Hi we are thinking of doing liveaboard this December.
have you been on any of the below? or been to the areas in December?
looking for recommendations from people who have done 2 or three of the below.
Belize Aggressor III, Belize
Bahamas Aggressor, Bahamas
Roatan Aggressor, Honduras
Cayman Aggressor IV, Cayman Islands
Be very careful with the Aggressor Fleet. I had a great time in Belize and recommend it but Cayman is a disappointment and Bahamas Aggressor is a small and old boat. But my biggest issue is their lack of integrity.
In May I booked my Aug 24th trip for the Bahamas Aggressor, specifically asked for the lower bed and received confirmation of the lower bed in room 5. This was important to me because the boat is small and old and the top bunk is very small and claustrophobic.
Weeks later I was informed that I have been moved to the upper bed. Although I was upset, I understood that the waiver I signed when booking as a single passenger allows me to be moved in order to accommodate two guests traveling together.
The good news is that the 12 other guests were fantastic people and great divers. Altogether there were (including myself) 2 couples, 5 women, and 4 men on this trip, and I would happily go on a dive safari with any of them.
The crew were excellent and did their best under difficult circumstances with a host of technical and maintenance problems.
I won’t go into the technical problems with one of the compressors that resulted in us missing dives, having no Nitrox or proper a/c. etc. I’ll just speak about the absolute lack of integrity of this organization.
It turns out that shortly after I booked and paid for my trip, the Bahamas Aggressor had a low season $1000 discount in order to fill up the empty spaces on the boat. In fact, apart from myself, only one other woman guest paid full price.
There were 4 men traveling separately, I shared a room with a guy, and in the next room were 2 other men traveling separately. From the two rooms accommodating the four men, I had booked before all of them, and, I paid $1000 more than them because I booked before the promotional sale, and yet, after receiving confirmation of a lower bed, I was bumped to the top bunk in favor of people who booked after me and paid $1000 less than I did!! (again, I cannot overstate that these were the nicest of people and I have zero complaints against any of them)
I sent several emails to Aggressor asking that since my original booking wasn’t honored, and that the reason for my having been moved clearly went against the reason stated in the wavier, I should be given the same $1000 discount as all the other guests. Most of my emails fell on deaf ears (completely ignored!!) but eventually I received an answer from Larry Speaker, the VP of Operations, where he completely brushed me off, and even quoted his own Aggressor wavier which states “
I understand and agree any guest who books a single space in a stateroom, river cruise or safari lodge that is designed for two guests; will be subject to be moved to another room (with the person of the same gender) without being notified in order to free up space for two guests traveling together.” The 2 rooms with male guests were 4 people traveling separately, so he literally contradicted his own legal wavier!!! He also wrote
“We do acknowledge that the ebb and flow of prices travel related products can be very frustrating. However, To make exceptions for one guest would not be fair to other guests who chose to book alternate dates or destinations in order to qualify for the various incentives that we offered. It would also not be fair to other guests in our fleets who are all paying full fare. As such, we can not offer you the refund requested. “ Ahhh hello???? Who am I if not the guest who paid full fare and was not given his confirmed accommodation in favor of a guest paying $1000 less!!!!!
The Aggressor Fleet acted against their own legal wavier and refuse to take responsibility and this shows a total lack of integrity.
