Just the two of us.... on a Liveaboard

[dianna912]

The Spree was a giant costly ship. I've had 20 passenger day trip boats tell me it was just me & my buddy and they would still run. But we've always been able to 'bribe' additional customers by me bringing free hot lunch or for us to jump over (be placed on) to another local day boat.

I know how extremely expensive it is to run a dive boat charter and my 'GUILT FACTOR' just wouldn't allow me to 'enjoy' the trip. In addition since the deck crew usually works for just Tips, no way would it be practical to cover that much. If I see it's not the minimum passenger load, I'll immediately offer before the captain asks, to Transfer / Cancel / reschedule.

P.S. I have gone out on a 2 person charter because a dive shop booked half the seats (with healthy non-refundable) deposits or full pre-pay and then cancelled the day before hand. In that case, the boat chipped in for crew tips because it was free money.

I hadn’t even thought about the tip aspect. Unfortunately, our dates are not flexible due to flights and such. There are zero 7 day options departing our same date. There may be a couple of five day options we could get on, but I am hating the idea of making such a drastic change. I still don’t understand why they are not offering a discount. It would have to be better than taking the inevitable loss.

 

[runsongas]

does the company have other boats they operate? they may put you onto another, similar boat if there is space.

 

[Wookie]

I hadn’t even thought about the tip aspect. Unfortunately, our dates are not flexible due to flights and such. There are zero 7 day options departing our same date. There may be a couple of five day options we could get on, but I am hating the idea of making such a drastic change. I still don’t understand why they are not offering a discount. It would have to be better than taking the inevitable loss.

Discounting is certainly prevalent in the liveaboard industry. Of course, if it's only worth whatever price minus the discount, why ever would you pay full price? I see many folks even right here on ScubaBoard telling other divers to wait for the discounts.

I never discounted. The trip was worth what I charged for it. If it was worth less, then I would have charged less.

 

[Scared Silly]

For the OP please followup and let us all know how the trip went (or did not went).

 

[chillyinCanada]

My most recent liveaboard experience left with 6 out of a possible 16 divers. I was very relieved as it was going to cancel. They ran a promotion and 4 more took advantage of that, this bringing to total to that vital number of 6. The boat may still have run at a loss, I'm not sure. However, it was its first season after refitting/refurbishment and under new ownership. They ran it to maintain the service of their product. I was very grateful!!

By the way, not that this applies as you'll be in Thailand and my trip was Raja Ampat. The boat is the MSY Seahorse, under the Wallacea Cruise company who have long run the Ambai. I'd return in a heartbeat.

 

[dianna912]

A quick update, with a full trip report soon to follow: the Diva did run, with three guests total. It exceeded our expectations with incredible diving and service! We will definitely be returning to dive with them in the future, hopefully in Myanmar!

 

[Stoo]

Not quite the same, but eons ago, I won a trip to Grand Cayman. Mrs. Stoo v1.0 was about 6 months pregnant with our first kidlet at the time, so we figured we'd better go pronto.

We went to a little resort called Cayman Kai, right on the north shore. We were the only two guests, I suppose because it was July and stinking hot. After the DMs got to know me the first day, we basically dove all the places that they dove on their days off... It was an amazing week. Hopefully, you'll have a similar experience.

 

[scubadada]

In 2016 I did back to back weeks on the Red Sea Aggressor I Red Sea Aggressor April-May 2016 On the southern route we had only 4 passengers, 3 divers. On the BDE route we had only 7 divers, one was the Aggressor VP of operations, doing an audit on the boat. It was a great trip, wonderful crew, good food, a private cabin, and incredible, uncrowded diving. The trip really spoiled me.