Who is writing the dive operator reviews?

[gtto]

Here is my day so far. I just walked back to the cruise ship i am working on after being left on a pier by a dive operator that forgot to bring a wet suit for me. This was an operation in St. Lucia called Froggy's which came highly recommended from this forum. I clearly stated in my email to Froggy's that I needed a wet suit. I was really looking forward to this dive and I am clearly angry. I also went to another operator in Barbados, Dive Shop Barbados again recommended here, that made us walk to the boat through the water carrying our gear and then proceeded 50 feet to the dive site. It was easily reachable from the shore. Maybe a 5 minute swim. There, we were "treated" to a couple of small wrecks and no reef to speak of. Very nice for a beginner but not worth my hard earned cash. Am I just expecting too much? Who is writing the reviews praising these places? Their relatives? I admit to being a little spoiled having dived(?) over 50 times in the last 4 months, 2 months of that in Belize but seriously.......On the other hand, I dove in Bonaire last week and it was a smooth dive. Buddy's dive center. Picked me up at the dock with no problems. I was forced to pay for a "guide" since they do a checkout dive thing in Bonaire but next time I will just pay for air. 100 ft viz. Really nice reef. I realize that everyone has an off day and maybe this was Froggy's. I am just so annoyed at not being able to dive because of something so stupid.
On another note, I will be in the Caribbean for the next 5 months or so and would like to find some buddies to dive with. We usually dock in St Thomas, Dominica, Barbados, St Lucia, Martinique, St Maarten, Grand Turk, Bonaire, Curacao and Aruba. I am usually, at each one every 20 days. If you live or will be in any of these places and want a buddy, let me know.

 

[jcpiota]

Here is my day so far. I just walked back to the cruise ship i am working on after being left on a pier by a dive operator that forgot to bring a wet suit for me. This was an operation in St. Lucia called Froggy's which came highly recommended from this forum. I clearly stated in my email to Froggy's that I needed a wet suit. I was really looking forward to this dive and I am clearly angry. I also went to another operator in Barbados, Dive Shop Barbados again recommended here, that made us walk to the boat through the water carrying our gear and then proceeded 50 feet to the dive site. It was easily reachable from the shore. Maybe a 5 minute swim. There, we were "treated" to a couple of small wrecks and no reef to speak of. Very nice for a beginner but not worth my hard earned cash. Am I just expecting too much? Who is writing the reviews praising these places? Their relatives? I admit to being a little spoiled having dived(?) over 50 times in the last 4 months, 2 months of that in Belize but seriously.......On the other hand, I dove in Bonaire last week and it was a smooth dive. Buddy's dive center. Picked me up at the dock with no problems. I was forced to pay for a "guide" since they do a checkout dive thing in Bonaire but next time I will just pay for air. 100 ft viz. Really nice reef. I realize that everyone has an off day and maybe this was Froggy's. I am just so annoyed at not being able to dive because of something so stupid.
On another note, I will be in the Caribbean for the next 5 months or so and would like to find some buddies to dive with. We usually dock in St Thomas, Dominica, Barbados, St Lucia, Martinique, St Maarten, Grand Turk, Bonaire, Curacao and Aruba. I am usually, at each one every 20 days. If you live or will be in any of these places and want a buddy, let me know.

If you are in St Lucia you may look into Island Divers. They have multiple locations but I stay at Tikaye(heaven on Earth) and use the shop there. It isn't Bonaire. By law you have to have a local DM with you. Here is the issue, if you can get Lester as the DM, or Jem(the manager) go. Lester could find atlantis underwater if they would let him. At my last trip there was a new DM there also. Won't mention name because he is a fine young man and a pleasure to be around top side. He is just not in the same ballpark with Lester. However! It depends on what you want. If you want someone just to go down with the group, be out of the way, let you go where you want and just ensure a safety stop, there you have a lot of freedom with him and that's bad either.

 

[DandyDon]

Dive Op reviews seem to be written by fans more often than critics it seems. It does seem to be a good ideas to do extensive searching on an Op here, then read many reviews.

 

[BlueIslandBell]

Hey gtto. Look us up in St Thomas, you won't be disappointed with the diving here!

St. Thomas scuba diving

 

[robint]

Hate to disappoint you, but 95% of people who dive from cruise ships are once a year divers, most only doing a few dives per year. They have NOTHING to compare to when writing their reviews so they do believe what they are writing. Also, those dive ops that service cruise ship passengers, for the most part, treat everyone like they are newbie divers with no experience because that is what 95% of the people are! So that's what you get, regardless of what you expect.

Just my 2 cents.

robin

 

[ScubaSteve]

Here is my day so far. I just walked back to the cruise ship i am working on after being left on a pier by a dive operator that forgot to bring a wet suit for me. This was an operation in St. Lucia called Froggy's which came highly recommended from this forum. I clearly stated in my email to Froggy's that I needed a wet suit.

Why did you call the dive over a wetsuit? I likely would have gone anyways and told the DM that I would be turning my dive when I got cold. Why would that not have been an option? Just a question.

 

[marcaumarc]

I think it can be hard to get a good idea of a dive shop from reviews, particularly if you don't have a lot of them to go by. Personally, I am probably less likely to publically review a dive shop that is mediocre, and very happy to let other divers know about the shops I love.

Besides reviews, I think it can be helpful to look at other things like the care they put into their web site and responses to inquiries which speak to general professionalism. Also, shops that do a lot of courses and certifications tend to take diving more seriously.

I am currently doing my divemaster internship with Octopus Diving in St. Martin (Octopus Diving - Scuba Dive and Snorkel in Saint Martin / Sint Maarten), and they really are a terrific shop. You should consider coming to dive with us next time you're on the island.

What I have noticed over the past few months is that definitely the majority of people diving with us are new or casual divers compared to a more diving-centric locale like Roatan. I would guess this is true of most places in the Caribbean or anywhere that is a general vacation destination. So I think anywhere that has a lot of regular vacation travel may be likely to have reviews written by novice or infrequent divers.

 

[Rhone Man]

Why did you call the dive over a wetsuit? I likely would have gone anyways and told the DM that I would be turning my dive when I got cold. Why would that not have been an option? Just a question.

I was thinking that. Better a cold dive ('cold' by Caribbean standards) than no dive.

But reviews are always subjective, and so is performance. I have read people on SB who are obviously sensible and reasonable people giving a tirade against dive shops that I happen to regard as consummate professionals. Even good dive shops have bad days.

 

[Alex777]

The fundamental problem (and a large one) with ScubaBoard reviews is a lack of comparators. The typical 'review' here is a few paragraphs of unstinting praise with no suggestion about how the dive op may be better than, or even different from, its competitors. Dive ops are typically praised for doing certain things (like setting up your gear for you) which most of their competitors do as well. It is usually obvious that the reviewer lacks any broad experience with dive ops and is simply delivering a sort of public 'thank you' to the dive op because he enjoyed himself with them.

 

[Scared Silly]

Probably do the dive but not leave tip as a tip is for good service.