Trip Report - Sun Dancer II - Belize - July 2009

Well, since I am not an English major I will just give bullet points for the trip that I think divers would want to know.

1. Used Continental through Houston, no issues with luggage, customs, connections, etc. We chose Continental mainly because they had several flights to Belize and we selected the second to last flight in the event something went wrong we would not be completely out of luck.

2. The SunDancer crew picked us up at the airport. We had to wait about 15 minutes for them to arrive. Each guest received a very cold bottle of water and a frozen hand towel to refresh oneself with during the ride to the Radisson.

Note - there was a guy at the airport wanting tip money for the baggage handlers. I know this is common in Roatan but I have not a clue about Belize - We did not give him anything. Also, there were lots of "taxis" but you only had to so - no thank you once and they left you alone!

3. Our group slowly assembled at the Radisson Pool Bar and at around 3:30 PM we were taken to the boat. That afternoon had the normal introductions, safety briefing and drill and a sit down dinner.

4. The boat overnighted to Lighthouse atoll for the weeks diving.

5. Dive sites:
Long Caye Ridge
Cathedral
Half Moon Caye Wall (World class dive site - equal to Jackson Wall at Little Cayman)
Uno COCO
Hat Caye Wall
Sandbox
Silver Caves
Painted Walls (Very beautiful shallow site)
Long Caye Wall
Aquarium
Que Brada
Amberhead

According to the crew, the wind was too bad to go to many sites they would liked to have gone to and the diving suffered accordingly. Some sites such as sandbox and Hat Caye Wall had current and visibility so bad we only attempted one dive there.

Our group opted out of the blue hole - we did not want to waste a half day on a been there done that dive.

I would rate the diving for the week a 4 to 5 on a scale of 1 to 10

6. Food - Breakfast was continental early and made to order at 7:00 am. One nice perk was that your coffee or tea was delivered to your room at whatever time you requested - but not before 5:30 am. Lunch was buffet style and there was plenty to go around - Dinner was a fine china multi course meal with an open bar.

I won't comment on the food since I eat to live and not for pleasure. Some folks consider dining as entertainment - I do not!

7. Room was typical liveaboard. Not quite as large as on the Rorqual and in my opinion not any nicer. There was a plumbing leak in the bathroom which has basically rotted out the floor. It will be a major fix when the time comes.

Note - If you do this trip the boat's A/C works on water circulation. The odd number cabins don't get much A/C when in port so on the last friday night you may want to consider staying at the Radisson rather than on the boat. At least part of our group did this and were happy they did. I was in room # 10 so it did not affect me.

Conclusion: I would not do this trip again. I don't know if the wind was an issue but I can conclude that the dive sites were not up to par to the cost incurred to dive them.

Post trip excursions:

8. We arranged with Martha's Guesthouse to pick us up at the SunDancer at 8:00 am on Saturday and transport us to their location in San Ignacio. On Saturday we went to the flea market and hung out in the town.


Martha's Guesthouse, San Ignacio, CAYO - BELIZE

At $65.00 US a night this was one of the most expensive places in town. We stayed in the Annex. I have no complaints with Martha's and would stay there again.

9. On Sunday we went to Tikal

tikal - Google Image Search


Note- We might think we know what poverty is but till you've been to Guatemala don't kid yourself.


10. On Monday we went to the ATM Cave

Actun Tunichil Muknal - ATM Cave in Belize

Note- Not for the out of shape or the afraid of the dark folks. This is one awesome opportunity but it's clearly not for everyone!

11. On Tuesday we went horseback riding at Clarissa falls

Clarissa Falls Resort, Belize: Lodging & restaurant near San Ignacio, Cayo, Belize

Note - When you have not been on a horse in 10 years your ass is going to let you know it for days!!!

We used These folks for all the arrangements for the excursions

San Ignacio Tours, Cheap Tours in San Ignacio, Cheap Belize Trips, San Ignacio Tour Packages

They did a very good job for us and I would recommend them

We returned home on Wednesday

Thnx for the report

What was it about the dive sites that had you give the diving a 4-5 out of 10??

