Thresher Shark Divers

★ 5 · Laura Farhall · 2011-03-31

I decided to book my holiday to the Philippines through TSD as I was told they could not only book Malapascua for me, including transfers, but could book ongoing trips as well. This seemed like a great idea to two people who were quite pushed for time to research, so I booked a week in Malapascua, and an ongoing trip to Ticao Island (Manta Bowl) and Donsol (whale sharks) with Andrea - this was definitely the right move and made for a stress-free trip! **Booking** Booking was very easy, I let Andrea know where I wanted to go, and she offered me a few different options for accommodation in Malapascua, and for the ongoing trip she made recommendations as to how I could most effectively use my time there - which were spot on! I was able to pay deposits to secure my bookings which I made around 5 months in advance, I then paid the remainder on those trips outside of Malapascua, and had the option of paying the rest of my Malapascua bill on arrival, or in advance using paypayl. I decided to pay using paypal so that I wouldnt have to carry so much cash, and this was done with no problem whatsoever. This is by far the most stress-free holiday I have ever been on! **Transfers** All transfers were seamless, we were met at Cebu City airport by a very friendly driver and a nice comfortable and air conditioned van. When we reached Maya we were met straight away by TSD staff, and our bags were carried onto the boat for us, all we had to worry about was the boat to boat crossing - this can be an adventure but cannot be helped in the Philippines! When we left we were also taken to our hotel in Cebu, and transfers from Legaspi to Donsol, and onwards to Ticao were all done on time, and with flexibility in accordance with what we wanted. **Arrival** On arrival our bags were carried firstly to the dive centre, and then to the rooms we were staying in. We were asked what time we would like to start diving the next morning (all very flexible) and asked to bring down our cards etc around half an hour before we needed to leave on the boat. **The Diving** Each afternoon the next day's dives are put up on a list for you to sign up to, this usually consists of a morning shark dive somewhere between 5 and 6am, and then dives at 10, 2, and 5.15. Look out for the trip to Gato Island which goes out at 9.30am and comes back around 3.30, you will need to book a lunch with the bar upstairs which is no hassle whatsoever and your food is put straight onto the boat by the staff. The diving was excellent, and the DMs really made an effort to make sure you got the most out of every dive - particularly determined DMs on some of my dives were Riza (she found a lot of macro things for us!), JN who always searched high, low, (and under rocks and in caves!), and Tata who found lots of Mandarin fish for us on the night dive. Dives always left on time where they could, if there were any delays staff would come and find you whether you were outside the centre or in the bar upstairs to let you know that there would be a delay, and how long this would be. This rarely happened however and delays were very minor. Occasionally dives need to be changed due to the weather, however this is a safety consideration and much appreciated! Unlike other dive centres I have been to, when they say you can do 4 dives a day - they mean it! The schedule is flexible enough that you can quite easily fit 4 dives in, we decided not to do this for the 6 days, but felt very relaxed just choosing on a daily basis what we wanted to do. Finally, if you are qualified to dive on Nitrox I would definitely recommend paying the extra to do so on those dives that are 18m plus - a must for the shark dives as you get significantly increased bottom time, which can be the difference between seeing a shark and not! Most of my dives with TSD were 50 minutes to an hour - it was worth doing as there is so much to see out there, even if you aren't lucky enough to see something big there are lots of other interesting things around! **Staff** I completely disagree with the previous review - every single member of staff we met was friendly, polite, and extremely helpful. The guys on the boat were always there to lend a hand, whether it was helping you climb up to the boat, setting up your gear, or packing your box for you! The DMs as I have said were brilliant, they always gave a good pre-dive brief, and made a massive effort to find as much as possible for you to look at underwater. When you dive on Nitrox they also come and find you, ask you to analyse your air (very professional) and the guys loading the boat know not to take anything unless the label has all the information required written on it - including your signature! Everyone in the shop was also very helpful, and very friendly, we had no issues whatsoever. You have the opportunity to leave tips by using tip envelopes, we were very glad of this as I think all of the staff deserve a share, and not just the ones that happen to have helped you during your stay. **Oscars** We had free breakfast each morning at Oscars which is located above the dive centre - I would highly recommend anyone else staying here to do the same!! The menu is varied, and they also have a range of fresh juices (which cost extra but are worth it) available which are delicious. I would particularly recommend the banana pancakes, and the Amercian breakfast to anyone who likes to start the day on a hearty meal! We often ate lunch here too, which was excellent and very reasonably priced - the Indian paratha roll was particularly good (I had it 3 times!) Dinner was also of a high standard, and again prices are very reasonable, and the days that we were at the dive centre late it was definitely worth eating there as it saved a lot of time and trouble, and the food was excellent. Service was always with a smile - as with all TSD staff they are very polite and friendly, they had learned our names within about ten minutes and would happily put everything on a running tab, asking us to sign everything off around once a day. We often sat in the bar between dives that went out closely and had a drink, and on one of the days I decided to have an afternoon off from diving I sat in Oscars for around 3 hours completely undisturbed by staff, unless I needed anything. **Recommendations** TSD are an excellent dive centre, offering top notch service, and meet all of your diving needs. If you are planning a holiday to the Philippines I would highly recommend contacting Andrea who can arrange a great stay for you, including onward travel (for hotels, transfers etc) - her recommendations for the resorts of Ticao Island, and Elysia Resort in Donsol (reviews to follow) were spot on. After leaving Malaspascua I realised I had left my mask in my hotel room at Tepanee Resort (review also to follow). On my return to the UK I contacted Andrea to ask whether they had found it, and whether there was any way she could return it to me. Within a day I had a response saying she had contacted my hotel, found the mask, and was more than happy to post it back! Excellent service even after having left and paid up - this just reflects the kind of atmosphere present at TSD.

