Appreciate your thorough, analytical, critical but balanced review. Taken with others for a broader perspective, should be quite helpful to people researching it as a trip option. After all, you don't just take a trip to a given destination; you take it
instead of another option. Probably spending precious (& limited) vacation time and money. I'd like to follow up some points:
1.)
I did the same trip, in May 2016; we hit 3 G.C. sites, headed to L.C. & did 18 total dives there, + 2 Keith Tibbetts wreck dives at C.B., for a total of 25 dives. We saw more sharks and I perceived it as fairly 'fishy.' That's relative, and I plan to talk about later.
2.) I did the Belize live-aboard route via Sun Dancer 2 (a.k.a. Belize Aggressor IV) May 2015; we didn't run aground, and did most of our 26 dives in the desirable regions; we only did 2 elsewhere, at the southern part of Turneffe Atoll, on our way back in. Thus
my trip report reads differently from yours, and
@Trailboss123's late April 2018 report differs from both of ours. I thought the outer atolls region of Belize was pretty comparable to my Cayman diving, but with more personable wildlife (e.g.: Nassau groupers at both; some on Little Cayman we could touch if so inclined).
3.) This surprised me:
The marine life nonetheless left much to be desired and, with several major exceptions, was often underwhelming, even by Caribbean standards.
4.) On the issue of land-based cost:
Prices for potential terrestrial trip options in the Cayman Islands were another matter. I had heard that the Cayman Islands were expensive, but I had thought that it meant “expensive by Caribbean standards,” not “expensive by New York and London standards.”
There are decent budget options. If you don't need 7 Mile Beach, Turtle Nest Inn has some nice package deals. A group with one of my old instructors has a Sunset House 1-week trip for October priced as low as $1,175; that doesn't include car rental, but there's a shuttle and you can shore dive. For a solo diver, considering cost & # of dives, an on-sale live-aboard can be hard to beat. Often cheaper airfare to G.C. should also factor into total trip cost comparisons such as with Bonaire.
5.) Topside:
Beyond the high prices that I found hard to justify, I anticipated that the conservative culture of the Cayman Islands would probably be unappealing to me, and that the lack of terrestrial activities and attractions, beyond offshore banking and Cuban cigars, would bore me to tears. I can deal with expensive, and I can deal with boring, but I cannot deal with both expensive and boring at the same time.
Not sure what you want to do that'd have the locals up in arms? G.C. is a popular cruise ship port, and I imagine has a # of excursions. On a cruise stop we enjoyed a dolphin encounter (yes, the issue of marine mammal exploitation is contentious and controversial) and turtle farm (likewise), but I imagine there are other things to do. Hard to imagine Bonaire's topside is more 'happening' (I've been to Bonaire 8 times).
6.) Bahamas Aggressor:
Given some of the reviews of the Bahamas Aggressor that I have read, that would not surprise me. If I did a liveaboard trip in the Bahamas, I would go on the more highly regarded AquaCat or Juliet.)
Don't throw them under the bus too fast. I've seen good reviews, too. If you're an Undercurrent subscriber,
there's a Jan. 2018 article. Not all Bahamas live-aboard options offer the same # of dives in a week, and a late winter big Aggressor sale could make the B.A. very tempting...even if you don't consider the Tiger Beach itinerary option part of the year.
7.) I wonder if they are often a 'beginner live-aboard option?' I think they'd make a fine one.
Overall, the crew clearly runs a very tight ship, and one of my few criticisms of their operational style would be that sometimes it was a bit too tight. I understand that liveaboards have a lot of do's and don'ts for both safety and comfort reasons, but this crew seemed to have a lot more don'ts, the rationales for which sometimes seemed unclear or questionable.
8.) Many divers appreciate these videos as something to share with friends & family back home, and remember the trip, vs. a video of a wildlife documentary alone. It wouldn't have been so important to me, except that our little girl likes to watch them. She'd ask to watch my scuba video, and often point at the screen and ask "Where's you?" (when I didn't show up enough). There's a trade-off vs. a more dedicated critter spotter. The old saying comes to mind - 'You can't please off of the people, all of the time.'
As with the BAIII, the CAIV crew provides photos of guests and also offers to sell a DVD of footage and still shots from the week. The crew's collection of material for this DVD must distract them from spotting marine life, as they seemed to focus on photographing guests, rather than spotting animals, which makes no sense to me.
9.) Iron Diver:
I earned my second “Iron Diver” award, completing all 26 dives available that week.
Congratulations! They make neat mementos.
I'll post more later; family's home.
