DIVE SPIRIT FAKARAVA

5???? pour dire merci !
Merci Mathilde pour avoir accompagné Héloïse (13 ans), Gabriel (16 ans) et leur maman dans ce beau baptême au milieu de magnifiques poissons.
Merci de ta patience, bienveillance, énergie
Et merci à toute l’équipe bien entendu, super club ????

mes 2 seules plongées Nitrox en Polynésie ont été avec Dive Spirit Fakarava : ça a été un vrai régal, on est resté longtemps profond pour profiter du spectacle. C'était une sortie 2 tanks, on a fait l'inter surface sur une plage près de la passe : magnifique.
Bastien est un super instructeur, je me rappellerai toujours de sa tête lorsqu'il s'est retourné vers nous pour checker si notre palier dérivant se passait bien, et s'est rendu compte qu'on était suivi par un espadon voilier!

Les photos sur la page d'accueil ne correspondent pas à la réalité. Je n'ai jamais rencontré ce propriétaire. matériel relativement ancien.

Accueil des plus chaleureux, de Bastien, responsable de ce centre, et d'Irène. De très loin nos plus belles plongées en Polynésie. Beaucoup professionnalisme et de sécurité. Je recommande vivement ce centre de plongée.

This would be a 5 star review were it not for the communication/planning experience; that was terrible. If you are on a cruise ship looking for a diving experience, this will be good for you to know.

First let's start with the good stuff: this is a great place to dive! I'm sure we only scratched the surface with our 2-tank dive, but we all enjoyed those dives. The dive masters lead us through really good dives, made sure we were aware when to expect some current and how best to respond to it when we did.

So you come here to dive, right? At the end of the day, despite inexplicable delays (see below), we were able to get our 2 dives in and return to the ship with 30 minutes to spare. What started off as a very sketchy day ended with smiles all around.

Now, the less-than-good stuff: Getting information about the dives available was like pulling teeth. It took multiple email communications with Irene to get the full picture (ie. what dive packages are available, how to get to the shop, cost, departure times, how to pay, ...) When that was finally consolidated and we confirmed our plans, I was told we'd be picked up at 8:30a from the cruise ship dock. A number of us from our cruise met each other that morning only to find that although Irene told me 8:30a, she told another diver the pickup would be at 9a, and another that the dive was delayed to 10:30a (without sharing with the others). We went to the Tourism Office who kindly helped by calling the shop for us; we were told we'd be picked up at 10:45a. When 10:45a came and went, we called again and there was no response. We were getting concerned because we knew we had a deadline to get back to our ship. Maybe it was because Irene was driving to the dock, but apparently no one else in the shop answers the phone if she's out. Irene picked us up a few minutes before 11a: no apologies for the dive delay or late pickup arrival, and when asked the reason for the delay I was just told "we had a change in plans". Really? That's it?? When you're on a cruise ship with a fixed period of time available for personal touring, timing is critical. This was the most unprofessional experience we've had with dive shops in the South Pacific.
So as long as you can get past Irene's less-than-attentive communications, you will really enjoy diving with the water-related staff. I think the most frustrating was that we didn't conclude our plans before we boarded the cruise ship; and when you're already on your trip, the last thing you want to do is have to spend a lot of time with more planning. So incomplete communications are really frustrating. To get around this, it would have been better/smarter for us to have concluded our dive plans early. However I'd never heard of Fakarava before our cruise let alone know that diving was an option. Be smarter than we were: make sure you dive this island and book ahead. You won't regret the diving experience.