Middleager- you out there?

[LisaFlyer]

Hey- saw you do some diving- what did you finally do for your dive trips? We are on the Valor in November and am in the process of setting up my dives. So far, we are going with Blue Ocean Safari in Costa Maya, Eden Rock at GC, but have yet to book Belize- we are looking at eco-tours, but the dive outfit has bad reviews on undercurrent, so I was going to try to book our flight with eco-tours, but dive with pro-tech. Who did you go with at Roatan? We were looking at bananarama diving

Lisa

[Middleager]

Hey- saw you do some diving- what did you finally do for your dive trips? We are on the Valor in November and am in the process of setting up my dives. So far, we are going with Blue Ocean Safari in Costa Maya, Eden Rock at GC, but have yet to book Belize- we are looking at eco-tours, but the dive outfit has bad reviews on undercurrent, so I was going to try to book our flight with eco-tours, but dive with pro-tech. Who did you go with at Roatan? We were looking at bananarama diving

Lisa

Hi there. I've been back almost 2 weeks now, but been swamped. Kids just started school (one in elementary, one just started middle school, one just started high school), and softball tournaments. I haven't posted reviews yet, but hope to do that soon.

 

In Belize I did book with Ecological tours and flew to San Pedro, Ambergris Caye to dive. The flights were fine. I didn't like the dive shop, Aqua Dive. My complaint was at first they gave me a very old and worn BC that had both pockets rippped at the bottom (can't hold anything), and took a while to get me a medium size BC. Also the mouthpiece on the reg needed to be replaced. The guy said they had a large group going out and used most of the rental equipment. The dives in Belize were fine, good boat, good DM, short ride to the reef. My wife and friends really enjoyed their snorkel trip to Shark Ray Alley where they got to pet stingrays and nurse shark. People from other snorkel tours did not have a guide that worked as hard to bring 3 different stingrays for them to pet.

 

In Cayman I originally booked with Wall to Wall, but due to ship changing schedule, I had to cancel. Wall to Wall goes out early. I ended up diving with Neptune. It was good, lots of marine life. The shore dive at Eden Rock was also very good - but need to swim out a bit farther and south from entry point.

 

In Costa Maya, Blue Ocean Safari was fine, a bit unorganized. But you'll see they're all like that there. Mahahual is a small fishing village, still mostly dirt roads, and lots of building (with wood) going on. The problem we found was one tank was only at 1500psi, so the DM switch that with the guy who had that tank, and still lasted 35 min on that dive (went to 85').

 

I found Costa Maya reef more colorful and more enjoyable. The previous owner of DreamTime diving was the DM for our second dive. Before going out, BOS found more tanks not filled to 3000. Anyway, the dive was good with him. They said the local dive shop that had air compressor (I believe they mean DreamTime), broke down. So everyone had to drive 45min north to get air filled. The day before they drove and got 16 tanks filled. It was a tough lesson for them to find some were not really filled. Now they know they have to check every tank themselves after they are supposedly filled. Julie of BOS also said they actually have their own compressor hooked up, but just waiting for the license to be issued before they can use it. She said it was tough learning that when people there tell you it'll be ready tomorrow, it can mean in a week, or a month, or longer.

 

We have a wonderful dive at Cozumel with Blue Angels. Did not go to Roatan. Would like to. So please share your review there. Next year I'm think to take Carnival Destiny to S. Caribbean.

[LisaFlyer]

Undercurrent had some really bad things about aqua divers- I think I am going to use ecotours for the flight only, and then use another dive outfit once I get there. Thanks for the heads up and info on the other dive outfits- I think we will just do eden rock for the caymans and just do some shore diving. I'll let everyone know how Roatan is...

Thanks!!!!!!

Lisa

[thedebbied]

Hi there. I've been back almost 2 weeks now, but been swamped. Kids just started school (one in elementary, one just started middle school, one just started high school), and softball tournaments. I haven't posted reviews yet, but hope to do that soon.

 

In Belize I did book with Ecological tours and flew to San Pedro, Ambergris Caye to dive. The flights were fine. I didn't like the dive shop, Aqua Dive. My complaint was at first they gave me a very old and worn BC that had both pockets rippped at the bottom (can't hold anything), and took a while to get me a medium size BC. Also the mouthpiece on the reg needed to be replaced. The guy said they had a large group going out and used most of the rental equipment. The dives in Belize were fine, good boat, good DM, short ride to the reef. My wife and friends really enjoyed their snorkel trip to Shark Ray Alley where they got to pet stingrays and nurse shark. People from other snorkel tours did not have a guide that worked as hard to bring 3 different stingrays for them to pet.

 

In Cayman I originally booked with Wall to Wall, but due to ship changing schedule, I had to cancel. Wall to Wall goes out early. I ended up diving with Neptune. It was good, lots of marine life. The shore dive at Eden Rock was also very good - but need to swim out a bit farther and south from entry point.

 

In Costa Maya, Blue Ocean Safari was fine, a bit unorganized. But you'll see they're all like that there. Mahahual is a small fishing village, still mostly dirt roads, and lots of building (with wood) going on. The problem we found was one tank was only at 1500psi, so the DM switch that with the guy who had that tank, and still lasted 35 min on that dive (went to 85').

