Nekton Pilot Aug. 29 - Sept. 5 Northwest Bahamas

[Brown Mermaid]

Don't be mad Kpickerell, we were on the Pilot when the engines went out. Kaput!!! Nadda!!! On August 8-15th. We were offered the same deal as you.

 

[tltracy]

Well I finally heard something from Nekton almost a week later AND after I had to threaten getting my attorney involved too, and they came with... "You are only entitled to reschedule your trip with the Benjamin Group. Also you Are getting another trip to reschedule for free less taxes and fees within 5 years." Not even a mention of a refund... just short and sweet basically giving me the bird.

I have seen nothing in letter form sent to my address... just an email. I'm hoping the leader of our group will be receiving these vouchers, so I'll just have to wait and see.

We were told NOTHING about engine problems. Tacky! We were told because of the storms... convenient.

 

[Gtoph]

I just don't understand why people keep booking trips with this 2bit company. The boats are in constant disrepair, the office can't get it's act together, the crew is always "new" for one reason or another.

Just spend the extra money and go with a liveaboard company that has its stuff together and not worry about engine troubles, or trip cancellations at the last minute, or general safety issues.

 

[Doc]

Are getting another trip to reschedule for free less taxes and fees within 5 years." Not even a mention of a refund... just short and sweet basically giving me the bird.

Your group leader booked at a reduced rate, you may have paid full price, but "the value" of your trip was less than standard rate. That's probably why you have to return with the group.

And then they're giving you an additional free trip.

I should be so lucky in life. Sell it on eBay.

I just don't understand why people keep booking trips with this 2bit company.

Not my intention to be or sound mean, I'm just seeing what I'm looking at....

Okay, since you phrased it that way, I went and looked at your pictures in your signature line albums for a second time since you weighed in on this issue. You have amazing skills as a Photographer! Many beautiful above water images, of the Nekton and your other travels. The pictures you have there make the Nekton look pretty darned nice.

But you reference only having been aboard only one other liveaboard? And your underwater images show some very basic pix of sponges, corals, lobsters, lizzardfish, turtles and a shark.

Your opinion in this matter has considerable value as a past customer of the Nekton Fleet, but debatable weighting in a basis for comparison to other boats. looking at your pix- you usually travel in pretty high style! Something not found on liveaboards, at least not in our backyard bathtub, the Mar Caribe.

To compare, let's say to your visit to The Stanley Hotel, you might want to look to a couple of liveaboards in the Maldives and Red Sea- (not the ones in Scuba Diving Magazine) start out in the $3500 range (and up). The Sheraton Tahiti, AKR, White Sands Belize, Cobalt Coast Cayman, Antlers in Estes Pk, Hotel Telluride... you have excellent taste!

The Nekton is/was never presented as a luxury liveabaord. There are dive operations and there are resorts with some diving. In the second category, you will find vacations with some diving at places such as Tahiti, Cozumel, Curacao, Playa del Carmen (well, even that would be a stretch), Cayman and others... all in your photo log. Nice places all, but I'm not seeing "dive resort", I'm seeing "Resort with Diving".

I'm really not picking on you, but you did make this, what I believe to be unsupported, statement.

Nekton has never held itself out to be a luxury cruise. One recent trip with bad engines aside, and disregarding a number of anonymous posts by unpaid ex-employees, you see a lot of good trip reports. You never hear anyone ever rave about the food. Very few complaints, either.

What you do hear? ...Or more directly what you see, is the u/w pictures the guests shoot. Click on this->Photo Contest Winners That tells the story. It tells a lot about who this ship is geared for. Nekton is best savored by people who want 5x dives a day, they want to be stinky wet all week. It is "dive camp", much as all dive resorts used to be in the 1970's. If you want diving, and everything biased towards diving, it fits that niche.

It simply isn't offering the luxury experience that you have savored and documented in all of your superb travel photos.

I will let you know in vivid detail how the ship operates on the 9/27 sailing. My pictures of the ship will be nowhere near as perfect, and I doubt I'll even bother with a UW camera as this is the St Croix itinnerary- I've already seen all of my Lobsters and Sponges.... But I have been on 12 or so Caribbean liveabaords. I'll throw in my critical view after that trip, probably my 20th week on a Caribbean Liveaboard.

