Carib Dancer trip report November 10th

[Amazz]

Excerpt From the Carib Dancer Captain and Land Manager Trip Report Prior to this Thread:

Guest: We had one guest this week that was a pain to everyone, especially other guests. He used foul language and made degrading comments about people in general. No one on the vessel wanted to be around him. He was just loud and unconcerned about others enjoyment. It was brought to his attention but it only slowed down a little. Other guests did comment about him and were ready to get off the vessel for some peace and quiet. He was very inconsiderate to other guests.
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like this. No class, no level of customer service. I can attest that everything is accurate in this latest trip report. I was in the infamous cabin 1 on the July trip. Most awful liveaboard I have ever been on. I also agree that the showers on the dive deck were hot. I publicly showered there daily because there is no water pressure in cabin 1 and the plumbing stench from the toilet forced us to use the head on the dive deck as well.

---------- Post added November 23rd, 2012 at 08:33 AM ----------

"While there's always two sides to a story and anyone could argue who's to blame and what should be done, we were threatened from the start by her and her group to give them all their money back or suffer the consequences of what they could do, using blogs and e-mails to everyone they knew just so they could hurt our companies. I'm sorry, but this is unfair and unjustified."

I was part of "her and her group." The statement above made by Wayne Hasson in Undercurrent is untrue. I'll stop short of calling him a liar but would like to see evidence of the threats. He won't be able to deliver that because it never occurred. My only correspondence with him about this trip was the group letter penned by Bubbleblocker. While our intent was to streamline the feedback in one letter, I get the feeling that Hasson felt "ganged up on." Unfortunately, his grotesque ego gets in the way of business sense. As one of their former dealers, I did tens of thousands of sales for them over recent years. I was a tiny fish in their big pond, but supported them nonetheless. I severed business relations with them after they responded to our complaints. I can't take on the liability of promising a liveaboard experience to a client that they can't deliver.

 

[Hummingbear]

I dove off the cayman aggressor with this fellow last may and although he can be loud and opinionated, I believe he is a man of principle. I would dive with him again no issue. He has lauded previous aggressor trips, so this one seems to be the exception. I'm planning to go on the Carib dancer in may. I'm not affluent so I can't afford to change my plans. I was going on the utila aggressor (now mv caribbean pearl)' but was told the boat was sold and would no longer be diving. So they moved me to another boat. I had to pay $300 to change my flights from roatan. There was no offer to defray any of of this expense. Had I known, I would have kept my flights tp roatan and dove the pearl.

the cayman aggressor is my bench mark for live aboards (great crew, food, diving). So I hope aggressor starts listening to customer feedback to improve their operations.

 

[Amazz]

. I'm planning to go on the Carib dancer in may. I'm not affluent so I can't afford to change my plans. I was going on the utila aggressor (now mv caribbean pearl)' but was told the boat was sold and would no longer be diving. So they moved me to another boat. I had to pay $300 to change my flights from roatan. There was no offer to defray any of of this expense. Had I known, I would have kept my flights tp roatan and dove the pearl.

the cayman aggressor is my bench mark for live aboards (great crew, food, diving). So I hope aggressor starts listening to customer feedback to improve their operations.

Sadly, this is just another blemish to the reputation of a once good company. Their customer service continues to slide downward. They used to offer credit for air changes when they couldn't deliver a promised trip. Their new practices are unheard of within respected travel circles. They should have paid for your air change fees or offered you an equivalent discount on another trip. IMHO, it would be prudent for you to consider travel insurance through Travel Guard to protect your invesment. I'd be surprised if this boat is still in busines by May. Don't expect the company to step up. They are showing they won't.

 

[Tamity]

I can't believe I just now came across this thread, I was also on the trip with rangerc375, I can for certain say that at least 2 other rooms left a tip, my room and the one across from us, we all put cash tips in the envelopes provided when we settled up our purchases and we left a decent tip. I was one of the groups that left at the gas station, we didn't leave because of any of the guests that were on board, we left a night early because of the boat, the sewage smell was so bad that we opted to stay at Atlantis and the gas station stop got us there that much quicker. The crew was great but the boat really didn't live up to the claims on the website, the only reason we did not attend the cocktail party was because we couldn't take another night on the boat. I personally did not hear anyone complain about any of the other guests, I heard the announcement from the captain asking to calm down with the language, and had no idea where this was coming from.

