Unusual Cayman Aggressor Trip

[twinkles]

August 23-29, 2008

I just completed an unusual Cayman Aggressor Trip. It was unusual, first, because there were only seven of us on board.

It was unusual, second, because it was cut short by a day because of hurricane Gustav.

The seven of us arrived on board between noon and 4:30 PM on Saturday August 23. I was the least experienced diver on board with 180 dives. The most experience guest had 5000+.

Perhaps Captain Jon had an inkling of things to come, but he made the wise decision that we should hot foot it over to Little Cayman Saturday evening to take advantage of the good conditions over there.

We dove Little Cayman Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. We had to skip the Tuesday night-night dive, because Captain Jon needed to get the boat over to Grand Cayman where there would be places for the boat to hide from hurricane Gustav if it kept coming in our direction.

We did the normal 5 dives on Wednesday at various sites around Grand Cayman. Wednesday night Captain Jon, trying to maximize our diving opportunities on what was obviously going to be a hurricane shortened week, offered a Thursday morning dawn dive. We all took advantage of it. After breakfast, we got in two more morning dives on Thursday, before Jon had to take to boat around the island to its hurricane hiding place. The Aggressor front office revised all of our airline reservations for a Friday departure.

We left the boat Friday morning at about 8:00 am expecting the airport to be an absolute mad house. Actually it was quite organized with most flights rescheduled two or three hours earlier—One more good decision by Captain Jon to get us to the airport extra extra early so that none of us missed those early flights.

We ended up missing one day of diving. Since I am a fan of the Aggressor Fleet, having taken two trips so far this year and still planning one more, I will get a chance to try out the StormCheck policy.

As soon as that plays out, I will update this thread to let you know how the StormCheck policy works in the “real world.”

 

[WCollins]

August 23-29, 2008

I just completed an unusual Cayman Aggressor Trip. It was unusual, first, because there were only seven of us on board.

It was unusual, second, because it was cut short by a day because of hurricane Gustav.

The seven of us arrived on board between noon and 4:30 PM on Saturday August 23. I was the least experienced diver on board with 180 dives. The most experience guest had 5000+.

Perhaps Captain Jon had an inkling of things to come, but he made the wise decision that we should hot foot it over to Little Cayman Saturday evening to take advantage of the good conditions over there.

We dove Little Cayman Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. We had to skip the Tuesday night-night dive, because Captain Jon needed to get the boat over to Grand Cayman where there would be places for the boat to hide from hurricane Gustav if it kept coming in our direction.

We did the normal 5 dives on Wednesday at various sites around Grand Cayman. Wednesday night Captain Jon, trying to maximize our diving opportunities on what was obviously going to be a hurricane shortened week, offered a Thursday morning dawn dive. We all took advantage of it. After breakfast, we got in two more morning dives on Thursday, before Jon had to take to boat around the island to its hurricane hiding place. The Aggressor front office revised all of our airline reservations for a Friday departure.

We left the boat Friday morning at about 8:00 am expecting the airport to be an absolute mad house. Actually it was quite organized with most flights rescheduled two or three hours earlier—One more good decision by Captain Jon to get us to the airport extra extra early so that none of us missed those early flights.

We ended up missing one day of diving. Since I am a fan of the Aggressor Fleet, having taken two trips so far this year and still planning one more, I will get a chance to try out the StormCheck policy.

As soon as that plays out, I will update this thread to let you know how the StormCheck policy works in the “real world.”

We are planning a Cayman Aggressor trip in April and its good to hear Captain Jon and the Aggressor crew did everything they could to make the trip go and the best it could be under these conditions. Glad they offer the stormCheck policy. How was the diving on Little Cayman etc?

 

[Wijbrandus]

I'm planning a May trip on the Cayman boat. How does it compare to the others in the fleet? Was everything outstanding as the advertising says?

I've been on the Kona Aggressor, and the boat exceeded every expectation, and sold me on Aggressor for a long time to come. I expect that the Cayman boat will do the same?

 

[Ladydi69]

For a flavor of the boat you can see this trip report posted by my dive buddy for my last trip to islands. Great boat, great crew, great food, great diving. What's not to like?

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/cr...ort-cayman-aggressor-apr-5-apr-12-2008-a.html

 

[Papa_Bear]

I will be interested in how they handle you on the Storm situation! I had the same thing happen on the Fiji boat and now they "Don't remember" even though one of the VP's was on the boat! All you have to do is go back to their own logs! But they are resisting the credit! My buddy was told "They provided shelter from the storm so that should wash the credit"! Don't think that's the way we as consumers think? Now that the economy has turned down dive operators seem to forget who the customer is and need to tread lightly! We are the ultimate judges right here on this board! The diving public and consumers!

 

[capthowe]

I have made several trips on several of the Aggressor boats. Everyone I mean everyone on all the boats has been great and my customers that accompanied me on all these trips would say the same thing. Not one of us has ever not been very pleased with the trips. THat is why we go back every year for another episode.