see, now that is a side we didn't see at all from Oonas as we both have over 100 dives ( Rob nearer 500) ...howold were your lads at the time coz the lads would have had restrictions for depth due to age

?

The 2 older have as much experience as their dad and are above the age for restrictions now Val . The 3 of them have about 50+ dives each and are all AOW. Youngest was only 12 at the time so he still had restrictions of 12 metres . None of that was a problem . . He spent a lot of money with them but didnt feel he got any service at all + 1 dive (the last) which was just him and the 12 yr old that he decided to abort because there were too many divers to 1 guide in very bad weather . Our 12 yr old was unable to cope and he's actually a very strong little diver . There was nobody left to help Dave drag him back to the boat as the guide and party of 20+ just left them . No help getting back onto the boat either , exhausted with all that equipment . Never had that with anybody else as others seem to use plenty of egyptian lads to help . Maybe just a bad understaffed day but he definately wont be using them again .
agree . Emperor excellent . Used them in nuweiba

so unfortunate that Dave and the lads had a bad experience..if owt they should have been looking out for youngest lad even more due to his age..and 20+ divers to 1 dive guide/dive master is unacceptable by anyones standards never mind the money grabbing PADI...luckily, everything worked out ok for you. Like you say, maybe they did have a bad day but it just shows it takes forever to build a reputation but it can be destroyed in a second...

I think sometimes it depends how much "money" is on the boat..certainly when we were in Thailand, if there were only a few of us on the boat, the company only had a couple of Thai divemasters/guides on board with the local crews..but if there were lots of people (often overloaded) and they thought they had the potential to sell a load of extra's..they made all the European Instructors and Divemasters work.....

Julian..I think it might be whittled down to Emporer..seems to be one we all agree on!!!

if owt they should have been looking out for youngest lad even more due to his age

..

Precisely Val thats what he said and in very rough seas too . He maintains to this day that had he been less experienced that day could have ended very differently as he was struggling himself with having himself, George and all the equipment to get back. They had moved a long way in the current or the boat had cant remember which . Our youngest son is a very competant diver for his age but didnt have the body fat or weight to deal with those seas. They were last off the boat because Dave was helping George and by the time they were ready to go down the rest had all gone . Dave took a quick look under and couldnt see them . He could already see George struggling and feels if he had been less experienced he may have taken the decision to look for them . He had to take stock very quickly and flag the boat back down .

At the end of the day He knows he has to take responsible for his sons and has to make his own decisions but was disappointed that the quality slipped so badly that day . He says they were defiantely more for Adult divers.

Hi
We are travelling to Sharm for 1st time mid june for 2 weeks, We want to book the dives online in advance for my Husband and Son ... both are divemasters, we will probably use Emporer or oonas as we are staying at Sonesta beach resort, Naama bay.... what I would like please is for any suggestions from experienced divers who have dived in the area as to the dives/dive sites they would recommend as the most interesting/wothwhile/exciting/etc etc also whether these can be done as packages... I have looked at Emperor website but would love to have advice from other divers so we get it right!!

Personnaly i would prefer they were not away overnight as i will be alone at the resort but am interested in any suggestions and might have to concede if it means they will have a better time

Many thanks
Chilly

Hi Chilly, you will be hard pressed to find anyone better than the Oonas, they use the roof top bar at night as well for a panoramic view of Naama bay. I use this restaurant and place for trips and know everyone. Steve is English and they are all brilliant.

Hi Chilly

If you take a read of the advice that has appeared above your post (I have been importing posts from other topics) you will get some good info regarding dive centre's and some personal experiences of divers that have used them.

Graham

can't remember how long you are going to be there for but with your hubby and sons experience Chilly They may want to do the Thislegorm (world war 11 Battleship) wreck. Seems to be the one dive that everyone wants to do but it's an early start (something like 4am) .Most dive centres go there once a week . I know Val did a post last week about it somewhere . here it is http://www.holidaytruths.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=142708

As well as the numerous local dive sites , Tiran I believe is always a must and I would imagine they will probably want to fit in a trip to Ras Mohamed national park or even Dahab (think it's called blue hole). Pretty sure they usually include a shopping /market/lunch at Dahab on that one so you might enjoy that day yourself unless you are like me and dont do boats .

