Which Turks and Caicos Liveaboard?

[fb4817]

Thank you everyone for your input and advice. I have decided to go with the "Lost Island Voyages" in the Bahamas. L.I.V was much more affordable and closer to fly to, plus, the business is family orientated and seemed much more friendly. I did call the other companies, but they were completely booked - found out that these kind of things you need to try and book in advance. L.I.V has a great reputation and I am excited to be diving with them. Maybe on the next vacation, Lord Willing, I'll try out the Aggressor fleet over in the Pacific - maybe - let's see how L.I.V turns out

1). Lost Island Voyages - Bahamas $1295 (roughly)

Bahamas Diving & Charter Boat | Lost Island Voyages

 

[theduckguru]

I didn't care for some of the explorer's sillier rules. Chief among them was the requirement for a tank attached glow stick for night dives. I don't recall the Aggressor fleet having such rules.

If you surface without your buddy and unresponsive, how do you expect them to see you?

 

[fb4817]

Yeah, probably not a good idea. You know, I've heard a lot of things about Turks and Caicos, but, are the liveaboards there really that good or are they just ok? You know, is it worth the money? Would it be wise to do a liveaboard or get a resort and do just a few dives?

 

[diversteve]

IMO the best diving we did was off French Cay - a tiny unihabited islet (island is too generous) 45mins. by fast boat from Provo. Caicos Adventures also goes out there. But only for two dives because of the distance. We also dove a couple days off Provo's NW Point and several days off West Caicos - again accessible via day boat - we saw several there.

What you don't get are the opportunities to do 4 dives/day plus a night dive at any of the locations if you base on Provo.

Also the Explorer goes to Grand Turk on some trips now also - no one does that from Provo on a dayboat - it's too far. You'd have to fly over and stay on Grand Turk - and burn a dive day on the return since you have to fly back to Provo to fly home.

Price resorts on Provo before you decide also. Grace Bay is very expensive. I think Breezes is about the cheapest there but IIRC they only dive NW Point so you'd have to go with someone else to dive further out. You really don't shore dive off Provo so add the price of all the dives you want to do - and the logistics (car rental?) of doing so. Cabs are pretty high there, from the Marina to Grace Bay - N/S across the short part of the island - was $10pp. in a shared van - to the airport was $20.

There's one small casino, some pricey shopping, and some good restaurants if that's of more interest. And Grace Bay is one of the best beaches in the world. So it depends on what you want - some people go on vacation and dive, others go on dive vacations. We're the latter.

Aggressor/Dancer Fleet and Explorer are pretty much the standard in the industry - at least in the Caribbean. Aggressor is slightly fancier - meals are more formal etc. - but you also pay slightly more for it. If you compare the T/C boats only, Aggressor has a hot tub also. And I believe in-room small flat screens. I prefer outdoor space so I liked the Explorer better since it has one more deck - otoh the lounge/dining area are combined so it's never really private except pretty late at night. We had a group that stayed up late most nights also - that's atypical as a lot of people are tired after 4 dives/day. A couple nights I slept up on the fly bridge, they have padded benches.

The service is good, the crews work hard to satisfy just about any reasonable request, you move between a lot more divesites - there's the possibility of doing up to 27 dives/wk. So is it worth the money? It is to us.

 

[Brodydog]

How funny to come across this thread as I just did a comparison last week for EV versus Aggressor in the Turks and Caicos. I just came back 2 weeks ago from doing the Cayman Aggressor. I have always been a huge fan of Explorer Ventures and liked that their prices are less than some of the others. But since we have done most of their Caribbean itineraries at least once we decided to try Aggressor and chose the Caymans as our destination.

From reading posts here on SB, I had always gotten the impression that Aggressor was a superior company to EV. Not so in my opinion. I was no more impressed with the boat as a whole, the cabins, the dive deck, or the service. I will say the food was far better than any of the EV cooks (even the infamous Stan). But I still actually prefer everything about EV from the booking process til the end of the trip.

With all that said, I realized when I got home that we had not been charged a fuel surcharge with the Cayman Aggressor like we usually are with EV. So I started thinking prices are probably closer than I had always thought. So I did a comparison of the 2 for a Turks & Caicos trip. This is what I came up with.

EV - $2095 (base) + 125 (fuel) + 85 (port tax) + 150 (nitrox) = 2455
Agg - $2495 (base) + 45 (bed tax) + 100 (nitrox) = 2640

A difference of only $185
$235 difference if nitrox is not used (since they have $50 difference on price for it)

For me the 185 is not a huge difference but then multiplied times 2 for hubby and myself then $370 becomes a little more significant.

