Cayman Aggressor or Explorer Ventures Saba/St. Kitts?

Starting to think about a liveaboard trip for March 2015. Have done Aquacat/Cat Ppalu a couple of times; a shore based dive holiday on Saba; but have never been to the Caymans. Wondering whether the Aggressor would be better bang for the buck in terms of quality of diving and operation. Thanks

I've been on both. The Aggressor is a nicer boat (cabins, space, lounge, dining setup), the crews/food are similar (both good), the diving at Saba is terrific, and OK at the other places, and of course the Cayman diving is good, but not terrific until you get over to Little Cayman, which you might not be able to do given the weather.

Bang for the buck? Clearly Exp Ventures. Best trip? Depends on what you like....

ontdiver:

Starting to think about a liveaboard trip for March 2015. Have done Aquacat/Cat Ppalu a couple of times; a shore based dive holiday on Saba; but have never been to the Caymans. Wondering whether the Aggressor would be better bang for the buck in terms of quality of diving and operation. Thanks

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which caymans do you want? the aggressor "often" gets stuck at grand cayman due to weather. we do not consider it because of this. many people claim the "best" diving is at little cayman, with grand cayman trailing cayman brac.

the Saba explorer is a good trip. Saba diving is great, the other stuff just okay. the t&c explorer provides great diving regardless of weather. great weather gives exceptional diving.

the belieze liveaboards also offer great diving regardless of weather. we like the dancer.

Thanks for the feedback. I think I'll go with EV.

Both trips are great, except as Tusiops said the best diving on the Cayman Aggressor is on Little Cayman and Cayman Brac. When we went on the trip I was blissfully ignorant about how frequently the boat cannot make the crossing, we ended up making the trip but if I remember correctly it was the first time in a month that they made it. The diving o Little Cayman was phenomenal, I thought the diving on Grand Cayman was just OK, very touristy and a bit anticlimactic after LC. The Kittiwake was a nice dive, Stingray city was a novelty, but most of the other sites we did were tired and the reefs seemed worn after the pristine diving we did on Bloody Bay Wall. On the CEXII, Saba was fantastic, St. Kitts, had some nice sites and some were not so-so. At the end of the day I don't think I would roll the dice on Cayman Aggressor again due to the odds of not making the crossing. Crew in Aggressor was good, on CEXII they were great.

When I have clients who ask this question, I usually recommend the Explorer Ventures fleet. If something goes wrong on an Aggressor trip, the company doesn't really do much as the ships are independently owned. I have an EV T&C trip chartered in Oct 2015 and am looking forward to that trip.