Trip report Sep 2014: Palau Aggressor - VERY BAD EXPERIENCE

[Monishi]

Update as of today:

I did not receive any reply from last week (last week, Larry from Dances said "He had briefly spoken with the two crew members regarding your letter. Their opinion of the events differ from yours." and did not mention specifically which incidents their opinions differ from mine. Therefore, I sent him an email again for further details but his reply was basically he cannot tell me anything anymore, other than they seem to be doing some kind of inspections. I guess that's about it...

Email received on October 9, 2014
Hi xxx -


We received an update from the Operations Manager on October 4th. In his note he indicated he had conducted private meetings with Randy and Scott to discuss matters.


Beyond that he is in Palau evaluating the operation and making decisions on how to move forward in order to provided the best possible operations there. He is reviewing the yachts physically, the operations logistically, and the staffing of the yachts.


For us, all HR matters are private. We would not share with you if somebody loses their job or not. I can assure you that your concerns were noted and documented in their employee records.


Regards,


Larry Speaker
Vice President - Operations
Aggressor and Dancer Fleet
Direct Line: 305-677-0660
Larry@dancerfleet.com



Email received on October 1, 2014Dear xxx


As per your letter copied below be advised that this letter was sent to the owners, management, and Captain of the Palau Aggressor. Please be advised that Dancer Fleet and Aggressor Fleet do not own or operate any vessel that we currently advertise, market and sell. All dive yachts have individual owners and operate similar to a franchise.
We heard back from the owners operations manager right away. He had briefly spoken with the two crew members regarding your letter. Their opinion of the events differ from yours. He stressed to us that is what is most important to him - is how his guests felt at the end of your charter. Your letter was very clear about that.


He informed us that he is heading to Palau this weekend for an inspection visit. He has asked us to allow him to handle his crew matters in private as it is considered an HR matter. We agree with him on this. Rest assured that issues with these crew members and their attitudes reported by you will be directly dealt with.


In regards to the filter lost, it was a �Flip 3.1� filter. You can find these at www.backscatter.com. The combo kit has a retail price of $134. This was not added to your invoice as Capt. Scott did choose to rent you is personal GoPro camera. The lost filter was replaced with the original GoPro red filter while he waited for another Flip filter to be ordered and shipped to him in Palau. (Roughly a 5 week process.)


On behalf of the the owners and management team of the Palau Aggressor, please accept their sincere apologies that two crew members behavior on this cruise did not meet 100% of your expectations. All of us want to thank you for sharing your experience with us and allowing us the opportunity to investigate and address your concerns.
We know that you have choices in planning your dive vacations and we are happy that you chose the Aggressor Fleet or Dancer Fleet^� for this experience. We look forward to welcoming you on board another one of our yachts sometime in the near future.




Larry Speaker
Vice President - Operations
Aggressor and Dancer Fleet
Direct Line: 305-677-0660
Larry@dancerfleet.comDear Mimi -

 

[jfcl01]

Thanks for the update, and thank you again for your initial trip report. I know it is difficult to write up a report that involves a negative experience. Your willingness to do so may benefit future guests, since it may inspire the company to address the issues before too many other incidents.

 

[deeper thoughts]

Thnx for sharing

 

[jake11]

It is a shame to come back from that gorgeous dive location with negative thoughts!!! So sorry!!! :0(

 

[flots am]

> When we got picked up from the hotel, Rndy (our divemaster/photographer) was talking to one of the guests in a bus on the way to the boat, saying that there is a mother and a daughter in the group and they are both available with a dirty smile (you know what I mean kind of smile). Other guests were able to hear it and did not feel good about it, and it was even before we start the one week vacation on the boat.

Inappropriate, but not your problem.


> When we went on board, the captain Scott, told us that there are a total of 17 divers, who were obviously registered guests on the sheet of paper that Scott had, however, there was a mysterious girl who was always diving as a guest, eating as a guest and hanging around the guest area, however, sleeping in the clew's cabin. She turned out to be Randy's girlfriend and she made us guess that she was on board for free and it was kind of awkward (given that everyone else is a paying guest).

Not your problem either. If I worked on the boat would you be pissed off if I brought my wife along? If the captain is good with it, that's the only opinion that matters.

> was supposed to be taking photos of us but when Randy was diving at the back of the group as always, he and his girlfriend were posing and taking pictures of each other, again, far away from us, instead of him watching over our group or taking pictures of us.

You're certified and should not be relying on a DM to "keep you safe". If you want pictures of yourself, hand your buddy a camera.

