Emperor Explorer
- Nitrox
- Trimix
- Internet
- PADI
- SSI
- Camera Station
- Charging Station
- Massage
Brand NEW for 2019 she brings a class of her own to the Maldivian waters. Emperor Explorer is a contemporary, spacious liveaboard where fine accommodation and service is standard. This 42 metre boat easily accommodates 26 guests in 13 well-appointed ensuite cabins all with air-con. Add to that her Spa, spacious diving and relaxation areas and she's a winner.
Enjoy open air dining area at the stern of the main deck. Several sofas and tables await you inside the air-conditioned saloon for relaxing or watching TV. A complimentary glass of wine is served with dinner.
The upper deck boasts a covered, open area ideal for watching photos and footage from your diving or just relaxing, star gazing and soaking up the wonderful Maldivian ambience.
The sundeck is perfect for catching those sunrays or having a reviving nap.
All diving is done from Emperor Explorer's large dhoni (tender), giving you more living space on board and getting you to the perfect dive spot every time. She offers free NITROX, all diving and safety equipment and four dive guides.
Accommodation
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1 Cabins
The Emperor Explorer has 13 guest cabins. There are 7 Standard cabins on the lower deck – 5 with double/single beds and 2 with double beds. The main deck has 2 double/single bed cabins. And there are 4 upper deck cabins - 2 with king-size double beds and 2 with twin beds.
All the cabins have en-suite bathrooms, Individual control air-conditioning and fans, Windows (upper and main decks) or portholes (lower deck), Private bathroom facilities with hot water shower, towels, toiletries and hand basin, Television, Wardrobe and shelves, Dressing table and mirror, Reading lights, Bedding, 220V electricity supply with round 2-pin sockets, Space for luggage, Fire detectors, Life jackets.
Dining
The food is renowned for its excellent quality with an impressive variety of both local, Asian and European dishes. MV Emperor Explorer is fully licensed to sell soft drinks, beer, wine and spirits. Complimentary tea, coffee and drinking water are available throughout the day.
Vegetarian and Special dietary menu available on request.
Diving
Dive sites are reached by an accompanying dhoni. A highly professional Cruise Director/fully qualified dive instructor plans and guides the diving programme to ensure you visit the very best dive sites with full dive briefings.
Diving in the Maldives is influenced by the seasons. The quality of the dive sites is determined by the ebb and flow of seasonal currents, which in turn affects both the underwater visibility and the marine life. MV Emperor Explorer follow these seasonal variations, taking divers to the best sites for the time of the year.
Emperor Expolorer is rebreather-friendly and also offers free NITROX.
- Free Nitrox
- Rebreather Support
Dive Courses
MV Emperor Explorer offers PADI Introduction Dives (DSD), Dive Courses and Specialties.
Dive computer rental, camera rental and torch rental not included.
Courses do not include materials, certification fees or equipment.
Prices are for prebooked course. A 12% sales tax charge is applicable for all payments made onboard.
All courses are subject to allowable time and availability.
- PADI Discover Scuba Diving 99$
- PADI Open Water Referral 303$
- PADI Open Water 329$
- PADI Adventure Dives 84$
- PADI Advanced Open Water 329$
- PADI NItrox Course 162$
- PADI Deep Diver 229$
- PADI Digital U/W Photography 202$
- PADI Drift Diver 261$
Equipment Rental
All equipment and tanks must be pre-ordered. Please ensure when ordering equipment to include required equipment size along with height, weight and shoe size. All divers must dive at all times with an SMB and dive computer, reef hooks are recommended.
Full Set: BCD, Regulator, Mask, Fins, Wet Suit (3mm shortie), SMB
Prices are for prebooked equipment per trip. A 12% sales tax charge is applicable for all payments made onboard.
- Full set 281$
- Full set + Dive computer 313$
- BCD 94$
- Regulator 125$
- Dive Computer 94$
- Mask 32$
- Fins 32$
- Wetsuit 62$
- SMB
- Torch 94$
- Stage 40s 125$
- Stage 80s 125$
- Rebreather Tanks
- Twin Set (2 x 12 Litre Ali) 188$
- Side Mount SM550
- 15 liters tank 94$
Facilities
- Restaurant
- Bar
- Air Conditioned Saloon
- Sun Deck
- Shaded Deck Area
- Camera Station
- Camera Rinse Tank
- Charging Station
- Library
- Dhoni
Services
- Daily Housekeeping
- Laundry Service
- Land Tours
Services
MV Emperor Explorer is offering year round diving cruises around the central, northern and south atolls of the Maldives.
