CCV during January---anyone going there.

[parrotheaddiver]

wow....first time poster and you put this in an ongoing thread....you should have started your own thread...I have been going there since the 80's and have never had an experience like you are describing...and I agree you should take your business elsewhere

 

[lsorenson]

Nice first post SoCal...

Pardon me but this sounds like sour grapes... but I have to say, since you use the term woman, I have never heard of a 40' limit for a woman however there is a 40' limit for Juniors... I would agree that NOT providing 100% attention to a new diver is troubling but I wonder if this is true, if you spoke with the dive instructor and following the dive down to 75'+ if you spoke with the diver herself...

You sound a bit needy but I say this due to your own writing... I was not there to witness but most of what you are say sounds like spilled milk actually trivial to me. I wonder if you left a tip at all due to the lack of sucking up management overlooked? How did housekeeping and the rest of the staff treat you?

I find it humorous your upset the manager did not greet you or your group at the airport... but enough of this already...!

I will return to CCV in two weeks and my only concern is whether Roatan has allowed the Lion fish get out of hand...!!! Not if the owner sits with me during the meals...

lee

I did not have this type of experience at CCV... As a matter of fact I filed a report with Roatan Charters and the management at the resort said that my entire group made up our complaints. Which included the instructors there committing standards violations with a new scuba diver. Myself and another instructor filed an report with PADI regarding this.

This is the report filed with Roatan Charters:

Trip Incident Report
Mailing address: Roatan Charter Inc. PO Box 877, San Antonio, FL 33576-0877
Fax to: (352) 588-4158, email to:terry@roatan.com
Attention: Terry Evans Original Roatan Charter Agent: Res#
Hotel or Operator : Coco View
ADDRESS: Roatan, Honduras, CA
CLIENTS NAME(S):
TRIP TAKEN: November 26^th thru December 3^rd DEPARTURE DATE:­ November 26^th
Did you purchase travel insurance? No XX Yes 
Did you file a claim or express your dissatisfction on site directly with the responsible party? No:  Yes: XX
Who did you talk to, and what was the reply? Actually wrote it on the critique offered as part of the exit from our trip.

PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED: Please list those that can be traced to responsible parties. Delays due to weather, strikes, traffic, cannot be dealt with by our office.

1. Resort Mgmt basically ignorred us the entire time we were there until it was time for us to leave. I was there in Oct2001 and the owners/managers stopped by our table every day during one of the meals. They greeted us and knew our names. We were greeted by a recetionist and did not even know who the manager was until the next morning at the orientation. The manager on Thursday evening during ‘game’ night offered certificates to a few divers that had milestone logged dives. I had 2 of my customers that both hit milestones and if the manager had even spent any time with us at all would have known this. My partner stopped the manager and asked about this and was told to see the office and they would print a certificate for my customers. The mgmt spent the entire week with their friends at every meal. And I am serious with this, as we were loading on the ferry – the husband and wife managers appeared on the dock to say good bye.
2. The dive operation violated PADI standards on several occasions. I am a PADI Course Director and therefore very aware of training standards and to be quite honest, when a standard is broken, it exposes me to a possible liablity issue as well. A woman named Glenda was taking her scuba diver course with instructors Alejandra and on dive number 2, I witnessed the instructor take the student to 56 feet and then leave her to look for a sea horse. The depth limit for a scuba diver is 40 feet. The depth limit for any beginner diver on dive number 2 is 40 feet. The next day, myself and another PADI IDCStaff instructor witnessed the manager of the dive shop take the same woman on a dive and although there was no training involved, the student was at 75+feet and the manager, although she was watching the student was a least 20 feet above the student. This is a PADI Standards violation and the instructor in both situations was not in a position to protect and assist the student should she have had any problems at all. I am writing a formal letter to PADI regarding this issue.
3. Every day on the dive boats, the IDCStaff Instructor and I both experienced a basic issue with being ignorred by the dive crew. Every time the boat pulled from the dock, we had to assemble our equipment. Everyone else on the boat, had their equipment ready to dive. And between dives the crew exchanged their tanks for fresh ones. KS and I had to do our own tank swaps and we had to assemble our equipment when we got on the boat every time.
PLEASE LIST WHO YOU FEEL IS RESPONSIBLE WITH REASONS
In listing, please note any comments made to you by persons connected with the trip, hotel, guide, etc., with their names.
COMPENSATION - Should you feel that any item above would justify a refund of a portion of the trip, please note here as to what you feel would be just compensations. Attach receipts for any incurred expenses that you are claiming.
Travel Agent mentioned that Roatan Charters wanted to offer a free return visit. I am very dissatisified with the over all service my customers and I received on this trip. Please tell me how you intend to correct this and give me a reason to reconsider coming back.