 

[Shasta_man]

Your opinion of the Caribbean is well documented.

I don't have the time or interest in tactics you do to research others lives. So WE can value YOUR experience, tell us about your travels to the rest of the world.

 

[Doc]

Your opinion of the Caribbean is well documented.

Your quantity of posts regarding your opinion of the Nekton is also well documented.

As stated above~ most every liveaboard that has ever plied the waters of the Caribbean, some multiple times. Many Caribbean destinations that I just stopped going to in the 90's. There are a few areas left that have not been completely ravaged by the development of Cruise Ship docks or Luxury Resorts. There are about three island (areas) in the Caribbean that remain (for me) in that category that are reasonably accessible- I have a list of 6 or so that are (so far) not served by adequate air schedules.

Yes, I smile when I read others posting who proclaim, "Gee, the diving in Jamaica at Sandals was the bestest ever!". Is that hubris? No, I don't think so. Just an informed opinion.

I don't have the time or interest in tactics you do to research others lives. So WE can value YOUR experience, tell us about your travels to the rest of the world.

It's not a "tactic", it was intended as a well reasoned response to a slap-shot statement that I found questionable, certainly shown by some of the poster's archived imagery. It was the poster who puts their photo links in their signature line inviting us to look... not a lot of research or "tactics" there, was it?

As to my opinion on the rest of the world? That's not the subject here. Click the mouse my friend, it's all well documented and there forever~ on the internet. My pics are on SB and PhotoBucket- the links are right here. Ratchet my worldwide liveaboard count up to about 30 total.

But each of us has our experiences. I'm just saying that Len (Gtoph) might have had unrealistic expectations of this dive-dive-dive kind of boat.

 

[Gtoph]

Okay, since you phrased it that way, I went and looked at your pictures in your signature line albums for a second time since you weighed in on this issue. You have amazing skills as a Photographer!

Thank you, but my wife is actually the photographer in the family.

But you reference only having been aboard only one other liveaboard? And your underwater images show some very basic pix of sponges, corals, lobsters, lizzardfish, turtles and a shark.

Yes, we've done one other liveaboard, a couple months ago in fact... But don't know where you're trying to go with the "basic pictures" comment

Your opinion in this matter has considerable value as a past customer of the Nekton Fleet, but debatable weighting in a basis for comparison to other boats. looking at your pix- you usually travel in pretty high style! Something not found on liveaboards, at least not in our backyard bathtub, the Mar Caribe.

High style? Defiantly not. None of the places we've been to are high style. Some are better than others, but I wouldn't call any of them "high style". That goes for liveaboards as well, some are better than others.... some are "high style" compared to others. From what I've read and seen I would say PH boats are "high style", as far as liveaboards go anyway, but we haven't been on one of them yet.

While I do compare them to the other boat we've been on, my opinion of them could stand just as well on it's own without a comparison.

To compare, let's say to your visit to The Stanley Hotel, you might want to look to a couple of liveaboards in the Maldives and Red Sea- (not the ones in Scuba Diving Magazine) start out in the $3500 range (and up). The Sheraton Tahiti, AKR, White Sands Belize, Cobalt Coast Cayman, Antlers in Estes Pk, Hotel Telluride... you have excellent taste!

The Nekton is/was never presented as a luxury liveabaord. There are dive operations and there are resorts with some diving. In the second category, you will find vacations with some diving at places such as Tahiti, Cozumel, Curacao, Playa del Carmen (well, even that would be a stretch), Cayman and others... all in your photo log. Nice places all, but I'm not seeing "dive resort", I'm seeing "Resort with Diving".

Believe me, the Stanly is like a Motel 6, the only reason we went there was because of the Steven King movie. And I would say we have been to "dive resorts", but this is all irrelevant. You're statements thus far really have absolutely nothing to do with anything I've said. I've never said or claimed Nekton was luxury, and comparing them to land based resorts is off the map.

Nekton has never held itself out to be a luxury cruise. One recent trip with bad engines aside, and disregarding a number of anonymous posts by unpaid ex-employees, you see a lot of good trip reports. You never hear anyone ever rave about the food. Very few complaints, either.

