Great!

Had a great time. Crew was friendly and helpful. Dolphin organized trip well. Dolphin staff were helpful. The land tours were nice as a short break from the diving. The food was very good and plenty of it. The chef prepared mostly Thai food which was delicious

The crew of the Phinisi was stellar and the dives were incredible.

Mike and Dolphin SCUBA just did a stellar job keeping us busy touring Vietnam. We visited the Mekong River floating market, several restaurants and businesses in the area, as well as some local entertainment. The "American War" museum was so fascinating and the tunnels the North Vietnamese Army used during the war was like taking a trip back to the Vietnam war. It was a full week packed with history, culture and entertainment. Our Vietnamese guide was a wealth of knowledge but the most amazing thing to me was the customer service. I never knew I would have to go to a communist country to find the best customer service I have ever experienced. Bravo Mike and Co.

Overall rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Diving: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Quarters: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Food: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Service: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Price: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ The following will be a very long and in depth look at our trip in February, 2025, aboard the M/V Valentina to Socorro. First of all, I have to say this was a once in a lifetime (but I will try and come back) trip that should be a bucket list item for any serious diver. If you want to see the Oceanic Manta, you are nearly guaranteed to see them, interact with them and spend lots of quality time with them. They are very curious about divers and will come within arm’s length on many dives (12 out of 16 dives this trip). Scalloped hammerhead sharks were seen often, generally not as close but did encounter them within 10 yards a few times. Other sharks were too numerous to count with many experiences being of the “up close and personal” variety. The actual Island of Socorro does have some reef but it is very young. This trip is much less about small fish and more about the big kids though, so just know that is what you are going to see. Roca Partida and San Benedicto are essentially rock. That said, they have their own unusual features such as the “balconies” at Roca Partida where sharks rest in large groups (imagine a “puppy pile” of sharks). Diving For the diving, the National Park severely limits the number of divers and thus dictates the number of dives you will get during your trip. It is not up to the boat captain. The daily schedule is determined by the order by which the boats arrived at that site that day. The first boat gets the 7:00am dive time. The second gets the 8:00am slot. The third gets the 9:00am. spot. If there is not a fourth boat, the pattern repeats. If there is a fourth boat, they get the 10:00am slot. Divers are only allowed to do 50 minute dives regardless of air consumption as dictated by the National Park and there can only be one boat diving a site at a time (all great things for the reef). So basically, we had just one day where we could do 4 dives in a day (i.e. we were the first boat on site). With 6 boats in the area and winds during the week, it severely limits the sites that are available (Roca Partida for example is not diveable if it is very windy as there is no shelter for the boats). In total for this trip, we had 17 dives availalbe but were limited by engine troubles on the way to the islands and an electrical issue with the anchor on our second to last day diving (without those I suspect we would have been at 20). Every boat must also check in with the Mexican Navy on Socorro Island which will limit the number of dives that day. Overall, most of the boats play by the rules and try and accommodate each other to “share the wealth” if you will. Dives are generally deep, 90 feet plus for most so the 50-minute limit is often not a huge issue. If you consume a lot of air, the 100cuft tanks are worth it. The current varies on every dive, from “ripping” to nothing and even diving the same site just 3 hours apart can be amazingly different. In all but one of our dives we were able to get out of the currents mostly, using the island and rock formations (lava flows) to our advantage. The Boat The dive deck has decent space. There is a large camera table with compressed air available. There are two clean water tanks for cameras to get rinsed after the dive as well as a tank for other gear and wetsuits to get rinsed. You use one tank for the entirety of the trip and it is refilled after each dive at your station (so no swapping of BCDs and regs). Everyone on this trip dove Nitrox and equipment was available to check your %. The actual dives occur from RIBs (Rigid Inflatable Boats). For the Valentina, if capable, they request you wear your gear to the 4 stairs on the side of the boat and step down one more step into the RIB. They will load your camera gear (and seemed to take excellent care of it). If you are not able to do that, they will load your gear into the RIB and you will get into your BCD on the RIB. When over the site, you perform a rear seated entry into the water and initiate your dive. Our 17 divers were split into three groups and there were two RIBs. Group 1 goes into the water and that RIB returns to get group 3 and your group number rotates each day. Our dive masters also rotated daily. On our trip, we had Arturo (been doing this for 31 years), Ophelia (dive