WHAT YOUR TRAVEL AGENT CAN DO
Our office will track down each item that you list to determine where fault, if any lies and will give a copy of this sheet to parties involved. Please understand that when one thing goes wrong on a trip, it tends to magnify others, many of which are not easy to trace, eg: Weather, Lost Luggage,Traffic Delays, Strikes, etc. Bear in mind, also that, our job is to properly place various reservations which you have chosen to become your trip. Once our office makes the proper reservations the delivery of all services rests with the party to whom we have conveyed your request. We do not own, nor control, hotels, airlines, tour companies, reception agents, bus companies, etc., who operate various trips. With the number of persons traveling, certain things can happen on the way to the forum! Please let us know both the good and the bad.

TRAVEL AGENT: ___________________________ PERSON SUBMITTING:

CLIENT SIGNATURE:________________________ Date: December 12, 2011
Address / Phone / Fax we should reply to if different than the original resrvation:

And the response from the resort was: "These customers should take their business elsewhere." Not a problem, we will. I have never been treated like this ever and I have over 15 years as a dive pro... My clients agreed that we will never return there... This is just out experience and I felt a need to share...

 

[Midge907]

Isorenson, Have you checked out the Roatan Marine parks website, lookes like they have been doing derbies lately to kill lion fish. I do have the feeling that the efforts havent been as hard pushed as what I've heard thier doing in other places. I have a friend who has a place in Cozumel and he said that on the dives where there arent students, that the DM's are hunting lion fish on every dive. That is of course at the shop he goes to, not sure if thats typical.

 

[Mike]

Dive masters in Cozumel are typically killing all lion fish found on dives.

Lion fish derbies are better than nothing, but hardly doing as much good as regular culling of lion fish by dive masters on every dive. You can see the big differences between Cozumel and Roatan in the fish life and the size of the lionfish killed. In Cozumel the lion fish killed are small because they aren't getting a chance to survive long enough to grow larger, in Roatan the lionfish are huge. Imagine the juveniles devoured to allow a lionfish to get to 18 inches! Derbies are better than nothing, but Roatan needs to get their divemaster community to be killing every lion fish they see on every dive in order to curb the population in the dive sites.

 

[SoCalBluFlame]

Nice first post SoCal...

Pardon me but this sounds like sour grapes... but I have to say, since you use the term woman, I have never heard of a 40' limit for a woman however there is a 40' limit for Juniors... I would agree that NOT providing 100% attention to a new diver is troubling but I wonder if this is true, if you spoke with the dive instructor and following the dive down to 75'+ if you spoke with the diver herself...

You sound a bit needy but I say this due to your own writing... I was not there to witness but most of what you are say sounds like spilled milk actually trivial to me. I wonder if you left a tip at all due to the lack of sucking up management overlooked? How did housekeeping and the rest of the staff treat you?

I find it humorous your upset the manager did not greet you or your group at the airport... but enough of this already...!

I will return to CCV in two weeks and my only concern is whether Roatan has allowed the Lion fish get out of hand...!!! Not if the owner sits with me during the meals...

lee

I suspect that if you were a PADI professional and actually had access to an instructor manual you would know that a scuba diver is not an open water diver and has only completed half of the class and does in fact have only a 40' limit... SO I will accept that you are not familiar and move on from that. As for being ignored, yes we were all offended because we have had good resort experience and this was not it. I hope you vacation is what you expect. Mine was not and I posted that...

 

[Mike]

The manager on Thursday evening during ‘game’ night offered certificates to a few divers that had milestone logged dives. I had 2 of my customers that both hit milestones and if the manager had even spent any time with us at all would have known this. My partner stopped the manager and asked about this and was told to see the office and they would print a certificate for my customers. [/B]

That sounds totally gay to me, but I'm not sure what's worse, somebody who would actually want one, or somebody who would lodge a formal complaint in writing about it.