The prices are a LOT closer than I thought. But since I did not find Aggressor to be any better for the trip I took, I would still opt for the cheaper of the 2. I can find other uses for that $370. I do always keep my eye out for any specials with either company though and will use Aggressor to go to destinations that EV does not go to.


My 2 cents.


Tammy

 

[BDSC]

One other thing to keep in mind is the "free space" policy. I know with the EV boats, they probably have the best deal going of any liveaboard. For a small group they offer for 5 people paying one goes for free. I think for the Aggressor boats it's close to 9 pay and one goes free.

Now if it's only just two folks going the above doesn't matter. But if a couple can find just a few more folks to join them, then that base price of $2095 divided 6 ways and there you have another $349 in savings per person. Look at it as a couple and that's right at $700.

 

[electric_diver]

If you surface without your buddy and unresponsive, how do you expect them to see you?

The 21W canister light with a diffusion cover makes me very hard to miss on a night dive.

---------- Post added May 15th, 2012 at 04:40 PM ----------

Yeah, probably not a good idea. You know, I've heard a lot of things about Turks and Caicos, but, are the liveaboards there really that good or are they just ok? You know, is it worth the money? Would it be wise to do a liveaboard or get a resort and do just a few dives?

The diving *IS* that good in T&C (French Key, West Caicos, NW point). The reefs are very healthy. I was really impressed when compared with my most recent Carribean trips (Roatan, Cozumel).

If you want a dive vacation then a liveaboard is what you want. If you want a vacation with a few dives then land based is what you want. The liveaboard is best value for someone who wants to do 4 to 5 dives a day and over 20 in a week.

 

[Mike]

Thank you everyone for your input and advice. I have decided to go with the "Lost Island Voyages" in the Bahamas. L.I.V was much more affordable and closer to fly to, plus, the business is family orientated and seemed much more friendly. I did call the other companies, but they were completely booked - found out that these kind of things you need to try and book in advance. L.I.V has a great reputation and I am excited to be diving with them. Maybe on the next vacation, Lord Willing, I'll try out the Aggressor fleet over in the Pacific - maybe - let's see how L.I.V turns out

1). Lost Island Voyages - Bahamas $1295 (roughly)

Bahamas Diving & Charter Boat | Lost Island Voyages

Just wondering if you have spent much time on a sail boat?

A 65 foot sail boat is a pretty good sized boat, but it's not very big at all once you stick 12 guests on board plus crew. I've chartered 50 ft sail boats in the BVI with just us and another couple and after a week, 2 couples on a 50 foot sail boat is about right, a 3rd couple would have been manageable but I'm glad not to have them. I'm boggled to imagine 12 guests plus crew, plus all the dive and camera gear. Don't get me wrong, I think as long as you know what you're getting into, and go in with eyes wide open it should be a great time, but that's a lot of people on a sail boat and an adjustment for most in regard to the experience of such cramped quarters.

 

[WOODMAN]

I'm really surprised that no-one has mentioned the Juliet in all of this wrangling. She is a really nice little 3 masted motor schooner which is based out of Provo for half the year, and going to full time in Provo as of this next winter. You can find her at 'sailjuliet', and she runs about $1590 a week's trip. She can be a little hard to get bookings for, as she tends to sell out far in advance, but if you call them you might find something which will work for you. Just an idea...Woody

 

[EVFleet]

I just looked at your links, you really need to go to both Aggressor's and Explorer's website directly. Some of the information about the Explorer on the US Dive Travel website is wrong. I'm not sure where they got those ship schematics but there's 2 premium cabins up top, 6-8 cabins on the main deck and either 2 or 4 lower. As I mentioned only the lower have bunks. Also the dining room doesn't look anything like that. - there's 5 separate tables on either side. Actually none of the three are accurate.

Plus the two top pictures (except the very top one) are of another boat. To me the interior shot looks like either the retired Caribbean Explorer 1 or an old Aggressor boat. And you can see that the "scootin" shot is another boat. To their credit, the lower shots are the boat we were on.

Also you can book directly with either so why go through US Dive travel. Call Explorer directly and ask for Mary, she'll set everything up for you.

Wow - looks like USDT's page only got a scattershot update. Turks & Caicos Explorer II replaced the original Turks & Caicos Explorer (formerly Caribbean Explorer, subsequently Caribbean Explorer I) in 2005. The second two pictures are indeed of the old boat, which many of you have gone on in either the Northeastern Caribbean, Turks & Caicos, or southern Bahamas - so are the boat schematics. I'll email John again to update that page, I'm glad the subject came up!

- Clay