Just got off the boat 7 days ago, Captain Todd is on board now............
We're still in Kona having spent a week driving over to Hilo side and back to Kona doing island land activities.
So now for the hard part, and this isn't a slam against them, but I wasn't that impressed with the Aggressor as a whole.
Yes you can dive your brains out, I got in 19 dives over the week, up to 5 of them in one day. One guy on board did all 25-27 dives you could possibly do.
Fun Boat, great crew, but it was the food and schedule that left alot to be desired.
In a nutshell, I've nick-named it the Costco Cruise. If you like pre-prepared Costco food, you'll be in heaven.
Just pointing out my trip experience from 7 days ago. If you like canned Costco Salsa, Costco Cheese Cake, Costco Cold-cut meats, Costco fruit/veggie trays, Costco Cheese slices, then dig into your meals and snacks. I'm not being harsh, as Vern the Chef did make breakfast to order, and dinners were freshly cooked prime rib, lamb chops, pork tenderloin, Fish Dishes and such...........but enough about the food.
The schedule: that's the rub.
I go on a live aboard (been on them before) to go to places in-accessable to day boats.
So the Aggressor schedule, at least on our trip (to be fair but I 95% believe this is the norm)
They allow you to board the boat late afternoon Saturday around 5:00-5:30 pm. They get everyone on board, then motor out to a mooring buoy 1/4 mile off shore at the mouth of the harbor 100 yards from a jet-ski rental barge.
the next 1-2 days were spent moored on 3-4 different mooring buoys per day, all well within day operator range of 2 tank 6-pax day operators, including the manta night dive.
Dive Days 3-4 headed down south to really explore very different topography of dive environment. AWESOME great remote diving. Enjoy it, it's your 2 days of best diving.
Dive Day 5 headed back up north, sometimes only moving the boat 200-300 yards between mooring buoys. Some change of topography underwater, but not much. Seemed like a fuel saving practice. You're now just south of Kona, within extended day boat 2 tank dive boats. Captain Todd did honor a special request for a dive site, a night drift dive called Pelagic Magic, where you're 50 foot deep in 4000 feet of water, watching all sorts of weird and odd jelly-like critters drift by, I HIGHLY recommend asking to do this dive if the weather and water conditions permits.
Dive day 6, you're moored once again right by the Jetski barge a 1/4 mile off the Kona Pier. This is also only a 2 tank dive day on Friday to dry your gear out. 2 tanks 1/4-1/2 mile off shore from downtown Kona. We were back at the pier at Noon, they make you leave the boat at 2:00 - 5:00 (wander downtown t-shirt shopping if you want) so they can clean and restock the boat (COSTCO RUN) for the next days new guests. Back on board for drinks and finger food (no dinner) 5-6:00 pm, then back off the boat from 6-9:00 as they physically leave the dock, back to the mooring buoy.
They pick you back up at the pier at 9:00 pm, then moor a 1/4 mile off shore, then you're unloaded off the boat the next morning Sat at 8:00.
So in a nutshell, I don't blame the crew at all, they're fantastic, and do bend over backwards to make it special and the dive masters were top notch spending as long as you wanted at depth and pointing out lots of small critters. (my longest dive was hour 9 minutes, deepest depth 116 foot)
The dinners were all great and fresh cooked, it was all the Costco cakes and others above mentioned that got very old very fast, but to be fair after being asked Vern the chef did make fresh Pico De Gallio salsa. But on the last night for finger food (also special requested by the guests) they ran into town to buy Poke' Ahi tuna from a store. Vern did make lots of fresh baked home-made cookies between dives every day, yum, warm out of the oven cookies.!
All in All, a nice week on a liveaboard, but at $2600+ a person or ~$450-500 a day per person including tip; It was nice but we won't be going back to do it again. That said, a 2 tank dive through a day boat 6-pax operator is $125, so if you're wanting 4 dives a day doing that you're at $250, plus you need hotel and eats, so that adds up quick too for land based dive/living.
Just my experience, and typing this still gazing from the condo over the waters of Kona watching the sunset. It was a fun trip, and the crew did an awesome job.
Aggressor Owners/Management just needs to make more fresh meals/dishes, and adjust their boat schedule, so for 2-3 nights out of your 7 on-board, you're not within day-boat dive operation range. The 2 days far south of the island shores, delivered some very very good varied underwater terrain, so I'm very appreciative and thank the Aggressor crew for sharing them with us.
Aloha