Mike Ball Dive Expeditions

This is as good as live aboard diving gets. I wish I could have stayed longer but the 4 days I spent with them were fabulous. Great staff, amazing food, 5 star attention to safety and the boat is really incredible considering it's age. They spare no expense at meal time and every meal is a banquet. This crew is incredible and really works tirelessly to ensure everyone is having a great time and also makes sure everything is tidy and orderly. While were floating about they are mo doubt, cleaning, doing dishes, drying towels and who knows what else. Everything is always impeccable.

Warm towels are provided following each dive, and your tanks are replenished before you can even dry off.

Just an amazing outfit. Special attention and shouts out to Rens, kristy, marzia, newey, kiki, kira, luke, and also their amazing photographer Julia. Apologies if I've misspelled some names here.

The cap'n even comes out for a surprise entertainment event on the last night that I won't spoil by sharing here, but it was a good time.

You all made my trip to the GBR unforgettable. If I'm back in this part of the world I'd dove with this team again in a heartbeat.

A Live Aboard

Pay a group of scuba diving experts and a massive yacht crew to take you on week long tour of the most amazing coral reefs in the world and see if that'll change you perspective on life. I never knew this existed until talking to scuba junkies on a trip before this. Live on a yacht for a week and dive all day as they cruise around the Coral Sea in the the Great Barrier Reef. Everything from night dives, drift dives, deep dives, wreck dives, shark feeding dives, and wall diving, all in one day sometimes. You can dive up to 5 times a day or not dive at all if you want to just live aboard and enjoy wine and food cooked for you as you float thru the most amazing waters of the Great Barrier Reef.

The yacht is fully equipped to accommodate about 20 guests (not including crew) to dive, sleep, drink, and eat for a week. Meet the most amazing and interesting people from all over the world on this boat. Make sure to bring your wallet, it'll cost you about a cool $2k for a 4 night trip on this baby.

Shark Week For Reals.

The best dive was the shark feed. Enter an underwater natural amphitheater where divers can sit along rock side formations just like tiered seating in a stadium. Set in the middle is even a rock formation of a stage. A large trash can filled with frozen fish heads opens up for hundreds of sharks in the area to come feed. Watch your heads, it's about to go down.

Make sure you take that Dramamine if you get motion sickness.

Went through the PADI Travel Network to book with Mike Ball. Good communication throughout the whole process. This was my first trip to Australia, first trip to Cairns/Great Barrier Reef, and I had a lot of questions which were completely answered. Walked my equipment & I to the shop to check in, no last minute hiccups/headaches. The ice breaker dinner is a great idea and very enjoyable. Moved to the ship and started the adventure! Noteworthy about this liveaboard was the crew-, very cheerful, friendly, and extremely helpful!
I booked the 4 day Coral Sea package in July, the Australia "winter". That was the right amount of time to enjoy the sites and dives. The water temperature in the low 70s Fahrenheit, so for me a 1 mm shorty was adequate. I was required to use a long sleeve rashguard additionally (or a diveskin) because of the possibility of fire coral. The dives were varied (shark, night, reef, drift) and awe-inspiring. The shark dive was near the end of my 4 day and it was a great cap to all of the dive activities. Some of the sites did have large portions of their reefs that were dead or dying. It's sad to think how fast this great Natural Wonder of the world is fading away, I hope it will turn around!
There was one point heading to and from XX site that the waves and boat rocking are particularly turbulent and I got sick. Some kind of sea-sickness medication is advised just in case. The cabins have a mix of 110v & 220v outlets, a little limiting. But with planning & a cooperative cabinmate, it isn't anything insurmountable.
The meals were another high point. Varied and delicious! In particular what I'll call in ignorance "Australian" bacon, combining the hammy portion of Canadian bacon and what I think of as traditional bacon (rasher area). The end of tour barbeque with actual shrimps and hamburgers on the barbeque was a great way to wind down the whole trip.
The 3 and 4 day Coral Sea packages involve a short low-altitude flight to or from Cairns in a puddle jumper with severe weight restrictions, but again nothing insurmountable.
Very much enjoyed this trip and will use Mike Ball Expeditions if I ever plan another Great Barrier Reef dive excursion, will repeat and highly recommend!

Best of the best! Liked it so much I did it twice in two weeks time! The diving was outstanding....particularly the shark dive. I felt safe the whole time I was diving/on the liveaboard. The crew took special care in making sure everyone was accounted for and happy. Food was delicious and varied, which was a plus! The ships's hosts were amazing both times.
I will hands down recommend this outfit and love the Spoilsport!

Honeymooned on the 7 day itinerary (coral sea + gbr) early Dec 2017.

We only seriously considered Mike Ball as an operator because our safety-conscious LDS recommended them highly. The boat had gone 4 years without an accident which is exceptional given the aussies on the trip think the local deco chamber in Townsville is triaging about 200 mishaps/month (needs a fact check). We averaged 3 dives/day without pushing to squeeze in any second dives during open deck hours and with a slow day at Lizard Island swapping passengers. Dives aren't typically guided but there is a thorough briefing with whiteboard diagrams before each dive and tenders at the ready for pickup if you have trouble navigating back to the mooring line. This gives you and your buddy more space to check out marine life and no one dives without a buddy assigned.

