Extraordinary stay on Ocean Quest! - On my bucketlist! This was my third visit to the Great Barrier Reef and an overnight stay was on top of my list. We were recommended the Ocean Quest by our AirBnB hosts and the trip exceeded our expectations. The professional and friendly staff made the difference between being a tourist and being a guest and a big shout-out to Auggie and Panchita who took us on our two introductionary dives and showed us the marvels of the reef - including Nemo.

Highly Recommend! - 10/10, 5 Stars. Above and beyond on everything. I specifically want to call out out guide, Van, who was so attentive and careful, and patient and thorough. The kind of individual you want taking care of your family. The kind of individual our world needs more of. Well done, good sir!

What a way to experience the GBR - Was a great experience and well worth the trip. Staff was nice and definitely took care of us. I will definitely do it again

Amazing experience!! - Absolutely amazing experience! Such a beautiful reef with so much amazing life and things to see and explore! The boat we stayed on was great with way better rooms than expected!😄 Food was great, you didn’t feel like you had to kill time in between dives. And most importantly the staff and crew was amazing! So kind and fun to be around and always felt in safe hands🌟 Especially a big thanks to Andi too!🥳 She was so fun to be around and made me feel very welcomed! And showed me many things under water that I haven’t seen before! Can only recommend going on this trip!☀️

2 days 1 night Great Barrier Reef Tour - Great tour to see the Great Barrier Reef, even if you’re just snorkelling! Staff was very professional and super nice. Everything was organized really well.

A must do if Scuba Diving in Cairns - Divers Den Live Aboard - We had an amazing time with Divers Den on a 3 day - 2 night live aboard excursion. A big call out to a few of our favourite staff members … Lilly & Archie for the great refresher course and Danny and Tom who we enjoyed our best dives with! As a very novice diver the entire staff took great care but they were exceptional and spent time to ensure we had a great experience. Food and accommodations were good but the diving and views above and below water were magical 💙🤿

Great Experience - You don’t need to bring sunscreen. Drinks other than water is for purchase only. The boats have AC and can be chilly so take something to cover up. If you do more than a day trip a boat transfer at sea is required. The people are very friendly. Booking is the weak point. Information is limited.

Ocean Quest/Divers Den - The Great Barrier Reef is spectacular. The diving and snorkeling experience cannot be compared. Yes, the boat is older and cabins are small, but that was minor compared to what you experience. I like to give a shout out to Archie as he got us out to snorkel the reef when no one else wanted to attempt it as the wave's were crazy that morning. He made sure we got out safely and back. Best reef.

Cold comfort for change - Not enough info is given about itinerary before departure. The boat you leave on is not the boat you stay/sleep on, and whatever you bring with you for overnight you will have to keep with you on the smaller boat, Sea Quest. Wear swimwear when you leave, you won’t check into your room on the boat until about 4pm. The toilets on SeaQuest are small and very wet and you will use them repeatedly. Sea Quest takes you to a nice bit of the reef for a snorkel or dive. If you have a heart condition, like I do, and tell them about it prior, like I did, they won’t let you dive without a pre-existing dive medical. Get one, it can’t be done on the boat and you will pay for a dive you won’t be allowed to do. They will refund you. If, on the other hand, your kid can’t equalise his ear pressure when diving (even though he has dived before) they won’t. So you get to the reef and you get changed in a toilet to snorkel, you snorkel and have, admittedly, a lovely time doing so on a very fishy bit of reef, then before you know it, it’s time for lunch. You can’t go back in the boat wet so you have to get changed. You eat lunch, which isn’t bad and they take any allergies into account if you give notice. But then it’s back out on the reef. Back into the toilet, struggle into your wet gear. Lovely reef again. Then it’s off to meet up with Ocean Quest where you will stay the night, but you can’t transfer wet and if you thought it sucked getting your wet bathers on in that tiny loo, try getting changed again in a wetter toilet as the boat jumps around the sea like a yo-yo. So you pull up at Ocean Quest, wet in your dry clothes, bruised and battered and feeling sick. Then you transfer over to the big boat. You leave your shoes on Sea Quest by mistake but they don’t clean it so don’t worry they will be there the next afternoon when you get back on it. You don’t need the shoes as shoes are not allowed on either boat. Immediately you get on the freezing cold Ocean Quest (aircon on all the time and cannot be turned down or off) it’s time for a dive briefing aimed at scuba divers, snorkellers are second class citizens nobody cares about. So you don your wet gear again Another pretty decent snorkel on a new bit of the reef which is uncannily like the bit you just dove on. So much so you couldn’t tell you’ve moved. Then it’s dinner time, and agin, you gotta get changed but at least you have a room to change in. The rooms are surprisingly large, but very cold, and the sea is not warm. There is nowhere to hang or dry you wet stuff so it will still be wet and cold the next day when you put it on again. Dinner is served individually plated and options for allergies are taken into account. There’s honestly not much of it and I didn’t really like it but there is plenty of hot chocolate, and it was good stuff, tbh. The water was rough and I hurled it back up soon after anyway. Did I mention how cold it is on the boat? God it was cold. I’ve slept in slightly colder igloos but the crew were forthcoming with blankets. Evening shark snorkel got canned because it was too rough. I skipped the morning snorkel cos I still felt ill from the night before but it was rough and otherwise ok. The transfer back to SeaQuest for trip back to cairns after brekkie means getting changed again. Shoes are where you left them but also all the food from lunch is still strewn around the floor, cos like I said, they don’t clean it. The trip back to Cairns was exceptionally rough, which is not the crews fault but my wife was literally thrown out of her seat and onto the floor atop a hatch that opened and shut like Pac-Man the whole trip and staff could not have cared less. Crew member, who eventually came to check if y wife was ok was advised about the flapping hatch and said “oh, good, then you being stuck there is keeping it closed”. It was not and I really worried a toe or finger would be severed as it flapped up snd down, now with the full weight of an adult on it. The captain of the boat was clearly under pressure and running late, cos slowing down to, you know, keep passengers safe, was not going to happen.

Bed Bugs! Christmas 2024 - IMPORTANT: If you stayed during Christmas 2024 - there were BED BUGS onboard the OceanQuest. We stayed one night and found bed bugs in the front left rooms on Dec 23. We even caught one in a plastic bag for proof. Two days later, I came away with over 30 bites all over my body. I'm most disappointed in the overall response by the company. They did their best with what they could by bug bombing the room that morning but only isolated it. Realistically, there were bed bugs in multiple rooms on the boat. After bug bombing, there were no time to air out the room, which is bad for whoever stayed in our rooms right after. Diver's Den was fully booked for the holiday, but it also means that many customers were exposed to bed bugs or chemicals from the bomb. I'm also frustrated by the manager response. Though we received a small refund for one room that had the bed bugs, nothing else was done to address it. We told him about my bed bug bites from staying in the room next door and he suggested we received them elsewhere. Now, my family is dealing with all of the consequences of rewashing all of our clothes while out of the country and trying to make sure we don't bring back Diver's Den's bed bugs to our house. Aside from the bed bugs, snorkeling was fine and the staff did well there. Food was okay but we didn't have enough on the day boat out or overnight. It would have been good to offer snacks or other things because our entire group was starving for every meal. This company is probably great for scuba divers but for us, it was only okay. I'd recommend searching around for another liveaboard.