I'll just briefly talk about the diving.
My main focus on this vacation was to do the OWD.
The journey of just under 5 hours in the AirCairo A320 was as expected. Wooden class, with almost no legroom. But it was perfectly okay for me, you get what you pay for.
Then another 3 hours in the small shuttle bus from Hurghada to Sony Bay. Here I had the indescribable good fortune to be the only passenger. It was a really interesting trip, as the driver spoke good English and we understood each other well and had a good chat.

After arriving on site, I checked into my room, explored the hotel complex, lay on the beach and got my first little sunburn, as well as having my first two meals at the hotel.

I heard a few grumbles and complaints from other vacationers during the vacation, but I can't confirm this in any way. I was completely satisfied with the accommodation and food for my level of requirements. I can only repeat: you get what you pay for.
On a positive note, the number of service staff was not skimped on. They were also really keen to make the guests feel as comfortable as possible. Of course, they live off the tips, but they were almost all friendly people who didn't speak English too badly.

But now to the most important part of this review:

On the day of my arrival I met the lovely Melanie, received my rental equipment and got my first briefing on the dive center and the house reef, as well as doing some paperwork. The contact here was only brief, which suited me well, as I was still shaking from the journey.

The next day there was a little highlight for me: it was my birthday and that didn't go unnoticed at the baptism base. Congratulations from all sides and the presentation of an orca cap by the leader Fabienne, signed by all the guys and girls in the Shoni Bay team. And so began my first real day of diving.

Now I also got to know my diving instructor. Reda is a relaxed Egyptian with over 10,000 dives under his belt.
It was immediately clear to me that I was dealing with an absolute professional, which was confirmed to me every day over the following 13 dives.
The crystal-clear separation between professional diving and prior training on land, as well as lots of fun in between the rest of the day, is an exceptionally good representation of his very high level of professionalism and above-average experience.

The first dive went without any complications. This dive was only to a depth of 2 meters. The focus here is on initial contact with the equipment, the first movements under water and mainly breathing. Simply breathing in and out through the mouth. It's different with a regulator.
However, the body's intelligence implements this relatively quickly and you no longer need to think about it after a very short time.

The second dive was the following day in the morning shortly after breakfast.
Again, as on the previous day and for every single dive, the briefing about the planned procedure for the dive and the preparation of the equipment took place.
I started the day with a less than ideal feeling in my stomach. But it wasn't really bad and definitely not a reason for me to cancel today. It would later turn out that it was due to the breakfast components we had chosen.
So we started the dive. I soon realized that my mask didn't want to do what I wanted it to do today. Somehow it didn't fit well today, an above-average amount of water was getting in and it was always slightly fogged up. I also didn't manage to equalize the pressure very well when diving down. My right ear didn't really want to join in. I gave the signal to ascend so that I could repeat the process with less pressure. It didn't want to work properly and we surfaced. Floating on the surface, we talked about the three points that had now accumulated. This was another example of my instructor's extensive experience and after a few relaxation exercises we managed to equalize the pressure on the surface. We also swapped diving masks and then we had a wonderful dive. Everything was great. On this day we went down to 10 meters. We saw an infinite number of small colorful fish, lots of beautiful corals, a moray eel, a hidden stonefish and very briefly a sea turtle.
The house reef is very beautiful in Shoni Bay.
Buses from other hotels arrive daily with divers to dive this beautiful reef.
You can easily go into the water from the beach. You only need to walk a few meters.

The clear disadvantage, however, is that there are unfortunately many divers who do not have a good command of buoyancy control and stir up the sandy bottom between the coral fields with their fins, so that the visibility in the sea is sometimes very cloudy.
It would be good if the diving clubs could find a consensus among themselves to address this on a regular basis in order to improve the situation.

I won't go into detail about every single dive, but I would just like to make it very clear that every day got better. You gain routine

(Automatically translated from German)

the hotel has no idea what Orca diverse is and where it is located. And is also not sympathetic to think with us.
we had 3 situations that were not nice
1. diving school nowhere to be found( hotel did not know)
2. after a week( we had booked 2 weeks) we were told to check out.... After some discussions it was suddenly okay( without explanation). This was a signal for us to make an expensive phone call to diving world for verification.
3. The return trip from hotel to airport the hotel did not know anything about it. After asking a few questions, it turned out that Orca Divers was responsible for this. We were not aware of this and the hotel again did not know anything about it.

Air conditioning in the rooms is very noisy.
Diving school is top.
Perhaps the cooperation with the Hotel should be discussed.

(Automatically translated from Dutch)

The hotel needs renovation in many places. The paths to the small pool are torn up, not nice to walk without shoes. Air conditioning, fridge and fan in the bathroom very loud The rooms (we had chalets with sea view) are cleaned daily, there are broken tiles in the bathroom, the silicone should be renewed. The cleanliness in the restaurant (e.g. coffee machine, deep fryer) leaves a lot to be desired.
The quality of the food has decreased compared to the previous year.


(Automatically translated from German)

The hotel is a bit outdated, especially the rooms. The reception is very helpful, but the rest of the staff don't really go out of their way. Except room service.
The mini plastic cups handed out at the pool bar are very negative!!! There is only one at a time, so you have to take about 5 cups in a row to quench your thirst....
In the evening there are only drinks at the lounge bar. 0.2 glasses and slow service. It is almost impossible to even have a drink until midnight. Unfortunately, that's not enough for all-inclusive. The management deliberately curbs the consumption of drinks. Even at dinner it is almost impossible to get a second drink. This also applies to non-alcoholic drinks.

(Automatically translated from German)

The hotel was on the first two days ... oops. From the third day it was ok.
There is still room for improvement.
But the service was excellent! The people and staff were very friendly and fit!

(Automatically translated from German)

The food wasn't great at first. But then it improved a lot. Great staff. The rooms were also fine.

(Automatically translated from German)

no comment given