Dive Review of Bilikiki Cruises in
Solomon Islands

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Bilikiki Cruises: "Bucket-list diving on a perfectly run boat", Nov, 2022, by Joel Snyder, AZ, US ( Top Contributor 30 reports with 30 Helpful votes). Report 12304 has 2 Helpful votes.
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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 $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	We dove with the Bilikiki on a 2-week cruise in November 2022. This was our second trip with them (the first was in 2016), so you know that we were happy enough with the boat, crew, and diving to make a second trip. The Bilikiki has 10 cabins, with a maximum diver capacity of 23. On our trip, we ended up with 15 divers, which made for an uncrowded dive deck and very easy logistics. Like many liveaboards, the Bilikiki offers a packed diving schedule. With few exceptions, you could dive up to 5 times a day (including the post-dinner night dive). Dive times were rarely limited, so our average dive time across 48 dives was more than 70 minutes per dive. Water temperatures in November were a consistent 85F (29C), with occasional dips down to 83F (28C). I dove the entire trip in a skin with no thermal protection. The diving was amazingly good: healthy hard and soft corals, reefs full of fish of all sizes, only occasional light currents. November is part of the rainy season, though, so many days were overcast and we had some rain every few days. (Rain does not stop the diving). Some dive sites had literally acres of elkhorn coral. While we did see some evidence of Crown of Thorns damage, the entire ecosystem seemed healthy at the sites we visited. Shark and turtle sightings were fairly frequent. At some dive sites, the shifting schools of fish were so dense that we elected to just stay in one spot and look around, watching school after school swim past us, over us, and under us: fusiliers, jacks, triggerfish, barracuda, and more. At another we found a pair of octopus who began their mating ritual right in front of us. Because of the overcast skies, we spent a lot of time looking for macro subjects: tons of nudibranchs and flatworms, orangutang crabs, gobies, blennies, cleaner shrimp, and squat lobsters on sea fans and crinoids. And one thing that the Solomon Islands has which you don’t find elsewhere: an active underwater volcano which created a rumbling and body-shaking soundtrack on several of our dives. Of course, some are more awe-inspiring than others, but we had no bad dives. The Bilikiki has two rigid “tinnies” they use for ferrying up to 8 divers to and from dive sites. Our longest tinny ride was about 5 minutes. Divers sign up for a tinny by putting their tag on a board. Since our entire boat fit on two tinnies, everyone was in the water within about 5 minutes on every dive. The first tinny takes a dive master/guide. Anyone is free to follow the dive master, but there is no requirement to stay in a group. When you and your buddy are done with a dive, surface and a tinny comes to pick you up within a few seconds and take you back to the boat. In theory you could put up your SMB (required equipment for each diver), but since the tinnies were following our bubbles from above, we never had to deploy ours. Rarely, the boat had “open pool” for several dives in a row meaning that you could simply jump in from the boat and come back at your leisure. We found that everyone on our cruise had years or decades of diving experience and strong skill sets. The dive deck is well thought-out and the procedures for each dive were very smooth. When you arrive, you get a diver number and pick a position on the deck and set up your gear. The tank you pick is yours for the trip---after each dive, you (or the crew if you forget) pull off the first stage and the crew fills the tank. It’s up to you to analyze the gas (we had nitrox at a very consistent 32-33%) and re-attach your first stage. Briefings are done in English and equipment is optimized for American-style yoke valves. When dive time comes, there’s a short pre-dive briefing and the crew carries your tank to the tinny. You walk on board the tinny carrying your mask and fins. During the ride to the dive site, you put on your fins and get into your BCD (with crew help if you want). At the site, everyone enters via a backwards roll at the same time. Folks with large cameras swim back to the tinny to grab their camera and descend. At the end of the dive, you hand up your fins (and camera) and can either climb the ladder with your gear on or have the tinny driver lift your tank separately. Back at the boat, you just need to get off the tinny and the crew will carry your tank back to your station while you rinse gear and take a shower. You can also just wear your tank for the short ride and walk it back yourself, which I did to make it easier on the crew. The dive deck has tanks for cameras, for wet suits, and for masks, although our mask tank was out of commission due to COVID concerns. More on that later. The deck also has two hot/cold showers, so we took a short shower after every dive. We were asked not to waste water, but that there was enough for a post-dive shower for everyone. Anyone who has been on a liveaboard knows that the secret sauce is a good crew and the Bilikiki’s crew of 13 was absolutely incredible. They worked tirelessly to make sure that every dive, every meal, every detail was smooth and the only thing we had to concern ourselves with was getting to the dive deck on time for the next dive. The cruise directors/dive masters were a enthusiastic and very competent young couple (Pato and Fernando) who worked with the boat captains to deliver that 5-dive-a-day experience every single day. Each evening at dinner, they would give a briefing on what to expect the next day. Dive sites