Marty!
Registered
The wife and I just had the trip of a lifetime to Truk and Palau.
In organizing the trip, the main focus/purpose was do a liveaboard in Palau, as that had always been the dream destination, but being such a long way to travel, and us being avid wreck divers, we couldn't not go to Truk as well, so we spent a week there at the Blue Lagoon resort and had an amazing time as well. This review though will focus on our time in Palau on the Tropic Dancer. Our week was a 25% discount week, so we knew the boatd would be a little crowded, but that wasn't really a concern of ours.
Flights from Truk through Guam were on time, no bags lost, and minimal hassle; quite enjoyable. (As an aside: United (formerly Continential Micronesia) made sure to feed us actual food on both flight out of Truk and into Palau, which are like 90 minutes max each. And yet on the way home on the flight from Honolulu to Newark direct, a 10-hour flight, there was no food service at all (just for purchase), and only TWO drink services. Gotta love "domestic" flying....)
We had theree days on the ground in Palau before boarding, and we wanted to do some diving, but hadn't arranged anything beforehand with any of the shore-based operators. Arranging it with Sam's Tours was no hassle at all, in fact all it took was meeting and talking to teh Sam's Tour rep at the airport on our arrival, and everything was all set including hotel pickup the next morning. As has been indicated on the board before, Sam's Tours is a first-rate operation, great, fast boats, free nitrox, good guides, and while there can be a lot of people, is still well-worth the money. Our first five in Palau with them at the Blue Corner blew our minds at how awesome it was.
We boarded the Dancer on the Sunday, and unlike most other liveaboards we've been on, the Dancer/Palau Aggressor offer no complimentary airport/hotel shuttle, and it has to be arranged through Neco Marine (where they dock) for like $5, which I thought was a little strange. I suppose it's because most everyone who comes on the boat arrives at least one day prior, and so the logistics of hotel pickups would be too complicated/expensive or something? Anyways, it was literally a 5 minute walk from the hotel, so in the end it was pretty much moot for us anyways.
We had Captain's Ike and Andrew, and they and the rest of the crew were great. They move back and forth frequently between the Tropic Dancer and the Aggressor, and the boats are identical, so I imagine you would get a very similar experience no matter which boat you were on.
The boat itself is beautiful, very well-maintained and spacious. Rooms were good-sized with full bathrooms (and lots of hot water), and fully-functional air-conditioning. No issues at all. Rooms were on the lower level with the dive deck, upper deck had the salon and dining/kitchen area, and upper level was a sundeck - similar to the layout of the Sun Dancer II in Belize, which we preferred over the layout of the Kona Aggressor, with the rooms and dining/salon/dive deck all on the same level.
Food was very good, with breakfast and lunch served buffet-style, and dinner as a sit-down service. Coffee to your rooms in the morning is always nice. Chef Cameron was very cool, and very accommodating for any special requests.
Dive operations were awesome; we've been a few liveaboards before, and this was the best-run diving we've seen. All diving was done by skiff (since almost all diving in Palau is drift diving), and all your gear including your tanks stay on the skiff for the whole trip. A very neat hydraulic lift liftst the whole boat with diviers out of the water up to deck level on the mothership. Very efficient. Big camera tables with several air guns set up on the dive deck, with lots of room and outlets for charging. I'd read a pretty bad review here of the diving operations on the Tropic Dancer from earlier in 2012, but the must have changed crews, because we had zero issues. There was always at least 2 dive guides in the water for 16 divers, most of the time there was 3, and they gave very detailed briefings and took care of you in the sometimes challenging Palau diving, while at the same time letting you do your own thing if you wanted. Nitrox was bang on at 32% all week, no problems. Other than a slight mechanical problem with the skiff that caused us to miss one dive the first day (which Captain Ike personnally brought into town at 9PM, stayed up all night fixing, and then having it back to the boat at 7AM the next morning to ensure we didn't miss any more diving), we had no issues at all with dive operations.
The diving itself was fantastic. We did Germal Channel twice, Blue Corner/Blue Holes 4 times, Ulong Channel twice, and Peleliu Corner/Express twice. Tide and currents were fantastic for all of them. Dozens of sharks every dive, tons of turtles, the every-present friendly Napoleon Wrasses at Blue Corner, as well as a pair of duelling Octopii at New Drop Off. Dives were frequently one hour-plus in length, and the staff was very accommodating for people who were good on air and wanted to stay down longer, or if you were bad on air they would happily put a little extra in your tank. There were so many sharks on each dive where we had to hook in, that some people I think were starting to get tired of them and hooking in - definitely not in that camp. If I could do Blue Corner every dive for the rest of my life, I'd die happy.
All in all, the trip was nearly flawless, and we would do it again in a heartbeat. If you're trying to decide between the Dancer and the Aggressor, due to identical boats and crew, it likely doesn't matter which you choose.
---------- Post Merged at 09:31 AM ---------- Previous Post was at 09:02 AM ----------
Here are some photos.
