but a few of your comparisons i do not find valid... like the kona mantas - thats a canned dive, and we didnt get any dolphins @ red sea. But we did see sharks mantas and dolphins to the point where it was like so normal, we werent getting pumped about it anymore. lol
that being said, I cant believe the trip was 4500, i would have never paid that after only spenfing 2600 to go to socorro.
The Mexican government now charges a park fee of around $475 for Socorro liveaboards because, well, we are evidently willing to pay for it. The standard rate for a Nautilius boat is now $3,300 pp for a double, plus $165 VAT, + the $475 park fee + $100 for nitrox. That's over $4,000 right there. The suggested tip is $300, and that's about what I tipped, so $4,300 total. I think there were a few more junk fees that added up to another $100 or so. So pretty close to $4,500.
Which is why I asked in my OP whether Socorro was worth the $$$.
As for the Kona manta dive being a "canned" dive, well, I'm not sure what that means. The mantas are drawn by the lights than illuminate plankton that is already in the water. There is a certain element of predictability to that, but the mantas eat plankton, there is plankton already in the water. On my most recent dive there, I was the last diver out of the water for the evening, and I had very bright dive lights on, so as I was approaching the boat, I suddenly found that I had about a dozen mantas directly under me, doing barrel rolls right under my fins. I stayed in the water for an extra 10 minutes, and it was absolutely unforgettable.
Everyone says that at Socorro you make some kind of mystical connection with mantas. Here is a picture that someone took at Socorro of a manta coming close to me, and you can see that we are making direct eye contact. But I have to say that I couldn't really sense any mystical Vulcan mind meld. For all I know the manta was thinking "that guy sure could lose some weight."
As for dolphins, like I said, I've seen a bunch in the Red Sea and also at Kona itself. I might feel differently about dolphins at Socorro if I'd had multiple encounters there, but I didn't. And at $4,500 a pop, I'm probably not going back for a while. I do have return trips to Kona and the Red Sea lined up for this year, though.
Though perhaps I'm just the exception that proves the rule.
Kidding! As I said, I was just sharing what I had heard from multiple friends firsthand. I don't do dive vacations and I definitely don't do liveaboards.