I must be out of touch with reality if this is actually going on.

But when management's response to your complaints are they would rather you take your business elsewhere, it means either that their customer service skills are horrible, or it means you're really are such a huge A-hole pain in the ass, so bad they'd rather you darken the doorway of one of their competitors and waste their time, while they devote their time and resources on guests they believe are closer to who they want to serve. Hard to say which one it is, until somebody makes a formal complaint in writing about somebody not getting a fake diving 'certificate', then it kind of makes you think it's possibly the latter.

 

[Doc]

The CCV DM's hunt Lionfish, but are very good at not doing this at the expense of leading a naturalist dive.

Unfortunately, the South Side is fairly unpopulated by any volume of divers. Fantasy Island is all but shut down, so it really only leaves CCV, RHR and BFK.

Fortunately, Lionfish seem to be very micro-territorial. As long as you keep cracking them, it keeps the apparent total localized population in check. I would not stop for more than a week, though.

As to SoCalBlueFlame your comments may be valid, but it is very hard to figure why you would put this on a guest comment form or even as any kind of entry on ScubaBoard.

If you're all that alarmed, as a PADI Professional, you were smart to reduce this to writing and file a report with PADI Standards Violations. Good luck with that one, as PADI Corporate knows this operation with great & historic intimacy. It is used as a model for PADI operations, likely you have seen materials generated by their work in the past. They even dump record all computer logs, both for instructor and student. I encourage you, by all means, have at it- but on this, you'll have to sign your full name, not just "CC" it.

Methinks you had other issues, maybe?

A good friend of mine was a guest there during your stay. He mentioned that on the first day, you caused such a fuss about the way the 'dive boys' rigged your gear, they then just decided to carry your gear aboard after that and didn't rig your gear. Jesse and Reuben, the DM's who ran that boat are likely the best operators in the industry. You made it known that you are a PADI Course Director (true enuf) and that you "train Navy SEALs". (Oky doke :amazed: on that one)

This isn't you referenced in these internet forums?
http://www.reddit.com/r/Military/comments/ivw1z/iae_really_suspicious_of_other_veterans_when_they/
http://www.pownetwork.org/phonies/phonies1164.htm Same name, same Scuba Shop, same SEAL Team VI member.... before they were popular!

I see that you have been a dive pro for 15 years and have over 5,000 dives. That's a minimum of one dive per day each day of your career. So I guess you are a diver man, fer sure.

Anyway, my old buddy who was there at the same time easily remembered you and your story when I called him to ask. Otherwise, it's kinda' funny, being as old as he is and his having so many Nitrogen lesions on his brain- he can't remember if he had oatmeal for breakfast, but you... he recalled vividly. He was also in Law Enforcement, so he has an eye and a memory for certain very specific behaviors.

The student you referenced? Her companion is a veteran Law Enforcement trainer (not my old friend as mentioned above) who is a very experienced diver. He saw no issues or violations with his GF, and her computer logs bore this out. But he did have a moment to speak with one of your students who mentioned that you had taken him to 150'. Your student even showed the boyfriend his computer. Your student asked, "Should we have done that?". (Possibly you could fill us in on the PADI S&P for that one?)

BTW- when you make reservations, and then when all guests and leaders fill out the forms upon arrival- CCV asks is there are "any special occasions" being celebrated. It is up to you or your trip participants to list that, or no... the staff doesn't know if it's your 1st Lifetime Dive or just your 1st dive to 150'.

Not everyone likes every place, and yes, even some people don't like ice cream. Sorry it didn't work out for you, may I suggest Fantasy Island Resort - Bienvenidos It is just 200 yards to the West.

BTW- great first post.

 

[lsorenson]

[FONT=&quot]SoCal... Nope, not a PADI professional... just a dude! With that being said; you are correct regarding the maximum depth of a second dive. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Per PADI, Dec 12, 2011 "Lee, With respect to your question, the maximum allowable depth for Training Dive One and Two is 12 meters / 40 feet. For Training Dives Three and Four the maximum depth is 18 meters / 60 feet.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I hope this answers your question. Regards, Steve"[/FONT][FONT=&quot][/FONT]

I just wanted to clear the air regarding 40' and 60' and now I know... Thank you for teaching me something today...!

