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I hope this does not get too negative here but I was wondering about this guys assertions.
Obviously I do not have any personal knowledge as I have never been to Belize but I have seen a few shows on San Pedro and it looked nice. Sorry for such a negative topic but I was interested in the input from a larger population of experienced divers.
You know, the internet attracts all types both good and bad.
Imho, the writer was trolling, hoping to get a rise out of people. Strangely, that's just how some people get their kicks, which I suppose is better than kicking kittens or being a jerk to the elderly but still a weird way to go through life. If you scroll down past his post, you'll see his claims are disputed by people who have been there. Then he comes back to claim to have a lot of experience, owned a shop, wrote books, etc as if he's some sort of expert. Yeah, right. Just sounds like a troll to me.
He even makes the classic mistake of using "Belize" in place of "Ambergris Caye," one of my pet peeves as there is so much more to the country of Belize than one single, albeit very popular, island.
I suggest you read through the multitude of posts here, especially the trip reports. You'll get a very different picture.
I've been to Belize a number of times and am headed back again in June/July. Can't wait. It's a wonderful country, warts included, and I always have a blast. If you're contemplating a trip, I encourage you to consider not just AC but the country as a whole. It just might change your life.
This is more a study of how the Internet can be used.
WizardTrips, in that this is your 43rd post on SB, I am going to jump to some conclusions. You might be following way far behind Al Gore's pioneering Internet footsteps, you might be new to the Internet and its denizens.
No less than I will deduce from the "negative Trip Advisor" post you reference. That post was his second lifetime post, and he pronounced a localized and well known reef structure as 100% Dead.
This poster defends his absolute position later by listing his SCUBA history which also includes a factoid that he created and published his own dive tables, assumably back in the late last Century. This might not mean much to you, but us old farts would hear that and get a real good picture of what this guy is.
If if I were to answer the question that he felt the need to heap his derision, I would have likely rather said, "I dove it in 1972, 1982, and 1992 and detect no reason to ever go back due to its state of decay, there are other places remaining in the Caribbean that have not yet been destroyed by success". This is how I efface questions in regards to Cayman, a much more polite version of that TA post you reference.
The TA poster might have any number of motivations, they might easily fall under the header of "troll posts".
Again, I think you might be new at this Internet thing. Trip Advisor fosters an interesting psychology. I have been reading it, only a very specific forum of which some people attribute to me a recognized and substantial expertise. (Don't misconstrue, I know a whole lot about very little)
So I've been reading the TA forum that is about Roatan. I do not make any comments about anything other than diving (I can give locals a run for the money with my actual breadth of local experience) and the only other TA topic I will address is Roatan Crime. (I held Honduran government LE credentials for a time)
What have I learned about Trip Advisor?
The TA questioning in re crime has been the most telling. Just as people turn to us anonymous Internet authorities for medical information about Malaria and water quality. Technical questions are posed that have defined medical answers pop up all the time, looking for reassurance (<- that's what it is) that they will survive, or if they will "feel safe". That's the key phrase that pops up all the time, "Will I feel safe?"
FIIK if you "will feel safe".
But it this is the repetitive subtext of TA posters.
If you subtract out the vast majority of TA readers, maybe 90% of them are Cruise Ship Pod People (the ones that can't quite find Cruise Critic), the remaining 10% might offer some relevant information on local housing and food.
The posters, those who provide volumes of "expertise", are but for the exception of two TA Forum posters- are absolutely ignorant of the total breadth of SCUBA available in Roatan. Yet there are many expert replies. If you know about Roatan, I mean really know about the available expanse of diving, the TA responses are ludicrous, maddening, and kind'a cute in their innocent perspective. Yet insidiously destructive.
The leading TA authority on all things Roatan is actually noted and revered largely for the sheer volume of his posts. He has sampled, from what I can discern, West End range dive sites, one trip to FIBR (with a ten dive week?), and a day trip charter to Pigeon Cay (usually a destination for Cruise Ship snorkelers in search of exotic adventure), yet he will wax authoritative on anything for his TA fanbase. And the adulation is fairly universal on this very narrow forum and he feeds upon it.
But this kind of TA Q&A attracts and builds upon itself, it is self perpetuating. SCUBA information (at least for my narrow zone of expertise applied to a long term reading on TA), you might well skip TA for the actual dive info and read SB. The difference is that of night and day. (Quality of content might be different for other geographic destinations, I wouldn't know)
is what I call it.
So yes, there will be trolls on any forum, there will be competitors, there will be axe grinders, there will be grumpy old men. Unfortunately, the most destructive posts are the well meaning trip reports and commentaries from reporters with unarguable limited experience, they will type away with, "Gee golly the dive shop at Club Med in Jamaica and the reef diving was just the bestest ever...."
Select your information deivery channel with great care.
My short answer is I don't know about Belize specifically, but I can suggest guidelines on reading these reports.
You do have to take all reports as single datapoints in a group of data, and try to distill the reality from all of it. You have to consider the experience of those making the comments. If the majority of their experience is a quarry, then any place COULD look like heaven and full of color to them. If their experience is Papua New Guinea and the Galapagos, then some places could look like few fish and mostly dead spots. Also depends on who took them where because if you dive with the pod people, then it's more likely you didn't go to a good spot.
There is undoubtably truth to their comments but whether as bad as it appears, is another question. Being an island that has a LOT of people coming to it, many inexperienced or not caring about nature more than blasting it with their camera, I could imagine that you would encounter some trash, and maybe more than you think appropriate. They may also be people overdosed. Need to get more datapoints and go look at people's underwater videos to get an idea. Look in the background.
Okay I have to admit the one thing I did not consider was a troll.
I am not that new to the internet and I do not believe everything I read but I do think there are people around who are much more educated on specific topics than myself. However I probably do not do go to such sites that harden a person to internet culture like Reddit or 4chan. I do read a ton but usually not the comments in articles. In ways I am less interested in espousing my views than I am in reading yours (although I do have them) and the information they contain. The world is a lot smaller these days and true and false information is flowing. I do like scubaboard!
It is so interesting how definitive experienced scuba divers can be! Seems like each one has a definitive advice. So funny. I do like it! Food for thought and all. I am less definitive on there being just one answer but I am definitive when it comes to making a choice and going with it. I spend very little time debating my choices unless it just does not work out.
I do like TripAdvisor and I do tend to read the bad reviews just to see what was written although many must be taken with a grain of salt. You can not please everyone all the time.
So I guess the response of me being a bit gullible to wonder what this guy was talking abt is warranted. I recognized his posts as being over the top but not so much as a troll. I guess I was thinking back to last summer in Puerto Rico where I was not planning to dive based on reviews of it not being worth it, to melting in Old San Juan, to me saying I would rather see what was under the sea than melt again, to booking a dive trip in Fajardo and really enjoying myself! I saw quite a few turtles. Granted it was my 15th and 16th dive but I would do it again. I have stories from that trip! I also decided not to dive St Kitts last summer based on reviews and I now regret that choice. It's all abt building a base of knowledge.
When I first saw your thread, I thought you'd had a bad experience on "Tropic," not "Topic," lol. Tropic Air is one of two puddle jumpers in Belize. They rushed me right along to an earlier flight last year, then left behind one of my bags. I wasn't too keen on that, so I thought we might have something in common.
Come to Belize. You'll probably have the time of your life. And feel free to ask questions. You'll find a wealth of knowledge and a wide range of opinions here.
It's interesting that the Tripadvisor thread started in 2012 and we are now in 2015. In the greater context of all the Ambergris Caye/San Pedro activity in TripAdvisor, I consider this one post to be a blip.
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