Considering a liveaboard...

[BethV114]

I know, I know, it's not a question related to the major cruise lines, but it still involves a type of cruise vacation, so I thought I'd post it here. We're considering doing our first liveaboard dive vacation next January to celebrate an upcoming birthday. There would be three of us, each with about 20 dives logged. We'd like to select a ship that has activities other than diving to keep us entertained in the event that we have to miss a dive or just decide to sit one out and relax. We'd also like to choose a location that is relatively warm in January and not prohibitively expensive to fly to from New York. We're considering the Cuan Law right now, but I thought I'd post here and see if anyone on these boards has any other recommendations. You've all been exceptionally helpful thus far, so I figured that it doesn't hurt to ask.:p

Thanks in advance for any help/suggestions you might be able to offer!:D

[bruce-r]

Cuan Law would be an excellent choice for a liveaboard. The diving is easy. They generally offer 3 dives a day, depending in the interests of the guests that week.

 

Another to consider would be http://www.aquacatcruises.com/ They also offer some non-diving stuff if you're not a hard core diver.

 

Water temps in January will be just about as cold as they get in the Caribbean, with the Bahamas being a slight bit cooler than BVI.

 

http://www.explorerventures.com/turksexp/index.html probably has less non-diving stuff, but the diving in the Turks and Caicos is very nice.

 

Which ever you choose, if diving is the primary interest of your vacation, a liveaboard is without at doubt the way to go, IMO.

[BethV114]

Bruce - Thanks for the quick response. Do you by any chance have any personal experience with those operators? We are leaning heavily towards the Cuan Law since my husband wants to know that there are other activities to take part in if he wants to skip a dive. Also, my sister still tends to get a bit nervous sometimes, so we were hoping to find a trip with relatively easy dives and a more relaxed environment (rather than the really hard-core trips that do 5-6 dives a day and probably wouldn't have much time or patience for her).

My husband is supposed to be the one taking the "lead" on organizing this trip, so he's also going to put in a call to our local dive shop to see what they recommend, but it's always nice to have other ideas as a backup plan.

Thanks again for the help!:)

[bruce-r]

I've only done cold water liveaboard trips with hard core divers, but I have a non-diving family and have read quite a bit about both the Cuan Law and Aqua Cat. A friend who has gone on the Cuan Law had nothing but great things to say about the trip. She owns a dive shop in Cozumel, so she know a bit about diving. She said the diving was mostly fairly shallow and quite easy.

 

No one is going to make fun of you or give you any grief if you don't make every dive on any liveaboard, even the "hard core" boats. If your sister needs a little extra help, there is usually a crew member available to dive with guests who want an guide.

[scubaran]

Bruce - Thanks for the quick response. Do you by any chance have any personal experience with those operators? We are leaning heavily towards the Cuan Law since my husband wants to know that there are other activities to take part in if he wants to skip a dive. Also, my sister still tends to get a bit nervous sometimes, so we were hoping to find a trip with relatively easy dives and a more relaxed environment (rather than the really hard-core trips that do 5-6 dives a day and probably wouldn't have much time or patience for her).

 

My husband is supposed to be the one taking the "lead" on organizing this trip, so he's also going to put in a call to our local dive shop to see what they recommend, but it's always nice to have other ideas as a backup plan.

 

Thanks again for the help!:)

 

Hi,

 

I haven't done these boats but I have done an Aggressor boat or two (the Belize Aggressor is to die for). These ARE primarily dive boats. As such the topside activities are limited to things like sunning, going over your pictures, reading, a cocktail or two, or hot tub (there's one on the Aggressor boats). However, there's never any pressure to do any more dives than you want (and you can always snorkel if you want in the water but don't want to dive). The crew are always friendly and any dive master on any of these boats will be happy to "hand hold", be a "guide" to that elusive creature you've been searching for all week, or be your dive buddy if your's sits one out. The food is generally very good in large quantities (you get hungry diving all day) and if you haven't tried it, get night dive certified beforehand and try that out (it's one of my favorite types of dives, the corals are all colors since you bring along your own white light and the fish and creatures are generally more dosile and will allow you to get right up to them (instead of seeing all those tails swimming away from you)). But these are not cruise ships, no floor shows, the pool is the ocean and you'll have your choice of one restaurant to eat at. But the ease of diving can't be beat. If you have specific questions about life aboard a live-aboard I'd be happy to reply back to any questions you have.

 

Randall

 

P.S. if they have nitrox on board get certified beforehand as well. It not only reduces your risk of DCS but it's also called the "old-man's gas" as the extra oxygen in it seems to keep the fatigue away. :)

[KJHorton]

Hi,

 

 

P.S. if they have nitrox on board get certified beforehand as well. It not only reduces your risk of DCS but it's also called the "old-man's gas" as the extra oxygen in it seems to keep the fatigue away. :)

 

 

At my dive shop, they call it "geezer gas"!

[bruce-r]

At my dive shop, they call it "geezer gas"!

Or you could call it this:

[scubadiver888]

Or you could call it this:

 

Bruce,

 

You make me laugh. :)

 

Do you read these books? Are you a technical diver? I suspect you are a very experienced diver and stuff like this makes me think even more than I previously suspected. But you are more approachable and nice, unlike many DIR divers I've talked to.

