TIR Trip Report

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redgym

Registered
Messages
58
Reaction score
1
Location
Houston, TX
# of dives
100 - 199
My wife and I made it back from Belize yesterday. We stayed at TIR for a week and then went to Cayo for a few days (primarily visiting Tikal and the ATM cave).

Arrival: TIR picks its guests up from the airport with the driver standing outside holding a TIR sign. The process is very easy. That's the good news. The bad news is the next 3 or so hours will be the worst of your trip. TIR docks its boat at the Princess Hotel/Casino, which is a complete dump and not in the nicest area of town. If you are on an early flight, they drop you off at the Princess and you get to burn a few hours waiting for the later arriving guests. If you are arriving in Belize City the day before your depature to the island, don't stay at the Princess. A couple on our trip made this mistake. The Radisson is about 1.5 miles away.

It take about 1.5 hours on the boat to reach the island. Rum punch is served by George the bartender on the way to the island. The boat was crowded with just 21 guests. It's really crowded if an older couple decides to lean against you, make out, and rub your arm on the trip. Not a pleasant experience. Once reaching the island the staff will lead you to your cabanas/room. Approximatly 1/2 hour later everyone meets in the bar area to go through the check-in process where you get to fill in the information you already gave them.

Accomodations: Doesn't seem to be much difference between the cabanas and the rooms, except, of course, the cabanas being free standing. The rooms mostly are in buildings that have two upstairs and two downstairs rooms. There appears to be a few buildings that don't have the upstairs by the main dock/dive center. Cabana #8 is the farthest from the main building. TIR received docking stations for MP3 players the week we were there, so you should be able to play your MP3 players now. Otherwise, there are no TVs/radios etc in your room. We stayed in a room and it was very nice. Note: guests are not "supposed" to bring alcohol. Take it for what its worth.

Food: Overall, the food is above average. A couple of the meals were lacking in quality, but most of the others were good. Its served family style with more than enough food. All meals are served at a designated time. Sweet and savory snacks are available all day.

Drinks: Are expensive. George the bartender is awesome and has numerous card and other tricks to keep you entertained.

Diving: 15 dives are included in the package. We didn't have the best visibility as it rained before we got there and the current wasn't strong. We dove the Elbow twice, and it was my favorite dive. We dove the Blue Hole, but didn't go all the way down to 130 ft (only 4 of the 15 divers went to 130 ft). I'm a newbie, and wasn't comfortable that my wife and I could help one another if we became narked. I know that it isn't the DM's responsibility, but talking with him didn't give me comfort that he would be there if the stuff hit the fan. So, no go. We went down to about 60 ft and saw numerous sharks. The dive could have been over after the first 5 minutes of looking at the sharks. The other dives that day were good.

Because we had 15 divers, two dive boats were used. The dive sites were about 5 to 10 minutes from the island and the surface intervals were on the island. This worked out well as it allowed you to grab refreshments, use the facilities etc. Our night dive was poor at best. It may have been a coincidence, but the other DM's (Brad) group had significantly better dives. I don't know if he had a better sense of where to dive, or what. Also, his boat stopped a couple of times to swim with dolphins, while our boat went straight back to the island. Most of our dives lasted 50 to 60 minutes. The coral was excellent, but we didn't see a lot of large fish, etc. No sharks other than in the Blue Hole. This was much different than my previous dive experience in Bora Bora/Moorea where we saw sharks and other large fish on every dive.

For those renting gear, TIR just received a shipment of new rental gear.

Beach: The beach is hard sand and has sea grass. The snorkeling around the docks was good with numerous lobsters.

Lion Fish: We saw one large lion fish. The other dive boat saw a small one and there was one near one of the docks. The DMs marked the lion fish to go back and kill them.

Weather: We had little rain for the week. It rained during our check out dive and the first two nights on the island. Otherwise it was sunny/partly sunny for the week.

Tips: TIR recommends very large tips for its staff (except for the DMs where I thought the recommended tip was low (at least compared to the recommendations for the other staff)).

No-see-ums: Didn't see 'em. No issues what so ever. TIR rakes the sand 2x per day to control the no-see-ums and it seems to work. We didn't have mosquito issues either.

Overall: The week was a great experience. Better visibility would have been nice.
 
Thanks for the report! We are going on the 22nd of this month and are looking forward to it. Maybe we should request Brad as our DM.
 
Di dthey let you dive your own profile or was it a group type of dive? (Regular dives not Blue Hole)
 
Di dthey let you dive your own profile or was it a group type of dive? (Regular dives not Blue Hole)

They were all group dives (the Blue Hole was essentially 2 group dives). I would think that the only way you would be able to dive your own profile would be to pay for add-on dives with only you and the DM.
 
