A Review of MV Koon9 Liveaboard

Great experience! SUPER organized operation. Guests that had tried several boats in the area said this one was definitely most organized. Delicious plentiful food, super helpful staff (princess diving where they do everything for you except hang up your wetsuit) and fantastic dives. Richelieu rock was of course great but the other ones were actually just as cool. There were a lot of divers on the reef, and I'd like boat staff to confront the coral kickers more and make more of a point of this during orientation, but otherwise great dive guides. The reef is stunning and pristine, huge schools of fish, a tornado of barracuda. Their rental gear is great, from divesuits to octopus/ bcd. Boats great. Plenty of boat staff, very helpful, rush to put your fins on if you're struggling (these divers are for Advanced only FYI). Divers are very international. The boat has an upper deck for stargazing at night and you will be almost always in the shade during the day, so suntan lotion not really even needed. Most time will be spent underwater or in the spacious communal food hall deck, eating, meeting and hanging with other guests. Between dives you can also go back to your cabin, shower and dry off and have nap time if you wish. The dive boat manager was particularly organized and they made a few accommodations for me that I really appreciated.
Cons: The boat beds and pillows suck but apparently this is normal on a liveaboard. Bring a blowup pillow if you can to supplement the flat one.
Wildlife: the wildlife selector below does not have options for all we saw. Giant Octopus, huge swirling schools of barracuda, mantis shrimp, huge morays swimming around, eels, trillions of glass fish, too many other fish to mention but huge schools everywhere, lionfish, several types of nudis, etc etc. Beware: all the dive marketing mentions whale sharks and large rays, but apparently this is almost an impossibility (has almost never been seen). Go anyways, this is now one of my favorite div