Respectfully, lee

I suspect that if you were a PADI professional and actually had access to an instructor manual you would know that a scuba diver is not an open water diver and has only completed half of the class and does in fact have only a 40' limit... SO I will accept that you are not familiar and move on from that. As for being ignored, yes we were all offended because we have had good resort experience and this was not it. I hope you vacation is what you expect. Mine was not and I posted that...

 

[Midge907]

Hey SoCal, you stole my thread you poacher. lol. Okay, I just had to say it. As for your post, were you trying to get me to change my mind about going to the resort with the highest return guest rating of anyplace i've researched other then Buddys Dive Resort in Bonaire? Thats where my next Carribean trip will be too, got any reports for them?

 

[SoCalBluFlame]

As to SoCalBlueFlame your comments may be valid, but it is very hard to figure why you would put this on a guest comment form or even as any kind of entry on ScubaBoard.
1st because this was my first post and I did not know how to start a new thread. so for this I apologize for interfering with someone else's thread. I posted to vent and let others know of my customers complaints to me.

If you're all that alarmed, as a PADI Professional, you were smart to reduce this to writing and file a report with PADI Standards Violations. Good luck with that one, as PADI Corporate knows this operation with great & historic intimacy. It is used as a model for PADI operations, likely you have seen materials generated by their work in the past. They even dump record all computer logs, both for instructor and student. I encourage you, by all means, have at it- but on this, you'll have to sign your full name, not just "CC" it.

Methinks you had other issues, maybe?

A good friend of mine was a guest there during your stay. He mentioned that on the first day, you caused such a fuss about the way the 'dive boys' rigged your gear, they then just decided to carry your gear aboard after that and didn't rig your gear. Jesse and Reuben, the DM's who ran that boat are likely the best operators in the industry. You made it known that you are a PADI Course Director (true enuf) and that you "train Navy SEALs". (Oky doke :amazed: on tha

If causing a fuss is because the dm did not seal the din adapter on our regulators then yeap, that was me... Never once did I state that I trained Navy SEALS... not so at all... I did say, when asked that I had trained Swift Water S&R in SoCal and Georgia...

I see that you have been a dive pro for 15 years and have over 5,000 dives. That's a minimum of one dive per day each day of your career. So I guess you are a diver man, fer sure.

And have been a diver since 1970 so figure that one out, okay. And there were 4+ years where I trained over 300 students a year from 2005-2009. So I do have plenty of dives.

Anyway, my old buddy who was there at the same time easily remembered you and your story when I called him to ask. Otherwise, it's kinda' funny, being as old as he is and his having so many Nitrogen lesions on his brain- he can't remember if he had oatmeal for breakfast, but you... he recalled vividly. He was also in Law Enforcement, so he has an eye and a memory for certain very specific behaviors.

The student you referenced? Her companion is a veteran Law Enforcement trainer (not my old friend as mentioned above) who is a very experienced diver. He saw no issues or violations with his GF, and her computer logs bore this out. But he did have a moment to speak with one of your students who mentioned that you had taken him to 150'. Your student even showed the boyfriend his computer. Your student asked, "Should we have done that?". (Possibly you could fill us in on the PADI S&P for that one?)

He was not a student and we were not teaching on this trip. I am also a TDI Instructor and I am trained as a tech diver and instructor to/by two other agencies. He is also a law enforcement officer and he asked me to go with him and make sure he was ok because he wanted to show that on his computer. I was on a vacation and not teaching so I broke NO STANDARDS. PERIOD.

BTW- when you make reservations, and then when all guests and leaders fill out the forms upon arrival- CCV asks is there are "any special occasions" being celebrated. It is up to you or your trip participants to list that, or no... the staff doesn't know if it's your 1st Lifetime Dive or just your 1st dive to 150'.

Not everyone likes every place, and yes, even some people don't like ice cream. Sorry it didn't work out for you, may I suggest Fantasy Island Resort - Bienvenidos It is just 200 yards to the West.

BTW- great first post.

And again I will apologize to the person who started this thread, as I did not really mean to hi-jack your thread. Not to worry any further about this either, as I said My customers and I will not ever go back...