Palau April/May

[Otter]

but didn't renew this year. I found that I could get as much info on here, rec.scuba, Rodale's AND could interact with the actual people who went.

I agree, dropping $5K and 23 hrs flying to have lousy time would be a bummer. Seems like the Aggressor is much more of a known quantity....

Damir's (Mars2U) web page has an interesting story on Palau at http://www.damirs.com/Palau.html. I am not sure which way he would vote on the BBE.

Otter

 

[deepstops]

Otter once bubbled...
but didn't renew this year. I found that I could get as much info on here, rec.scuba, Rodale's AND could interact with the actual people who went.

I agree, dropping $5K and 23 hrs flying to have lousy time would be a bummer. Seems like the Aggressor is much more of a known quantity....

Damir's (Mars2U) web page has an interesting story on Palau at http://www.damirs.com/Palau.html. I am not sure which way he would vote on the BBE.

Otter

Much agreed about the content of this board! Reading Damir's report leads me to believe he liked the crew of BBE but then I have to ask myself if the BBE trying go out in that weather was a good idea in the first place. By the time they returned to port, all the other boats were already back. But I guess someone always has to be the last one back in.

 

[Otter]

and he did in fact highly recommend the boat and the crew. You bring up a good point about whether they should / should not have gone out....I dunno the specifics, so its hard for me to say.

A friend from SC went there and was offered a last minute deal on BBE and said it was the worst liveaboard he's been on, even at half price.

What was your friend's complaint about the BBE?

Otter

 

[deepstops]

Otter once bubbled...
and he did in fact highly recommend the boat and the crew. You bring up a good point about whether they should / should not have gone out....I dunno the specifics, so its hard for me to say.

What was your friend's complaint about the BBE?

Otter

None of the other passengers spoke English (they didn't tell him prior) so he was basically still "alone" and they were mostly new divers with poor skills so therefore he didn't have an opportunity to dive some of the more challenging (and better) dives. The crew realized they weren't capable and restricted the diving. He had orginally planned to do land based diving and got this offered as a last minute deal. He ended up staying longer and spending more money in the long run to do the dives he wanted.

 

[Otter]

Well I certainly could understand why he had a bad time, just not sure I would have held BBE responsible. Having not gone on a live-aboard, one of my fears has always been stuck on a boat without anyone speaking English and where the divers were of significantly worse diving levels. Our solution at this point is to get a big group of us together and hece looking at the BBE, PHD, or Aggressor.

Thanks

Otter