Family Scuba trip Summer 2011

[ConchyJoe]

Where did you find flights that cheap??? Ilive in Savannah and everything seems so high from Atlanta.

Lynn,

American Airlines had a sale and I booked it the day after Christmas. It ended up being $349 with junk fees, but still a bargain.

I have alerts setup on Travelocity for their vacations, and I got two tickets, and 5 nights at the Comfort Suites for 1634.24 including trip insurance through their vacations link. There was also the same trip on USAir from Charlotte, but it disappeared the next day before I was able to book it. The AA flight does have a stop in Miami, but we don't have to leave the terminal, so it should be painless.

I also have alerts setup on Tripadvisor, and airfarewatchdog, and I highly recommend setting up alerts on all three sites.

Like I said diving and accommodations costs are pretty much the same everywhere, but flights can vary widely.

[LynnB]

Lynn,

American Airlines had a sale and I booked it the day after Christmas. It ended up being $349 with junk fees, but still a bargain.

I have alerts setup on Travelocity for their vacations, and I got two tickets, and 5 nights at the Comfort Suites for 1634.24 including trip insurance through their vacations link. There was also the same trip on USAir from Charlotte, but it disappeared the next day before I was able to book it. The AA flight does have a stop in Miami, but we don't have to leave the terminal, so it should be painless.

I also have alerts setup on Tripadvisor, and airfarewatchdog, and I highly recommend setting up alerts on all three sites.

Like I said diving and accommodations costs are pretty much the same everywhere, but flights can vary widely.

Thanks for the info... we flew a couple of years ago to Roatan through La Cieba from Miami on AA and got great deals.... but that was driving to Miami and then taking commuter to Roatan.. Don't know if I would do that again. Out of Jax anywhere has an overnight stop in Miami for connections and that is a big NO...
Will have to do that..Actually work part time for Choice Hotels and should look for employee rates.
When we went to Cayman we stayed at Holiday Inn on 7 mile beach for 50 a night!!!
Have a great time....

[Mrs. K]

We just came back from the Cozumel. It depends on how much you want to dive and how much you want to read a book on the beach. We stayed at the Iberostar (all inclusive resort) and dived with Dressel who is right there at the resort. You will have to talk to the staff at Dressel for which dives are good for 40 feet and which are not. I think there are about 5-6 sites that were good for the 10 yr old. If your wife wants to sit on the beach and read, she will be happy. I would recommend you dive with the 15 yr old in the morning (usually deeper dives) and with the 10 yr old in the afternoon. That way you can partner with the kids and not partner them with a stranger. We were perfectly happy at the resort, and never left, accept on the dive boat. You dive in groups of 4-8 divers. Each group has a dive master. Some dive masters are better than others. But you always have one with you, and never dive alone. They just assign you to a boat and dive master. You show up, check the board and off you go. The boats are good size, and usually there are two groups per boat. It is all drift diving. So when you are low on air, the dive master sends up a flag, you follow the flag to 15 feet, do the safety stop for 3 minutes then go to the surface, where the boat comes to you. Max bottom time is an hour. But when you or your buddy are low on air, you just go up.

We saw tons of turtles. In 14 dives, I think I saw at least one turtle and usually more on every dive accept one or two. We saw some nice nurse sharks, lots of fish. It was a good experience. I talked to them while I was there, as if I can afford it, I plan to take my daughter back next April as she will be 10 this fall.