★ 3 · Mel Chan · 2010-08-24

Leaving TSD on the last day was quite a mixed feelings. There are three parts to consider in this review: 1. The DMs and Dive Crew - probably one of the best I've experienced in a long time. They were efficient, friendly, attentive and experienced. Kudos the Dive and Boat Crew. 2. Oscar, the restaurant and bar, owned by TSD - it was good all the way, till the last night, for the first time we had the same meal. All four of us came down with a severe case of food poisoning with fever, vomitting and round-clock-toilet-visits. The dissapointing part was, our discomfort was entirely ignored by the restaurant crew and owner/mgmt of TSD. 3. Manager and owner of TSD - we were introduced on arrival at TSD to the manager and see the owner by the bar every night. Well, the place was well managed, but probably they could be friendlier, not a single greeting since Day 1, even on the last day we were purchasing some souveniers in the shop with the manager present there. 4. Environment awareness - one thing we noticed was, the boats anchors into the sea ... while decending, you can see the anchor hooking on the life corals, need I say more? Overall, the dive services were good, hence the review would be good here but as per point 2 and 3 above, if there was a category in this review, would have definitely dropped in the # of stars. Management Response from TSD: My name is Andrea, I am the owner of TSD and I wanted to respond to this review. We take all feedback very seriously and in that way hope to improve our services, so I am glad that Mel posted this review. As I read the review only a few days after the group left, their visit was still fresh in everyone's mind and I was able to get answers from people. I had to go away on business the day after this group arrived, and so only had the chance to greet the group leader once. It also means that I could not personally oversee their stay, but my manager is usually very adept at this. He is usually very friendly, helpful and 'hands-on' so I am very surprised to hear him described otherwise. The restaurant management did not know about the food poisoning and would never have ignored it had they known. The people who were informed about it did not pass it on to management, so for that I apologize and they have been reprimanded for this. I have checked their food bills and they each ate the Burger Special. This is usually very popular and always sells out. In fact three members of my staff also had the burger that night. They were all fine and these burgers were all made at the same time. The menu changes every night to take advantage of the freshest items in stock and the kitchen takes hygiene very seriously. We never hear of such incidents - our 6 foreign staff eat almost every meal everyday without problems, and the restaurant has never had a problem like this in its two years of operation. I have addressed the issue with the chef and we are unable to find any cause. Possibly the group got it from the donuts and fried bananas I believe they tried off the beach? But to ensure this is not an ongoing restaurant problem, I also made one of the regular unannounced hygiene checks (everything was tip-top) and ran one of our ongoing hygiene training/reminder sessions. Regarding the anchoring, that is absolutely not supposed to happen. We have won several Project AWARE awards in the last 2 years for our conservation efforts and I would never knowingly allow this to happen. Most of the dive sites have mooring buoys some of which we pay for and maintain ourselves. Unfortunately we have a big problem locally with fishermen cutting down and stealing mooring buoys for their valuable materials, so it is possible the boats felt they had no other choice but to anchor when the expected buoy was not there. It is also possible they dropped anchor on the sand in a calm sandy area and they were unexpectedly dragged onto the reef. This should not have occurred and we have had a staff meeting to ensure it does not happen again. I have already contacted this group to get further feedback from this review and they have been very helpful. I was happy to hear that despite the things mentioned they still had a great trip and would return again.