We were surprised that we liked the Coral Sea portion of the itinerary the most (more marine life, less crowding on dive sites, more advanced fellow guests-- we technically had rescue cert but only fessed up to adv open water + nitrox at check in and felt "middle of the pack" competent for Coral Sea and "top 10%" for GBR group). That said, we might have been exceptionally lucky on weather and company. We we're also lucky to have an extensive reference library and book swap aboard to help ID more exotic fish, coral, and nudebranches.

The food is top notch and incredible to see served at such quality, volume and frequency out of such a small galley. I am fair-weather vegetarian and worried injecting dietary restrictions would complicate things. Turns out Mike's family prefers plant-based as well so there was an abundance of top notch options to go around. I'd like to think being veg helped avoid inevitable weight gain on the trip but the benefit was probably offset by an espresso machine that faithfully churned out double shot flat whites throughout the entire trip.

Logistical tips--
*There are 24 hour no fly/drive to elevated places restriction after diving, so you may want to plan a down day in Cairns on Thurs so you won't have to sit out any of the Weds dives. The shuttle flight from Lizard Island tried to stay low to accommodate people just doing coral sea.
*Bonine dosing daily was a win, things got choppy steaming between sites but we didn't get sick. They sell some meds at the bar if you can't find it in port.
*Cold water divers, check water temps and consider packing or picking up a shark skin or rash guard in cairns-- they cost about what renting a 3mm would and are a lot easier to put on if temps are warm. Wearing gloves is discouraged and just one more thing to track and dry.
*Lots of storage at the Cairns office for stuff you don't need on the boat. You may also want to separate your dive deck gear bags from your cabin bags.
*You can bring your preferred alcohol on the boat, you just need to leave it with the bar (which is more convenient than your cabin anyway).
*You might want to pack casual board game or cards as a way to get to know other guests.
*Boat has A/C and Aussie power outlets for charging gopros, dive lights, cellphones, etc. Bring your international adaptors to take advantage! Load up on digital books at port before losing reception. You might want a laptop to process photos if there is a photo competition going on and that's your jam-- there are some desktop PC's on board and we had a pro photographer on our crew selling USB sticks of trip highlights so felt fine leaving the laptop in the office and just having a spare memory card for the GoPro.
*Boat has a rotation of cabin and dive deck towels, no need to pack more. Boat also has all purpose biodegradable soap dispensers in cabin bathrooms to streamline shampoo, body wash, hand wash toiletries.

Boat broke down. Coffee machine broke down. Diving was mediocre although the crew did what they could to enhance it. Food was decent and accommodations were fine. All told I wouldn't recommend it. Maybe if you're already there and have nothing else to do, but otherwise I think there are many more enjoyable dive locations less difficult to reach (or endure). I'm mostly glad I did it once and it's possible that I caught this boat on a bad week, but after this experience I wouldn't be able to recommend it.

Did a coral sea liveaboard trip over the easter break and it was a trip to be remembered. Due to the recent cyclone activities, there was a change in our itinerary. Instead of heading along the ribbon reefs, we headed to Holmes reef and Bougainville reef, which were on the outer reef. The diving was fantastic and the crew very professional. The highlights will have to be the shark feed dive (where you get up close with countless sharks) and the low altitude flight back were we got to see from up above where we had been diving. This dive trip will be one of your most memorable trip. - It is for me!

What can I say... weather turned to a rare N wind but the crew worked overtime to find amazing diving and keep us in the Lee of the waves during meals. The captain entertained us with his guitar and vocal skills and the chef and staff keep us well fed. Can't imagine what more they could of done!! Thanks crew!!

Wife and I took a 4-day GBR trip in late February 2018. I've dived, owned and run commercial fishing boats in Alaska for four decades so I'm familiar with both boat operations and diving. Have warm water sport dived for years as well. Wife is comfortable in water and has dived quite a bit but was a little apprehensive about the live aboard aspect, as was I and this was our first live aboard dive experience. It exceeded our expectations. Really interesting, diverse bunch of divers from over the globe. Brand new divers to those with 200+ dives. And the diving was was great....but what really made the trip was the crew. Really top notch in every respect. From food to gear prep, explanation of the dive parameters at each site, and what to watch for, just excellent. And lovely folks to be around. We certainly felt spoiled. And the bonus of diving as we wanted (these are not guided dives in the sense that a dive master from the boat leads a group) since you and your buddy go where you wish within the dive site parameters. And there are always crew on the dives, just not necessarily leading you every meter along the way. And solo travelers no problem, a crew member will dive with you or another solo traveler. Really no worries there. On our trip, 20 divers, 12 crew I believe, whole deal very well organized and thought out. We brought 0 gear and were outfitted quite easily with gear they carry aboard. Easy squeezy. We would certainly take another trip with the crew from the Spoilsport. If you're wavering, on the fence, then by all means go.