diverrick
Contributor
I just returned form a week on the UA. Nice new boat Cleanest boat I had ever been on. The crew was very promt, friendly and responsive. Food was to die for. Very high end food. Right up there with the Kona Aggressor's food. It was more like art then food, and it all was delicious.
I did have a few positive and negitive things I thought you might like to know about, having been there done that.
Water temps were constistantly 77-78 Some folks got prettty chilled by the end of the week. Certainly not 3 mil water. especially with the windchill
Even though the boat was new, it seemed to be missing some very basic items. Some of the items most mentioned by customers were, no shades for the windows in the dining area, so when the sun was in your eyes, you could do nothing but try to find another spot to stand or sit. More of a PITA than anything else. No place in the lounge area to place dirty dishes. Limited dishes and cups. No spare hoses or much of any save a dive stuff, most dive boats have. Maybe because it is such a new ship, but you'd think they would keep a spare set of hoses at least. One person had to dive all week with a bad HP hose. The long table had seating on the outside for 5 people. You had to get 4 people to get up if you wanted seconds or to get up, or ask someone to fetch your food for you.
They need to cut the table in half for better egress. The table fixed seating was also very deep. Most folks found it uncomfortable to sit there for any length. the seat bottoms were way too long/deep.
There were not enough hangers on the dive deck to go around, nor was there enough places to hang your gear. Another hanger row or two down the middle of the deck would have been a well needed improvement. They need more hangers, they had no extras at all. After each dive, someone got shorted. That being said, if everyone had used only one hangar we could all have had one, but most folks had more than one hanger in use due to the colder water temps.
They need more hooks in the rooms to hang up things. Our room only had room for one towel.
Also, the room had bunk beds but the upper bunk had a duct blocking about 1 1/2 feet of the mattress, so a full sized person could not lay out on the top bunk. My Wife is only 5'4" and she barely made it. Only rooms 2, and 3 had this issue. Rooms 2, and 3 also had very limited storage for some reason (one drawer in the bed area). All the others had more storage and full sized upper bunks, so unless your single or short, don't get those two rooms.
Each of the rooms had individual heating and cooling. The fan speed was set even though there was as control for fan speed, it did nothing to control the airflow. it was fixed on high at seemed. In some rooms the vent blew out onto the upper bunks, and some passengers complained of the constant air blowing hard on them at night. The temp controls rocked though.. you can select any heat/cooling setting It worked very well for comfort levels. Same went for the dining area. Some folks got cold air blowing on their feet while dining, no way to control the fan speeds short of turning them completly off.
I could have used a bit hotter water throughout the ship. At best it was only warm. I think it was some sort of safety thing, so no one gets scalded, but for me the showers were not nearly hot enough.
The beds were the usual flat board bed frame with a foam pad. Kinda hard on the back for some folks. They had a bunch of large pillows on the beds, and with limited storage available, some asked to have the pillows removed from the rooms, the boat crew would not do/allow that for some reason.
I was tempted to place them in the hallway or put them upstairs in the lounge to shorten the seating issues somewhat.
The diving was less than nominal IMHO. We had higher than usual winds, so we spent most of the week hiding out near west end on Roatan (the only calm spot). Too rough to get around to the South side all week. We have dove both Roatan and Utila before many times and this was the sparsest fish sightings we had ever encountered. No sharks at all We think it is the combination of over fishing, and the abundance of lionfish. They were everywhere. There just was not much fish life to see, compared to past trips.
The crew was spearing the lionfish when found, and when they had enough, they served the best lionfish cevichi I have ever tasted. The flesh is excellent with very little fishiness to it. I think there might be a market niche there. They are very tasty. At times we had lots of jelly fish, and some folks got stung, but they were not too bad.
One iteresting thing we did see was two Scorpionfish in a tight lip to lip lock. Neither one would give up. They were both breathing hard from the fight. We watched for a long time and took lots of pics, but finally moved on. During the next dive, after our suface interval we checked again during the next dive and they were still at it. Gotta give them an "A" for effort.
We got to dive a new location for us, called Dolphin cave. Great dive site.. best dive of the trip IMHO. You can see dolphin bones and skulls inside, and the cave was pretty extensive.