This was my first live aboard so I didn't know what to expect and I'm really not sure if I'll try another one now. I'm pretty easy going but the first morning I woke up gagging to the smell of sewage and the smell never really went away, there were so many plumbing problems on this boat, they did their best to fix it each time, but it became a running joke that the gallon of lysol they pour down the drain to fix the smell might just be worse. They also put duct tape on our vent, our room was freezing and the tape did the trick. They ask that you don't take any dive towels into your room, that you only use the bath towels but the "bath" towels in our room were only the size of hand towels, so we had to sneak full size towels into our room to use after showering. We did get hot water in our room for the first half of the week, but they had told us that the sensor regulating how hot it gets was broken, so the water would become too hot to use (as I learned the hard way), so we'd take cold showers instead of getting burned. The deck showers also got too hot, they would keep them running nonstop to run out the hot water so we'd have to time it right to not get burned, but then towards the end of the week they said we'd used up all the water and couldn't use them.
I had no problem with the food but the portions were too small, especially when you're famished after diving, there were a couple of meals where I was still left hungry.

I highly recommend all of the crew members, they were great, they were fun and incredibly helpful. We were greeted with warm towels every time we got out of the water and they wouldn't let us lift a thing, we felt so bad every time we had to report a problem to them (usually concerning toilet issues) and we never heard a complaint from them.

 

[Shasta_man]

Just so you are clear, that experience is not a normal liveaboard experience. It's usually closer to a "you and a bunch of friends have your own personal dive boat" type of experience.

 

[Brodydog]

Shasta Man is right. That is not your "typical" liveaboard experience. If you decide to try again, do some research and get some recent opinions on the boat and company you want to use before you book your trip. I always do my research and have yet to be highly disappointed with any of my liveaboards. A few quirks here and there, but nothing major like your trip.

 

[Hummingbear]

I dove off the cayman aggressor with this fellow last may and although he can be loud and opinionated, I believe he is a man of principle. I would dive with him again no issue. He has lauded previous aggressor trips, so this one seems to be the exception. I'm planning to go on the Carib dancer in may. I'm not affluent so I can't afford to change my plans. I was going on the utila aggressor (now mv caribbean pearl)' but was told the boat was sold and would no longer be diving. So they moved me to another boat. I had to pay $300 to change my flights from roatan. There was no offer to defray any of of this expense. Had I known, I would have kept my flights tp roatan and dove the pearl.

the cayman aggressor is my bench mark for live aboards (great crew, food, diving). So I hope aggressor starts listening to customer feedback to improve their operations.

Alianze wouldn't cover the flight change cost, so I won't use them again. I have Dan for the cruise, but I'm reading the fine print. I've moved over to the belize aggressor, since I heard the Carib was in dry dock and they cancelled a dec. trip.

 

[Brodydog]

Alianze wouldn't cover the flight change cost, so I won't use them again. I have Dan for the cruise, but I'm reading the fine print. I've moved over to the belize aggressor, since I heard the Carib was in dry dock and they cancelled a dec. trip.

Had you already put a deposit down with Aggressor for the Utila trip and did you book directly with them? If so it really is a shame Aggressor will not cover the cost of the flight change since they are the reason you could not do the Utila trip. A few years ago Explorer Ventures changed our departure location and reimbursed us for the cost of our flight change. Only makes business sense to me.

I hope Aggressor is monitoring all these negative posts and does something to improve their customer service. I am really not impressed and do not plan to use them again unless I start hearing better reports.

 

[BDSC]

A few years ago Explorer Ventures changed our departure location and reimbursed us for the cost of our flight change.

That's because the Explorer Ventures folks understand what is considered fair treatment to it customers. The Aggressor folks not so much. I think you are making a wise decision Brodydog by never using them again.

 

[Shasta_man]

<<I hope Aggressor is monitoring all these negative posts>> Apparently they are, but improvement isn't apparent as evidenced by more such reports.