Explorer II vs. Aggressor (Turks & Caicos)

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elbee

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Messages
32
Reaction score
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Location
Maryland
# of dives
100 - 199
Want to go to Turks and Caicos this summer...both look good, Aggressor a little bit pricey. Any comments would be appreciated! Just can't make up my mind. :D
 
We were on the T&C Explorer last Christmas and had a great time. Diving, boat, room crew and food were all good ! Wouldn't hesitate to go again.

We often saw the Aggressor from a distance - dove the same sites.

BTW - summer's over
 
It's been about 2 years, but if you dig a bit there's a trip report by someone that spent the 1st week on the Aggressor, then, the second week on the Explorer.

IIRC, the summary was "spend the money on the Aggressor". It was a summary of little things that seemed to matter.


All the best, James
 
I agree with James....

I had a friend who was on both boats and he said hands down Aggressor was the better trip...but if you have never been on a LOB you probably wouldn't notice :wink:

I have been on T&C Aggressor found it to be top shelf....the crew is great :)
 
I loved everything about the T&C Explorer when I went a couple of years ago! The boat was in great shape, the layout of the boat was good, the crew was great, and the cook, Stan (who has been with them for many many years), probably was the best cook of all liveaboards I've been on.

I have not been on the Aggressor, but for the money I personally would choose to stick with T&C Explorer. In fact I'm sure we will be doing that trip again sometime in the near future.
 
Wow - no offense - if you thought stan was the best cook you have had on a live aboard, you need to go on aquacat. We actually thought stan was one of the worst cooks we had ever had!
 
Thanks everyone for the info...I have only been on the Nekton Pilot and Rorqual...so my experience is limited. I do believe we are going to go on the Aggressor.
 
I've been on both the Aggressor boats and the Explorer boats. I've done the T&C Explorer twice. The actual boats and diving are pretty similar. Nice dive decks, good divemasters / captains, rooms are very comparable.

Where they are different is in food. Aggressor is definitely a step up in that respect. Other than that, the Explorer boats are very well run indeed and you wouldn't find the actual dive experience to be much different.

They do have a slightly different crew structure:

- Both have a captain
- Both have a cook
- The Explorer boats have a Purser who generally takes care of the store and is perhaps less of a divemaster; I think they might be sort of in charge of the housekeeping efforts. They have two dedicated divemasters who switch out each dive to watch the group.
- Aggressor doesn't have a purser, they have instead three divemasters who swap out each dive. Aggressors usually have a Photo Pro on board and both boats usually have a videographer.
- Explorer boats usually have 6 crew members, Aggressor usually has 5; the Explorer has a dedicated Engineer on each vessel. On Aggressor, the Captain will usually do double-duty as the Engineer.
- Many of the Aggressors will have more than one crew member who actually has a captain rating.

As I said, mostly similar and Explorer is usually $400-500 cheaper. If the food is really important to you, definitely go Aggressor. Otherwise, I personally would flip a coin, they are both top-notch operations. My last trip in March on the T&C Explorer was fantastic - Captain Jean Francois and crew were awesome. I always look at both Aggressor and Explorer for my trips, but I have to admit, if one is cheaper, that's the one I'll do.

Have fun,
JP
 
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