Emperor Divers Red Sea — Local services in Red Sea

FANTASTIC week on board Emperor Superior, Northern Wrecks & Reefs.

Travel/Transfer - TUI flight from Gatwick. Upon arrival at Hurghada airport, I had to purchase a visa for $25, easy enough. An Emperor rep was waiting outside arrivals. Easy to find and a friendly welcome. A short bus transfer via bus to the boat.

Boat arrival - Welcomed onboard by the Guides (Hassan and Hany). Paperwork completed, my luggage was taken to my room. After all were boarded we had comprehensive safety briefing (and another on the following morning). Including location of lifejackets, practice donning, muster point, the importance of not charging anything in our cabins, fire watch (Ali - night watch and scanning QR codes dotted around the boat, every 15mins throughout the night - fantastic!), fire alarm system, the fact there are something like 80 lifejackets onboard, life rafts etc etc. All very reassuring given recent events.

Boat itself - Emperor Superior is a lovely boat. First impressions, she’s quite spacious. Plenty of seating in the salon and separate dining area. Two spacious sundecks front and back plus big lounge beds on the fly deck (which apparently pop off spilling lifejackets into the water if the boat were to go over, very clever idea). The boat is in good condition, charging area in the salon has plenty of outlets and space. All lounging areas are comfy. Hot drink station in dining area and the bar. Bar is manned of an evening, though we weren’t big drinkers. Soft drinks available as was drinking water.

Room - Rm10 fantastic. Twin room to myself. Enough storage if you didn’t bring too many clothes. Clean fluffy towels (bedding and towels changed mid week). Comfy beds and pillows. Bathroom was great, fully functioning, plenty of hot water for a quick shower, good pressure in the shower too. Cleaned frequently by the fantastic crew.

Dive Deck - Fantastic! I chose position 16, mid ship so less drafty than around the edges. Camera dunk tank, camera table, shelves with charging points. Crew are quick to refill cylinders, great membrane compressor onboard. Good nitro fill throughout the week. Crew are on deck to lend a hand with kitting up and wriggling out of wetsuits etc. Drinks after every dive are very welcome and tasty.

Diving - northern wrecks and reefs itinerary. A great mix of dive sites. Weather was against us initially, with the sea being closed due to high winds. We were able to get a couple of shore dives in thanks to Emperor for organising. Later that day the boat was released to set sail. Crossings weren’t too rough, captain did a great job. Managed to get two dives on Thistlegorm, all to ourselves!! Guides were knowledgeable of the sites, eager to point out things underwater. Happy to help with some training for one of the guests. Hassan and Hany really did a great job above and below the water. Comprehensive dive briefs and great plans that were adhered to. Zodiacs are in good condition, a handful of dives were from the zodiac. Crew were adept at getting us on and off etc.

Food - fabulous, can’t fault it! Plentiful, a great selection, something for everyone. Chefs really did a fantastic job all week. Fav meal is always breakfast. I leave the water after our first dive sooooo hungry. Snacks on hand all the time just in case. Freshly baked cookies etc.

Connectivity - while there is wifi onboard, it’s limited to an amount of data. I was able to purchase an eSIM. Unlimited data for 14 days for about £30. Well worth looking into before travelling or upon arrival. Signal was a little patchy out to sea but closer to shore it was fantastic.

Overall a fabulous week! Only thing that could have improved it was the weather, but its the middle of Feb, so I can't complain, it's certainly a lot nicer...

Being on the Emperor Asmaa was honestly like a dream. We had booked the Asmaa for the attractive price for the Wrecks and Reefs itinerary. Having never been on a liveaboard we had no expectations going into it and really just had some anxiety around the whole thing.

Our fears were misplaced and we feel nothing but happiness for the experience and sadness that it is over! It was the liveaboard of a lifetime.

The paperwork: all of it extremely straightforward, easy to understand and easy to complete. The read before you go document in particular covered all questions we had prior to disembarkation.

