Almost ready to book FI - Feb 14-21

[CODMAN]

So I'm thinking if I can do this for Roatan; I can do it for January 2012 when we will be in Hong Kong for 3 weeks and want to go to the Phillipines for 5 days (3 days of actual diving). Only tricky part is the airport transfer to/from hotel in PG.

Betty organising your PI trip yourself will definetly save you a ton of $$. And it will be tailored to your liking. With Scubaboard, you can generally find the answers to all your questions as to organising your trips from A to Z... Which makes cutting out middle men easy...

As for the PI airport- hotel transfer... It's actually quite easy! Depending on where exactly you are staying there are always several options. Some super cheap... Some $$$ depending on what you want... You'll find answers to that in the Philippine Paradise Divers subforum...

 

[BettyfromToronto]

Thanks Codman but I`m not sure I`m going to save a ton of $$$. The private van for just the two of us is 6130 Php pesos which = $141 Cdn one way. That would be cheaper I believe if there were other divers going at the same time as us to share the cost.

Hubby thinks we should go the first time with the LDS in Hong Kong because of the complicated transfer by van and boat (3-4 hrs) from Manila to PG. He says we can then be okay on later trips doing it ourselves. We`ll have to see once it gets closer.

You are right though that there is alot of great people here ready to share their knowledge.

 

[herbdb]

Confusing. I thought I was booking directly with the hotel. Oh well. Got a good deal and like I said "I saved over $600 for the 2 of us over the LDS's package".

Betty

Betty, You may want to invest a bit more. For us a prepaid unlimited NITROX package was $100 each. With four dives a day, I think it is worth it. I feel much better when I dive a lot. Our local dive shop charges $8 extra per tank, this is a real deal.

Herb

 

[CODMAN]

Betty, I transferred from manilla to PG and it was a piece of cake... As long as you have some information!!! It cost me a total of... 15$ !!!!! :cool2: Actually, add another 15$ if you include taxi from airport to a hotel in manilla since I got in at 2 am...

Sure you can go for a rivate van ($$$$). I took the public bus and it was fast and easy! It obviously depends on how much effort you want to put into it... Same thing goes for booking your own hotel/ room/ dive packages... You can go through LDS, and they take a cut (big cut! ), or do it yourself...

If ever you decide you do want to do it yourself, I'll gladly share info and so will tons of people on the PPD forum...

Sorry, this was a bit off topic... Now back to our regular programming...

Thanks Codman but I`m not sure I`m going to save a ton of $$$. The private van for just the two of us is 6130 Php pesos which = $141 Cdn one way. That would be cheaper I believe if there were other divers going at the same time as us to share the cost.

Hubby thinks we should go the first time with the LDS in Hong Kong because of the complicated transfer by van and boat (3-4 hrs) from Manila to PG. He says we can then be okay on later trips doing it ourselves. We`ll have to see once it gets closer.

You are right though that there is alot of great people here ready to share their knowledge.

 

[BettyfromToronto]

herbdb: Don`t you have to take a course to get Nitrox certified first

 

[DandyDon]

Betty, You may want to invest a bit more. For us a prepaid unlimited NITROX package was $100 each. With four dives a day, I think it is worth it. I feel much better when I dive a lot. Our local dive shop charges $8 extra per tank, this is a real deal.

Herb

Did you get 4 Nitrox tanks a day? The $100 package is very nice, but I thot it was limited to the 3 boat dives a day? I took it but didn't push my diving, only 17 for the week, so didn't get into that.

How deep is the wreck? May not be worth the bother of standing in line to test your tank. I took my Nitrox analyzer but not a spare battery. Fortunately our trip leader had his and passed it around on the boat.

herbdb: Don`t you have to take a course to get Nitrox certified first

Yep, but it's just one evening class now, no dives required. I have seen it for $100 including materials and card but most will charge more than that. Still, a good tool to have for any serious diver.

Be sure you know how your dive computer reacts when you set it for Nitrox once. An Oceanic computer will lock you out if you don't reset the value every time or turn off Default.

 

[CODMAN]

The wreck is between 50 and 65 feet... When I was there the dive shop had an analyser for customers to use... Nitrox is not necessary, even if diving 4 dives a day... but... in my case, I feel much better using Nitrox (I've tested this over many many dives). When I dive a lot, I definetly like to use it... But once again, not a necessity....

Did you get 4 Nitrox tanks a day? The $100 package is very nice, but I thot it was limited to the 3 boat dives a day? I took it but didn't push my diving, only 17 for the week, so didn't get into that.

How deep is the wreck? May not be worth the bother of standing in line to test your tank. I took my Nitrox analyzer but not a spare battery. Fortunately our trip leader had his and passed it around on the boat.

Yep, but it's just one evening class now, no dives required. I have seen it for $100 including materials and card but most will charge more than that. Still, a good tool to have for any serious diver.

Be sure you know how your dive computer reacts when you set it for Nitrox once. An Oceanic computer will lock you out if you don't reset the value every time or turn off Default.

 

[Cajuncru Diver]

Did you get 4 Nitrox tanks a day? The $100 package is very nice, but I thot it was limited to the 3 boat dives a day

Looking at the new rate sheet on the web site, the Nitrox package is now unlimited Nitrox and is not limited to 3 tanks per day.

 

[BettyfromToronto]

What website? The only one I can find says "coming soon"

 

[Cajuncru Diver]

What website? The only one I can find says "coming soon"

This One:

http://www.fantasyislanddiveresort.com/