Considering first liveaboard vacation...

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BethV114

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I posted this question on the meets/greets forum since I'm new here, but I thought I'd try posting here in the travel section, as well, just in case. Thanks in advance for your help.

Hello everyone. I'm new to ScubaBoard and was wondering whether anyone might have any suggestions for me. My husband, sister and I are all certified, but basically vacation-type divers, so we don't have that many dives logged (I'd say about 20 each). My sister and I turn the big 3-0 next January (2009) and wanted to take a scuba vacation to celebrate.

We had originally thought about doing a land-based vacation with diving added into the mix, but now we're seriously considering a live aboard. We've been on a few cruises and love being on the ocean, plus it seems as though liveaboards are much more convenient than diving from a land-based vacation (i.e. having to lug all our stuff on/off the dive boat, sail out to the site, etc.). We don't want to do a "hard core" dive trip, though, so we were considering Cuan Law, which appears to offer other things to do if we don't want to dive five times a day. Does anyone out there have any thoughts/other recommendations? We'd ideally like to head somewhere that's relatively warm in January, but isn't prohibitively expensive to fly to from New York.

Any suggestions, thoughts, comments, etc. would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
 
Aggressor Fleet's tagline is the perfect essence of liveaboard philosophy:

Eat. Sleep. Dive.

If you want to do anything besides that, a liveaboard is probably not for you.
 
Aggressor Fleet's tagline is the perfect essence of liveaboard philosophy:

Eat. Sleep. Dive.

If you want to do anything besides that, a liveaboard is probably not for you.

Not quite the help I was looking for. We obviously want to dive a few times a day. Otherwise we wouldn't even be considering a liveaboard. I was really just hoping that someone out there might be able to recommend an operation or two that would be a good first experience - i.e. have other activities to keep us occupied in the event that something comes up and we can't make a dive (i.e. nerves, sinus trouble, just wanting to sit one out and relax, etc.).
 
Not quite the help I was looking for. We obviously want to dive a few times a day. Otherwise we wouldn't even be considering a liveaboard. I was really just hoping that someone out there might be able to recommend an operation or two that would be a good first experience - i.e. have other activities to keep us occupied in the event that something comes up and we can't make a dive (i.e. nerves, sinus trouble, just wanting to sit one out and relax, etc.).

Sorry, but most liveaboards don't have much in the line of activities other than water activities. Some allow kayaking and snorkeling near the boat. Some do have one of two shore visits. I would check out the websites and read the itinerary descriptions to get a feel for it. Most people do dive dive dive.... some don't though. We love liveaboards and prefer them over other types of dive trips. BUT beginners can go on a liveaboard and have a great time, only do 2-3 dives per day with no pressure. Some people read a book or two per trip (sitting on top deck and reading is a big pasttime on liveaboards), some people watch movies in the "salon area", some work on their tans. Not much else to do.
Nekton Diving Cruises - Comfort, Stability, Worldclass Diving the Belize or Puerto Rico/St Croix trip would be great for beginners (NW Bahamas would also be great but it is only in summer)

Explorer Ventures: Adventures in Live-Aboard Diving The Bahamas, Turks and Caicos or Saba trips would be great for beginners

Aggressor Fleet | The ultimate in live-aboards since 1984 The Kona, Belize, Turks and Caicos, or Caymans great for beginners

Peter Hughes Diving Inc. Belize again as great for beginners

check out my website too for some of our liveaboard trip reports:
RnR Scuba (we did the Nekton in 2006, Eco to Palau in 2007). They will give you a rundown of what liveaboards are typically all about.

robin:D
2 months until the Nekton Bahamas again!
 
...

We had originally thought about doing a land-based vacation with diving added into the mix, but now we're seriously considering a live aboard. We've been on a few cruises and love being on the ocean, plus it seems as though liveaboards are much more convenient than diving from a land-based vacation (i.e. having to lug all our stuff on/off the dive boat, sail out to the site, etc.). We don't want to do a "hard core" dive trip, though, so we were considering Cuan Law, which appears to offer other things to do if we don't want to dive five times a day. Does anyone out there have any thoughts/other recommendations? We'd ideally like to head somewhere that's relatively warm in January, but isn't prohibitively expensive to fly to from New York.

Any suggestions, thoughts, comments, etc. would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Sounds like you are on the right track with the Cuan Law. I have been on it before and loved it.. we are booked to go back in Nov.
It is great for a mixed group of divers and non-divers, or divers who might want to do other things. They have waterskiing, snorkeling, hobie cats, kayaks, etc. My wife doesn't dive and she loved it, wasn't bored at all. Great food, great crew, great boat, great location... for us it is hard to beat.
 