> There was one guy who was always taking picture of the dive map on boat during the dive briefing together with the clock above it so that he could log his dives later. One time, before Randy started the briefing, this guy kindly asked Randy to step aside a bit as he wanted to take a picture of the dive map. And Randy's reply was "no" with a really bad attitude. That was really rude and some guests including myself heard it and did not feel good about it.

I hate to sound like a broken record, but "It's not your problem". Keep your nose out of other people's business and your problems will mysteriously vanish.

> On the first day of the liveaboard, when a guest touched a coral a bit with his fins while he was taking a picture underwater, Randy went over to him and started shouting at him with his regulator in his mouth. Surprisingly, many guests heard it underwater, as he was so furious and confrontational towards him. This was the first dive of the whole week.

Good for Randy! The death of a coral head starts with a small amount of damage.

I'd have done the same thing.

> I rented GoPro from Captain Scott, and I lost the red filter, which I am fine paying back the cost, but he charged me US$125 and I nicely paid the cash back to him. However, he did not charge it on my invoice and seems like he just took the cash and replaced the red filter with the cheap one on the web.

I'm going to say it again: "It's not your problem."

> Also, Scott promised me that he will charge the GoPro every dive but he often forgot to charge, making me not being able to capture the moment underwater all the sudden. I spoke about it to Scott but no apologies from him.

OK, here's the first actual problem from your trip. The GoPro wasn't fully charged.

> At the end of the trip, Randy, our divemaster and the photographers for us, had a photo show during the cocktail party, and he set up his computer and tried to start showing the slides to us on TV. He had some problems and stepped away from the computer. There was one Asian guy who started touching the computer screen and all the sudden, Randy started shouting at this Asian guy IN FRONT OF ALL THE GUESTS saying "who's computer is it!!! who's computer is it!!! get the fxck away from my computer!!!!!" That was very embarrassing in front of all the gusts and he was being way too over reacting about it.

"Don't touch other people's stuff and they won't yell at you for it." Again, this isn't your problem. You weren't playing with someone else's computer and nobody yelled at you

> And at last but not least, the boat crew was logging our dive time, depth, after every dive on the dive log sheet, so that on the last day, we could be logging our dives based on this. However, our dive log for the whole week for all of our guests which were logged by the boat crew, mysteriously disappeared from the the boat, no one was able to locate it, divemasters and the captain was indifferent about it and did nothing about it. EVERY GUESTS were so furious that we were not able to log our dives for a whole week!

No sh**.

You're upset because someone else didn't log your dives for you? (which BTW isn't actually possible, since they don't know your actual depth or time and most likely, gas usage)

flots

 

[Manika104]

Thank you flots am my sentiments exactly. I'm headed to the Palau Agressor in Jan and think I'll have a good trip with your advice.

 

[flots am]

. . .

 

[Craig66]

Flots am, while I do agree that a lot of what the OP complains about could be in the eye of the beholder, I do take issue with you about certain things.

When a crew member starts making sexual inuendos about other passengers ( and especially a mother daughter couple ) it is not only inappropriate but is potentially dangerous. It also sets a tone of unprofessionalism and as a potential paying customer thinking of taking my own daughter on a live aboard I am sickened that someone would even thing to say something like that let alone a crew member.

As to crew bringing a girlfriend on board it is to a degree the captains problem. I am sure one could bring ones GF or spouse on board and maintain an air of professionalism but when the crew member is potentially derelict in his duties and is ignoring his job and other paying passengers it definitely does become my problem. This particular company own the Peter Hughes boats and this very outfit had an unfortunate accident several years ago and although an act of nature the actions and professionalism of a crew are hugely important at a time like that. This company also prides itself on smart uniforms at dinner and making itself into a real crew (and for this reason also charges more than most liveaboards) and all of this is for naught if a crew member is making disgusting remarks about passengers and ignoring their duties or being distracted by a GF onboard.

 

[jfcl01]

Yeah, I'd say quite a bit of the crew members' behavior was her-and the other passengers'-problems. In addition to Craig66's comments above, the "get the **** away from my computer" is a problem. Erratic and abusive behavior-drastically incommensurate to the immediate circumstances-is a problem on a live aboard.

 

[flots am]

Yeah, I'd say quite a bit of the crew members' behavior was her-and the other passengers'-problems. In addition to Craig66's comments above, the "get the **** away from my computer" is a problem. Erratic and abusive behavior-drastically incommensurate to the immediate circumstances-is a problem on a live aboard.

That's why respecting other people's property and space is important.

Especially on a little boat full of strangers in the middle of the ocean.

flots.