The crew: everyone on board made the experience super wonderful. The captain and his first mate were extremely professional, and competent making good decisions regarding the weather, low wind areas, and limiting swell wherever possible. All of the deck crew were amazing assisting with your gear, donning and doffing, and preparing you for the dives as best as they could/as much as you required.

Of particular note were the guides, Achmed-Ali and Wael. Both were so kind, knowledgeable, and made everyone feel comfortable no matter the conditions. They both made expert assessments regarding conditions, gave excellent briefings, and were very pleasant to be around. Also the salon crew Saad(?) and Zeyd; we felt as if the dining room was one of the fanciest establishments we had been to.

The food: absolutely amazing, plentiful, healthful and especially delicious. It is not hard to see why food can make or break an experience on board. Everyone shared our sentiment that it was all super yummy. The freshly prepared desserts prepared by the pastry chef were also unbelievable. There was always a great amount of salads and fresh vegetables to take with every meal.

The cabins: we stayed in the lower cabins (#4) and found the accommodation clean, fresh and comfortable. It had its own head and shower, hot water if you like, and the entire cabin was air conditioned. There was also a fan in the room. The bed and towels were made up routinely, and it even seemed that every time you left for a dive some part or all of your cabin was refreshed. They always always cleaned the head as well which was a super nice touch.

Equipment: we had rented and found the equipment in good shape. What we supplied though was our own torches and masks since we had those, and considering the torch rental was 48 Euro/week/person it makes sense to pick one up in Hurghada prior to sailing.

The boat: in its entirety it was comfortable, well kept, and spacious for us all. We were blessed to have a really good group where everyone mingled amongst each other and all got along really well. The Asmaa is a boat that can support 20 divers and we were only running with 14 so that may have made a difference in the comfort level. The briefings/drill regarding maritime safety were thorough enough without being cumbersome, and it made it clear that Emperor Divers takes safety very, very seriously. At no point did we ever feel as though something may have been an unsafe situation for the boat, crew, or her passengers.

The only downside? Having to disembark. I feel melancholic already for the memories created that for sure will...

After our excellent experience with the Emperor fleet in the Maldives, my buddy and I decided to do another liveaboard with them, but this time in the Red Sea. So we booked two back-on-back liveaboard trips in the northern Red Sea on Emperor Superior.

The booking process and the communication with emperor worked very well and they responded very fast. The transfere from our hotel in Hurghada to the ship and back worked as arranged and the driver was friendly.

On the ship, we were wellcomed by an amazingly friendly crew! All of them were very helpful and sozial. They joined the sozial life on board and we had a superbe time with all of them. However, the food was maybe one of the best I ever had on a holiday. There were three chefs on board, one of them only for desserts. The food tasted always very good and was freshly prepared on board. Every day, they offered buffet styled meals with a great selection of different dishes, so that everyone found something. And there was always plenty of food, so that noone had to go to bed hungry.

The bar on the boat offers a variety of different alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages. The alcoholic beverages are excluded and must be paid for at the end of the week, however, the softdrinks are included. Aditionally, they offered a variety of snacks for the time between the meals, as crisps, popcorn and so on.

The ship itself was in a very good condition and the cabines offered enough space to store ones belongings. The divedeck was large enough as well and acommodated all the divers comfortabely, eventhough the ship was fully booked. And there are enough charging sockets in the main living room for charging cameras and torches.

The dive guides were very good informed and gave a detailed briefing bevore every dive. They mentioned the most important facts about the dive sites and how to dive them, so that we always had a very good idea, on how we have to dive the spot to see the important places. Eventhough they offered every dive as a guided dive, you were free to go on your own (buddy team) and discover the site on your own.

The diving itself was also superbe and the guides chose along with the captain very good and protected spots. So we saw an amazing variety of marine life. Word about the captain: He was amazing. Manouvered the ship very safe and tryed to search the calmest route possible.

Concluding, we enjoyed our two weeks onboard very much and we are already planing to go back as soon as possible. And definitely again with the Emperor...