instructor who owns here own shop) and Guillermo. All were qualified and took care for your safety but allowed different dive abilities to dive at their own pace. They were very helpful with less experienced divers, helping them grow in their abilities over the week. At the end of each dive, you hand your weight belts/pockets up to the RIB driver first, followed by taking off your BCD and they lift that into the boat, then your fins. You must climb a small ladder (2-3 steps) to get back into the boat and some ability to pull yourself up onto the ladder is required. When back to the boat, you climb the stairs without any gear back onto the boat. The staff brings your gear back to your spot and places cameras into the rinse tanks. There were hangers to help get some of the water out of your wetsuit between dives but you will be wet for the week. Towels were provided on deck. A GPS device is provided for each buddy team free of charge (unless it gets lost, in which case you will pay $350 I believe- it happened on our trip so be sure to secure it well- bring some larger split rings or something to help secure it rather than the parachute cord which often came undone). We brought the Garmin In-Reach and were able to send basic text messages to home, letting people know how things were going which they appreciated. StarLink is available for an additional charge but it was nice not participating and essentially being disconnected for the week (we did not know the Eagles were victorious until Tuesday). The boat, while showing its age as a dive boat and being somewhat worn, was impeccably clean. The rooms are small and do vary in size. Rooms 3, 9 and 10 are the largest with a closet (we had number 10). Rooms are tidied during your morning dives, beds made, towels refreshed every couple of days. They have some storage for larger luggage and dive bags. The Water The water temperatures on our trip ranged from 72-75 degrees Fahrenheit. The air temps were pleasant, but the winds made it chilly when you came back on the boat (thank God for hot freshwater showers on deck!!). I wore a two-piece, Sharkskin Titanium 2 under a 3mm jacket and 1.5mm pants and was comfortable on every dive. I brought a hood but never wore it (most others did). My wife wore her Titanium 2 under a 3mm full Henderson and was comfortable as well. I have 5mm booties. You will definitely appreciate the concept of heat deficiency as the week progresses though and will feel cooler after each dive. Visibility was generally decent but varied considerably dive to dive, as did the currents. You get lots of warnings about currents, swells, etc., but fortunately we were lucky and saw ripping currents on only one dive. The guides were good about trying to get us out of the currents using the islands as protection when possible. The Staff The staff was universally AWESOME! From the Captain through the assistant chef/room steward, they wanted to make you happy and comfortable. My wife had a bit of sickness one day and they made her special foods and all kept asking how she was doing. The food was good to great, depending on the meal, but better than I expected to be honest. This was only this chef’s second cruise with Valentina, so I am sure getting used to the kitchen and getting menus set is still very much a work in progress. The Ceviche lunch between dives one of the days was to die for!! If you had restrictions or even just didn’t care for something, it was never an issue making something else. The Money Fees were probably the thing we severely underestimated when booking this trip. The National Marine Park fees are over $1100 per person. There are discounts available for retired persons or teachers, but this must be applied for prior to going (wish we had known that). Nitrox, 100cuft cylinders, internet, etc all are for fee as well and are posted on the Valentina website I believe. The taxes at Customs at the airport was also annoying. If you have your camera gear in a Pelican case, you can bet you will be stopped and will get taxed. For an Ikelite housing and camera, I paid $5800 pesos (about $300). You have to pay with a credit card and they tack on an additional 19% for that. The number seems arbitrary, but they take info off your case and supposedly look it up in the computer. Valentina actually wrote a letter to try and help with this, but they ignored it. The customs agent also played the “I don’t speak English” game and used his phone to pretend like he was translating. I can tell you every foreign person in the Customs office (three groups of people with us) all had Pelican cases. If you keep the receipt though, apparently you don’t need to pay again in the future anywhere in Mexico?? Beer, wine, low end Tequila, soda, juices and food are all included until they run out. For our trip, the tequila lasted only 3 days but everything else was fine. After that, you pay $8/drink I believe. It didn’t seem like they were keeping track of this but on the last day, they definitely found you and had you settle up your bill. I hope this helps explain some of the questions we were unclear about before the trip. I would 100% recommend this trip and this boat and crew and if (when?) I go back would use Valentina again without hesitation. It is the most expensive dive trip I have done by far due to the fees but you won’t get a week of dives like this anywhere else in the world that I am aware of. I was told before the trip by someone that they had been there 4 times and they would not pay marine park fees that high anywhere else in the world but would pay them again for Socorro and I understand why!