Recommendation for liveaboard in Turks or Belize?

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Janie1229

Registered
Messages
17
Reaction score
3
Location
Westerville OH
# of dives
100 - 199
Hi,
My husband and I were seriously considering the Carib Dancer for this spring, but after reading emails about all the problems on recent trips AND especially the response from the owners, I have no desire to book this itinerary/boat.

I'm looking for recommendations on a liveaboard in Turks or Belize. Also, which do you feel is better diving?

We are experienced divers, but only recently went on our first liveaboard (Explorer Ventures in St. Kitts/Saba) and fell in love with this type of dive trip. Trying not to break the bank, so Maldives, Cocos Island, Galapogas are out for now.

Thanks!
Janie
 
Hi,
My husband and I were seriously considering the Carib Dancer for this spring, but after reading emails about all the problems on recent trips AND especially the response from the owners, I have no desire to book this itinerary/boat.

I'm looking for recommendations on a liveaboard in Turks or Belize. Also, which do you feel is better diving?

We are experienced divers, but only recently went on our first liveaboard (Explorer Ventures in St. Kitts/Saba) and fell in love with this type of dive trip. Trying not to break the bank, so Maldives, Cocos Island, Galapogas are out for now.

Thanks!
Janie

Hi Janie -

Thanks again for joining us back in April!

Our other Caribbean vessel, Turks & Caicos Explorer II, is based in Provo (Turks & Caicos) - you'll find plenty of trip reports online here, and can visit www.explorerventures.com for more info about the boat and itinerary. I can't really compare with Belize, since we've never had a boat there, but Carib Dancer has 2 sister ships there. I'm sure others with chime in with some great info.

Best,

- Clay
 
We were on T/C Explorer II last year. It's a great trip, especially for larger stuff. Especially off West Caicos and French Cay. FC might have been the best diving I've done in the last 5 years and I've been to most of the highly rated Carib locations. Every dive were sharks, turtles, barracuda, so many stingrays it was boring, basketball sized lionfish, :depressed: larger grouper and since the boat moors on a shallow plateau near the wall most dives, it was even interesting around all the coral heads/fish nurseries just under the boat. We had a macro photographer on board and I often saw his legs sticking out from under one. He got some amazing shots of stuff I've never seen before (of course the dual housed Canon DSLR's slightly helped..) One night baitfish were attracted by the ships lights with bigger pelagics (jacks?) feeding on them. Near the end of the dive 4-5 sharks started feeding on them - at the other end of the boat.

A really good idea of what to expect - thanks to Mike Southard: Saudio's Trip Reports

The boat is big, it has a third deck behind the fly-bridge - covered with benches - they stock drinks up there also since it's two flights of stairs from the main deck. Larger (than other liveaboards we've done) rooms with real beds and windows - no bunks except in the 4? lower deck cabins - ours had enough space for a 4' square desk (inside camera table...lol). Even the bathrooms were good sized just the shower was a little short. Food was good as is typical and the crew was very accommodating. They also vent the compressor air up thru the wetsuit hanging area - since I dive in a t-shirt my stuff was often dry after lunch.

One interesting feature is the boat swings on the mooring a lot. They'll warn you about it but until you've watched the ladder go by once or twice you don't get the concept of how fast it does. Just drop back down and watch for the shadow, it'll come by again in a few minutes. Trying to catch it is futile as I learned the hard way. Also it's swinging nearer and farther to the wall when you're waiting to jump - time it wrong and it's a much longer swim. I learned after a few days to wait till the DM said go.

If there was one downside, I would have preferred to skip the NW Point (Provo) diving since the other locations were so much better. It wasn't bad diving but we didn't really see a lot until we moved to West Caicos. The walls are just coral encrusted deeper than you can dive. And it's really clear blue water - like the Bahamas or Cayman - the kind where you strain to see 200' into the blue. We don't normally repeat destinations but I'd do T/C again. I think it's better than any Cayman or Bahamas diving I've done.