I really dont want to put you off Oonas chilly as it's the obvious choice from the sonesta and reviews are usually very good .I hope our experience was a one off that was probably not helped by him getting off on a wrong foot with them when he got time wrong the first morning , making them 10mins late for the morning Dive boat battle . I dont think Dave would recommend them for families with younger divers like us but your hubby and sons clearly have more experience and can take care of themselves.They also seem to have a good divers social scene there which they will probably enjoy.

I don't think theres anything really that would require an overnight trip unless they want to do the thistlegorm that way . Think val did a night dive there .

lyn

Many thanks to all of you for the above help... I have looked at both Emporer and Oonas dive websites and emailed both and as Oonas is on our resort (and has a social scene) was very tempted to book with them for those reasons, despite Emperor appearing the better recommendation from most posts (Lyn I didnt like what happened with your family very bad I agree) ...........but as both my hubby and son are both very competent and confidant divers I think this would be less of a concern for them, both have worked in dive centres so know their stuff...

However !! re Emporer v oonas I was surprised to find that Oonas has quoted significantly higher prices than Emporer for 5 days dives!!! we were quoted (inc online discounts for pre booking) = 5 day diving package - Oonas 216 euros each Emperor 180 euros each............. Obviously cost is an important issue too and the difference works out a fair bit, despite Oonas (who replied with a very nice email) saying the quote included 20% discount as we are staying at Sonesta beach resort??!!

particularly after reading madcaravanner's post below:

I forgot Emperor but we as a family haven't usedthem they are very good but over priced

then of course you have the extras on top for the additional dive sites suggested above which i know they will want to do

Now I am back to square one and undecided between the two!! .....
particularly as just to complicate matters, I am now also considering trying another dive have got my PADI O/W.... but havent dived for years and I am not a competent diver at all!! but a very nervous inexperienced one after a bad experience when doing my PADI!! so i would have to do either a try dive or 'scuba review' refresher

Chilly

Oonas were more expensive than Emperor when I got my quote too but we went with Oonas purely for convenience . Check the equipment costs and certification/course costs (If you decide to do something~) too chilly because i'm fairly sure that varied too and if you can't get in your BCD/regs that cost will mount up. (I'm pretty sure Oonas were cheaper on that)

Although it was the Nuweiba branch of Emperor my lot dived with Dave found them far more professional and very good with our youngest and certainly his welfare came first with them . He had his own one to one guide too and not a tag along with 20 other divers with 1 guide .

Saying that when they dived with oonas the first day was quiet , 2nd medium and the 3rd dangerously busy and understaffed bearing in mind the weather conditions. It's a bit of pot luck with whoever you go with in terms of business . Theyve had days with all where they have practically had the boat and crew to themselves and other days piled with russians with no lunch left when they've returned . Thats one good thing about Oonas , practically all English.

One thing to bear in mind with that cost is Emperors will require you to pay ahead I believe (although they have a good online booking system and you may be able to use your card and pay in english) but Oonas won't want any money up front (at least they didnt when we used them last year) but you will have the exchange rate to worry about if not taking it in cash euros .

I've become a stickler for those sorts of extra costs over the years as with 4 divers our bill can be very steep and often creeps near £1000 just for a few days . They can make a lot of extra money from currency conversion rates on my card if I'm not careful and plan ahead .

Out of the 2, I prefer Emporer to Oonas. I have no problems with Oonas, just found that we had a better service from Emporer. The social scene was better with Oonas. One thing to beware of with Emporer is like hidden costs. If you buy a package of say 6 dives, their idea is that you go for 3 days doing 2 dives a day. This is fine for most people..but we found to our cost that if you do say a 3rd dive at a site on the way back to harbour and only do one the next day..they will charge you something stupid for a 3rd dive and tell you it was your choice not to do a 2nd dive on the next day.
I bought a 6 dive package and actually did a total of 13 dives..but mindful of what had happened before and how their excess charges worked, I actually bought "days" from other people in the diving school who had paid for days and didnt want to dive. I paid them the same price as they had paid Emporer..Emporer said I had bought 3 days, not 6 dives. I bought another 3 days of various other members in the group and only had to pay them for 1 dive at the daft rate they charged. It was also quite expensive to get the extra's such as a 15l tank instead of a 12l (dont know what your guys are like on air or how big they are..but many blokes like a 15l) and to have nitrox fills. I would try and negotiate this in advance with whomever you pick between Emporer and Oonas.

