Problem guests on a liveaboard

[Darnold9999]

So far 6 liveaboards and only a couple of obnoxious people that were anything more than annoying and nobody that made a holiday a problem. By far the majority were very interesting people I have enjoyed talking to and hearing their life story. If I were the make lots of friends type I could easily see that diving a liveaboard would be a good way of meeting all sorts of new and interesting people.

If a really really obnoxious person is on board I will simply ignore them. Most people can't do that as they find it difficult to be that obviously rude. However that doesn't seem to be an issue for me. I do like the trying to find the entertainment value solution as well. At least one of the mildly obnoxious people on one liveaboard was the source of many jokes.

Hopefully none of the liveaboards I was on had me as the really really obnoxious person and I am just not noticing!

 

[cappyjon431]

I worked on a liveaboard for over eight years (and in their office for two), encountered thousands of guests, and I can count on one hand the number of truly obnoxious guests. One that comes to mind was a rather large man who came into the salon naked and exclaimed at the top of his lungs "if that F%&%$#@ engineer doesn't fix my $%$& ¬€$·% air conditioner, I'm going to kick his $%&!)." It turns out this guy was a homophobic racist, so when he booked with us again, I had him room with a buddy of mine, a very muscular homosexual African American. He was quiet as a mouse the entire trip. He never booked with us again.

 

[altaskier]

It turns out this guy was a homophobic racist, so when he booked with us again, I had him room with a buddy of mine, a very muscular homosexual African American. He was quiet as a mouse the entire trip. He never booked with us again.

Briliant!

 

[cruiser]

It turns out this guy was a homophobic racist, so when he booked with us again, I had him room with a buddy of mine, a very muscular homosexual African American. He was quiet as a mouse the entire trip. He never booked with us again.

And I image he didn't run around nekkid, either !

 

[NudeDiver]

We have not been on a liveaboard for almost eight years, because of the bad experience we had with a few guests who made our ten day "trip of a lifetime" very miserable. There was one retired couple who complained about absolutely everything and spent all their time on the trip trying to convince the other guests that they too should be complaining. Then there was the diving diva with only the very best diving equipment, who knew more about diving than the divemasters and everyone else on board because she only dove the exclusive sites worldwide. Between the retired complainers and the best diver in the world, it was not a good trip for all the others on the liveaboard. The staff could see the friction and told us they sympathized with us, but did not want to say anything to the three offending guests.

Hmm...well:

a). Why not just avoid them? Every liveaboard I've been on had room for me to get up and leave any conversation I was not interested in.

b). Why didn't you belittle these people in front of everyone, and get them to shut up? You know, something like, "Wow - it must be wonderful to have top of the line equipment and dive all the best sites in the world. What makes you want to go on a trip with people like us - you know, the losers of the diving world? Please describe in detail why you would ever want to be seen with us - after all, you have such wonderful diving skills and have seen it all and done it all. Really, what is left for you to do?" Or perhaps, "You know, you two really seem to complain a lot. Do you do this on every trip? It must be awful to have such experiences. But from what I can tell, everyone else is having a great time and we would just LOVE IT if you would keep your complaints to yourself. Alternatively, you can give all your complaints to our resident expert here, while she tells you all about how she knows it all and has done it all? You three would make a wonderful buddy team."

You'd be amazed at how well these techniques could work. Hell, you might even collect cash tips from other passengers AND the crew.

 

[Grover48]

Tell them,

"The skipper has a customer service representative who handles complaints like yours. Her name is Helen Waite. If you have any more complaints, just go to Helen Waite."

 

[Shasta_man]

Yes, it is possible to have people like that. Yes, they do exist. I'd say it's more unusual to have a complete group that gets along completely than a group that has someone who has problems with tolerance. That's really the problem. Interestingly, people can fly thousands of miles to some place but have no tolerance for the people or the place or the food. Contradictory in my mind. Tolerance doesn't mean agreement, just accepting a difference and moving on. Going somewhere else far away is the quickest way to find out there is more than one way of doing things.

However, what you have to do is focus your experience on connection with the place and those experiences and your reason for coming, not the experiences that develop with the other guests and their handling of the situation. They'll always be different opinions which make the world go round, so you have to focus on yours and tolerate others. That doesn't mean disconnecting from everyone but dealing with basic courtesy with others, until they become directly offensive to you, at which point you merely go the other way either literally or just figuratively. Just like you can't base your likes or dislikes on others opinions, you can't base your experience on how everyone is getting along.

The problem isn't with what their concern is, but with how they handle it. I want to see the facts as they are. You recognize there is an issue but then you either fix it or deal. I see something is a problem and that's the facts, I say it sucks, but then I move on. Saying everything is great is overboard in the other direction and just as bad to me as the complainer because it's a lie. That's not helpful to me either. I can't tell where the reality ends and the BS begins, so I don't believe in that philosophy either. Different people have different tolerances so I'd rather hear the facts and decide if it's worth dealing with rather than having that decision made for me.

 

[Mountain Dog]

Mostly, the liveaboard experience is a lot of fun.

The thing that irritates me is when you're out there for a week with bad divers. I encountered one guy who believed that everything underwater existed for him to get his pictures. He had no problem grabbing the reef with one hand to get his picture...pulling the eel or lobster out of its hole...grabbing the turtle and holding on just for fun...or silting up the viz for everyone else to get his shot. He even pulled a seahorse loose from its perch to get a picture. Yes he was chewed out by the Captain, twice. But he loudly made it clear that he didn't care what anyone thought. He was paying good money for his trip, and he was going to do anything he pleased. It is truly a spirit killer when you know that a guy like this is going to be down with your group on every dive all week long.

Topside, of course he believed that his were the greatest photos ever taken, and expected everyone to bow to his majestic skills. Listening to his self-bestowed kudos is the only time I have ever felt nauseous on a boat.

Mountain Dog

 

[Shasta_man]

Completely agreed Mountain Dog!

Amazing how even seemingly very experienced people abuse the animals and/or won't share the sights.

 

[TravisD]

Make it a game -- try to spot each time when the crew and other guests get their digs in at the annoying people. Play along...