Explore Emperor Maldives: Serenity Liveaboard - Dive into the Ultimate Scuba Adventure

This picture of me was taken at the sandbar. Scroll to read about it in this post!!

BEST THING EVER!! This is the best experience I have ever been to for diving. The ship... WOW was the ship gorgeous and stable and clean. The diving was everything you could imagine. The people were so kind and knowledgeable. Also, wanted to take a class while on board? No problem! I took my nitrox class on board and was able to dive on their available nitrox tanks. From the village trips to the sandbar adventure to the most incredible diving in the world, I loved everything and I mean EVERYTHING about this adventure.

Getting to the Ship

My mom and I headed back to the airport pier to get with everyone and go to the ship via the tender boat. I will say this was a lengthy process. We were waiting on everyone because some people were flying in that day and then we all headed outside to the dock where we waited for quite some time because they didn't seem to be in a big hurry picking us up and just sat out there while other boats were zooming in front of them. I guess that is an island for ya though, what can I say? This transfer was free, unlike the one to the hotel. The fee was included in the price you pay for the live aboard.

Arriving on the Ship

Once on the ship, they were very accommodating with bags and everything. Some of the suites were upstairs on the top deck, the mediocre rooms were inside the first deck, and then I was below deck. I was in the basic room which, lemme just say, was no basic room. This thing was massive for the basic live aboard room! It had its own bathroom, a desk, two beds (a double and a twin), and a little bit of walking space. Our room even had a little porthole window! The doors lock, but if you lock your door they can not change your sheets and towels so they recommend you leave it unlocked. Don't worry, its all very safe.  I will say the spiral staircase to get down there and back up was super sketchy- especially with your luggage. It wasn't unstable, just steep. 

The ship had a charging station that they recommend because of fire issues with international chargers. They are in public areas on the ship but are very safe. Nobody wants your stuff, they all have their own.
 The ship also had wifi that you can pay for. My mom paid for it after a while of being there and she said it was meh and not really worth paying for. Just take the week to really unplug, it's good for you, trust me!

Evening activities on the first night consisted of dinner and lots of briefing. I had already been diving that day so I was falling asleep. Food was good and not super foreign which was nice on my stomach. ​

Off to Explore the Best of Maldives

After that, we were off to see what the Maldives had to offer. We chose the Best of Maldives option for this which meant we were going to make so many different types of dives- reef, night, channel, wreck, etc. to see the best of what is out there. This is something you chose before you book, its basically like choosing your route based on what you want to see. This means that everyone else on the ship has picked the same itinerary as you.  

For the sections to follow, I am going to write about WHAT we saw and WHERE we saw it. I will not go in any particular "day one day two" order, just a "we saw this animal at this location and we did this at this location"

Checkout Dive

For those people that had not already been diving for two days prior to joining this excursion, we were all required to make the checkout dive at Fish Tank. This basically is to make sure you remember how to dive and make sure all equipment is fully functional. Everyone was broken up into groups of three or four people who were all paired with one dive guide. On all other dives except the checkout dive, you and your buddy could, at any time, wave goodbye to your dive guide to signal that you are going alone. This is super nice because I personally had a few people who were slowing down the group in my group so we kinda went on our own. Staying with the guides is nice at times too thought because they know where things are and can point them out. I thought it was great to have the option!

Diving Fish Tank for a second time was great because I really got to take everything in instead of being so overwhelmed. Also, the first time I did it was during a dumping time and this one was not so it was nice to see the two sides. I'm not really going to write a lot about fish tank here or put pictures because I already wrote about it. To read about Fish Tank (AKA Tuna Factory) see the Pearl Sands of Maldives post below this one. I'll link it.

Fish Tank/ Tuna Factory HERE

The Manta Rays!

Absolutely breathtaking! All the ones we saw were the reef mantas which meant they were a little bit smaller than the giant mantas. They were still enormous and super majestic. We saw our first one at a place we did not expect to find a manta ray, we were simply diving when one swam by off in the blue and were lucky enough to see it! It is extremely white on the top compared to the others. Most of our mantas were seen at South Ari Atoll in places like Moofushi and others. 
I sent all my pictures of the underside of the mantas into the Manta Trust Organization to see if I could get the names of some and see if I saw one that didn't have a name so I could name it! Turns out I got lucky enough to find ONE manta ray without a name so I got to name it!! I named it Verano which means summer in Spanish. 

