Seawolf Dominator - Review by Alex
Diving Squad Rating:
“The Seawolf Dominator offers incredible value for money. Despite being only mid-priced, this liveaboard felt like an incredibly luxurious option to me.
This is thanks in part to the ship; with two partially-shaded outdoor lounges and a comfortable indoor saloon with huge plasma TV; it’s a beautiful and spacious place to call home for a week. Cabins are beautifully laid out and all of them feature aircon and ensuite bathrooms.
The other reason Seawolf Dominator feels so luxurious is the staff; all of whom who are extremely attentive – they’re always there to help when you’re suiting up on the huge divedeck and as soon as you’ve finished your dive and are climbing back on, someone hands you a refreshing drink.
The dive guides are incredibly professional and experienced and they have an insane knowledge of the Red Sea marine ecosystem.
Also, the cooking is hands down the tastiest I’ve ever had anywhere in my travels!! With huge buffets of deliciously prepared and ultra fresh seafood as well as roasts and vegetarian options; as soon as you’ve finished your main meal, a staff member appears by your side with a hearty dessert.
But now let’s talk about the diving! The first time I ever dived in the Red Sea was exploring the southern region with SeaWolf Dominator.
I’ve never experienced such incredible coral reefs – their unmatched in health and size. As well as countless reef fish and critters, blue spotted stingrays, turtles and giant clams we also saw two very inquisitive oceanic whitetip sharks.
Check out the movie below to see what I’m talking about”!
Alex
As you can see from the movie; diving the Red Sea is a visually stunning experience with incredible visibility of up to 120 feet (40 meters) and amazingly healthy coral reef that literally stretches for as far as the eye can see.
It covers epic sweeping walls dropping down over three hundred feet, shallow coral gardens where the light seemingly ripples along the colourful reefs and labyrinth like tunnel-networks that are exhilarating to explore whilst also incredibly safe; often with depths of less than twenty foot.
There’s a myriad of life; including all manner of reef fish, nudibranch, crustaceans and morays as well as turtles and some large fish like trevally, giant barracuda and tuna.
A highlight of the trip was meeting the two Oceanic Whitetip Shark; at Elphinstone; typical of it’s species, this one was incredibly curious and self-confident, swimming over to check out each diver individually before calmly swimming away.
It’s quite usual to see Oceanic Whitetip Sharks around the South Red Sea, especially between September – February; individually or in small groups.
If you watch the movie, you can only see one Oceanic Whitetip at a time, but there were at least two as you can see that one has a bite taken out of its right pectoral fin, whereas the other’s two pectoral fin’s are both fully in tact.
Divers can also see dolphins, hammerhead sharks and if they’re incredibly lucky maybe even dugongs and humpback and minke whales.
Seawolf Dominator is part of the Seawolf fleet; whom as an organisation have over twenty years of experience providing dive safaris through the Red Sea.
The Sea Wolf Fleet pride themselves on excellent customer service, exciting dive itineraries and affordable rates despite providing a luxury feel.
There are a range of different itineraries available; which explore different regions of the Red Sea.
For example, some routes tour the Red Sea’s North which has awesome coral and incredible shipwrecks whereas other trips explore the South which still has awesome coral but in place of shipwrecks has big pelagic animals such as oceanic whitetip sharks, dolphins and hammerhead sharks.
When I went with Seawolf Dominator in November 2022, we explored one of the best South Red Sea Region; the area between Marsa Alam and St.Johns reef.
Over one week, we dived famous dive sites including Abu Dabbab, Habibi, St.John’s Cave, Paradise Reefs, Big Giota, Sataya South, Maksour South, Claudia and Elphinstone.
We were split into two groups at the start of the trip; generally it was about one dive guide to eight guests.
Everyone used the Nitrox which was freely available and the staff spoke English, German and Russian (and also Egyptian-Arabic!).
Each day we were woken up around 6am and had twenty minutes to grab a coffee and snack before the first dive briefing of the day.
Throughout the day there were three dives; each was followed by a delicious breakfast, lunch or dinner and then guests had one and a half to two hours rest before the next dive.
After the third dive, everyone is invited to the main outdoor lounge; music is played and the staff bring you a fresh drink; usually a smoothie and some light snacks. It’s a great time to talk about the day’s dives whilst watching the sunset.
Guests have about an hour to enjoy this which is also ample time to shower and change and then it’s time for a mouth-watering dinner and dessert.
After this, many guests like to enjoy a drink or two from the bar but for those who can hold off there’s usually a night-dive which you get to go down on with just a dive buddy, no guide needed!
There’s no official curfew or time you have to be asleep, but most people are tucked up in their cabins by 10pm, by which point it’s all very quiet; staff are still available 24/7 should you need them.
Diving the South Red Sea was amazing; the visibility and coral was just phenomenal and meeting and Oceanic Whitetip Shark is one of the coolest underwater encounters I’ve ever had.
I feel really lucky to have had this special experience with Seawolf Dominator; they made me feel so well looked after and the food ruled.
I’m still so surprised that compared to many other Red Sea liveaboards, Seawolf Dominator is a lot less expensive. Such awesome value for money.
Thankyou Seawolf and see you again soon!
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