 

Darrell

[islandwoman]

I know it doesn't meet your requirement of reasonably priced airfare, but January is summer on the Great Barrier Reef. We sailed on Captain Cook Cruises Reef Endeavour last year and loved it. It's small ship cruising. It includes the opportunity to do some dives during the cruise, plus they make stops at islands along the Great Barrier Reef, host hikes, snorkeling, and glass bottom boat excursions all from the ship. There isn't a lot of big ship type entertainment, but it was a friendly, fun ship. http://www.captaincook.com.au/home.asp?fleetid=642E857319262EA0&pageid=5562BD355DD2416E

 

You might want to also ask this question at www.scubaboard.com There is a forum for liveaboards there.

[BethV114]

I know it doesn't meet your requirement of reasonably priced airfare, but January is summer on the Great Barrier Reef. We sailed on Captain Cook Cruises Reef Endeavour last year and loved it. It's small ship cruising. It includes the opportunity to do some dives during the cruise, plus they make stops at islands along the Great Barrier Reef, host hikes, snorkeling, and glass bottom boat excursions all from the ship. There isn't a lot of big ship type entertainment, but it was a friendly, fun ship. http://www.captaincook.com.au/home.asp?fleetid=642E857319262EA0&pageid=5562BD355DD2416E

 

You might want to also ask this question at www.scubaboard.com There is a forum for liveaboards there.

 

Islandwoman, thanks for the info. Probably can't afford to do that next year, but it does look interesting, so I'll bookmark the page and hope we get to make our way down there sometime in the not too terribly distant future. After speaking with our dive instructor, we still like the idea of the Cuan Law, but we'd probably have to wait until May of next year to make sure we have some decent weather. That being the case, I'm now secretly considering other options that are more viable for January. Considering that the Cuan Law is pretty pricey, I might be able to convince my husband to head somewhere else if we can go in January and the cost of the trip itself is somewhat less than the Cuan Law, thereby offsetting some of the difference in airfare.

Thanks again for all the info you've provided. We hadn't thought of getting Nitrox certified before, but we're now definitely going to try to see if we can at least do the classroom work with our local dive shop and then do the check-out dives while on vacation.

[scubadiver888]

BethV114,

 

First, thanks for pointing out Cuan Law. My wife does not scuba dive. We go on cruises like Princess, Celebrity, etc. so she has something to do and I can get in some scuba diving. I've looked at the liveaboards recommended on places like http://www.scuba.com but they have nothing for my wife to do. She might actually be interested in the Cuan Law.

 

Second, getting Nitrox certified should be all classroom work. The tanks hook up the same way as air tanks. If you are using a dive computer it helps to have a setting for Nitrox; my dive shop recommends diving with Nitrox but using air tables. This means you have a much lower risk of DCS. Mind you, I and the people at my dive shop are the sort that we would probably only dive 3 times a day at most. If you are wanting to dive more, you'll need to take advantage of the Nitrox tables. I'm not Nitrox certified; I'm just reiterating what my dive shop told me a few weeks ago.

 

There might be some regulators that will not work with Nitrox (due to the higher oxygen content) but I think that would be rare. I do remember, years ago, reading about some equipment that is not Nitrox safe. Maybe I'm imagining things. :confused:

 

Darrell

[bruce-r]

Bruce,

 

You make me laugh. :)

 

Do you read these books? Are you a technical diver? I suspect you are a very experienced diver and stuff like this makes me think even more than I previously suspected. But you are more approachable and nice, unlike many DIR divers I've talked to.

 

Darrell

I haven't read those books and I'm not a tech diver, but diving in the Pacific Northwest is more strenuous than in the warm, clear Caribbean. You have to be more committed to the sport to want to dive here.

 

There are many elements of DIR that are worthwhile and quite a few of the people I've dived with incorporate then in their diving, but the whole "do it the DIR way or you are a stroke" is just silly. What good is knowing something good if your poor attitude keeps you from sharing it?

 

I do the Nitrox when I'm doing multiple days of multiple dives, like on a liveaboard. I don't use nitrox when cruise diving.

[scubaran]

Islandwoman, thanks for the info. Probably can't afford to do that next year, but it does look interesting, so I'll bookmark the page and hope we get to make our way down there sometime in the not too terribly distant future. After speaking with our dive instructor, we still like the idea of the Cuan Law, but we'd probably have to wait until May of next year to make sure we have some decent weather. That being the case, I'm now secretly considering other options that are more viable for January. Considering that the Cuan Law is pretty pricey, I might be able to convince my husband to head somewhere else if we can go in January and the cost of the trip itself is somewhat less than the Cuan Law, thereby offsetting some of the difference in airfare.

 

Thanks again for all the info you've provided. We hadn't thought of getting Nitrox certified before, but we're now definitely going to try to see if we can at least do the classroom work with our local dive shop and then do the check-out dives while on vacation.

 

Hi,

 

There's always the option of a dive vacation on an island for a week. Check with your local dive shop and see if they have any trips lined up. Good dive islands I've seen are Bonaire, Grand Cayman, Grand Turk and Cozumel. All four have hotel/dive packages that usually include something like 2-boat dives a day, 1-night dive and unlimited shore dives from the resort's beach. This can give you as many dives as a liveaboard along with the night life an island can provide (not to mention a nice room with a full bath instead of a cabin on a small boat :) ).

 

Randall

[booth22]

I'll toss in the MV Juliet as a fantastic trip!!! http://www.sailjuliet.com We did this last year and had a blast- our first liveaboard and it was great- there are some pictures/videos on our site from the trip (http://www.salvavidascuba.com - look for the Bahamas videos/pictures) I'd also suggest the Utila Aggressor- the Bay Islands have good sites for beginners and the folks who run the Utila Aggressor also run Laguna Beach Resort on Utila and are fabulous people! Good luck with your choices!