Year Built | 2019 |
Length | 42 meters |
Beam | 13.2 meters |
Draft | 2.13 meters |
Cruising Speed | 12 knots |
Engines | 700 Hp Doosan Daewoo |
Generators | 2 x 50 KW |
Maximum guests | 26 |
Number of cabins | 13 |
Satellite Phone | Yes |
Safety Equipment | life jackets, lifebuoys, fire alarm, fire extinguisher, search lights, oxygen, EPIRB |
Communication | VHF radio, Long Range Single Side Band Radio |
Navigation | Radar, Magnetic Compass, Depth sounder, GPS |
Tenders | 1 |
Dhoni | 1 |
Cruise Price Includes
Shared cabin
7 Nights
6 Days diving
3 Meals a day
Afternoon snacks
1 BBQ dinner on local island (weather allowing)
Unlimited drinking water, tea, coffee
Total of 22 dives
Guide, tanks, weights
Free Nitrox
Return airport transfer
Government taxes and bed tax
Land visit
Separate diving dhoni
Cruise Price Excludes
Flight
Travel & Dive insurance
Diving equipment
15 Litre or extra tanks
Tip for the crew
Alcohol, soft drinks, juices.
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The Best of the Maldives 7 and 10 day trips
You don't need a minimum number of dives but you should be comfortable with drift dives. Currents can be strong. All your diving is made from dhonis or zodiacs to give precise entry and exits points. Experienced divers can dive in a buddy pair unguided.
Rasdhoo Atoll: Hammerhead Dive, Beautiful Reef with Pelagics
North Ari Atoll: Grey Reef Sharks, Maaya Thila Night Dive, Multiple Manta Cleaning Stations
South Ari Atoll: Whale Sharks, Beautiful Pinnacles
South Male Atoll: Grey Reef Sharks, Eagle Rays, Other Pelagics, Beautiful Macro Wreck.
Vaavu Atoll: Beautiful channels with magical soft corals and pelagic delights. Action packed night dive with Nurse Sharks and others.
North Male Atoll: Beautiful Pinnacles.
This is the Best of the Maldives - and it delivers exactly that. This is where you dive the best and most famous dive sites of the Maldives in a week of wonderful liveaboard diving across Male and Ari atolls.
Enjoy a dive holiday that gives you all you could wish for from the iconic sites of North Male, South Male and Ari Atoll. Awaiting you are channels, drifts and pinnacles where you have every chance of meeting mantas, whale sharks and mesmerising marine life of so many varieties. We don't follow an exact itinerary; flexibility is the word so that no matter what time of the year you visit, this underwater world is yours (and ours) for the exploring.
This itinerary gives you a marine mix of big fish such as shark and manta dives as well as reef dives, reef fish, morays and the abundant macro life. Get up close at the cleaning stations without disturbing the locals! One of the best known dive sites is Maaya Thila; this pinnacle is approximately 30m in diameter and falls away to reveal sharks and fish a plenty.
A night dive from sheltered moorings here is a must! And the boat will also aim to find whale sharks so you can get in the water and snorkel with them...as long as they stay around long enough! -
South Central 7 Atolls (January to March) 7 and 9 day trips
This itinerary is not for beginners and most dives will involve going to depth and diving with currents. All diving is made from dhonis to give precise entry and exit points. We recommend a minimum of 100 logged dives to join this trip.
North Male Atoll: Beautiful Pinnacles.
South Male Atoll: Grey Reef Sharks, Eagle Rays, Other Pelagics, Beautiful Macro Wreck.
Vaavu Atoll: Beautiful channels with magical soft corals and pelagic delights. Action packed night dive with Nurse Sharks and others.
Vattaru Atoll: Pristine coral reefs.
Meemu Atoll: Beautiful channels with pelagic action, Sailfish, Grey Reef Sharks, Eagle Rays and beautiful soft coral. Manta cleaning station.
Thaa Atoll: Hammerhead Sharks, Whale Sharks, Dolphins, Traditional Maldivian Channel Diving.
Laamu Atoll: Beautiful fish filled channels with great shark encounters.
Looking for action? Speedy drift dives, mantas, sharks and diving 7 atolls appeal? Both MV Leo and MV Orion offer this itinerary and our guides and crew make it their business to make sure you see mantas, sharks and even a wreck.
January to March is the time to join us as this is when the current in the Kandus is largely incoming. There's a good variety of diving from thrilling channel dives to more relaxed diving inside the atolls on Thilas or Giris.