 

I found Costa Maya reef more colorful and more enjoyable. The previous owner of DreamTime diving was the DM for our second dive. Before going out, BOS found more tanks not filled to 3000. Anyway, the dive was good with him. They said the local dive shop that had air compressor (I believe they mean DreamTime), broke down. So everyone had to drive 45min north to get air filled. The day before they drove and got 16 tanks filled. It was a tough lesson for them to find some were not really filled. Now they know they have to check every tank themselves after they are supposedly filled. Julie of BOS also said they actually have their own compressor hooked up, but just waiting for the license to be issued before they can use it. She said it was tough learning that when people there tell you it'll be ready tomorrow, it can mean in a week, or a month, or longer.

 

We have a wonderful dive at Cozumel with Blue Angels. Did not go to Roatan. Would like to. So please share your review there. Next year I'm think to take Carnival Destiny to S. Caribbean.

 

Did you just dive with Blue Angel? If so, how are they doing? We have used them several times, the last being just before the hurricane.

[Middleager]

Did you just dive with Blue Angel? If so, how are they doing? We have used them several times, the last being just before the hurricane.

Yes. Blue Angel was great. The DM Mateo (Matthew, originally from Chicago) was super. I doved at Columbia Deep (while others snorkeled at Columbia Shallow), and then Palancar Gardens. Wish I can find time to write the full review.

[Middleager]

Undercurrent had some really bad things about aqua divers- I think I am going to use ecotours for the flight only, and then use another dive outfit once I get there. Thanks for the heads up and info on the other dive outfits- I think we will just do eden rock for the caymans and just do some shore diving. I'll let everyone know how Roatan is...

Thanks!!!!!!

Lisa

Just curious, what did Undercurrent say?

 

Wonder if you can ask Ecological Tours about hooking you up with another outfit. Let them know your concern about Aqua. I did write back after the trip and Marvin indicated he will forward my concerns to the owner of Aqua. If it's really necessary, I'm sure they will switch to using another op. Aside from the rental gears, the diving itself was fine.

[LisaFlyer]

I emailed ecotours and they said they never had any complaints with aquatours. They offered to provide me air only and then when I get there, use Protech, who had great reviews. But,,, I am thinking since we all have our own equipment, that we ought to just go with aquadive since we will only be getting air and weights from them- Undercurrents had a couple people just say their rental equipment was unsafe and not maintained- same issues as yours. Soooo,,, Although I want to dive nitrox to get some additional bottom time, I am thinking of just doing the easy thing and take their package for $159- it will be a lot less stress of having to arrange all the transfers, working with multiple operators, and trying to coordinate this thing- I'm going on vacation, and the less stress, the better.

Soooo,,, does that sound ok or should I really press to go with protech?

Lisa

[Middleager]

I emailed ecotours and they said they never had any complaints with aquatours. They offered to provide me air only and then when I get there, use Protech, who had great reviews. But,,, I am thinking since we all have our own equipment, that we ought to just go with aquadive since we will only be getting air and weights from them- Undercurrents had a couple people just say their rental equipment was unsafe and not maintained- same issues as yours. Soooo,,, Although I want to dive nitrox to get some additional bottom time, I am thinking of just doing the easy thing and take their package for $159- it will be a lot less stress of having to arrange all the transfers, working with multiple operators, and trying to coordinate this thing- I'm going on vacation, and the less stress, the better.

Soooo,,, does that sound ok or should I really press to go with protech?

Lisa

Hi Lisa. So Undercurrent did have people who had issues about Aqua's rental gears. If you have your own gear then that's not a problem then. It was Marvin of Ecological Tours that I had been communicating to. He should remember my issues with the rental gears.

 

San Pedro in Ambergris Caye is a small town, with several dive shops. In fact, many people go there to dive, so diving is big business there. Aqua was a short walk (3-4 blocks, 5 min.) from the airport, maybe the shortest. If you are able to find out the location of the other shop(s) you like to dive with and are comfortable you can walk there easily, then that's certainly an option. I remember researching and there were lots of maps to be found about San Pedro and Ambergris Caye. So you just might be able to find the exact location of another shop relative to the airport.

 

The flights cost was $60 return in Aug. I don't know what Ecological Tours would charge just to drive you to/from the airport and airfare. If it's not much more than $60 and you can arrange cheaper diving with another shop, then the total cost would be cheaper. But, there is one big but, if the ship's time to Belize changes, you'll have two ops to deal with. In our Miracle cruise, instead of getting to Belize on Aug. 31, it went there on Aug. 29, to avoid hurricane Ernesto. I had to email from the ship to Marvin, to confirm the change of date would be no problem.

[LisaFlyer]

Yea, I think we are just going with ecotours- lot less hassle if something were to occur and we get the benefit of one stop shopping and full refund if any part of it falls apart due to weather, etc. We are really excited about going over there- our last "dive flight" was from st. maartin to Saba and that was really wild- it's the worlds shortest runway and when we took off, we actually dropped down about 50' when we went off the runway until we finally started to climb again- it was really scary, but a cool scary...

Lisa

[LisaFlyer]

Yea, I think we are just going with ecotours- lot less hassle if something were to occur and we get the benefit of one stop shopping and full refund if any part of it falls apart due to weather, etc. We are really excited about going over there- our last "dive flight" was from st. maartin to Saba and that was really wild- it's the worlds shortest runway and when we took off, we actually dropped down about 50' when we went off the runway until we finally started to climb again- it was really scary, but a cool scary...

Lisa