TIR Trip Report

[deeper thoughts]

Thnx all for the info

 

[CRyanDean]

Headed to Belize next month, though not staying with TIR.

Is the blue hole worth the trip/expense if not included in vacation package? I figured it was an absolute till I read this and some other testimonials. How much of it is logistical nightmare with a mix of new and veteran divers? I'd prefer not to sit at 60 ft for ten minutes waiting for half the pack to make its way down and all that.

Is the wall at least worth admiring? The sharks are fun for only 5 minutes?

 

[hpbelize]

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.

There are a few places in the city nicer and more affordable than the Princess and the Calypso Bar. You can secure your luggage in the boat and get a cab to the Riverside Tavern or even Old Belize to kill some time if you arrive at the dock early. You can also walk down to Jambel's in front of BTL Park across from the police booth (about 5 - 10 min. from Princess) instead of sitting at the dock and getting burnt.

Great job on your report.

 

[Downing]

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.

Wow, that's a big change. Brad would often have a beer or two with the other guests at the pool bar at the end of the day. We really enjoyed his company.

I'm pretty sure the management would allow us to have another party, especially if I cleared it with them first. We did it after the Thursday night dive, and all the other guests were already in their rooms when the party started. A few of the fishing guides dropped by, too, although my memory's a little fuzzy at that point.

CRyanDean, whether the Blue Hole is worth it is a hard question to answer. It was worth it for me. I did it twice because we were at TIR for two weeks and Tuesday is their "Blue Hole Day." There's no other option than to go if you want to dive that day because the entire TIR dive staff makes the trip and there's no shore diving at the resort.

Even though the dives were only a week apart, I had two very different experiences. The first time, visibility was not very good, maybe 40 feet, and we saw only a few sharks and couldn't see them very well due to the poor viz. The second time, the viz was much better and we saw probably 20 sharks, including 4 who hung out with us at the lip after we ascended from the hole. They obviously thought we were going to feed them as they circled around us about 15 feet away for the 10 or 15 minutes we hung out at the lip before ascending to the safety stop. That was one of the highlights from our trip but obviously that doesn't happen every time.

I think a lot would depend on how long it takes to get there. The boat ride from TIR was a little over an hour, and we left about 8:30 in the morning. We spent the entire day diving in the area, and the other two dives were really good. We had lunch on um, Lighthouse Caye (I may have that name wrong but there's a lighthouse on it). It was a fun, albeit long, day, and we returned to TIR about 4 o'clock.

When we were there, all the divers made the trip but not all of them dived the Blue Hole. The first time there was a couple from Texas who stay at TIR every other year. They were very experienced divers and had dived the Blue Hole five or six times already. They opted to stay on the boat and read while we made the dive. My wife was nervous about going that deep, so she skipped the dive both times. There were probably a couple of others who elected not to dive it as well, I don't remember.

To me, the wall is well worth admiring, even though it's just a wall, because of its sheer size and the way it just drops straight down. The lip of the hole is kind of cool, too, as it just appears on an otherwise flat, sandy bottom. The stalactites or mites, whichever they are, at 130 feet down are big enough that you can swim around them once you get down there.

I would rather skip the dive altogether than hang out at the lip as there wasn't much going on there except for the sharks when we ascended on the second dive, and they had followed us up from the hole.

At this point, having done it twice, although I will definitely do it again when I stay at TIR, I wouldn't do it if I were starting from Ambergris Caye or the mainland. That would be too far to go for too little adventure, especially if the viz turned out to be as poor as the first dive.

Hope that helps. Whether the Blue Hole is worth it for someone else is so subjective that I think it's a hard question to answer. For some, the answer is "heck yeah," for others it's "heck no," and for the rest it's somewhere in between.

 

[BDSC]

So for you folks that have recently gone to TIR, how is the internet access? I thought I read somewhere that you have to pay $1 per minute to use the computer.

I am headed there Saturday and was thinking while there I'd post a few times on this thread but not at a cost of $1 per minute.

 

[Darcey]

Headed to Belize next month, though not staying with TIR.

Is the blue hole worth the trip/expense if not included in vacation package? I figured it was an absolute till I read this and some other testimonials. How much of it is logistical nightmare with a mix of new and veteran divers? I'd prefer not to sit at 60 ft for ten minutes waiting for half the pack to make its way down and all that.

Is the wall at least worth admiring? The sharks are fun for only 5 minutes?

The Blue Hole for me was a "been there did that" dive but ended up to be well worth it. Yes, you have the mix of inexperienced vs. experienced divers and have to be mindful of the inexperienced divers being on top of you and running into you but if you're an experienced and confident enough diver the DM's (or at least the ones we were with) will pick up on it and let you hang out on your own far enough away from the crash and flail of inexperienced divers but close enough to see you.

In the Blue Hole there's not a whole lot to see but it is pretty wild to think that it was once a cave that collapsed. The stalagtites are pretty neat to swim around and the tiger sharks that are sometimes around are pretty cool too. Plus, the two dives AFTER the Hole make the entire day more than worth it.

 

[Downing]

So for you folks that have recently gone to TIR, how is the internet access? I thought I read somewhere that you have to pay $1 per minute to use the computer.

I am headed there Saturday and was thinking while there I'd post a few times on this thread but not at a cost of $1 per minute.

I didn't use it but last year there was a rather clunky looking PC in the lobby of the office for the guests to use. I think the cost was a $1 a minute; it was posted somewhere in the literature you get when you first arrive. I do remember that one of the guests didn't realize how much it cost and was not happy to learn he owed something like $45 at the end of the week.

Have a great trip!

 

[redgym]

I didn't use it but last year there was a rather clunky looking PC in the lobby of the office for the guests to use. I think the cost was a $1 a minute; it was posted somewhere in the literature you get when you first arrive. I do remember that one of the guests didn't realize how much it cost and was not happy to learn he owed something like $45 at the end of the week.

Have a great trip!

I didn't use it, but the above looks accurate.

Regarding the new "no staff at the bar rule" - it was started the week we were there. See my post about the trip probably being more enjoyable if the regular managers were on the island. We were going to meet our DM at the bar to celebrate his birthday and he was a no show. The rule was instituted that day after he had a couple of drinks at the bar the night before.

I pretty much agree with Downing re the Blue Hole. If I stayed at TIR again, I probably would do the dive at least 1 more time (and with more experience I would go down to 130 ft.). I don't think I would do it again if I had to leave from AC.

hpbelize - I thought of that option too late in the day. I would recommend that anyone with a long wait at the Princess take a cab to either of your recommendations.

I looked at TIR's website, and the rates for 2010 are lower than 2009. Of course, the dive special ends in 2009.

 

[Downing]

I looked at TIR's website, and the rates for 2010 are lower than 2009. Of course, the dive special ends in 2009.

And the rates for 2009 are lower than they were for 2008. Just my luck we went for two weeks when the rates were at their all-time high. Doh!

 

[Hank49]

Bummer you didn't see bigger fish at the Elbow. I was there on the 2nd of Aug and the week before that...25 July? We found LOTS of big fish. School of at least 200 dog snapper with about 70-80 cuberas that were between 15-25 lbs....a school of about 80 horse eye jacks between 6-15 lbs, a school of about 12 permit and quite a few black grouper on top of the wall....and we could see this ALL at the same time by just turning around and looking in all directions. Not to mention cero mackerels cruising through...about 5 eagle rays...unreal place. High energy.

Hah. I'm sure you don't need to hear, "dude, you should have been here yesterday"...but the Elbow has as many game fish as anywhere I've dived. I'm sure you were close to lots of fish. MOst of these are on top of the wall just near the drop.