If you want to do a refresher, I would try going along to the local club to where you live and doing a scuba review in the pool or something to practise your skills eg: reg recovery, mask clearing etc before you decide whether you want to go straight into the sea for a review. Even if it is Egypt, conditions can be a little more difficult in the sea. Most places would insist on a refresher course or scuba review before they would let you dive as it is so long since you have been in the water. A way round it would be not to tell them you are PADI qualified to OW and ask for a try dive. This would mean you get a 1:1 session with a Divemaster at the very least in generally calm waters, usually no deeper than 10-15m..quite often when the boat is moored up for lunch or something. It is also cheaper.

As with any Dive school in Egypt, there are people of all nationalities there and the staffing levels can depend on what particular mix they have on a boat. Ideally, you wouldn't want to be with our Russian friends..but generally we were lucky and Emporer had a ratio of 1 guide to no more than 6 people (all qualified). Of course, the option is there just to toddle off on your own if you want, but most people follow a guide purely becuase they know the area etc and all the navigational points...I would recommend following a guide almost on every occasion.

Emporer deal in Euro's...and as Lyn says, they usually like payment in advance..but they will negotiate a discount for this. You just have to be careful getting stung on exchange rates. Happy diving.....

just found that we had a better service from Emporer

I would definately agree there Val. That got Daves back up on day 1 with oonas unfortunately . We were spending a lot of money with 4 divers but there just didnt seem to be any customer service as such for the whole 3 days they dived . Just a feeling of they didnt really care because there would be 50 more divers along the next day . They knew the ordeal they went through on the last day but there were no apologies or offers to make it up .Our lad was particularly gutted because he knew it was his last dive and it knocked his confidence big time .Dave just paid and left . I did say to Dave that he should of complained but the way he saw it was he shouldnt of needed to.If they couldnt see it or feel the need to then it was their loss but he wouldnt be going back .

lyn

Another dive centre based in Hurghada to add to the list: Deep Blue Divers. They are based at the Calimera Golden Beach Resort in Hurghada, to the north of the resort and use a couple of boats, Calimera I and Calimera II. They also have a centre based at the Iberotel Aquamarine where I stayed. Shore diving is available at the Aquamarine (not recommened as it's a 1km walk through the shallows with kit to the reef) or for a small boat fee, from the boats. The transfer from the hotels to the dive centre is up to about 35 minutes. They are a German owned and run dive centre and I was quite happy with my experience with them. My only gripe was they are only a small outfit so groups tended to be mixed experience. That's not a problem but when you have complete beginners, ie first dive after qualification going in with very eperienced divers, it can be a little frustrating when dives are cut short or the more interesting sites are off limits due to the qualification limitations. I must say I was happy to stay in the shallow waters and play with the Dolphins and other marine life with dives regularly extending to over an hour (one was 73 minutes!) once the less experienced divers had returned to the boat. On one occasion, due to my diver qualifications, I ended up backing-up one of the instructors who brought down two open water students who were a bit of a handful and needed constant assistance with buoyancy control. It was good practice for me, but not what you expect. The boat was well run with safe systems of diving in place as you'd expect. The guides were very knowledgable of the sites and local conditions and the boat crew very helpful, especially with lugging my camera equipment and helping me get in and out of the water with it. I'd definately use them again, but probably only in the busier season when groups could be split in to qualification and experience levels to suit.

Darren

Another recommendation I can make..and we will certainly be doing this from now on is to actually do a liveaboard with Blue O2..absolute quality. High standards on the boats and excellent diving.