Alexandra
Contributor
This was my first and last trip on the Sun Diver, out of Long Beach!
First of all, we were told that only 3 or 4 people would be sleeping on the boat. So, since they changed their departure to 6am because of the trip to the back side of Catalina being longer, we decided to head out there Sunday night. When we got there around midnight, we were very upset to find all the bunks taken and no where to sleep. We had to scramble to find a local hotel nearby and pay for the room for barely 4hrs of sleep.
When I pointed this out to the captain the next day, no apology was offered just the comment that it was unusual.
We then got back to the boat around 5:40 only to wait till 6:50 to leave because of 1 diver being late. Unbelievable that they held up 23 divers who were all there on time for one diver who thought the departure was 7am.
The cost of the trip was $95 instead of their usual $85, just because it was labor day. They also charge you for everything, although that wasn't made clear on their web site. Breakfast is $5, bagels $1, sodas $1, lunch, snacks... and they also charge for each air fill!
They had 24 people on the boat but said they could take 26. I thought it was already 6 people too many at 24. The layout of the boat stinks for diving. All the tanks are strapped on the floor around the front of the boat. Very very inconvenient to prep and put on, and even more so when there is a crowd.
the gally was quite small, the camera space inexistant.
The crossing to the back side seemed to take forever and we didn't actually start our first dive till almost 10:30am. We didn't get back to dock till 8:15pm.
I was also surprised at the attitude of the passengers on board. It was a mix of experienced (so called "tech divers" with doubles and a lazy diver propellers) and not so experienced ("what direction does the reg go on?") divers but not particularly pleasant or chatty, and certainly not concious of others around them, like keeping to their own space.
I'll post photos of the dives later this evening.
- Alexandra
First of all, we were told that only 3 or 4 people would be sleeping on the boat. So, since they changed their departure to 6am because of the trip to the back side of Catalina being longer, we decided to head out there Sunday night. When we got there around midnight, we were very upset to find all the bunks taken and no where to sleep. We had to scramble to find a local hotel nearby and pay for the room for barely 4hrs of sleep.
When I pointed this out to the captain the next day, no apology was offered just the comment that it was unusual.
We then got back to the boat around 5:40 only to wait till 6:50 to leave because of 1 diver being late. Unbelievable that they held up 23 divers who were all there on time for one diver who thought the departure was 7am.
The cost of the trip was $95 instead of their usual $85, just because it was labor day. They also charge you for everything, although that wasn't made clear on their web site. Breakfast is $5, bagels $1, sodas $1, lunch, snacks... and they also charge for each air fill!
They had 24 people on the boat but said they could take 26. I thought it was already 6 people too many at 24. The layout of the boat stinks for diving. All the tanks are strapped on the floor around the front of the boat. Very very inconvenient to prep and put on, and even more so when there is a crowd.
the gally was quite small, the camera space inexistant.
The crossing to the back side seemed to take forever and we didn't actually start our first dive till almost 10:30am. We didn't get back to dock till 8:15pm.
I was also surprised at the attitude of the passengers on board. It was a mix of experienced (so called "tech divers" with doubles and a lazy diver propellers) and not so experienced ("what direction does the reg go on?") divers but not particularly pleasant or chatty, and certainly not concious of others around them, like keeping to their own space.
I'll post photos of the dives later this evening.
- Alexandra
