CajunDiva
Contributor
At last our dive trip to Fiji is done...and it was every bit as spectacular as I had dreamed it would be. This was a "bucket list" trip for us and it was well worth the effort.
First I have to say that normally I do all of our trip planning since I really enjoy researching destinations and finding places to stay and dive. Since this trip was such a big deal for us and I wanted help finding the perfect dive locations in Fiji, we decided for the first time to book through an agency. What a great decision that turned out to be! After a flight all the way to Fiji, we didn't want to visit just one area. We wanted to experience a couple of different islands. Our agent was able to help us pinpoint our itinerary. We were to spend our first week on the island of Taveuni at Garden Island Resort before transferring to the main island of Viti Levu for a second week at Wananavu Resort. At last, the details were all worked out and we were ready to go...or so we thought.
One week before we were scheduled to depart, Cyclone Tomas decided to make his presence known...and made a direct hit on the island we had decided to visit - Taveuni. Thankfully our agent was right on top of the situation. I have heard the term "customer service" tossed around so many times that whenever I hear it my mind automatically goes "yada...yada...yada"! Well folks, let me tell you that amazing customer service is alive and well in the dive industry. Ryan Dandy showed us that the staff at World of Diving in California truly understands the meaning of customer service. Ryan told me that they really do want to make sure their clients have a wonderful dive vacation. I found out how true that really is.
Before the storm even threatened Fiji, Ryan was sending us e-mails just to give us a "heads up" that a cyclone was in the vicinity and telling us we should be aware of it. Then the storm actually made our destination its bullseye! Ryan was at the ready with information about the effects of the storm and options for ways to re-route our journey and make it whatever we wanted it to be. Since we were already sold on visiting Taveuni and the Rainbow Reef in the Somosomo Straits, we didn't want to change our itinerary. Unfortunately, at the time we departed for Fiji there were still no connecting flights from Nadi to the island of Taveuni. Ryan at World of Diving really came through for us. He was able to switch our itinerary around and send us to Wananavu Resort on the main island of Viti Levu first (they were unaffected by the storm) and switch our Taveuni visit to the second week of our trip, allowing them to recover a bit and get operational before we arrived. The amount of effort he went through to make sure we were taken care of was above and beyond the call of duty.
If any of you are looking for a GREAT agency to book your dive trips through, I would highly recommend World of Diving and Ryan Dandy in particular. We will definitely be booking future trips with him.
Now on to Part Two...Wananavu Resort
First I have to say that normally I do all of our trip planning since I really enjoy researching destinations and finding places to stay and dive. Since this trip was such a big deal for us and I wanted help finding the perfect dive locations in Fiji, we decided for the first time to book through an agency. What a great decision that turned out to be! After a flight all the way to Fiji, we didn't want to visit just one area. We wanted to experience a couple of different islands. Our agent was able to help us pinpoint our itinerary. We were to spend our first week on the island of Taveuni at Garden Island Resort before transferring to the main island of Viti Levu for a second week at Wananavu Resort. At last, the details were all worked out and we were ready to go...or so we thought.
One week before we were scheduled to depart, Cyclone Tomas decided to make his presence known...and made a direct hit on the island we had decided to visit - Taveuni. Thankfully our agent was right on top of the situation. I have heard the term "customer service" tossed around so many times that whenever I hear it my mind automatically goes "yada...yada...yada"! Well folks, let me tell you that amazing customer service is alive and well in the dive industry. Ryan Dandy showed us that the staff at World of Diving in California truly understands the meaning of customer service. Ryan told me that they really do want to make sure their clients have a wonderful dive vacation. I found out how true that really is.
Before the storm even threatened Fiji, Ryan was sending us e-mails just to give us a "heads up" that a cyclone was in the vicinity and telling us we should be aware of it. Then the storm actually made our destination its bullseye! Ryan was at the ready with information about the effects of the storm and options for ways to re-route our journey and make it whatever we wanted it to be. Since we were already sold on visiting Taveuni and the Rainbow Reef in the Somosomo Straits, we didn't want to change our itinerary. Unfortunately, at the time we departed for Fiji there were still no connecting flights from Nadi to the island of Taveuni. Ryan at World of Diving really came through for us. He was able to switch our itinerary around and send us to Wananavu Resort on the main island of Viti Levu first (they were unaffected by the storm) and switch our Taveuni visit to the second week of our trip, allowing them to recover a bit and get operational before we arrived. The amount of effort he went through to make sure we were taken care of was above and beyond the call of duty.
If any of you are looking for a GREAT agency to book your dive trips through, I would highly recommend World of Diving and Ryan Dandy in particular. We will definitely be booking future trips with him.
Now on to Part Two...Wananavu Resort
Ryan Dandy and World of Diving have certainly made a lifetime loyal customer in me :blessing:
