Liveaboard nightdives question.

[Dan]

Went on about 13 liveaboards in Raja Ampat, Komodo, GBR, Galapagos, Palau, Cocos, Socorro, Maldives and 8 campaboards in Flower Gardens. All of the night dives were done before dinner.

The night dives have been very good. I only missed 1 night dive due to not feeling well / lack of sleep after rough ride the site on the night before.

 

[Damselfish]

Don't forget the boat has it set up so they can accomodate their crew with dinner, rest, maintenance, etc and possibly moving the boat to another site. Also, a lot of them talk about their typical daily schedule on their web site and some other passengers may like the opposite way better but do not want to get into a quarrel over it. A few years ago, I was on a boat where the majority wanted to do a "jungle" tour looking for monkeys instead of a dive. I was not at all happy about it because I had no interest in it. When it started up that they also wanted to look for an alligator instead of another dive, I had to get mouthy and things got unpleasant but I was not up for losing another dive to unadvertised nonsense.

I go along with the previous posts that say go with the flow of the boat- they know the area- they have had experience with all this stuff before and they are very busy. Let them do what they need to do. It is not a democracy..the Captain is in charge

yes, mostly you need/want to go with the flow. Of course the boat itineraries probably always say they can change whatever due to whatever, and hopefully on a good boat they are doing things that make sense but keep guests happy. Sometimes it might be appropriate to suggest something different but you just have to use common sense too.

For something minor like night dive before or after dinner, sometimes they'll even throw it out there when suggested and it is a democracy. For something major like jungle tour instead of planned diving, if one prevents the other I've seen it has to be unanimous. Two that come to mind are "should we dive the Blue Hole or skip it?" and "should we do the 3rd dive of this 3-tank trip, or keep jumping in the water to snorkel with the pilot whales?" (Blue Hole lost, whales won.)

 

[Ministryofgiraffes]

The itineraries can change, the Belize 3 did when we asked them to, everyone did night dives, everyone said they preferred dinner after.

I should add that they didn’t change it on my suggestion. It was 2 other divers who requested.

 

[Ayisha]

I've seen it both ways on liveaboards, but definitely prefer the night dive before dinner. One liveaboard asked for a vote, and the consensus was night dive, then dinner.

...If I were on a boat that scheduled the night dive after dinner, being a cynical person, I might get the impression the boat wouldn't be displeased if fewer people chose to do the night dive...

...I suspect that is a potential strategy to reduce the number of nightdivers anyway...

Interesting that you both had the same thought. A few of us were thinking recently that a strategy for dinner before the night dive was to reduce alcohol costs. If people who are diving can't drink with dinner or after dinner and have to wait until later after the night dive to have their first drink, that could be a lot of potential missed drinks. But maybe the cost of domestic beer and wine is low enough that it doesn't impact them?

 

[chillyinCanada]

I've seen it both ways on liveaboards, but definitely prefer the night dive before dinner. One liveaboard asked for a vote, and the consensus was night dive, then dinner.





Interesting that you both had the same thought. A few of us were thinking recently that a strategy for dinner before the night dive was to reduce alcohol costs. If people who are diving can't drink with dinner or after dinner and have to wait until later after the night dive to have their first drink, that could be a lot of potential missed drinks. But maybe the cost of domestic beer and wine is low enough that it doesn't impact them?

Perhaps that's just in the Caribbean or certain other locales because most of the liveaboard diving that I do doesn't have free alcohol, in any event.

 

[Janie88]

Every liveaboard we've done (only about 5 so far, most on Aggressor and 1 Explorer Ventures) have the night dive AFTER dinner. I agree with the person who posted this topic - I prefer to dive and then have dinner. My husband and I don't drink, but it's nice to have the night dive before dinner.

We asked and had one night dive before dinner, at dusk. The issue I had was that it was still fairly light, and not as much "nightlife" - also I found the dusk lighting to be hard - not dark enough for the light to work well, and a little too dark to see as well in natural lighting if that makes sense?

The other point someone made to me is that having dinner after the dive puts more work on the crew later in the evening, although not sure that's a big deal to them or not.

Overall, I would rather have dinner later. An earlier night dive is preferred assuming we can go when it's at least dark enough to need a light lol

 

[dsfw62]

This schedule works well in the winter, but in the summer it might not be truly dark before 8:30 or even 9pm which then put dinner at almost 10.

 

[Ministryofgiraffes]

This schedule works well in the winter, but in the summer it might not be truly dark before 8:30 or even 9pm which then put dinner at almost 10.

This is a good point...

 

[Michael Jastrzebski]

This is a good point...

No, actually it is a totally fallacious point ...
Maldives are very close to the equator and the closer you are to the equator the less difference there is between times of sunsets.
In fact the sunset in the Maldives in the summer will be close to 6:15 pm and this will change little throughout the year.

 

[mafi]

No, actually it is a totally fallacious point ...
Maldives are very close to the equator and the closer you are to the equator the less difference there is between times of sunsets.
In fact the sunset in the Maldives in the summer will be close to 6:15 pm and this will change little throughout the year.

It's great point - it just really depends on where you are diving. I was under the impression that we are discussing generally, not one specific location.