Another thank you for a timely and informative report. My wife, daughter and I are heading there this Sat., 8/15. We'll leave a trip report when we get back. Sorry to hear about the night dive; they are our favorites. Poor visibility, weather, or nothing to see? And I guess my wife will be holding me back at the bar - warned me about ringing up a big tab :D
 
Another thank you for a timely and informative report. My wife, daughter and I are heading there this Sat., 8/15. We'll leave a trip report when we get back. Sorry to hear about the night dive; they are our favorites. Poor visibility, weather, or nothing to see? And I guess my wife will be holding me back at the bar - warned me about ringing up a big tab :D

The night dive suffered from poor visibility and nothing to see. Because of the poor visibility, we could only go a limited distance from the line. The most exciting things we saw were a large lobster and jelly fish. We didn't have any blood worms, which apparenlty aren't problem when there is a full moon.
 
Great report and pretty much described our experience there last year when my wife and I stayed at TIR for two weeks in early July. Except it rained only the first night--but what a monsoon it was!--and a little bit into the first day, then was sunny the rest of the vacation. And either the food was better or maybe I just have lower standards as I thought it was really good with the exception of one lunch.

Brad and Marcel were our DMs, and we though they were great. They rotated the DM and boat Captain's jobs every week, so we got to dive with both of them.

The night dives, I did them both, were pretty ho hum. Not much to see. I'll probably skip them next time, especially if they still have that rather restrictive policy of making you choose between one of the day dives and the night dive.

And other than the Blue Hole trips we also didn't see many large fish either except for our extended encounter with a pod of Short Fin Pilot Whales, which are the size of very large dolphins. That was fantastic. Brad and Marcel said it was the first time they had ever seen them there.

All in all, we had a fantastic time there. How are Jason and Karen doing? They were just coming off "probation" as Assistant Managers when we were there. Paul and Kelly, a married couple from Canada, were the Managers. They've since moved on.

We're almost certainly going back again next year. We stayed in Cabana 8 last time, but next time I think we may move a bit closer to the Lodge. The extra bit of privacy was great, but I'm not so sure it was worth the hike.
 
Great report and pretty much described our experience there last year when my wife and I stayed at TIR for two weeks in early July. Except it rained only the first night--but what a monsoon it was!--and a little bit into the first day, then was sunny the rest of the vacation. And either the food was better or maybe I just have lower standards as I thought it was really good with the exception of one lunch.

Brad and Marcel were our DMs, and we though they were great. They rotated the DM and boat Captain's jobs every week, so we got to dive with both of them.

The night dives, I did them both, were pretty ho hum. Not much to see. I'll probably skip them next time, especially if they still have that rather restrictive policy of making you choose between one of the day dives and the night dive.

And other than the Blue Hole trips we also didn't see many large fish either except for our extended encounter with a pod of Short Fin Pilot Whales, which are the size of very large dolphins. That was fantastic. Brad and Marcel said it was the first time they had ever seen them there.

All in all, we had a fantastic time there. How are Jason and Karen doing? They were just coming off "probation" as Assistant Managers when we were there. Paul and Kelly, a married couple from Canada, were the Managers. They've since moved on.

We're almost certainly going back again next year. We stayed in Cabana 8 last time, but next time I think we may move a bit closer to the Lodge. The extra bit of privacy was great, but I'm not so sure it was worth the hike.

Ok, maybe I was a little harsh on the food, but I did rate it above average. There were a couple of meals that were lacking.

Jason & Karen were on vacation the week that we were there (I'm assuming it was them b/c their names were never mentioned in my presence). The owner's son was there in the managers' absence. I won't post details here, but I think the week may have been more enjoyable with the regular managers on the island. Having said that, it was a great experience.

Brad was the DM for all of the dives on the other boat. Marcel was the boat captain exclusively.

We had a room near the lodge and I actually liked the location. Just a short walk to the lodge/bar.
 
Ok, maybe I was a little harsh on the food, but I did rate it above average. There were a couple of meals that were lacking.

Hey, I meant to put a smiley face at the end of my sentence about the food to make sure you received it in the spirit in which it was intended. Seriously, though, I had to be careful not to eat too much the second week as the first week I pretty much gorged myself and could feel my waistline expanding.

That's too bad about Jason and Karen. He's from South Africa. She's a Brit who grew up in Hong Kong. They had some really interesting stories.

Brad and Marcel are a hoot. I stayed up drinking one night with them in the bar until 3 o'clock in the morning--actually Brad knocked off about midnight since he was the DM that week. George can make a wicked rum and coke. I know you're not supposed to dive after a night of hard drinking but words cannot express how good it felt to sink into the water the next morning. My hangover instantly vanished.

We flew down the day before and stayed the night at the Great House, which is right across the street from the Radisson. Probably the best thing I can say about the GH is at least it's not the Princess Hotel. What little I saw of the PH gave me the creeps. But by arriving in Belize City the day before we only had to wait at the Princess about an hour before boarding the boat.

I kind of liked Belize City in an impoverished third-world kind of way. But I wouldn't want to stay there for more than a night, and I certainly wouldn't venture out at night under any condition.
 
Brad and Marcel are a hoot. I stayed up drinking one night with them in the bar until 3 o'clock in the morning--actually Brad knocked off about midnight since he was the DM that week.

You won't be able to do that during your next trip unless the managers unwind one of the newly imposed restrictions on the staff.
 
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