sometimes changed because of weather and current conditions and occasionally the schedule of dives (7:30, 10:45, 13:45, 16:45, and 19:45) might change by 15 minutes or so. The food was excellent by any standards, and the chefs (three on board) made sure that divers with dietary preferences and restrictions had good choices. The Bilikiki brings most of their protein (chicken/beef/pork) on board frozen, but we had fresh fish every few days. Better was the incredible supply of fresh vegetables, bought by the Bilikiki from floating markets that came out to the boat to offer greens, squashes, eggplants, fruits, nuts, and more. Unlike almost every other liveaboard I’ve been on, you could eat fresh fruits and vegetables every day if you wanted. The boat offered 3 meals a day (before the 7:30, 13:45, and 19:45 dives) and snacks of fresh fruit including fantastic local pineapple, popcorn, and freshly baked cookies between meals, plus a happy hour at 18:00 before dinner on the upper deck. Liquor, beer, soft drinks and wine were available for purchase or you could bring your own. Staterooms are all on a lower deck and share a common air conditioning system kept at a pretty constant mid-70s temperature. Rooms had comforters for those who got cold, but we slept most night with just a sheet. Each stateroom has a private bath/shower. Staterooms are small, but not crowded, with room for your bed, a small closet, and a bit of circulation space. About half of the rooms are for singles with two single beds; the other half have bunk beds with a larger lower bed (something a little smaller than a US Queen) and smaller upper bed. We used our upper bunk for storage and had plenty of room. Since about the only time we had in the stateroom we wanted to sleep or nap, it worked out very well. Our trip was long-delayed, originally scheduled for 2020, but, you know… COVID! The Bilikiki is managed out of Australia and Sam was incredibly patient, flexible, understanding, and accommodating. Every few months someone would throw a curve ball---the airlines, the government, the passengers---and he was great at keeping us informed at what was going on. While the US has tried to put COVID-19 behind it, more remote locations such as the Solomons are still very wary of the danger, especially outside of the main cities, where vaccination rates are quite low. This ended up having a big impact on our trip for some unfortunate guests. The Bilikiki just restarted operations this summer, so they are still figuring out how COVID will impact things. The Solomons ask them to do a rapid test on everyone on day 3, so we did that---and one of our divers tested positive, so they were taken back to Honiara that day. Because of that, we tested again 2 days later, and another couple tested positive and were quarantined on the boat for the rest of the trip. Everyone was required to be vaccinated to be on the boat, so no one had any significant symptoms. Still, the crew did what they could to keep us from spreading the disease. Their biggest concern was actually taking COVID to the villages we visited (more than sharing it among healthy vaccinated passengers) so we were required to wear masks for each of the visits. Logistics for the Bilikiki are driven heavily by the Solomons Air flight schedules to Fiji. In fact, our trip was originally scheduled to be 14 days, but had to be shortened to 13 because of a late change by the airlines. Cruises are timed to start and end to synch up with the flights. Although you can fly through Australia (with direct flights to Brisbane), most of the guests on our cruise went through Fiji because of the very convenient non-stops from Fiji’s Nadi airport to LAX and SFO. Our group of 15 had 13 North Americans, one Kiwi and one Aussie. Although a Bilikiki trip (with airfare and everything else) is not inexpensive, this is definitely worth saving for and adding to your “must go” list.
Websites	Bilikiki Cruises
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	Over 1000 dives
Where else diving	Asia; Carib; Mexico; Hawaii; Red Sea
Closest Airport	Honiara	Getting There	Best connections are through Fiji (NAN) via LAX/SFO; an Australia option (via Brisbane) also exists but is costly.
Dive Conditions
Weather	rainy, cloudy	Seas	calm
Water Temp	84-85°F / 29-29°C	Wetsuit Thickness
Water Visibility	30-50 Ft/ 9-15 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	Occasional/rare requests to limit bottom time due to boat schedule. No requirement to follow dive master.
Liveaboard?	yes	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	Lots	Mantas	1 or 2
Dolphins	Schools	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	Photographers were well accommodated. The boat has a charging room with counters and tons of outlets in every configuration on the upper deck and requested that all charging of any devices happen there. In the salon, one of the large tables was designated “camera table” with room for about 5-6 people simultaneously and divers were encouraged to use that to work on their gear. You could leave your camera on that table or on a large table on the dive deck which had ample room for 4-5 large rigs and plenty of smaller ones. If you were on a special photo cruise, things would be crowded, but at normal photo density, there’s plenty of room.

Report currently has 2 Helpful votes

Subscriber's Comments

By Michael Anderson in CA, US at Dec 22, 2022 20:32 EST

Very helpful. I have wanted to go dive with them for many years. Bucket list item!!

By Joel Horie in UT, US at Jan 20, 2023 00:17 EST

Thanks for the detailed review.

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Dive Review of Bilikiki Cruises in Solomon Islands

Bilikiki Cruises: "Bucket-list diving on a perfectly run boat", Nov, 2022,

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 Bilikiki Cruises in
Solomon Islands