Talk about booking in advance!

[DiveMaven]

My husband and I have been dreaming of a trip to Truk Lagoon since learning of the place soon after getting certified. We finally decided that 2008 would be our year, and after reading many remarks about how fast the Odyssey fills, I decided to e-mail and ask when I should be booking. Gees, it was sure lucky I did...they only had 3 weeks available for individual booking that summer!!! Ironically, 2 of those weeks already had individual bookings, and one only had 4 spots left.

Since we're limited to summer as to when we can do this trip, I'm jumping on it since we don't want to be left out in the cold. Never booked a trip 2 years in advance before, and frankly it's too far out to be too excited yet, but I'm sure relieved that we won't risk disappointment down the road had we waited.

We are very excited about spending a week on the Odyssey. Everything we've heard and read says she's a first class liveaboard.

 

[ScubaLuke]

My husband and I have been dreaming of a trip to Truk Lagoon since learning of the place soon after getting certified. We finally decided that 2008 would be our year, and after reading many remarks about how fast the Odyssey fills, I decided to e-mail and ask when I should be booking. Gees, it was sure lucky I did...they only had 3 weeks available for individual booking that summer!!! Ironically, 2 of those weeks already had individual bookings, and one only had 4 spots left.

Since we're limited to summer as to when we can do this trip, I'm jumping on it since we don't want to be left out in the cold. Never booked a trip 2 years in advance before, and frankly it's too far out to be too excited yet, but I'm sure relieved that we won't risk disappointment down the road had we waited.

We are very excited about spending a week on the Odyssey. Everything we've heard and read says she's a first class liveaboard.

I notice that happens with some live-aboards. The Naia seems to fill up way in advance and so does the Nautilus Explorer for some trips. I wanted to do the Sea of Cortez in November this year but they were already full for that route when I checked before Christmas last year.
Luke

 

[vetdiver]

Oooh, we want to book for 2008...better get on it....

 

[diveborg]

What happens is that a person will book the whole boat with plans to get a group together for the trip. They get a discount that way. Dive shops will also do this too. That is why there are only a few weeks available for individuals.

 

[DiveMaven]

Right, that's what they told me....there are groups booked for the other weeks so there were only 3 weeks available for individual bookings from June through August. If you were interested in a specific week, you could likely find which group has it booked and try to go with them. Since my husband and I weren't interested in going with a group (and being "odd-men out"), we just picked one of the 3 open weeks for individual booking.

In case my posts weren't clear enough, Odyssey actually has something like 17 open weeks for individual bookings during 2008, but only 3 during the summer when we can go. Just don't want anyone thinking there's only 3 weeks available ALL year! Still, when you consider there's 52 weeks in a year, with only 17 being available, that's only a 1/3 of the year open for individuals. I'm impressed at how popular they are.

 

[caymaniac]

A LDS nearby has been to Truk a couple of times and made the comment that next time they will definitely book with Odyssey. They felt that the options given and what they have heard from different dive shops and clubs the Odyssey is preferred. One reason is from the tech. aspect.

 

[DiveMaven]

We looked pretty hard at the ThorFinn for our trip, but the more trip reports I read, the more I realized that they are a little too quirky for me. It does sound like the ThorFinn is a great choice for folks who are serious technical divers, diving doubles, mix, and/or rebreathers though. With their SOP of putting the divers in little boats to go to the wrecks, they can really divide folks up by skill level, interests, etc. OTH Odyssey also has all the capabilities of catering to tech divers and frequently has tech groups on board, and they go to the San Francisco Maru quite often when they have divers on board who are capable of diving her depths.

My husband and I love liveaboard diving with the "dive at will" policy. We'd rather be moored over a wreck and be able to choose either going with a guide at a set time, or diving when we choose on our own. We're also 100% recreational divers with no desire to become more advanced than that, so we feel that the Odyssey is a better choice for us.

 

[likelite]

Our LDS does that - books the whole boat. Rest assured we're friendly, tho. We try pretty hard not to treat any folks not from Nashville as "odd men out."

 

[del_mo]

But many times the liveaboard company will get in touch with the charterer on your behalf to see if they have any slots available. Just because a club/store chartered the whole boat doesn't necessarily exclude individuals from making the trip.

 

[DiveMaven]

But many times the liveaboard company will get in touch with the charterer on your behalf to see if they have any slots available. Just because a club/store chartered the whole boat doesn't necessarily exclude individuals from making the trip.

The folks at Odyssey offered to do that for us for the week that was our first choice, but after talking about it, we decided it could potentially be uncomfortable to be the only "non-club" folks on the boat. It wasn't that big of a deal for us to choose a date a month later.