As far as Caribbean/US oriented liveaboards Cuan Law is the only one I know of that might give you much in the way of other stuff to do. Other activities and especially land visits tend to get in the way of the 5-a-day schedule most people are looking for on a liveaboard, unless things like watching movies or reading do it for you. And some people do like that, I've seen people on liveaboards that only do maybe 3 a day and relax with a book (or open the bar and socialize) the rest of the time and are very happy. Note that especially as a relatively new diver, you might discover after 3 dives your primary activity interest is a nap. ;)

The 5 dives a day routine is something of a US oriented thing. Many liveaboards in other parts of the world, that cater more to non-US guests, do fewer dives a day and may have other activities available. Probably not what you want to do this time, and you'd probably need to do alot of resarch to find the right match and have your expectations met. But if you still want this down the road that's something to look into.


If your main concern is diving convienience and not wanting to lug gear, some land based dive resorts are very convienient too, have you looked into those? For example someplace like Little Cayman Beach Resort they pick up your dive bag at your door and put it on the boat. You leave your main gear on the boat your whole trip and they will hose it down, move it between boats if needed, and you'll never lug a tank. You just take care of your personal gear, there is a drying shed by the dock to hang stuff. So you just grab your fins/mask/suit and stroll onto the boat. The routine is pretty much 2 tanks in the am and most people do the 1 tank in the afternoon. There is not a ton of other things to do on Little Cayman, but still a decent amount as long as you don't need shopping, certainly more than a liveaboard. Meals you just stroll over to the dining room. It's sort of like a liveaboard on land.

Another place you could look is Compass Point condos or the Reef Resort on the East End of Grand Cayman. Dive with Ocean Frontiers (located at Compass Point) and you barely have to touch your gear. They give you a crate to put your stuff in which they will take on and off the boat. They will even rinse and hang your wetsuit to dry between trips. The East End is away from most stuff on Grand Cayman, but if you do a couple dives in the morning then take the afternoon to drive and explore whereever, or just hang out at the beach and pool, it can be pretty nice. The Reef Resort is a better place to hang out if you're not diving intensively - they will pick you up it's a few miles down the road. If you were trying to dive every morning and afternoon staying right at Compass Point would be more convienient.

There are other dedicated dive resorts you might enjoy, or even some non dive resorts where it still works out, depends on what you are looking for.
 
We did our first ever "blue water" diving last month on the Aquacat out of Nassau. We went into it with about 30 dives each. For us, it was an awesome experience. With about 26 dives possible during the week, we never felt like it was that big a deal to miss one (or more -- I think I made 15 during the week). During the off-time there was plenty of room on the boat to just kick back and relax, or they offered some excursions to some of the nearby islands to just hang out, or fish, or kayak, snorkel, etc.

On-board, people not diving (at that moment) generally read, or watched DVD's on the Salon TV. We bought DVD's and a laptop to play them, but never got around to it. I think that one of the keys to the trip was being on a vessel big enough to give everyone some breathing room to escape if they wanted to. Having decent cabins (with windows) meant that going back to the room to grab a nap before food or diving was always an option.

There was no problem (in our eyes) with being "new divers" -- the briefings were excellent and gave us enough info to make our decisions on if we wanted to jump in the water that time or not. The crew got to know us (and us, them) and could answer questions about diving or the excursions so we could make informed decisions on things. Also, when any site was even remotely questionable they were careful to talk to every passenger about their thoughts on the site as far as staying with it, or moving on to something else (either due to conditions being choppy, or if it was interesting enough to stay there (or come back) for the night dive). There was absolutely no pressure, ever to do (or not do) any of the dives.

Doing a liveaboard is DEFINITELY on our must-do vacation list again. We got to spend the week diving pretty much whenever we felt like it, and not dealing with schepping gear (or us) around in-between dives. It was truly a "get away from it all" trip for us. If you're after a bunch of night-life and soaking up the Local Color though, it's not the trip for you. We got our fill of that in the 6 hours or so we spent on-short before and after the trip.
 
You should at least investigate the Aquacat.

However, I think you should consider COCOView in Roatan.

It's like a land based liveaboard and you can opt out for other activities during the week.

DO a search here for COCOview and you will get at least a 1,000 hits!
 
Thanks so much Robin, Jason, Damsel and Travis - This is exactly the kind of info I was hoping for. Obviously, we are still going to discuss this with our local dive shop, who my husband got certified with and both my sister and I refreshed with, since they are familiar with our comfort zone and abilities, and have arranged quite a few dive trips of their own. But I was hoping to do a little background research and get some thoughts from other, more experienced divers and travelers before we went to them, just to get an idea of what our options might be. You've all been quite helpful, so I really appreciate your taking the time to try answer my questions and share your experiences.:)
 
Thanks so much Robin, Jason, Damsel and Travis - This is exactly the kind of info I was hoping for. Obviously, we are still going to discuss this with our local dive shop, who my husband got certified with and both my sister and I refreshed with, since they are familiar with our comfort zone and abilities, and have arranged quite a few dive trips of their own. But I was hoping to do a little background research and get some thoughts from other, more experienced divers and travelers before we went to them, just to get an idea of what our options might be. You've all been quite helpful, so I really appreciate your taking the time to try answer my questions and share your experiences.:)

this is my trip on the Nekton, but it might give you an idea of what most liveaboards are like:



robin:D
 

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