The best thing? There are few, if no, boats as we visit atolls that have very few resorts and lots of uninhabited islands so liveaboard competition is low! The main manta activity is at Ari at this time of year but there's a good manta cleaning station in Meemu Atoll.
Hammerheads are often found in Thaa as well as whale sharks who visit our boat at night attracted by the lights. When the currents are running well, the channel dives here are outstanding. Abundant with schooling snappers, jacks, barracuda, white tips and greys, grouper, Napoleon wrasse, turtles, eagle rays and more. Fancy a wreck dive? We can fix that for you at the Kuda Giri wreck, famous for its rare black corals and macro life complete with resident frog fish.
This itinerary has a lot of drift diving so it's best suited to more advanced divers. With visibility being really good in the southern atolls, this is ideal for photographers for normal and macro shots. -
Deep South & Southern Sharks (February to April) 7 day trips
This itinerary suits experienced divers (100+ dives) with a strong focus on drift diving. All your diving is made from dhonis to give precise entry and exits points.
Meemu Atoll: Beautiful channels with pelagic action, Sailfish, Grey Reef Sharks, Eagle Rays and beautiful soft coral. Manta cleaning station.
Thaa Atoll: Hammerhead Sharks, Whale Sharks, Dolphins, Traditional Maldivian Channel Diving.
Laamu Atoll: Beautiful fish filled channels with great shark encounters.
Huvadhoo Atoll: Whale Sharks, more sharks, fast channel dives in Vilingilli Kandu area
February to April is the time to sail to the southerly Maldives atolls and dive into the shark action in these out-of-the-way southern dive sites between Huvadhoo and Laamu. Spend a week away from the madding crowds and dive Foammulah and Huvadhoo on the lookout for the Indian Ocean's larger residents; tiger sharks, silver tips, grey reef sharks and whale sharks.
From Male we take you to Huvadhoo by plane to join your liveaboard - or from Huvadhoo to Male depending on how you have chosen to dive it - and then it's off on our adventure. Here you can expect to meet tiger and silver tip sharks around Foamulah. At Huvadhoo, one of the deepest lagoons in the Maldives, the currents are ideal for even more shark sightings including hopefully whale sharks and silkies, hammerheads, tiger and grey sharks spotted most of the time. There are swift channel dives with several kandus; Vilingilli, Nilandhoo, Mareehaa and Kondeey, as well as reef thila dives; Gazeera and Vaadhoo. The night dive on the Hyatt Reef is definitely one to be experienced.
This itinerary suits experienced divers (100+ dives) looking for 'away from it all and different' diving with quite a focus on drift diving. -
Manta Madness (July - November) 7 and 10 day trips
You don't need a minimum number of dives but you should be comfortable with drift dives. Currents can be strong. All your diving is made from dhonis or zodiacs to give precise entry and exits points. Experienced divers can dive in a buddy pair unguided.
Baa Atoll: Hanifaru Bay and other great dive sites
Rasdhoo Atoll: Hammerhead Dive, Beautiful Reef with Pelagics
North Ari Atoll: Grey Reef Sharks, Maaya Thila Night Dive, Multiple Manta Cleaning Stations
South Male Atoll: Grey Reef Sharks, Eagle Rays, Other Pelagics, Beautiful Macro Wreck.
North Male Atoll: Beautiful Pinnacles.
This itinerary runs at the time of a New Moon when the manta are most prolific between July and November, sailing from Male to the northern atolls of Baa (Hanifaru Bay) and back again.
As well as manta, you can get close to whale sharks, hammerheads and reef sharks. One of the big attractions is the promise of manta encounters and diving at this time of the year will hopefully fulfil that promise.
Thanks to the currents that sweep plankton into the shallow lagoons, manta and whale sharks follow in vast numbers to feed. Here you'll see manta swim and loop at dive sites that have been chosen to hopefully give you sightings all week long.
Manta Point and Gangethi are well known stations that manta visit all year round and Rasdhoo and Maya Thila promise some fabulous diving with hammerheads, grey reefs and white tip sharks. And be sure to do the night dive on this trip!
Of course, sightings can't be guaranteed, but diving at this time means your chances are very high!
Please note: Manta Madness will visit either the cleaning stations of Male, Ari and Vaavu atolls or Baa Atoll, which includes Hanifaru area. This is at the Cruise Director's discretion based on the weather and current conditions to ensure you get the most possible interactions with manta and whaleshark.