Morehead trip questions

[Zieg]

Whenever I visited the area I would fly into Jacksonville.

 

[drrich2]

Zieg:

Which airport (like 3 digit code?) is that? I did a search and at a website called TravelMath came up with these 2 domestic airports somewhat near Morehead:

33 miles: New Bern, NC (EWN / KEWN) Coastal Carolina Regional Airport
58 miles: Richlands, NC (OAJ / KOAJ) Albert J. Ellis Airport

Jacksonville didn't come up, but both of these are somewhat near Jacksonville.

Richard.

 

[lv2dive]

EWN is the closest airport with regular commercial flights - at least that was true as of last year - knowledge due to fact my parents were living in Morehead City (aka MHC) until recent move to FL.

 

[Steve_C]

There are no rules, but generally flying to a minor airport is much more expensive than flying to a larger one and you have several tickets. Of the airports RDU (Raleigh) is the only one with several carriers and hundreds of flights. You have to pass off having bigger planes and cheaper flights vs renting a car (which you need anyway) and a 3.3 hr car ride.

 

[Zieg]

It's Ellis. Kinda out in the sticks, but I think bigger than the one in New Bern. Ellis serves Camp Lejeune.

In truth I haven't even seen the New Bern airport since I was a child. I grew up in Swansboro and until recently had family there so I always flew to Jacksonville (Ellis).

 

[lv2dive]

I would regularly find flights - with enough notice - between Atlanta and New Bern, for around $300. I recently bought my mother a ticket from Jacksonville FL to New Bern for maybe $325. The prices climb dramatically as the lower-priced seats get sold, however, and since there are less flights than say, to RDU, that occurs more quickly.

For me, time is money. I take into consideration a 45 minute drive plus the ease a tiny airport that is crazy simple to get in and out of, and compare that to RDU with needing to plan for over 3 hours travel plus traffic plus dealing with an "international" airport... I did the Raleigh thing once (in 15 years) to save $150 and it was a mistake I did not make twice!

For whatever reason I always had terrible luck flying in and out of Jacksonville and just gave up on it. Flight delays, cancellations, and other events seemed to conspire against me, I could not ever seem to make it home on time. So I was back to tried and true new bern.

The one reason I'd consider flying into Raleigh is if it were a direct flight and new bern a connection with a long layover.

Just one person's opinion.

 

[Tortuga James]

Thanks, guys. Our little toddler is 22 months old now, so she should be 2 1/2 years I guess come August.


So I enjoy Tortuga James' postings and his website, and his op. appears well-regarded by others. But that little bit of extra uncertainty/hassle was off-putting, and I'd already heard of Olympus Dive Center 1st.

As a single diver looking for 5 straight days, you can't go wrong with Olympus or Discovery. While I have been moving towards more and more "open seating" days, I still tend to cater to shops and groups who charter the whole boat. Thanks for your kind comments. But I think you may have prompted me into some website updates to better reflect the way are doing things now.

 

[uncfnp]

As a single diver looking for 5 straight days, you can't go wrong with Olympus or Discovery...

Would it be better to plan all the dives with the same charter or split the days with different charters to get a wider variety of dive sites? I have found that with some boats (not specific to NC), on multiple day dives, I tend to see the same dive sites from the same charters. Other boats will purposefully try and avoid that with repeat customers.

 

[Tortuga James]

Would it be better to plan all the dives with the same charter or split the days with different charters to get a wider variety of dive sites? I have found that with some boats (not specific to NC), on multiple day dives, I tend to see the same dive sites from the same charters. Other boats will purposefully try and avoid that with repeat customers.

If you are part of a large group on one of the crew boats for multiple days, all the boats will make an effort to visit different spots everyday. If you are a single walk on, you are going to be at the mercy of the larger groups. I don't think splitting up your time between operators is going to improve your chances of site diversity. We all talk, share conditions information and decide where we are going based on what everyone else is doing. I typically try to stay away from where the crew boats are on any given day. It defeats the purpose of diving on a 6 pack if you are still going to be on the wreck with 24 other divers.