My wife and I took a 14 night trip on the Seven Seas through Raja Ampat. It was our third trip to Raja Ampat, and the diving was excellent, as was the boat. The crew on the Seven Seas was uniformly good. The dive guides were helpful and knowledgeable, and the rest of the crew were also good at their jobs. There were 14 passengers on our trip, 12 divers, and surprisingly, 2 snorkelers (who also had a great time). The boat was comfortable and the food was very good. I would strongly recommend going on this boat. We did three or four dives per day, which is less than some liveaboards, but just right for me. Basically, the schedule alternated with eat, dive, eat, dive, eat, dive, etc., starting with a pre-breakfast between 6 and 7:30am and the first dive typically starting at 7:45am. One bit of interesting information that we learned is that this is the last season (for the time being) that the boat is going to cruise Raja Ampat. They feel, justifiably, that the region is getting crowded with liveaboards, so they are going to substitute a new dive region into their plans starting next year. Specifically, they will dive the South Komodo region, and they are confident it will be a great area to dive, with aspects similar to Raja Ampat diving. Should be interesting.
Here are some pics from the trip
and the whole set can be found here: 2013 Raja Ampat photos on Flickr
-Erwin
