Nekton (Bad News)

[kpickerell]

Got my liquidation letter, but only because one of my group on the cancelled May 15 trip sent it to me. The Nekton folks didn't send me anything. If anyone needs the legal info and form, I'll be happy to forward if you send me a PM with your e-mail info.

 

[H2O Gal]

My trip was supposed to be last week, and since we had the airfare already to Ft Lauderdale we went ahead and flew there and hopped on a plane to Nassau--thank God we went with Jet Blue and not Spirit! We never ONCE got an e-mail or call from Nekton about them going out of business....I wonder if there was anyone on any of these trips that doesn't follow Scuba Board and showed up and called for their pick-up and wondered why they couldn't get hold on anyone???

 

[donhealy]

Boy I hope everyone knows.What a disaster that would be. I would hope everyone at least uses internet and would check on the Nekton web site just to dream about the upcoming vacation.

Still can't believe Nekton did not reach out to all of the paid guests. You should be getting your letter from the lawyer this week. Mine arrived Sat.

I called EV and they can't do anything about the trip I took on the 15th since Nekton didn't notify until the 17th, but are allowing me the 50% discount on my next trip. That will be the T&C II next year.

Who did you dive with on Nassau?

 

[Tom725]

Hey,

Just got my letter from Nekton's liquidation lawyer. Has anyone else got one yet?

Don

We received one as well yesterday.

 

[H2O Gal]

Who did you dive with on Nassau?

We dove with Stuart Cove's--they are a pretty good dive op only 10 minutes from the hotel we stay at--this is our fourth time diving with them. They aren't perfect, but the dive sites are consistently pretty good, and some of the dives are VERY good--there is one wreck called the Ray of Hope that we had numerous circling reef sharks the minute we hit the water, and a two foot grouper that swims up so close to beg for food that you can't take a picture of him unless you back up. There was a two foot lobster taking a stroll, and watching the "little" groupers (over one foot long) trying to catch a snack of the schools of silversides was a hoot. And all this was just on the wheelhouse--I spent my 45 min dive without leaving the wheelhouse, there was that much to see!

Here's a question for y'all-if you take one of the more than generous offers from the other dive ops, or get your money back from a trip insurance company, are you still entitled to a refund from Nekton? I did neither since they only have my taxes, port and Nitrox fees for my "free" trip so there wasn't much to apply to another liveaboard and I didn't get insurance...I'm not out as much as many people but I'd sure like it back.

 

[deepstops]

Nekton already had their "target customer". Their customers were prob the most loyal in the liveaboard business. There are some folks who have been on 20 plus cruises.

They still preached how great Nekton was, even after staying in musty rooms and not having Nitrox and canceled trips.

Yet, Nekton still ef'd it up....

I even coined a term for them: Nektoids

 

[donhealy]

EV is applying the cabin cost at 50%. They are not including taxes etc... But still that's about $950 bucks.

 

[Tom725]

Well I read through all 39 pages.

Cappy Jon, I understand your pain. I feel like I lost a friend with the demise of the Nekton boats.

As stated above we received the letter from the lawyer. Interesting that it does not say bankruptcy but assignment of assets. Is that a Florida term for bankruptcy???

I have been on six Nekton trips and my wife on 5 including a Belize trip where Cappy Jon was the first mate to Efy, a spectacular Mona Island trip, St Croix, Bahamas and 2 treturn trips to Belize. We were booked for August and I did buy trip insurance through DAN.

On a previous trip where we were fogged into O'Hare airport we received were compensated for a night in Houston, a water taxi to catch up with the boat which left Saturday evening when we arrived on Sunday morning ($400 per person and their were 4 of us,) AND 1/7TH of the trip because we missed a day. They were wonderful. It will be interesting to wsee how this works out.

I am surprised at the actions of some of the employees who I talked with regularly and then who just disapeared without so much as an email.

I had just sent in my final check for August when a friend told me about the current problem. I was able to stop payment on the check but someone returned the check uncashed a few days later. Just for the record this check was returned before the asignment of assets was recorded.

When I contacted the insurance company on June 4 they told me they were not aware of the Nekton going out of business??? They are processing the claim now. The lady on the phone did tell me that a failure of the travel venue is normally covered.

I hope somone finds a way to put these boats back into the dive industry as something other than as an artificial reef.

 

[mike_s]

As stated above we received the letter from the lawyer. Interesting that it does not say bankruptcy but assignment of assets. Is that a Florida term for bankruptcy???

I'm not trying to "split hairs", but I don't know if Nekton has actually stated it's going into "Bankruptcy". Perhaps we have used the term in this thread as a "general term" referring to them going out of Business.

Looking on Nekton's website, this is how they have "termed" the current state of their closing business operations:

It is with a heavy heart and deep regret that we must announce the cessation of operations for Nekton Diving Cruises. Due to the continually increasing cost of operations, decreased discretionary income of consumers, and overall economic difficulty, Nekton is unable to restart cruise operations at this time

 

[Scott L]

As stated above we received the letter from the lawyer. Interesting that it does not say bankruptcy but assignment of assets. Is that a Florida term for bankruptcy???

I am not an attorney but my guess is they have been in communication with the state in order to avoid a personal probe of the owner who apparently has considerable assets as mentioned earlier.