Over all I had a very relaxed trip. Wish we had less wind, and warmer temps though.
I did have a few positive and negitive things I thought you might like to know about, having been there done that.
Water temps were constistantly 77-78 Some folks got prettty chilled by the end of the week. Certainly not 3 mil water. especially with the windchill
Even though the boat was new, it seemed to be missing some very basic items. Some of the items most mentioned by customers were, no shades for the windows in the dining area, so when the sun was in your eyes, you could do nothing but try to find another spot to stand or sit. More of a PITA than anything else. No place in the lounge area to place dirty dishes. Limited dishes and cups. No spare hoses or much of any save a dive stuff, most dive boats have. Maybe because it is such a new ship, but you'd think they would keep a spare set of hoses at least. One person had to dive all week with a bad HP hose. The long table had seating on the outside for 5 people. You had to get 4 people to get up if you wanted seconds or to get up, or ask someone to fetch your food for you.
They need to cut the table in half for better egress. The table fixed seating was also very deep. Most folks found it uncomfortable to sit there for any length. the seat bottoms were way too long/deep.
There were not enough hangers on the dive deck to go around, nor was there enough places to hang your gear. Another hanger row or two down the middle of the deck would have been a well needed improvement. They need more hangers, they had no extras at all. After each dive, someone got shorted. That being said, if everyone had used only one hangar we could all have had one, but most folks had more than one hanger in use due to the colder water temps.
They need more hooks in the rooms to hang up things. Our room only had room for one towel.
Also, the room had bunk beds but the upper bunk had a duct blocking about 1 1/2 feet of the mattress, so a full sized person could not lay out on the top bunk. My Wife is only 5'4" and she barely made it. Only rooms 2, and 3 had this issue. Rooms 2, and 3 also had very limited storage for some reason (one drawer in the bed area). All the others had more storage and full sized upper bunks, so unless your single or short, don't get those two rooms.
Each of the rooms had individual heating and cooling. The fan speed was set even though there was as control for fan speed, it did nothing to control the airflow. it was fixed on high at seemed. In some rooms the vent blew out onto the upper bunks, and some passengers complained of the constant air blowing hard on them at night. The temp controls rocked though.. you can select any heat/cooling setting It worked very well for comfort levels. Same went for the dining area. Some folks got cold air blowing on their feet while dining, no way to control the fan speeds short of turning them completly off.
I could have used a bit hotter water throughout the ship. At best it was only warm. I think it was some sort of safety thing, so no one gets scalded, but for me the showers were not nearly hot enough.
The beds were the usual flat board bed frame with a foam pad. Kinda hard on the back for some folks. They had a bunch of large pillows on the beds, and with limited storage available, some asked to have the pillows removed from the rooms, the boat crew would not do/allow that for some reason.
I was tempted to place them in the hallway or put them upstairs in the lounge to shorten the seating issues somewhat.
The diving was less than nominal IMHO. We had higher than usual winds, so we spent most of the week hiding out near west end on Roatan (the only calm spot). Too rough to get around to the South side all week. We have dove both Roatan and Utila before many times and this was the sparsest fish sightings we had ever encountered. No sharks at all We think it is the combination of over fishing, and the abundance of lionfish. They were everywhere. There just was not much fish life to see, compared to past trips.
The crew was spearing the lionfish when found, and when they had enough, they served the best lionfish cevichi I have ever tasted. The flesh is excellent with very little fishiness to it. I think there might be a market niche there. They are very tasty. At times we had lots of jelly fish, and some folks got stung, but they were not too bad.
One iteresting thing we did see was two Scorpionfish in a tight lip to lip lock. Neither one would give up. They were both breathing hard from the fight. We watched for a long time and took lots of pics, but finally moved on. During the next dive, after our suface interval we checked again during the next dive and they were still at it. Gotta give them an "A" for effort.
We got to dive a new location for us, called Dolphin cave. Great dive site.. best dive of the trip IMHO. You can see dolphin bones and skulls inside, and the cave was pretty extensive.
Over all I had a very relaxed trip. Wish we had less wind, and warmer temps though.
