh fruit. Lunch and dinner were served buffet style. There was always some sort of a desert, which put a nice cap on the fine dinner we were served each night. The dining room was also the room where you could get any drink you chose from water, soft drinks, fruit punch, lemonade, Odyssey also had a full bar with 5 different beers to wines and liquor. I thought the food was great, but in speaking with one of the men from Australia he said that the Odyssey definitely catered to American taste buds. Never having been to Australia I can’t speak to that but I do take him at his word. One last thing about our dining experience as soon as you were finished with you meal Kelsey the assistant to the chef was there taking you dishes away from you. Diving Truk Lagoon: My previous diving had been done in Southern California diving the Kelp Forrest, we’ve been to the Bahamas, Hawaii, Belize, Roatan, and have been to Cozumel on numerous times. I had in excess of 250 dives, I call myself an underwater tourist I like to look at things in the water nothing real fancy. I do hold a PADI advanced cert along with my Nitrox card (which is almost mandatory in Truk). My advanced card did not prepare me for diving Truk Lagoon. Dive briefings were held each morning beginning at 7:30am and lasting 30-40 minutes; the briefing were conducted by either Nelson or Todd, very thorough briefings they covered all aspects of the dive mentioning anything you might see on your dive. It was by far the best dive briefing I have ever heard in speaking with another of the Australians he echoed my sentiments about the briefing. Both Nelson and Todd covered both descending and ascending back to Odyssey. Odyssey has a deco bar set at 12’; the crew also puts down a tank with 30% on a line in case you need to use it to off gas if you are low on air. The dive platform is set up with divers in mind. We set up our gear the Sunday evening we boarded and left our gear in the same place the entire week. You could dive steel 80’s, steel 108’s, or multi gas set-ups with backpacks. There is a fill hose located near each tank so all you had to do was take off your first stage. Once you got geared up one of the crew would take your fins for you and as you were getting ready to make entry they would put your fins on your feet for you, one dive I carried my fins down the platform and one of the crew was almost mad that I carried them. On the dive deck there was a camera station with fresh water rinse tanks on the dive deck. The camera table had a charging station; there was also a charging station in the parlor, which had adaptors from all over the world if you hadn’t brought one with you. The Odyssey had both 110 and 220. I didn’t use the camera table at all during the week. Prior to the first dive of the week I was putting my camera into the housing when I was closing the latch, the latch broke so rather than take a chance of flooding the camera I didn’t use it. One of my new Australian friends is going to mail me a flash drive that has all of the pictures he took during the week. I grew up listening to stories of the Pacific Theater of Operations from my Dad he served in the US Navy during WWII, he told me what happened at Truk. I also served in the Navy so that added great interest for me. As with a lot of divers in the world who had heard of Truk Lagoon when I got certified as a diver I wanted to go diving there to see it for myself, Truk was on my “Bucket List”. I believed my skill set would be sufficient for diving Truk. I was wrong Truk requires a skill set that I don’t have. When you read the on line info and other things written about Truk Lagoon diving they say the visibility in anywhere from 40-85’ when in reality the vis on the best day was maybe 40’ and that was a hazy 40’ I do understand. All of the wrecks we dove had a bottom from 100’-130’. I averaged over 85’ for my max depth during the week and I stayed shallow in comparison to other divers to make my air last longer. You could stay out of the holds if you chose to, or you could go inside the bowels of the ships. I stayed for the most part on the outside of the wrecks and would go inside if I knew I had a clear path out with some ambient light penetrating the wreck so I could find my way out. I tend to get somewhat claustrophobic plus I am 6’4 ½” tall and weigh 275lbs so getting into tight dark spaces doesn’t appeal to me much. These are not artificial reefs sunk on purpose with large holes cut into the side. These are ships that were sunk by being bombed and torpedoed by the US Navy. Odyssey did provide guides to the wrecks and would take you anywhere you felt comfortable going. There was no pressure from the crew to go on any dive you didn’t feel at ease with, in fact a dive master would take you on a tour of the outside of the ship which for me was wonderful. The reason I believe Truk is above someone with an Advanced Card a skill set like I have is two fold. 1) The depths you are diving during the week as I said I averaged over 85” max depth during the week, the 2nd reason is the visibility is not as advertised of 80 plus feet. Again as I said my best dive the vis was about 40’, as you were descending down towards the wreck you would first see a large shadow then as you got closer you would see the outline of the ship, returning to Odyssey was the same thing, for me it was a little un-nerving. I brought along a 5mm shorty step through for the trip, I thought as the week would go along with multiple dives daily my body temperature would drop and I would get cold. I did use it a few dives but I really didn't need it. If you are to take a wet suit I would suggest that you take a 3mm shorty. You'll be warm enough. All in all even though I felt out of my skill level diving Truk, my experience was good. I got everything I wanted from my trip to Truk. Odyssey was an outstanding dive boat with a great crew who I felt like that they really enjoy doing what they do. So if you have a skill set similar to mine, do what I am going to do for my next dive vacation, I am going back to the Caribbean. However if your skill set is better and you feel comfortable inside wrecks then I would most definitely recommend Odyssey as the choice in Truk. In fact if Odyssey had a sister ship somewhere else I would go on it.
Websites	Odyssey Adventures
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	251-500 dives
Where else diving	Cozumel, SoCal, Belize, Roatan, Bahamas Hawaii
Closest Airport		Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny	Seas
Water Temp	82-87°F / 28-31°C	Wetsuit Thickness	5
Water Visibility	30-50 Ft/ 9-15 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	Max operating depth.
Liveaboard?	yes	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	None	Mantas	1 or 2
Dolphins	1 or 2	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	1 or 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish	N/A
Large Pelagics	N/A
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	The latch on the housing for my camera broke just as we were getting ready to go into the water for the first dive of the week so I didn't get a chance to use the camera on dives. Seeing and listening to divers who had working cameras they all seemed very happy with the facilities that Odyssey provided for photography.

Report currently has 1 Helpful vote

Subscriber's Comments

By Corrynne Yamanaka in CA, US at Aug 31, 2013 00:50 EST

Thanks for that really in depth review. We're also considering doing Truk, and as divers with ~ 65 dives experience, after reading your review, we're considering getting more training.

By report author: Barry Fox in CA, US at Sep 01, 2013 01:21 EST

You are very welcome, if you would like any more information you can contact me at bafox45@yahoo.com Barry

By carl berenson in WA, US at Sep 03, 2013 15:49 EST

Same here. I think I will pass on wreck diving at Turk and see Palau and yap instead. Thanks for your candid review of your experience. I appreciate it.

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Dive Review of Odyssey Adventures/Blue Lagoon Resort in Micronesia/Truk Lagoon

Odyssey Adventures/Blue Lagoon Resort, Aug, 2013,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Subscriber's Comments

Dive Review of Odyssey Adventures/Blue Lagoon Resort in
Micronesia/Truk Lagoon