Live at FI

[r466it]

Here I am on Wednesday of my Saturday to Saturday trip to Fantasy Island. To start the trip, they lost our reservations in a server crash last week. Management was good enough to put us up in nearby Pineapple Villas and shuttle us back and forth. We're in a two BR two bath condo with a full kitchen, living area and dining area. Much nicer than a room at FI. We are still waiting to get the rooms that our group reserved. I've heard stories from other visitors about no a/c or no water or no locking doors. I consider myself lucky to be at Pineapple. Carlos, the manager, has been very helpful and considerate of our situation.

The diving has been outstanding. The Dive Manager, Robert, is a unique person, but makes the dive operations run smoothly. Our boat captain, Rocky, and dive master, Henri, have made each dive easy. The boat dives as a group, with Henri watching over all. Henri makes himself easy to spot with unusual headgear and multicolor fins. The reef animals range from green and spotted moray eels to spotted rays to typical reef fish. Mary's Place is a special dive.

I tried to get my son his diving certification while on vacation. It turned out to be a nightmare. The instructor refused to listen to him when he was having problems. He ended up scaring him and I'm afraid he'll not try it again. I don't recommend diving instruction at FI.

It started raining today. Pretty hard for hours. Looking at the runoff, I think our diving is probably done for the week.

 

[billmosel]

RAISE HELL WITH MANAGEMENT!!!!! THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR YOUR SON BEING SCARED OF AN INSTRUCTOR. THE INSTRUCTOR SHOULD BE FIRED FOR BEHAVIOR LIKE THAT!! WE ARE TRYING TO BRING PEOPLE INTO THIS SPORT, NOT SCARING THEM AWAY!!!!
LET ME KNOW HOW THIS TRANSPIRES AS I WILL BE THERE THIS COMING SATURDAY AND I WILL RAISE HELL MYSELF IF THIS DOES NOT GET RESOLVED.

The weather forecast is showers for tomorrow and great for the rest of the week. RAISE HELL and keep your chin up for the rest of your vacation to be better.

 

[Jack Scuba]

Do people still use ALL CAPS on the internet? That was hard on the eyes this early in the morning.

Did you talk to management about your concerns? Without knowing what the problems are it is hard to pass judgment. But it seems to me they should be able to try again with either another instructor, or maybe you could 'sit in' on the instruction and step in if your son is getting overwhelmed. SCUBA training can be overwhelming to a lot of people even if they have previous swimming experience. Sometimes having a family member close by helps. And if the vis isn't that good for the next few days it will be something to do.

All the best and hope you stay stress free while there.

 

[robint]

ditto....... go to the Dive Shop and discuss this with them. There is no way that instructor should get away with frightening a kid.

 

[ncchuck]

I think Henri used to work for me at Paya Bay. He's a great guy and excellent guide. Please tell him Chuck from Paya Bay said hello.

 

[Sloeber]

Not at FIBR presently and not sure which instructor is being discussed, but I'll add my POV from what I saw a few weeks back.

I saw 2 different instructions going on during my week stay. One involved an elderly group (60+ years of age, 4 divers) and they were doing their surface swims in the boat channel. I can't say for sure this was a FI class or not, but I'm not sure who else would be doing classwork in the FI boat channel. In a nutshell, WTH would you train new divers in a boat channel which recieves a large number of boats passing through? Seemed like a very odd and potentially dangerous location for that considering how much room FI has in other bay areas.

The second class was recieving instruction on the gazebo while I was gearing down from an afternoon shore dive. 3 glassy-eyed students and one instructor. I paid them no mind until the instructor asked me to stop talking about our past dive so his students could hear him. At that point I stopped talking and paid attention to his instructions. He had a right to ask me to quiet down, but he neglected to do the same to the other 8 divers on the dock which were banging tanks, discussing dive plans, etc. While I paid attention it was clear the students were having as much a hard time hearing him as I was, plus he spoke with a heavy foreign accent which I had difficulty understanding as well. You could tell it was "going in one ear and out there other" for the students. I left the dock discussing with my father WTF he was doing on the dock giving instructions when they have 2 classrooms that are sitting empty and silent.

 

[r466it]

My wife and I decided that we weren't paying for the training, therefore, we don't have much to complain about. They didn't get any room information up front. If it comes down to it and the charge shows on the bill, I will get management involved. I've decided that I need to find a more kid friendly place to have him certified. My wife was with him during his training as she was supposed to be getting a refresher course. She also had problems where the instructor wouldn't listen to her concerns and decided not to complete the training. Like I said, if it shows up on the bill, we'll confront management at that point. Since our experience, I've seen numerous people training with the same instructor. He's also using the pool, which he didn't do with my son. I think he knows he made a mistake and has corrected it. Part of the problem may be related to language differences.

 

[DandyDon]

Sorry about your problems. FI screwed up my res once and tried to bus me somewhere else but I wanted to stay with my group so I got in the manager's face until he got me a room. It's a good resort but I keep hoping the next management change will fix old problems.

Hope you diving continues well in spite of the rain.

 

[pelagic_by_nature]

I just wanted to say that I did my check out dives at FI a year ago and my instructor was Vincenso (Vinnie) and he was awesome. He was very friendly and enthusiastic. I was very nervous and he really put me at ease. He pointed out lots of tiny critters on the checkout dives and it was a real pleasure doing the dives. Our dives were two from the gazebo: The plane wreck and the PA wreck; and 2 were drop off dives from the skiff right over Newmans wall with a swim back to the gazebo - Great dives. I was totally hooked on diving after those dives
So they're not all bad.
Sorry to hear about your experience.