We also took advantage of one of their specials (in May) and saved $400pp. Allowed us to get a better room on the main deck than we'd planned. If you go be sure to ask Stan the chef if he's dove yet...something like 20+ years and he never has. Oh, and the airport really sucks. There's free wi-fi in the restaurant but the main seating area is large, crowded and it seemed like they boarded all the flights within an hour of each other starting around noon. Thru 4 gates 20' apart. So listen carefully for yours.
 
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Our first and only trip on a live aboard was a few months ago on the Belize Aggressor III and it was great I don't know what they could have done to make it better and would not think twice about doing it again. It is a 2 1/2 hr flight from DFW they pick you up at the airport and in less than 30 minutes you are at the dock.
 
Hi Clay,
I have to admit that I am very biased in favor of Explorer Ventures now after our trip in April. It will be very difficult for another liveaboard to "live" up to the experience we had on the CEXII :) I had absolutely no complaints and only praise for the crew, food, accommodations and the experience in general. It was the best vacation I've ever had and much of it had to do with the crew. Thank you for ensuring such quality staff and keeping your boats in good shape.

Now, can you please add more itineraries, like Belize??
 
My wife and I have done both the TC & Belize Aggressor boats. Both boats were absolutely awesome. The TC Aggressor was recently redone and is immaculate inside and out. The crew is also just darn great. The belize Aggressor is a bit older but in great shape and also has a wonderful crew on board. Although I enjoyed the diving in Belize I would have to agree with a Diversteve's statement above. TC was some of the BEST diving I have seen. LArge everything, tons of sharks, stingrays, lionfish -- we actually "pet" a HUGE grouper that followed us around a shallow part of one reef. It is great diving you would not be dissappointed. I would reccomend the TC Aggressor -- but its up to you. You have a tough choice ahead.

Have fun

---------- Post Merged at 08:14 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 08:11 PM ----------

Sorry for the random second post - I had one more comment. I also was looking at the Carib Dancer (run by Aggressor) for next Summer as I have a wedding in Jamiaca I was going to parlay into a dive trip. Even though I am partial to the Aggressor Boats. I also looked elsewhere for that location after hearing the negatives....I am actually talking with the AquaCat people now. The boat, diving and crew get great reviews ........
 
Hi Clay,
I have to admit that I am very biased in favor of Explorer Ventures now after our trip in April. It will be very difficult for another liveaboard to "live" up to the experience we had on the CEXII :) I had absolutely no complaints and only praise for the crew, food, accommodations and the experience in general. It was the best vacation I've ever had and much of it had to do with the crew. Thank you for ensuring such quality staff and keeping your boats in good shape.

Now, can you please add more itineraries, like Belize??

Awww, thanks Janie, you're very kind!

You can be sure we'll add more itineraries as time goes by, though Belize is fairly well covered already - we do several very cool itineraries aboard Turks & Caicos Explorer II above and beyond our normal Provo round-trips, including one-way trips over to Georgetown (Great Exuma, Bahamas) and back, Mayaguana, Grand Turk etc.

We hope to see you again soon!

- Clay
 
I did a seven-day Dancer Fleet liveaboard in January in Belize. Most of my diving has been in South East Asia (Sipidan, Lembeh Straits) and Australia (Great Barrier Reef, Whitesunday Islands) so overall Belize was just okay - you aren't seeing something new and phenomenal every 30 seconds. However, Belize did offer some very unique dive experiences that made the trip totally worthwhile: we saw a couple white-spotted toadfish endemic to Belize, other divers (not me) saw dolphins incl a baby that was nursing the mother, we hunted lionfish and then ate them, and we saw a moray eel swimming in open waters and eat one of the lion fish that we caught. (He then was so bloated he couldn't fit in any of his normal haunts.) Because of these unique experiences, the trip was very memorable. And we didn't even get to dive the Blue Hole because of the weather... I image that too would have been on my list. Also, I really liked my Dancer Fleet experience. I'm hoping to do them again with Cocos Islands next year.
 

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