Wreck Alley Trip on the Blue Escape out of San Diego California
Date: Sat. Oct 9 & Sun Oct 10
Twenty-two divers leave Phoenix, Arizona Friday Oct 8 at 5pm. First glitch in trip was the day before leaving, Blue Escape informed us that they could not provide enough nitrox bottles for 22 people, 3 dives per day. They would have to come back to shore, fill bottles then go back out. Since our Phoenix shop has lots of nitrox bottles we agreed to bring 3 bottles each (total of 66 bottles) with us if they would fill them for the 2nd day which we were to do 2 dives on the Sunday.
Arrive in The Dana Hotel in San Diego at midnight. (Nice hotel btw) Got our rooms, checked in, unpacked and prepared dive gear for an early start the next morning. Got to bed about 2am
Arrived at dock at 7:30 as instructed with all our gear including all the nitrox bottles. Assembled our gear and stowed our extra bottles.
At about 8am (time of departure) one of the shop's people (he had been on the boat) informed us that the shop had rec'd a call that the captain had been in a car accident and would be late.
Said he will be here in a couple hours. Come back at noon and we'll go out then. He promised a noon departure would still be plenty of time to get 3 dives in. Our trip leader confirmed to be back at noon. We left the dock and returned to the hotel and had breakfast since the hotel restaurant wasnt open when we left in the morning.
A couple of us sauntered over to shop at 11am, just to check on things....Gee guess what....no captain....his wife called and said he wont be in at all. Our trip leader headed over to shop and was informed it was a 'no go' for that day. Trip leader says, "Wheres your 2nd captain?" Shop says, Dont know...its his day off." After much conversation it was determined that diving on Sunday was also not likely to happen either. It was now after 1pm...do we stay, do we return home? We stayed
as the hotel would not give credit for 2nd night...and why should they...not their fault.
To make a long story short...22 divers travelled from Arizona...22 divers paid for transportation, lugged all their gear, paid for 2 nights hotel and wasted a weekend. This Arizona shop sends trips to California a min. of once a month and as many as 4 times a month during the summer.
This Arizona shop will reschedule a wreck alley trip for its customers but it will NOT be with the Blue Escape. We felt that they did not seem to care in the least. They refunded the deposit in the form of a check...it remains to be seen if it clears the bank or not....
Big disappoint for many of us.
Date: Sat. Oct 9 & Sun Oct 10
Twenty-two divers leave Phoenix, Arizona Friday Oct 8 at 5pm. First glitch in trip was the day before leaving, Blue Escape informed us that they could not provide enough nitrox bottles for 22 people, 3 dives per day. They would have to come back to shore, fill bottles then go back out. Since our Phoenix shop has lots of nitrox bottles we agreed to bring 3 bottles each (total of 66 bottles) with us if they would fill them for the 2nd day which we were to do 2 dives on the Sunday.
Arrive in The Dana Hotel in San Diego at midnight. (Nice hotel btw) Got our rooms, checked in, unpacked and prepared dive gear for an early start the next morning. Got to bed about 2am
Arrived at dock at 7:30 as instructed with all our gear including all the nitrox bottles. Assembled our gear and stowed our extra bottles.
At about 8am (time of departure) one of the shop's people (he had been on the boat) informed us that the shop had rec'd a call that the captain had been in a car accident and would be late.
Said he will be here in a couple hours. Come back at noon and we'll go out then. He promised a noon departure would still be plenty of time to get 3 dives in. Our trip leader confirmed to be back at noon. We left the dock and returned to the hotel and had breakfast since the hotel restaurant wasnt open when we left in the morning.
A couple of us sauntered over to shop at 11am, just to check on things....Gee guess what....no captain....his wife called and said he wont be in at all. Our trip leader headed over to shop and was informed it was a 'no go' for that day. Trip leader says, "Wheres your 2nd captain?" Shop says, Dont know...its his day off." After much conversation it was determined that diving on Sunday was also not likely to happen either. It was now after 1pm...do we stay, do we return home? We stayed
as the hotel would not give credit for 2nd night...and why should they...not their fault.
To make a long story short...22 divers travelled from Arizona...22 divers paid for transportation, lugged all their gear, paid for 2 nights hotel and wasted a weekend. This Arizona shop sends trips to California a min. of once a month and as many as 4 times a month during the summer.
This Arizona shop will reschedule a wreck alley trip for its customers but it will NOT be with the Blue Escape. We felt that they did not seem to care in the least. They refunded the deposit in the form of a check...it remains to be seen if it clears the bank or not....
Big disappoint for many of us.
