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Dive Review of Bilikiki Cruises in
Solomon Islands

Bilikiki Cruises: "Great Diving", Mar, 2018,

by Mark Rosenstein, MA, US (Sr. Contributor Sr. Contributor 22 reports with 17 Helpful votes). Report 10196 has 3 Helpful votes.

No photos available at this time

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

Accommodations 4 stars Food 4 stars
Service and Attitude 5 stars Environmental Sensitivity 5 stars
Dive Operation 5 stars Shore Diving N/A
Snorkeling 4 stars
Value for $$ 5 stars
Beginners 3 stars
Advanced 5 stars
Comments The Bilikiki is an older boat, but it is well maintained and quite comfortable. It’s a little larger than most liveaboards, with ten double-cabins. The crew is excellent: friendly, competent and helpful. One of the two cruise directors got sick during the trip and couldn’t dive for half the time; they still managed to put guides in the water for every dive, the other cruise director did most dives, and qualified members of the crew helped.

The food was delicious and plentiful. All meals are served buffet style so you can control portion sizes better than on boats with plated meals. A vegetarian guest said that this was the best she had been fed on a dive boat.

Many of the guests on this cruise were most interested in sharks and other big fish. Many sites were chosen to increase their odds of good encounters. As someone who prefers smaller reef fish, I felt like there was always something to see. I ended up logging 580 different species of fish on the 11 day cruise.
Websites Bilikiki Cruises   

Reporter and Travel

Dive Experience Over 1000 dives
Where else diving Fiji, Komodo, Lembeh, Tulamben, Palau, Raja Ampat, Solomons, Wakatobi, GBR, Galapagos, many Caribbean
Closest Airport Honiara Getting There Most of us flew via Fiji, though you could also connect through Brisbane.

Dive Conditions

Weather sunny, rainy, cloudy Seas calm, choppy, currents, no currents
Water Temp 84-86°F / 29-30°C Wetsuit Thickness 3
Water Visibility 25-80 Ft/ 8-24 M

Dive Policy

Dive own profile yes
Enforced diving restrictions Usually we were just asked to stay within our NDL. Occasionally for scheduling reasons we were asked to limit dive time to an hour. A few afternoons we could dive from the back of the ship without the tenders, at whatever times we liked.
Liveaboard? yes Nitrox Available? yes

What I Saw

Sharks Lots Mantas 1 or 2
Dolphins None Whale Sharks None
Turtles > 2 Whales None
Corals 4 stars Tropical Fish 5 stars
Small Critters 5 stars Large Fish 4 stars
Large Pelagics 4 stars

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

Subject Matter 5 stars Boat Facilities 4 stars
Overall rating for UWP's 4 stars Shore Facilities N/A
UW Photo Comments We had the luxury of only two photographers on this cruise, so there was plenty of space. It could have been crowded if more of us had cameras. It's inconvenient that charging is done in another part of the boat from where the camera table is. Two large rinse tanks were nice. Each day's dive schedule had advice about lens choices.
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Note: The information here was reported by the author above, but has NOT been reviewed nor edited by Undercurrent prior to posting on our website. Please report any major problems by writing to us and referencing the report number above.

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