Back in October 09 we booked a trip on Blue Fin to do a “Best of Wrecks” week and specifically to dive the Salem Express. After talking with one of their Directors Nathan Tyler at the show, he informed us that the Salem Express was part of the standard itinerary on this trip, but subject to weather, which we fully understand.

Based on this and their website, as it also lists this as one of the wreck you take in on the trip we booked two places.

Following booking we ordered addition 6 litre side slung cylinders as we were told that the boat had Nitrox and could mix up to 40%.

Once on board the dive guide played your introductory DVD to the boat which claimed the boat could mix Nitrox between
22-40%. After the DVD was played the dive guide went on to say that the boat could only mix 30% as a standard mix with is totally unacceptable when paying £60 for a service that they claim to offer but don’t deliver on.

What made it worse still is if we had know we couldn’t get 40% for accelerated deco then we wouldn’t have ordered the side slungs at £30 per cylinder!

It then got even better after the dive guide went through all the wrecks we were going to dive with no mention of the Salem Express!! After questions from myself and other on board he explained that you never do this when the boat is routed as it was stating in Hurghada and ending in Port Ghalib…no mention of this either by Nathan or on your website or at the time of booking

After much debate the following morning it was announced we would dive the Salem Express but we would have to give up two other wrecks to do it, which is a very poor excuse, based on how much time was lost on the whole trip.

Throughout the week whenever there was a night dive it was on a REEF, so in total out of 19 dives 5 were on reefs, so much for Best of Wrecks. .

One the final evening we set off supposedly to dive the Elphinstone on the last day and were told by the dive guide that dependent on the weather we may not get on the reef but we would see in the morning.

What a surprise then to be told the following morning it was too rough, what is even stranger is that we were some 2hrs North of the Elphinstone and only 30minutes from Port Ghalib, so there was never an intention to dive that site anyway.

At the dive site we had ended up at (Marsa Shouna) for the last two dives the visibility was poor -5m and this was on a sandy bottom not a wreck in sight! On the last day all diving was complete by 12.00midday. As the flights home the next day weren’t until the evening why did they feel we needed to be out of the water for over 30hrs? This is absolutely disgusting as from start to finish on the whole trip nearly a day and a half was wasted of our holiday time we paid for to go diving.

The real reason behind all of this is that the boat we were told was gong Deep South this week so it cut time out of the travelling for you, so we ended up in Port Ghalib. We were also told that the dive guild needed to be at a company meeting in Hurghada that evening at 7.00pm so this is why we needed to be in port for 2.00pm and cut our diving short.

Blue o Twos meetings and future trips should not impose on a holiday paid for by myself and other alike as it’s poor planning and lack of organisation on Blue O Twos behalf that caused this and it is totally unacceptable.

So in brief
1. The Salem Express was sold as part of the trip and was never on the original itinerary
2. Nitrox is advertised at between 22-40% but is limited to one mix which passengers have to pay full price for.
3. We ordered 6 litre side slungs as an extra, based on the availability of 40% but ended up with 30% at best so incurred addition expenditure for no reason as we wouldn’t have booked them if we had known.
4. The trip was sold as a Best of Wrecks week and out of 19 dives 5 were on reefs
5. We spent the last day kicking our heels due to your internal meeting and planning arrangements

Due to the above myself and my buddy have spent in excess of £150 we wouldn’t if the truth had been told about the Nitrox situation originally.

You may like to warn other dives to tread carefully when dealing with Blue O Two as unlike them I don’t believe their hype

I've never dived with Blue O Two, but I know people that have and they have nothing but good things to say about the company. Have you contacted Blue O Two directly regarding your complaint(s)?

Have you had a response from blue o two about your complaint? I've had one very memorable trip on a blue o two liveaboard and other divers on the boat were happy to use the company again.

Seems like with have a hit and run user! This has been posted on other sites and would seem he is trying to slate a reputable company This sort of posting makes you look bad rather than the company.

Most people should believe the hype as it's true. I've had several trips with Blue o Two and all have been most enjoyable

Have you tried contacting them directly with your complaint Maybe this should have been your first port of call before airing this in public like you have.