Pre Nekton Pilot Cruise advice? What to do week before?

[www.freedomfilm.com]

Hi Everyone.

We are planning a trip from Vancouver to Belize for 2 weeks in late January.
We have done alot of travelling, and are thinking about "saving the best for last" by spending 5-7 days "hanging out" in Belize before heading out for our cruise aboard the Nekton, depending on our flights. Doing some warm up dives, and enjoying the beach at a resort for a while before our cruise...

Here is where I could use your help:

1) Before our cruise where should we dive/avoid based on our Nekton Pilot itinerary? Since we will be diving on the cruise (alot) is there something/somewhere else in Belize we should explore. We dont want to do the dive multiple times... Unless they are amazing.

2) Ambergris: We were thinking of spending a week here before our cruise. Where to stay, who to dive with, or should we concider somewhere else concidering our cruise.

3) Tours - Any tours or trips we should do for sure while there? We wouldnt mind some jungle trips, special dive trips, or ruins... Tikal? What should we avoid. I used to be a tour guide, and we produce travel TV show, so often we make very good connections.

4) Weather: I know I can look it up, but you will probably have better advice for late Jan early Feb... Pack light, bring rain gear, bugs, 3mm wetsuit or 11mm drysuit haha..."

5) Nekton Experiences: Anything special we should request? Rooms? Crew? Meals? Gear? I dunno.. You tell me...

6) Food and Drink? Any great meals, bars, restaurants, to check out? We love to explore.

Anything else I am missing? We have travelled all over the world professionally (but not diving) and live in the Pacific Northwest making films and TV shows.. So let me know if we can return the favor/advice/suggestions.

Thanks in advance!

 

[DPJ]

I spent a week in Belize. Enjoyed the trip to the zoo. Did a trip to the mountains and saw some great waterfalls. Did not make it to Tikal but went to Xunantunich. All were great items to do while you are there.

 

[www.freedomfilm.com]

Thanks for the tips. Ill put them on the list.
You stayed in Belize City? Did some diving as well?

 

[diversteve]

5) Nekton Experiences: Anything special we should request? Rooms? Crew? Meals? Gear? I dunno.. You tell me...

Room selection is something to consider. You can request one now.

Options: If you stay upstairs on the lounge deck, you might be annoyed by people walking on the sundeck at night while you're trying to sleep. It's a steel roofed boat so it's loud, especially if someone is running or drags a chair across the deck. Also you're down the hall but still on the galley/lounge level so if some in your group are loud, that might be an issue. On our trip, everybody was asleep by about 10PM - except me, I never sleep.

Our downstairs rooms had an a/c condensation drip problem last summer that was annoying, everything was slightly damp all week from water dripping off the ceiling. Although according to the Nekton website, they finally fixed it this year in drydock. We stayed downstairs in #10(I think) it was quiet at night, and I'm a really light sleeper. We about froze in our room(by choice), upstairs the galley/lounge gets really warm when Arminda's cooking with the afternoon sun coming in the windows around dinner. I don't know if that's the case in the rooms on that deck however.

Take an extension cord if you have chargers that you want to keep in your room. The electric plug is on the farside of the sink. and the most convenient place to store them is probably the windowsill, it's probably 10' away if you route it under the bed. There's only a tiny shelf over the sink. Otherwise there's a bunch of outlets scattered all around the galley/lounge. I just left my laptop plugged in up there.

If you're going to participate in the photo contest bring a USB flashdrive for the transfer to their computer. They had a couple of cheap multi-card readers but they didn't work reliably, we burned our photos to CD to transfer them to their computer for judging.

If you need any odd batteries like for your computer, bring one. Nekton has the standard size batteries onboard and some odd ones that people have donated. They're in a basket on the bookshelf that houses all the videos. My buddy's computer died the second day, fortunately one of the photogs had a spare.

btw, if Doc's on your boat, he really is one. He helped my buddy with a reverse block. Capt. Ephy's cool, hang out with him in the pilothouse if you get a chance, he tells some great stories. Ask him about the HH that visited them during the shark feed. We never dove with any of the crew, but if I did it would've been Matt or Mikey.

As soon as you see someone with a cookie, make tracks for the galley...Otherwise the food is great and there's a lot of it. If you drink, you'll stop for alcohol pre-boarding, they don't supply it, but have a big cooler on deck for it.

Tip big, the crew works hard for it, even after diving all day. I don't think they're paid much. You can charge it if you don't have a lot of cash when you settle up Thursday.

 

[www.freedomfilm.com]

Thanks for the info. Love getting great info like that.

Keep the good tips coming gang.

 

[DPJ]

Thanks for the tips. Ill put them on the list.
You stayed in Belize City? Did some diving as well?

We stayed in Belize City and did a few dive trips. It is a long boat ride from the city to the reef. If you want to dive, stay on one of the islands, or split the week before to make the shore excursions easier.

 

[Footslogger]

Tours ...I'd strongly suggest the ruins at Altun Ha and the Belize City Zoo. Both are a ways out of town so plan at least a half day for each.

Cabins ...I've done 5 Nekton cruises and two of them were in Belize. I would suggest to you that the upper level cabins are best OVERALL. Yes, you can hear people walking above you on the sun deck ...but generally NOT when you're sleeping at night. The upper level cabins have nice windows overlooking the pool (ocean).

Enjoy your trip,

'Slogger

 

[www.freedomfilm.com]

Hmm... thats two votes for the zoo....

Thanks for the advice.

Ok folks:

What about what hotel to stay at before our liveaboard? What dive co to use?

Great Bars or Places to eat?

Anyone done Nekton? To maximize our trip where else should we dive at from shore?

3mm good enought for belize in jan?

 

[Footslogger]

Hmm... thats two votes for the zoo....

Thanks for the advice.

Ok folks:

What about what hotel to stay at before our liveaboard? What dive co to use?

We've always stayed at the Princess Hotel. It has a bar and a couple different restuarants.

3mm good enought for belize in jan?

Should be ...unless you tend to chill easily. Our trips were both in February and we dove 3/2's with hooded vests. Might want to take something like a hooded vest for added torso warmth.

'Slogger

 

[www.freedomfilm.com]

Is that the nekton recommended place? We are going for an extra week so we are trying to decide on where to stay on Ambergris I think. But I just dont want to end up doing the same dives from there as on the Nekton.