Visit Date: November 2011

I recently returned from a SCUBA dive trip to Fiji. There I purchased a ten-dive package from Reef Safari. The advantages were: The per-dive price was discounted and my dive buddy and I could redeem the dives as we wished anywhere Reef Safari operated. The disadvantage, which we only discovered after purchasing the package, was location.

Reef Safari operates out of several kiosks in and around Denarau Island. The island dive sites, however, are only accessed by tourist cruise boats. These cruises, which typically include a buffet or lavish lunch, native dancing, hot-rock walking, etc. are nice distractions, but we came to Fiji to dive. The cost of these cruises added significantly to the expense of diving.

Reef Safari as a dive operator is about average for Fiji; for comparison, please check out my other reviews here. The dives were wonderful; lots of marine life to see, an interesting wreck to explore, great weather, and so on. The on-board, between dives snack was nothing but a few cookies and a cup of lukewarm cocoa. The DMs were attentive and friendly. My rating of the Value for Money below is based on the cost of the actual dive + the cost of the tourist cruise to get to the dive site.

I might also add that the ten dive package was not well thought out; the 'greeter' at each of the different dive sites wanted to keep the single page receipt, which would have left us no proof that we still had prepaid dives remaining. We were able to work out an informal stamp-and-sign solution, but clearly Reef Safari needs to come up with a coupon book or tear off tabs or something if they continue to offer this package.

Overall, I would recommend Dive Safari, with this caveat: Purchase the package directly from Dive Safari at the Denerau Marina, not from a tourist agent, and ascertain which dive sites you want to visit, how you will get to them, and so on.

Visit Date: September 2011

Hey, just read the above review, which probably would have made us think twice about diving with Reef at Shangra La - glad I didn't see it ! Our family has stayed at Shang. Fijian 5 or 6 times when the kids were just ankle biters and haven't been back until Sep/Oct '10 as we did a fair bit of travelling around the world (mostly hinging around diving - Australia, Vanuatu,Greek Ils,Thailand ... ) Now with my son 15yo and my dive buddy, the family thought we would revisit Shangra la - my son had done his Adv.Open Water in Vanuatu and now wanted to do the "Rescue Divers" - we dived twice a day for 5 days with Reef Shangra la to do the course before moving onto Beqa Isl to do the World Famous Tiger and Bull Shark dive. Barbara, her partner and team, at the Reef's dive shop, looked after us as good or better than anywhere else we have dived in the world. So I don't know if they were new management - but all I can say is I would not hesitate to go there again ! Just felt our good experience should also show on this website . P.S. we found the hire gear about 7 to 8 out of 10.

Hope this review helps.

Visit Date: April 2010

Our review of the dive center of Reef Safari Diving based at the Shangri-la is very simple: DO NOT GO THERE! We will explain why below, but believe me when I say this review is well funded and not just focusing on nitty-gritty details.

We stayed at the Shangri-la resort in May after spending a week on the island of Kandavu for diving on the Astrolabe reef. As this was a great experience, we wanted to do some diving on the main island of Fiji as well. As the Reef Safari diving center is based in the Shangri-la resort, this appeared easy enough.

As the per dive prices for the dives go down quite a lot if you choose to take a package, we opted for the 10 dive package. The first dive we did there was OK, but on the second dive it all went south. My girlfriend had a pressure gauge reading 280 bars before going in. The dive master assured her that it was no problem. After maybe 18 minutes the pressure had dropped to 130 bars already, where my tank was still on 150 bars. About 5 minutes later, when the gauge only read 80 bars, the air was getting very thin, so she had to use my octopus. I tried to signal this to the guide, but he did not look over his shoulder once. Meanwhile, my regulator was leaking water, so at every breath seawater would come in. I tried my octopus but it was leaking even worse…. We decided to go up on my tank and told the staff that the material was faulty and that both regs had to be checked. Due to this experience, we did not feel like taking a second dive that day. The staff assured us that this was not a problem, even if it would mean that we would not do the full 10 dives. The next day we did another dive, only to find out that the BCD that my girlfriend used was leaking, and my reg was letting in water yet again.

Clearly, most of the materials was not serviced correctly or was just very old. In any case, we did not feel like doing more dives, especially since they were not very cheap to begin with. The staff said that we should come back the next day when the manager was in in order to receive the final invoice. The next day we walked up to the center to talk to the manager. Contrary to the ‘no problem’ attitude, the manager tried to charge us for the full package and was very rude and aggressive towards us. He said that we were only complaining about his equipment to get free dives and that his equipment was fine. Over the last 3 months we did more than 20 dives with different outfits and we have never encountered leaking regs or BCD’s. Never before have we had any discussion on prices charged either. Yet the manager of Reef Safari diving would not let us explain, said that we made full dives of 45 minutes each (both our dive computers showed that we were up within 35 minutes) and called us liars. After this experience, we felt compelled to write this review so that other dives who value their safety know that they have to avoid this dive center.

Otto

Update from Scubadviser:

Following the publication of this review, Otto received a very comprehensive email from the Business Manager of Reef Safari Diving, addressing all his concerns and offering financial compensation for the problems he had had. 

Additionally, all the dive equipment has now been serviced by a fully trained and qualified service technician.  The site manager/instructor Lehan (Noel) has had the issues discussed with him and has subsequently moved to an alternate dive centre location within the company where he can be more closely monitored with regard to his customer service attitude and manner.

Reef Safari Diving have demonstrated that they listen to their customers and take action when it's needed and we applaud them for their excellent customer service.