In organizing the trip, the main focus/purpose was do a liveaboard in Palau, as that had always been the dream destination, but being such a long way to travel, and us being avid wreck divers, we couldn't not go to Truk as well, so we spent a week there at the Blue Lagoon resort and had an amazing time as well. This review though will focus on our time in Palau on the Tropic Dancer. Our week was a 25% discount week, so we knew the boatd would be a little crowded, but that wasn't really a concern of ours.
Flights from Truk through Guam were on time, no bags lost, and minimal hassle; quite enjoyable. (As an aside: United (formerly Continential Micronesia) made sure to feed us actual food on both flight out of Truk and into Palau, which are like 90 minutes max each. And yet on the way home on the flight from Honolulu to Newark direct, a 10-hour flight, there was no food service at all (just for purchase), and only TWO drink services. Gotta love "domestic" flying....)
We had theree days on the ground in Palau before boarding, and we wanted to do some diving, but hadn't arranged anything beforehand with any of the shore-based operators. Arranging it with Sam's Tours was no hassle at all, in fact all it took was meeting and talking to teh Sam's Tour rep at the airport on our arrival, and everything was all set including hotel pickup the next morning. As has been indicated on the board before, Sam's Tours is a first-rate operation, great, fast boats, free nitrox, good guides, and while there can be a lot of people, is still well-worth the money. Our first five in Palau with them at the Blue Corner blew our minds at how awesome it was.
We boarded the Dancer on the Sunday, and unlike most other liveaboards we've been on, the Dancer/Palau Aggressor offer no complimentary airport/hotel shuttle, and it has to be arranged through Neco Marine (where they dock) for like $5, which I thought was a little strange. I suppose it's because most everyone who comes on the boat arrives at least one day prior, and so the logistics of hotel pickups would be too complicated/expensive or something? Anyways, it was literally a 5 minute walk from the hotel, so in the end it was pretty much moot for us anyways.
We had Captain's Ike and Andrew, and they and the rest of the crew were great. They move back and forth frequently between the Tropic Dancer and the Aggressor, and the boats are identical, so I imagine you would get a very similar experience no matter which boat you were on.
The boat itself is beautiful, very well-maintained and spacious. Rooms were good-sized with full bathrooms (and lots of hot water), and fully-functional air-conditioning. No issues at all. Rooms were on the lower level with the dive deck, upper deck had the salon and dining/kitchen area, and upper level was a sundeck - similar to the layout of the Sun Dancer II in Belize, which we preferred over the layout of the Kona Aggressor, with the rooms and dining/salon/dive deck all on the same level.
Food was very good, with breakfast and lunch served buffet-style, and dinner as a sit-down service. Coffee to your rooms in the morning is always nice. Chef Cameron was very cool, and very accommodating for any special requests.
Dive operations were awesome; we've been a few liveaboards before, and this was the best-run diving we've seen. All diving was done by skiff (since almost all diving in Palau is drift diving), and all your gear including your tanks stay on the skiff for the whole trip. A very neat hydraulic lift liftst the whole boat with diviers out of the water up to deck level on the mothership. Very efficient. Big camera tables with several air guns set up on the dive deck, with lots of room and outlets for charging. I'd read a pretty bad review here of the diving operations on the Tropic Dancer from earlier in 2012, but the must have changed crews, because we had zero issues. There was always at least 2 dive guides in the water for 16 divers, most of the time there was 3, and they gave very detailed briefings and took care of you in the sometimes challenging Palau diving, while at the same time letting you do your own thing if you wanted. Nitrox was bang on at 32% all week, no problems. Other than a slight mechanical problem with the skiff that caused us to miss one dive the first day (which Captain Ike personnally brought into town at 9PM, stayed up all night fixing, and then having it back to the boat at 7AM the next morning to ensure we didn't miss any more diving), we had no issues at all with dive operations.
The diving itself was fantastic. We did Germal Channel twice, Blue Corner/Blue Holes 4 times, Ulong Channel twice, and Peleliu Corner/Express twice. Tide and currents were fantastic for all of them. Dozens of sharks every dive, tons of turtles, the every-present friendly Napoleon Wrasses at Blue Corner, as well as a pair of duelling Octopii at New Drop Off. Dives were frequently one hour-plus in length, and the staff was very accommodating for people who were good on air and wanted to stay down longer, or if you were bad on air they would happily put a little extra in your tank. There were so many sharks on each dive where we had to hook in, that some people I think were starting to get tired of them and hooking in - definitely not in that camp. If I could do Blue Corner every dive for the rest of my life, I'd die happy.
All in all, the trip was nearly flawless, and we would do it again in a heartbeat. If you're trying to decide between the Dancer and the Aggressor, due to identical boats and crew, it likely doesn't matter which you choose.
---------- Post Merged at 09:31 AM ---------- Previous Post was at 09:02 AM ----------
Here are some photos.
