Who is writing the dive operator reviews?

[Jaw Fish]

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.

robin

I'm a dive operator in St. Vincent, and with all due respect, I have had some AWFUL experiences with cruise ship crew. Not all, but enough to make me wary...

I have been booked 'yes there will be 8 of us can you do us a good discount' and then only 3 turn up... when time to pay comes 'the person that we spoke to in the shop said we could have it for less' - no that would be me that you spoke to and no the price that I quoted is what I expect you to pay... etc etc etc...

When dealing with cruise ship folk I ALWAYS play it super safe, as it takes only one accident to ruin a reputation that it has taken me years to build.

I am very sorry that you have had these experiences, but there is always 2 sides to every story.

There is a HUGE difference between cruise ship divers and in-resort divers, and as an operator I do my very best to provide enjoyable and safe diving for everyone. In some instances I provide 2 dive leaders, one for the in resort folks, and one for the cruise ship folks, should I have a mixed group on board.

It is wrong for an operator to assume that all cruise ship passengers are 'once a year' divers, but at the end of the day most cruise ship passengers are... and there really isn't much that we can do about that!

I am sure that the wetsuit issue with Froggies was an oversight, and we all make mistakes from time to time don't we...

 

[Stichus III]

On the other hand, sometimes you read awful reviews of dive operators that gave you good service. The internet gives everybody a voice. When researching a dive operator, we should probably disregard the very best reviews and the worst reviews.

 

[RICHinNC]

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.

The problem Don is that being a critic here will get you labasted by those that are fanatics for the place you are critical about.

 

[Rhone Man]

The problem Don is that being a critic here will get you labasted by those that are fanatics for the place you are critical about.

I am not convinced that is necessarily true. Two things will get you lambasted for sure:

- Posting a one-sided or selectively reported account alleging that an operator was unsafe (particularly with your first post on SB). I remember a brutal grilling a couple of years back where it turned out some wild allegations about an operator in Saba were unfounded - quite the reverse actually, the OP had been fairly unsafe with his inexperienced son, and tried to pin it on the operator.

- Criticising the diving in a particular area. I once suggested that I didn't think the diving in a certain part of the Caribbean was all that great, and I took a serious beat down.

I think if you do post a critical report, it is quite natural for others who disagree to post and say "huh, we thought they were fine when we dived with them..." Nothing wrong with that.