OK, so my average SAC rate is about .315 What's yours???
Before or after lunch?
2.) The 'valet diving' mention is interesting....
This is a relatively
new marketing buzz word. It came in right after the use of "boutique hotel", I know of this because my wife is immersed deeply in the bull$h*t marketing world of the hotel industry.
In SCUBA, it is no more or less definable than "
cattle boat" which can mean something different to everybody, mostly changing with actual dive travel experience. Like
valet, it is open to wide interpretation. I stumble at attempting to actually list actions that would constitute as "valet". I look at many trips and years of experience... could I just combine all the little nice things that I've seen and have been done to/for me? That simply doesn't work.
Valet? As in, after breakfast, naked Swedish Divemistreses (see my signature line below) gently wrap me in my 2mil and slip me gently into the warm ocean, only then do they delicately attach my SCUBA gear and seamlessly adorn me with my magic flippers? At the end of the dive, do they bring me another tank and reg set and change me out underwater? Do they gently then lift me into the boat, denude me of gear and polarfleece, showering me gently with warm (but not too hot) pure rain water?
See how goofy it can get? And, as I read "valet" in descriptors (websites or trip reports) I run between smiling and choking. Not much in between.
Valet
usually maybe might possibly mean that
they rig your tanks that they carry onboard. This is done for a copule of reasons, ones that kick in long before you set foot on that dive boat. Number One reason is that this is an industrial environment, and compared to them, you are a stumbling clumsy spaz. They don't want to have to admit that you broke your leg, nose or teeth by a slip and fall, certainly not while carrying your gear.
Valet service, if you want to call it that, please do.
#2 reason (or visible example) for this "
Valet Service" (if you define it as) of the DM's loading of gear- is that we divers come aboard scared and wanting to be near our friends.
This has two alternative scenarios, depending upon the size of the boat. At CCV for example, with 55' long massive deck space boats, they set your gear in slots to
not let you bunch up, wanting about 6-8' between each diver station. If left to their own designs, guests would all huddle together in a mass- I've seen it happen. Conversely, on smaller boats (which most other examples are), they set your gear up because it would devolve into a first rate cluster___ with 6 to 8 divers coming aboard and each taking up their 42 square feet... all at once.
I have my own definition of "valet" service, framed after many years of diving and with spinal issues that makes me want to not slip, fall, or carry the weight of SCUBA gear any further than I must. We all have our individual needs, many of us know not what they are. We are mildly surprised, and sometimes absolutely enchanted-
Hey! That DM actually helped me up off the bench! How cool is that! I love valet service! In reality, he just wanted you to get off his boat so he could have a cigarette in peace. Whatever- the effect is golden.
...I would guess a dive-a-holic outfit like CocoView would entail people setting up their own gear, not a valet op.?
Some people don't want valet service, so prospective clients may react either way to this.
Every place is different. CCV DM's will carry your gear to the boats and rig it... up until the moment you tell them not to. They will do whatever you once tell them to do for the rest of the week. Carry my gear on, but leave it unrigged, or the classic, "Don't touch my stuff". I myself, let them do whatever they want, rig it, test it, but they also remember that I then depressurize my rig with the valve off, My wife likes hers left on. They remember. Is
that valet? I've had this level of customized attention at a few other places worldwide. Funny how you grow to use those experiences as a meter for all others, but if you haven't had a certain level of service provided in the past... you can't know what you don't know. "
Ooh, gee, the DM took my fins from me when I got on board" (Again, he didn't trust you to multi task- good, I like that.)
I know that my DM should lefty-loosey my valve before I flop in. Best DMs never let you see them do that. I always three-suck-test my rig, but I'm happy they check the valve. I have heard, over the years, 4 or 5 divers claim that "the DM turned my air the wrong way". They were the ones who were constantly fiddling with their gear, and the DM failed in that he made his pre-dive check 15 mins
before splash. Is that a "
valet" thing?
Or is it the fresh fruit passed around after diving? If you haven't seen much of that before, it can be pretty
valet-riffic.
3.) All that said, I headed to CocoView's website and I see you can get in-room spa treatment, and they're got some other activities available (a list of the non-diving stuff)....I wonder how CocoView's onsite non-diving recreational activities stack up? Do they have 'activities staff' trying to keep people entertained?
I've never even looked. They used to have an "activities director" but she got so little interest in non-diving off site activities that she got bored after two years and went to San Francisco. Basically, they give you a quick mention and list of non-dive stuff, they'll book it if you ask at the office.
Media Luna Resort has (and needs) a distinct advantage in that regard. They cater to a predominately non-dive clientele. The basis for this stems from it being heavily marketed as a day-spa for cruise ship passengers. They understand the activities offered on-island that otherwise would be considered their competition for day-spa guests. They have good knowledge of options. As
Drrich2examines the CCV website or off-site activities, finding only this: Honduras Island Activities | CoCo View Resort, one might also do that for Media Luna and only find Media Luna Resort & Spa, Roatán, Honduras
CCV diving on their website? It is on every web page. MLR diving on their website? I'll find it for you:
Media Luna Resort & Spa, Roatán, Honduras This takes you off of their site and redirects to Aqua Adventures which will also take you fishing.
You can see by the websites alone, and this can be done for any destination, what their focus is. As much as I might like CCV, it simply is not for the non-snorkeler/diver. I am amused at the two "awful" reviews they garner on
TwitAdvisor... people complaining that all CCV is good for is a dive resort. But, that is all they promised.
MLR is several steps closer to survivability for these non-water babies, but web shoppers must understand what it is they are reading. Roatan is worse than most locations in terms of accenting the possibilities versus the probabilities. Yes- all this gobbeldy-gook stuff is available, but maybe you had should really have gone to West End if that's what you needed.
On Roatan in particular, based on my perspective of many different Caribbean islands visited, the non-dive activities are predominately drinking. There are some diversions like an uber-costly (so far) Golf Course; a handful of 'jungle canopy tours' (which used to be known as slide-for-life in the days we called rain forests by their original name, jungles) where you rocket down this rusty cable and a skinny Honduran kid gets between your hurtling body and that big tree; The Dolphin Pester and Shark Rodeo (actually available to every weeklong or daily visitor, it's offered by a vendor); The Iguana Farm (watch your step, it sticks to your shoes); the Botanical Gardens (about 6 minutes worth); Six Flags over Garifuna Village; shopping West End for crappy Guatemalan imports; and a list of other mechanical/fossil fuel dependent activities that come and go like the tide, including: maybe parasailing, maybe submarine ride (in a Honduran submarine, the mind reels), maybe dune buggy trail led rides, maybe whatever other goofy idea shows up. The biggest downer? The miniature golf place closed up. I wanted to buy it and install a bar, no, two bars at each end.
Ahh, there we revert back to true "island culture" a.k.a. "island vibe".... drinking.
Use Media Luna for what it is best able to fulfill. A nice, secluded destination resort, away from the faux Jimmy Buffet commercialism, on the South shore's unique diving. A diver can go and bring his marital-unit who likes to Sun themselves. If they need a carnival for entertainment, certainly CCV will not suffice, and if they don't enjoy MLR, I'd dump 'em and start over. Cut your losses- much cheaper than daily cab rides to West End.
...Granted, I tend to view such things as either background scenery or a risk factor for fellow travelers to divert me from running up my dive count.
This has happened to me in Tobago just because of the scenery and great jeep trails- we might have skipped three dives in total per week. As many times as I've dove the Red Sea, I never stopped to see the Pyramids.