Thanks for the compliments. Some answers to questions:
Privacy: We did not have a problem with privacy—surprising how big the boat can seem. The top deck has lots of room and usually had only a few people between dives—reading-snoozing-etc. The Salon deck has a few tables in the back and the main salon has a couple of sofas and chairs at the bar—again only a person or two between dives. Seems like at least half the passengers were in their cabin between dives.
Snorkeling/Exploration ashore: While at Ulong Island (location for Survivor TV show) there was an opportunity to go ashore and look around (we declined). While at Peleliu, there was an optional (small extra charge) land tour of the WWII sights on the island. If you did this tour, you had to miss the 2nd dive of the morning. Did not notice any snorkelers on our trip but there was one day when we were moored quite close to a reef—not sure if snorkeling was allowed. I understand that each trip is slightly different as to dive site order, which dive sites, mooring, etc. Best to check with the Aggressor people as to snorkeling options.
3 dives a day worked just fine for us on our first day and last day. Sitting out dive #4 gave us the entire boat to ourselves (except for the 3 crew members not on the dive skiff). If your dive buddy wants to skip a dive—not a problem—passengers can buddy up with one of the 3 crew in the water (our trip had one single diver that was always buddies with a crew member).
Tropic Dancer is docked right next to the Aggressor—in fact we had to walk through the TD to get to the Aggressor. They are nearly identical twins: a slightly different layout on the dive deck, different decorations and an extra hammock on the top deck was all we noticed as different. The crew even moves around between the two ships (check the websites—you have to look close to see the difference in the ship photos and the crew list is nearly identical). Not sure why the price difference.
Privacy: We did not have a problem with privacy—surprising how big the boat can seem. The top deck has lots of room and usually had only a few people between dives—reading-snoozing-etc. The Salon deck has a few tables in the back and the main salon has a couple of sofas and chairs at the bar—again only a person or two between dives. Seems like at least half the passengers were in their cabin between dives.
Snorkeling/Exploration ashore: While at Ulong Island (location for Survivor TV show) there was an opportunity to go ashore and look around (we declined). While at Peleliu, there was an optional (small extra charge) land tour of the WWII sights on the island. If you did this tour, you had to miss the 2nd dive of the morning. Did not notice any snorkelers on our trip but there was one day when we were moored quite close to a reef—not sure if snorkeling was allowed. I understand that each trip is slightly different as to dive site order, which dive sites, mooring, etc. Best to check with the Aggressor people as to snorkeling options.
3 dives a day worked just fine for us on our first day and last day. Sitting out dive #4 gave us the entire boat to ourselves (except for the 3 crew members not on the dive skiff). If your dive buddy wants to skip a dive—not a problem—passengers can buddy up with one of the 3 crew in the water (our trip had one single diver that was always buddies with a crew member).
Tropic Dancer is docked right next to the Aggressor—in fact we had to walk through the TD to get to the Aggressor. They are nearly identical twins: a slightly different layout on the dive deck, different decorations and an extra hammock on the top deck was all we noticed as different. The crew even moves around between the two ships (check the websites—you have to look close to see the difference in the ship photos and the crew list is nearly identical). Not sure why the price difference.
