Curt76
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Leaving for Kona Friday. Anyone else out there going? Kona Aggressor Saturday. Pretty pumped.....
Kona Aggressor
- Thread starter Curt76
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ChrisM
Contributor
Say hi to my brother Capt. Mike!!!
Just got off the boat 7 days ago, Captain Todd is on board now............
We're still in Kona having spent a week driving over to Hilo side and back to Kona doing island land activities.
So now for the hard part, and this isn't a slam against them, but I wasn't that impressed with the Aggressor as a whole.
Yes you can dive your brains out, I got in 19 dives over the week, up to 5 of them in one day. One guy on board did all 25-27 dives you could possibly do.
Fun Boat, great crew, but it was the food and schedule that left alot to be desired.
In a nutshell, I've nick-named it the Costco Cruise. If you like pre-prepared Costco food, you'll be in heaven.
Just pointing out my trip experience from 7 days ago. If you like canned Costco Salsa, Costco Cheese Cake, Costco Cold-cut meats, Costco fruit/veggie trays, Costco Cheese slices, then dig into your meals and snacks. I'm not being harsh, as Vern the Chef did make breakfast to order, and dinners were freshly cooked prime rib, lamb chops, pork tenderloin, Fish Dishes and such...........but enough about the food.
The schedule: that's the rub.
I go on a live aboard (been on them before) to go to places in-accessable to day boats.
So the Aggressor schedule, at least on our trip (to be fair but I 95% believe this is the norm)
They allow you to board the boat late afternoon Saturday around 5:00-5:30 pm. They get everyone on board, then motor out to a mooring buoy 1/4 mile off shore at the mouth of the harbor 100 yards from a jet-ski rental barge.
the next 1-2 days were spent moored on 3-4 different mooring buoys per day, all well within day operator range of 2 tank 6-pax day operators, including the manta night dive.
Dive Days 3-4 headed down south to really explore very different topography of dive environment. AWESOME great remote diving. Enjoy it, it's your 2 days of best diving.
Dive Day 5 headed back up north, sometimes only moving the boat 200-300 yards between mooring buoys. Some change of topography underwater, but not much. Seemed like a fuel saving practice. You're now just south of Kona, within extended day boat 2 tank dive boats. Captain Todd did honor a special request for a dive site, a night drift dive called Pelagic Magic, where you're 50 foot deep in 4000 feet of water, watching all sorts of weird and odd jelly-like critters drift by, I HIGHLY recommend asking to do this dive if the weather and water conditions permits.
Dive day 6, you're moored once again right by the Jetski barge a 1/4 mile off the Kona Pier. This is also only a 2 tank dive day on Friday to dry your gear out. 2 tanks 1/4-1/2 mile off shore from downtown Kona. We were back at the pier at Noon, they make you leave the boat at 2:00 - 5:00 (wander downtown t-shirt shopping if you want) so they can clean and restock the boat (COSTCO RUN) for the next days new guests. Back on board for drinks and finger food (no dinner) 5-6:00 pm, then back off the boat from 6-9:00 as they physically leave the dock, back to the mooring buoy.
They pick you back up at the pier at 9:00 pm, then moor a 1/4 mile off shore, then you're unloaded off the boat the next morning Sat at 8:00.
So in a nutshell, I don't blame the crew at all, they're fantastic, and do bend over backwards to make it special and the dive masters were top notch spending as long as you wanted at depth and pointing out lots of small critters. (my longest dive was hour 9 minutes, deepest depth 116 foot)
The dinners were all great and fresh cooked, it was all the Costco cakes and others above mentioned that got very old very fast, but to be fair after being asked Vern the chef did make fresh Pico De Gallio salsa. But on the last night for finger food (also special requested by the guests) they ran into town to buy Poke' Ahi tuna from a store. Vern did make lots of fresh baked home-made cookies between dives every day, yum, warm out of the oven cookies.!
All in All, a nice week on a liveaboard, but at $2600+ a person or ~$450-500 a day per person including tip; It was nice but we won't be going back to do it again. That said, a 2 tank dive through a day boat 6-pax operator is $125, so if you're wanting 4 dives a day doing that you're at $250, plus you need hotel and eats, so that adds up quick too for land based dive/living.
Just my experience, and typing this still gazing from the condo over the waters of Kona watching the sunset. It was a fun trip, and the crew did an awesome job.
Aggressor Owners/Management just needs to make more fresh meals/dishes, and adjust their boat schedule, so for 2-3 nights out of your 7 on-board, you're not within day-boat dive operation range. The 2 days far south of the island shores, delivered some very very good varied underwater terrain, so I'm very appreciative and thank the Aggressor crew for sharing them with us.