The Peacock Mantis Shrimp!

Funny story about this... I finally finally after 14 years of being alive, found something awesome and saw it before my mom!! I am still proud of myself for this. What makes this such a big deal is we were both talking about how we wanted to see one a while before this trip and I was like well I will look when we are in the Maldives. I was just casually going about my business observing the reef one dive when something tiny caught my eye. It was a little shrimp cleaning its hole. My mom was farther down the reef (because she left me like usual) so I sat there and watched it. The eye caught my attention and then it hit me. I was looking right at a peacock mantis shrimp. I was a little doubtful that I could find something so awesome all on my own and I wasn't even sure if you could find these in the Maldives, so I got my GoPro to take a video and ask the dive guide later. This shrimp was tiny, like around 7 cm in length. I got my video and kept going...

When the group surfaced from the dive, I asked how big the shrimp are and my mom said around 6 inches. The shrimp I saw was definitely not 6 inches. I then asked if you can find them here and I was given a not really kind of answer. Things were not going my way. Everyone wanted to know why I was being so inquisitive so I bluntly said that I think I saw one. When everyone thought I was making things up, I was glad to have the video. ​

Boom! The dive guide confirmed it! I had seen a peacock mantis shrimp and I had a video to prove it!! I was so happy because my mom was all sad that she didn't see it. First, I told her that's what she gets for leaving me and second I told her that I know what I'm looking for now and I will find her one. I felt bad because I have my whole life ahead of me to see things, and she is not in the same situation. ​

Again, I was casually moseying along the reef and the current was kinda strong over one point and all of the sudden something else caught my eye. I knew exactly what it was! This one was 100% a peacock mantis shrimp and it was large. 6 inches easy. I got the dive guide and showed her and she told me way to go. My mom, of course, was wandering. I waited for her to turn around and then waved her over. She barely made it over because she was right in the current and I was right under it blowing over the top of the reef. She finally made it and we sat there and watched this huge mantis shrimp play with a mental pole that the dive guide had. The experts say they have a punch, and this one was sure showing it off. It was not shy and would punch the thing down the reef so hard you could hear it. She then put the flashlight on it so we can see the colors. It as certainly exquisite and the eyes were absolutely fascinating. I do not have any pictures (because I did not have my camera) so I will just put a picture from google below. I felt good that my mom got to see it. :)

The Clownfish

One of the saddest things I discovered in Fiji was that they did not have any what I call "real" clownfish. They had plenty of clownfish but I was able to find a whole zero clownfish that looked like Nemo from the movie. I was told by a local man that they once had a multitude of these clownfish but they have been collected for aquariums. Hearing this absolutely devastated me. I never thought that a plethora of these fish in aquariums would lead to a decrease in natural ocean population. ​It makes sense now that I know, I just never thought of it...

I really wanted to see one of these in the wild so I kept my eyes peeled in the Maldives. Finally, after seeing a lot of other fish, my mom found one anemone with real clownfish living there. They were absolutely gorgeous to see living in their natural habitat. There were some larger ones and then if you looked in the corner, there was one the size of my pinky fingernail. It was sooo cute and super tiny and I was in complete awe! It felt good to know that they aren't completely gone from the sea.

Unfortunately, me being myself I didn't bring my camera on this dive either. Yeah, I'm rolling my eyes too. Sorry.. :(

The Nudibranches!

These are some of my favorite creatures that are tiny! I saw a lot of these on one wreck dive we did. There is one that can only be found in the Maldives and I did see. The color of this one was blue. It was on the larger side for sure and moving at a good pace. I saw a really gorgeous orange and white one also. Unfortunately, I did not take my camera on this dive. I was really slacking. Promise I won't be making the same mistakes because I know all of this writing is almost meaningless without pictures.

The Nurse Shark Night Dive

This, by far, was one of my favorite dives. It was shallow and there were sharks all around you. These nurse sharks were harmless but everywhere! It was by a pier and lit up at night and you could see all the sharks. I also saw several rays and a few black tip sharks. You basically go down to about 25 feet at the most and kneel on the bottom in the sand by a few rocks and let the sharks swim at you, over you, around you, basically do whatever while you take in all the action. I was completely amazed. There were quite a few crowds there, as it is a popular dive site, but our dive guides recognized this and got us down there very quickly before everyone so we could get good kneeling spots. I had an absolute blast on this night dive, and I am not particularly fond of night dives in general.