What you do hear? ...Or more directly what you see, is the u/w pictures the guests shoot. Photo Contest Winners That tells the story. It tells a lot about who this ship is geared for. Nekton is best savored by people who want 5x dives a day, they want to be stinky wet all week. It is "dive camp", much as all dive resorts used to be in the 1970's. If you want diving, and everything biased towards diving, it fits that niche.

It simply isn't offering the luxury experience that you have savored and documented in all of your superb travel photos.

You're funny thinking that all we take are luxury trips.

But again, all this is completely irrelevant. U/W pictures don't tell you squat about the company or it's boats. Unless there are safety issues (which Nekton has), diving is diving... the quality of a dive can be good or bad on any boat. It has nothing to do with the actual company. All liveaboards are a "dive camp", you want 5x a day diving, do almost any liveaboard. Its not specific to Nekton, or my original comments.

Outside of us being on one other liveaboard for direct comparison, I fail to see any arguement you've made.

Getting back on track:

-The boats have seen better days (personally I can speak only to the pilot, but there are a lot of posts about both), and don't give me anything about luxury, A/C leaks, carpet pealing and stuff like that are things that should not be an on going issue on any type of boat

-Safety was (and still seems to be) not their first priority... We had no briefing, no mention of anything safety related... the crew did (and apparently still does) a lot of screwing around and one even died on our trip.

Other stuff that just plain isn't worth mentioning anymore and can be found in older posts..... put that together with the recent stories of engines going out, nitrox not working for months on end, drug issues, employees not getting paid, last minute cancelations, management not responding (which we've experienced as well), etc. etc. etc.... then ya, I stand by my comment of it being a poorly run operation. I'll give you that it has potential, but the company needs a complete overhaul.

In comparison to the other liveaboard we were on, it was like being on a different planet. I would by no means call the CEXII a luxury boat, and I don't want that or expect it. But the crew is professional, the boat works, and the office actually responds and calls you back to take care of you. It doesn't matter that it's the only other one we've been on, if it was crap, believe me I would have called it crap. Fortunately, it wasn't and I would definitely recommend them.

To further the point, look at the posts in this section. I have never seen any mention of drugs, or non-working engines or pay check problems or entire crews walking out, or anything else that wasn't promptly resolved for any other liveaboard operation! Heck even blackbeard which is cheaper than Nekton doesn't have any major issues posted on here.

Of course there will be people that have a great time and are indecent free, and on the same token there will be complaints about other boats as well, I'm not arguing that. But from our personal experience and other postings on here, (most of which I would say are credible) there are consistent, ongoing issues with Nekton that you just don't see with any other operation.

Obviously you love Nekton, and I won't change your mind, and that's ok, but don't let your love of them blind you to some serious issues that are going on there.

 

[Doc]

Thank you, but my wife is actually the photographer in the family.

Well she sure has the touch! I appreciate and respect your well reasoned response.

 

[Gtoph]

But each of us has our experiences. I'm just saying that Len (Gtoph) might have had unrealistic expectations of this dive-dive-dive kind of boat.

Nope not at all, I knew what I was getting myself into by reading trip reports on here and doing other research.

And I still don't know why you think Nekton is the only "dive-dive-dive" kind of boat, or why it's relevant to the issues at hand.

 

[H2O Gal]

I went on the Nekton trip after having read all the trip reports, both good and bad so I think I went in with my eyes wide open and knew what to look for as being a possible problem. I had a hard time finding major fault with this company. Yes, we had problems with the Nitrox, but they got it working after the first three days, and then they gave us a refund over over 50% of the cost even though we used it more than for 50% of the dives. Yes, the boat broke down the week before our trip causing us to miss our trip, but not only did they put us on the very next cruise out, they are giving us an additional trip to use within the next three years. I felt they met their obligation to us when we got to go out the next week, but for them to throw in an additional trip more than made the minor inconveniences of having to reschedule and shows their willingness to keep customers happy. As far as safety, I saw nothing that looked unsafe, and we had very informative dive briefings for each dive we did, and yes, some of the crew was young, but very enthusiastic about their jobs even though I know it must have been frustrating for them to watch us dive all day while they hardly ever got to get wet.
I know I have limited experience with live-aboard boats, but I was very satisfied with the diving, the boat and the crew of my Cay Sal banks trip on the Nekton and look forward to diving with them in the future. They are a great choice for people like me that are diving with limited funds and want a great value for their diving dollars.