We did a very similar trip to you a few years ago, spending a week on the Nekton Pilot then time inland, including a trip to Tikal. You brought back memories, thanks.

DiveMaven:

What was it about the dive sites that had you give the diving a 4-5 out of 10??

We did a very similar trip to you a few years ago, spending a week on the Nekton Pilot then time inland, including a trip to Tikal. You brought back memories, thanks.

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The dive sites were basically all the same because the boat stayed in the same general area all week. Lots of particulate in the water - vis on some sites 30 or so feet. Strong current on some sites.

As to the wind, some days it was so windy you could not sit on the sun deck just to read.

DeputyDan:

The dive sites were basically all the same because the boat stayed in the same general area all week. Lots of particulate in the water - vis on some sites 30 or so feet. Strong current on some sites.

As to the wind, some days it was so windy you could not sit on the sun deck just to read.

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thanks for the report but sorry the trip didn't live up to the hype. Sounds like the wind made for a rough week all around. When we were in Bonaire a few years ago we had one very, very windy day... the vis underwater sucked! I didn't realize how much topside wind could affect things underwater until that day. It was awful, but luckily we weren't on a rocking boat all day! I don't think I would have enjoyed that part at all. :yuck:
It is interesting to hear a comparison of the boat to the Nekton boats as there always seems to be so much made about the Nekton boats being in such poor shape. For the price difference I thought the Dancer boats would be much more luxurious. :shocked2:

We have been considering doing a liveaboard trip to Belize for several years but since the Nekton discontinued their trips there we have had to put it on a back burner. It just isn't in our price range now. We had been considering doing land-based for a few days of diving then doing lots of inland tours like the ATM cave, Mayan ruins in Belize and Tikal. Thanks for all that info, too.

I understand from one of your previous posts that your daughters stayed in the owner's cabin, #1, I believe? How was it? Did it have the AC issue the odd numbered cabins did? My sister and I will be on the Sun Dancer next month and I've really been looking forward to the trip. I found the Nekton Pilot to be in horrible condition and I would be upset if the Sun Dancer is in bad shape. I'm concerned about the diving as well. I just got back from a trip on the Aquacat in the Exumas and it was fantastic. The boat was absolutely beautiful and diving was excellent. Thanks for any further info.

The owner's cabin was much larger that the regular cabins with basically a full size bathroom.
The owners cabin has portholes for windows whereas the other cabins have full windows.
The owner's cabin smelled slightly musty - but not overbearing
The kid's said that the sound from the engines when the boat was moving was very loud and the purchased ear plugs from the gift store.
As far as A/C - Unit one did not have a problem that I am aware of. All the units on the port side (left) had issues. All the units starboard (right) did not seem to have issues. In general the even numbered cabins are on the right - except that the owners cabin is also on the right side.

Sorry you had a crappy week Dan. According to the crew of the Aggressor, July is normally flat and calm with great vis.

tcdamsel: Sundancer basically goes to the same sites as Aggressor (you can often see the other boat 400m away). I thought the reefs were pretty healthy with lots of life and tons of sponges. It was windy at the beginning of the week and so vis was sometimes down to 40 feet, but later in the week it was 100+. Here are some shots from back in Feb.

Sorry to see you weren't really pleased with your trip. We were on the boat the last week of June and had an excellent trip. We pretty much dove the same sites you did and had very little current at all. Winds were also less of a factor but visibility was not as good as I had expected. From what I had read, I was expecting it to be as good as, if not better, than the viz in Cozumel but this was not the case.

We had the same issues with the AC and you are correct in that the odd numbered cabins seemed to have issues while the others did not.

Overall we really enjoyed our trip. Would we do it again? Yes, but that would be someday down the road as there are too many other liveaboards to try next.

my sister and i are sharing the owners cabin next week on the Sundancer II, do
you know if there are two beds in there?