Aloha
We're still in Kona having spent a week driving over to Hilo side and back to Kona doing island land activities.
So now for the hard part, and this isn't a slam against them, but I wasn't that impressed with the Aggressor as a whole.
Yes you can dive your brains out, I got in 19 dives over the week, up to 5 of them in one day. One guy on board did all 25-27 dives you could possibly do.
Fun Boat, great crew, but it was the food and schedule that left alot to be desired.
In a nutshell, I've nick-named it the Costco Cruise. If you like pre-prepared Costco food, you'll be in heaven.
Just pointing out my trip experience from 7 days ago. If you like canned Costco Salsa, Costco Cheese Cake, Costco Cold-cut meats, Costco fruit/veggie trays, Costco Cheese slices, then dig into your meals and snacks. I'm not being harsh, as Vern the Chef did make breakfast to order, and dinners were freshly cooked prime rib, lamb chops, pork tenderloin, Fish Dishes and such...........but enough about the food.
The schedule: that's the rub.
I go on a live aboard (been on them before) to go to places in-accessable to day boats.
So the Aggressor schedule, at least on our trip (to be fair but I 95% believe this is the norm)
They allow you to board the boat late afternoon Saturday around 5:00-5:30 pm. They get everyone on board, then motor out to a mooring buoy 1/4 mile off shore at the mouth of the harbor 100 yards from a jet-ski rental barge.
the next 1-2 days were spent moored on 3-4 different mooring buoys per day, all well within day operator range of 2 tank 6-pax day operators, including the manta night dive.
Dive Days 3-4 headed down south to really explore very different topography of dive environment. AWESOME great remote diving. Enjoy it, it's your 2 days of best diving.
Dive Day 5 headed back up north, sometimes only moving the boat 200-300 yards between mooring buoys. Some change of topography underwater, but not much. Seemed like a fuel saving practice. You're now just south of Kona, within extended day boat 2 tank dive boats. Captain Todd did honor a special request for a dive site, a night drift dive called Pelagic Magic, where you're 50 foot deep in 4000 feet of water, watching all sorts of weird and odd jelly-like critters drift by, I HIGHLY recommend asking to do this dive if the weather and water conditions permits.
Dive day 6, you're moored once again right by the Jetski barge a 1/4 mile off the Kona Pier. This is also only a 2 tank dive day on Friday to dry your gear out. 2 tanks 1/4-1/2 mile off shore from downtown Kona. We were back at the pier at Noon, they make you leave the boat at 2:00 - 5:00 (wander downtown t-shirt shopping if you want) so they can clean and restock the boat (COSTCO RUN) for the next days new guests. Back on board for drinks and finger food (no dinner) 5-6:00 pm, then back off the boat from 6-9:00 as they physically leave the dock, back to the mooring buoy.
They pick you back up at the pier at 9:00 pm, then moor a 1/4 mile off shore, then you're unloaded off the boat the next morning Sat at 8:00.
So in a nutshell, I don't blame the crew at all, they're fantastic, and do bend over backwards to make it special and the dive masters were top notch spending as long as you wanted at depth and pointing out lots of small critters. (my longest dive was hour 9 minutes, deepest depth 116 foot)
The dinners were all great and fresh cooked, it was all the Costco cakes and others above mentioned that got very old very fast, but to be fair after being asked Vern the chef did make fresh Pico De Gallio salsa. But on the last night for finger food (also special requested by the guests) they ran into town to buy Poke' Ahi tuna from a store. Vern did make lots of fresh baked home-made cookies between dives every day, yum, warm out of the oven cookies.!
All in All, a nice week on a liveaboard, but at $2600+ a person or ~$450-500 a day per person including tip; It was nice but we won't be going back to do it again. That said, a 2 tank dive through a day boat 6-pax operator is $125, so if you're wanting 4 dives a day doing that you're at $250, plus you need hotel and eats, so that adds up quick too for land based dive/living.
Just my experience, and typing this still gazing from the condo over the waters of Kona watching the sunset. It was a fun trip, and the crew did an awesome job.
Aggressor Owners/Management just needs to make more fresh meals/dishes, and adjust their boat schedule, so for 2-3 nights out of your 7 on-board, you're not within day-boat dive operation range. The 2 days far south of the island shores, delivered some very very good varied underwater terrain, so I'm very appreciative and thank the Aggressor crew for sharing them with us.