Again, this was one of those amazing dives that I did not take my camera on because it is a night dive and I usually do not take my camera on night dives. I have all the memories I need in my mind which includes a little small added bonus to this dive. When I had seen a lot of sharks, I looked down and there was the smallest octopus I had ever seen inching its was to my mom into her little poker thing. I got her attention and just played with it for a while. It was super cute and super friendly and just made the dive a little bit better!

The Best Part of it All

Ah yes, the day my entire life changed forever. The day I first laid eyes on a whale shark swimming just a couple feet away from me. The very best day of my life.

At whale shark point, we received word they had spotted a whale shark in the area. We chased and we searched and chased some more. They kept finding it and losing it. Things were looking up, and then just like that it was gone. 

We were on our surface interval and thought we would have to snorkel but when the time came for us to get in the water, we had passed enough time to put on our scuba gear and go for the dive of the decade.

I took some videos of the whale shark but they're long. So long they won't upload. Sooo unfortunately I'll just upload my whale shark photo so you guys can see it. This was a juvenile whale shark, a male I think. He was still so big though and is still my favorite thing I've ever seen.   

Whale Shark Dinner

Even though this took place the night before we saw the whale shark, I'm through with all the diving aspects so we're now going to discuss all the other activities during this time. The first one being the whale shark dinner which took place on a beach and was an absolute delicious blast!

locals create mantas and whale sharks out of sand as the sun sets. Something I'll never forget. The man on the right adds texture to the manta using dry white sand.

A couple of boats came around for this dinner but each did their own thing. I would not call it crowded at all, its a pretty big island for everyone. For a while we walked around and explored while they prepared dinner and set it up. I watched some locals make wale sharks and manta rays out of SAND!! that is to this day one of the most magnificent things I have ever seen people do. 

After we looked at everything and explored, we ate some delicious grub and took our picture next to a lit up whale shark as a group. 

Spectacular time that I'll never forget!!

Small Island Snorkeling

For a surface interval (in between dives) we stationed the boat by this smaller island. It is uninhabited and it's just a picture perfect scene. We got to snorkel here and I don't recall taking my camera on that snorkel and if I did, I don't have the pictures from it ready. But I do remember seeing some of the healthiest coral ever, untouched by humanity. I saw turtles, eagle rays, schools of fish, barracuda. This was one of the most beautiful sites I have snorkeled besides one other place in the Maldives and Lady Eliot Island in Australia. 

What's great about this place is that you can only access it from the boat we were on. I am unsure of it's name and I'm sure that there are many other beautiful islands but the remoteness of this and the waters were so serene. 

The Sandbar

The sandbar is exactly what it sounds like. It's a small of piece of sand that is surrounded by some of the best snorkeling ever. I took some of my most prized underwater photos here and I had the time of my life.

Endless crystal water. Endless white sand. There were fish everywhere. I saw sharks, a turtle, sooo many fish, a cuddlefish, and so much more. There was a shallow reef and a huge drop off. I wish I could go back here and its one of the top 5 places I've ever been. 

Would give anything to go back to this sandbar. 

Island Exploration/Shopping

Here's the name of the island

We went to that island that has it's name above. Yeah that's super long but anyway. Yes, this island is inhabited and yes it was really fun. We walked through the street made of sand and went into all kinds of shops. I was mostly looking for a tee shirt but came across a necklace for $10 that I wear everyday and can't find anywhere else. It's a manta ray pendant and when I bought it the shop owner went and got someone to tie an adjustable string so I could wear it. I got pink and I wore it until one day it broke. Now I have a real chain for it. You might be able to see what it looks like in some other pictures of me on this blog. It's in the pictures of me at the sandbar but there might be some better ones somewhere else.
Warning: it is really hard to find a tee shirt with a small print on the front and a big one on the back. Good luck. I found one and when it got wet it ripped. Tragety but oh well still a really fun experience. 

The Sand Roads

To Conclude

Well, that about finishes this up. I ADORED the Maldives. They had their flaws but nothing a few passionate people couldn't fix. We must rise above to fix the plastic pollution that is arising in the Maldives. I personally witnessed people throwing trash into the ocean off boats. It is one of the saddest things and one of my biggest regrets. I wish I would have documented it. Photographed or filmed it. I didn't do it. I could have made change and I didn't and that is one of my biggest regrets.

Tip:

They have a new ship out. It's called the Explorer and I've heard great things about it :)