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You haven't been to Cozumel yet? Go there next.
I definitely will try a live-aboard at one point in my life, but they key here is diving is just like one of many 'hobbies' (golf, mountain biking, skiing) to me. We're not 'dive nuts'. Plus on some trips, I'll have a 6-yo and 8-yo in tow (although usually not on a trip focused around diving). The other people I dive with have already been to Cozumel, so we sort of ruled that out. Based on what I've read about it anyway, although the diving sounds good, I get the feel it may be a bit too frequented of a destination for travelers (divers and otherwise) which usually means crowds everywhere from the boat, to dive spots, to the pool at the resort, airport, etc. But I'll keep it in mind.
My gut is we're leaning towards Little Cayman or Cayman Brac at this point (after that last 28 hour trip - we're longing to stay closer.) But if there's a direct flight from LAX or San Fran to some awesome Asian/Indonesian area destination with a flight say under 13 hours with no connecting flights when we get there, we might brave the long distance travel again. Palau kept coming up in discussions when we were in Fiji and Micronesia sounds great but not sure how hard/long it is to get to a decent resort there with good diver operators?
Only problem with Cayman and Micronesia, is some of us like variety, so we like to explore totally different areas of the world. Maybe British Columbia cold water diving could be an option?
I just can't imagine living on a boat for 5-7 days. A cruise ship? No problem. But I like to do other things than dive, eat, and sleep.
Is the Aggressor fleet really the way to go for first time live-aboard experience if your leary about being stuck on a boat?