Aloha
Last edited:
ChrisM
Contributor
Hey, thanks for the honest report. Sorta what I figured (except for the food, but I suppose, with a tight turnaround and a big store like costco available, sorta understandable), as the dive map makes pretty clear you're never far from shore. This is my first liveaboard back after going on some meds that might make remote diving a little more...complicated. So it's kinda part of the reason that we booked this one. We're staying a couple days afterwards, so we're going to actually get off the boat Friday night and go to our hotel (King Kam) to avoid the whole re-provisioning/getting off the boat routine. I never liked that anyway. I don't like new people coming on "my" boat
Although your post re the night drift dive is exciting to me, someone recommended it but wasn't sure they'd do it on the Kona Agg. This is probably my 6th or 7th Aggressor boat, including cocos and galapagos (X2) I am not expecting it to blow my mind. Just looking for a lot of diving and a boat to do it from We got a pretty good rate that, as you note compared with day diving for two people, add a hotel, a car, all meals, etc, and we're on an anniversary trip (spending the week before on Maui, where we got married 20 years ago), so I wouldn't be doing it on cheap anyway. Likely the boat is near to or maybe less than landbased every day.
Chris
Although your post re the night drift dive is exciting to me, someone recommended it but wasn't sure they'd do it on the Kona Agg. This is probably my 6th or 7th Aggressor boat, including cocos and galapagos (X2) I am not expecting it to blow my mind. Just looking for a lot of diving and a boat to do it from
We got a pretty good rate that, as you note compared with day diving for two people, add a hotel, a car, all meals, etc, and we're on an anniversary trip (spending the week before on Maui, where we got married 20 years ago), so I wouldn't be doing it on cheap anyway. Likely the boat is near to or maybe less than landbased every day.Chris
ewaiea
Contributor
I did this trip in August of 2009. Being a Hawaii resident since 1999, I've done alot of diving in all those years. 4 trips to the Big Island and I always left wanting more. So my thought was, why do a liveaboard in a place where I've dove 4x before? But then again, if/when I leave, I'll always ask myself, why didn't you just DO the Kona Aggressor since airfare is only $100 to get there and you can spend a week diving the greatest island in the chain?
So I did it. AND IT WAS AWESOME. The crew, the ease of diving, the food......ALL OF IT! I even tipped the crew well (as I well should have) AND bought them a thank you card for making me a "changed diver". Liveaboard diving as ruined me - I dive with day operations through my local dive club on Oahu, but it just doesn't compare to liveaboards.
You'll have a fantastic time I'm sure. Being a person who dives Hawaii alot - this says alot.....I'd go back and do it again. Au Au Crater is the best dive of the trip both during the day and at night.....and it's outta reach of most day operations - for the most part. The Manta Night Dive is great - but honestly if you love macro and black sand than Au Au Crater is AWESOME! I still think about that site. We did 2 afternoon dives and a night dive there.
Have fun!
So I did it. AND IT WAS AWESOME. The crew, the ease of diving, the food......ALL OF IT! I even tipped the crew well (as I well should have) AND bought them a thank you card for making me a "changed diver". Liveaboard diving as ruined me - I dive with day operations through my local dive club on Oahu, but it just doesn't compare to liveaboards.
You'll have a fantastic time I'm sure. Being a person who dives Hawaii alot - this says alot.....I'd go back and do it again. Au Au Crater is the best dive of the trip both during the day and at night.....and it's outta reach of most day operations - for the most part. The Manta Night Dive is great - but honestly if you love macro and black sand than Au Au Crater is AWESOME! I still think about that site. We did 2 afternoon dives and a night dive there.
Have fun!
OP
Curt76
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Costco really! I am disgusted with your report!!!!I will quit scubaboard if you are supported.
ChrisM
Contributor
Heya Curt, please do share your food experiences for anothers' opinion...........I stand by my Costco statements for many of the side dishes and desserts.
As we returned to the boat from shore, on their Friday night Costco run, you wouldn't believe all the Costco boxes.............granted the next weeked tour was FOURTEEN teenagers (thank goddds that we weren't on that cruise)
but Vern the chef/cook was discussing with Captain Todd how much processed Costco junk food to get for the teenagers, they decided to do most meals from Costco, including tater tots, pizza hot-pockets, microwave burritos, chicken pot pies, Stir Fry Won-Tons, frozen pizzas, toaster pop-tarts, candy bars, tub of red-vine licorice and such................while granted I'm sure the teenagers would chow that all down with a big grins on their face, that's not my adult idea of "quality" food regardless of age or culinary tastes while you're paying $500-600 a day per person..............though I will admit, I was jealous that on our weeks cruise we didn't have the licorice....grins..........I also was curious how they were going to handle the full fridge of beer with 14 teenagers, and 2 adult chaperones on board?.
don't get me wrong, the diving and crew was awesome, and I'm not a food snob, but in my opinion, there was just an excess of pre-processed or boxed "just add water" foods for side dishes. The main meals of Prime Rib, Salmon was FANTASTIC, pork tenderloin, and other fresh made main courses were all yummy.
Please do add your comments Curt.
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