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Hi everyone-- this is my first trip report, and I realize it's long, but here goes!
For what I’m about to say, I should probably note first that this was my 3rd liveaboard (I’ve also done them in Australia/Cocos Island) and I have about 170 dives—so I have some basis for comparison and am not a *total* newbie. The trip was a disaster in every way possible. First, the diving was terrible—one of the main subjects of discussion among us over the week—very few fish or any life, maybe one or two sharks-- but it was clear as well that we were often getting put in at the wrong places/missing the drop-in spots. The guides—well, they aren’t dive guides on the Dancer, they’re dive “supervisors,” which is about right and as fun as it sounds—often didn’t seem to know where we were—at one point in Peleliu we left the wall (where we actually were seeing some sharks) to spend most of the dive crossing the barren, current-swept plateau, which was *much* wider than the guide seemed to expect. We also got a “tour” of the Rock Islands in which the guide let one of the passengers steer the boat, which was loads of fun for her but of course we didn’t see anything b/c she didn’t know much about the Rock Islands (unsurprisingly). One of the guides, Ike, knew his stuff, but the two American divemasters seemed clueless—well, one of them, Melissa, was only there getting her visa sorted for Papua New Guinea, and not only didn’t know Palau but made it very clear that she wished she were in PNG, that she thought PNG was much better than Palau, that we’d all wasted our money coming to Palau rather than PNG… overall, that was a bit of a bummer over the week. The dives were at the same time every day, so we weren’t timing the spots for tides etc., which certainly had an impact on what we were seeing and where we could dive (the rigid schedule adherence came to be a massive headache) but over the week there was a lot of discussion among us of whether Palau’s reputation was based on how it was five yrs ago etc.
We also talked a lot about the damage being done to the coral—we were given reef hooks along with a half-hour PowerPoint on how to use them (!) but if you hesitated trying to find some dead coral to hook to, the guides grabbed it out of your hand and hooked it to the live stuff. The boat photographer, Ben, was all over the coral, and I saw another guide clambering hand-over-hand on it, which was a bit disappointing. More worrying, safety seemed not to be much of a concern once we were in the water—generally, the dive guides would all be on the boat first. It was a long wait for pick-up with 16 of us in the water, understandably, esp. since we dove all together in a giant herd, but at one point when my buddy and I were waiting 15 minutes for pick-up I gave the OK signal several times to our skiff, but none of the guides would return it, so there was no way to tell if they’d seen us (we sketched out a screenplay for “Open Water 3: In Sight of the Dive Skiff). More seriously, at one point one of the divers came up and the guide, on the boat as usual, said, “You all right?” “No, really not!” she said (she’d gotten tangled in a piece of gear she was trying to get off). He walked away. To do him credit, I don’t think he heard her and ignored her, I don’t think he bothered to listen to the answer. Happily, another diver on the line assisted her. At one point, at sunset, 7 of us were in the water watching the 3 supervisors hanging out on the skiff; again, no acknowledgment of okay signals. Some of our funniest discussions occurred while we were floating around wondering if we’d been spotted…
This was all the more surprising b/c the dive briefings were rather forbidding, with “Your body will wash up in the Phillipines” being said more than once in warning us about currents, not doing deco stops, etc. Melissa explained the last night that the Dancer’s policy is to “intimidate the divers a bit” so that we all behave. Great policy! I think they should put that one up on the website!
Nitrox—well, you pay $150 to use it for the week, and it’s at 26%. Y’all reading this will know better than me if that’s normal, since I just got my Nitrox cert in Cocos last year, but there and later at Fish’n’Fins it was 32%; despite this, we were forbidden to go into deco, so most people took the Nitrox option, altho’ the air folks just did a 1-3 min. deco stop (we weren’t diving deep) and just concealed it from the dive crew.
Finally, there was the crew. The cook, Mani, was incredible (I’m vegetarian and he was from Nepal = best spicy veggie curries I’ve ever had, plus I never needed my Sudafed) and the Palauan and Filipino workers on board were lovely. The three American dive supervisors never cracked a smile. We were required to go on board the skiff before each dive, with a crew member, and get a Nitrox reading on our tanks to sign off, but there were never any crew members around until the dive briefing began; finally I corralled Melissa and, while we were reading my tank, I asked if there was a particular time we were supposed to do this. “Everyone else seems to be managing it without a problem,” she snapped back. Interestingly, not true: most people skipped the reading and just copied down the last number in the log, except for the people who skipped the dive briefing to get the reading. I dutifully wrote in the log, “No crew member available” until Thurs., when Melissa finally relented and scheduled a time we could all go to the skiff and get the numbers read out. I also asked if we could, even once, go swimming, and Melissa explained it was a lot of trouble for the crew. My roommate, Ana, asked if we could go to a beach, even once, and got the same answer. Spending a week in Palau and never getting to swim or step on one of the pretty beaches we could see flat-out sucked. Finally, and for what it’s worth, if for some reason you decide to go on the Dancer, ask for a cabin away from the damn generator; no one in the two cabins nearest it on either side got a full night’s sleep that week.
So… with a vast sigh of relief, off the Tropic Dancer after the worst week I’ve ever spent on diving. Ana had scheduled a day with Fish’n’Fins (land-based) and asked if I wanted to go with her, and I figured why not, I’d enjoyed diving with her… and damn! We had an amazing day. After a 45-min. ride on the skiff, our Palauan divemaster Emerald took us down to Blue Corner and suddenly I was seeing everything I had hoped to see but never did on the Dancer—we had schools of game fish, grey reefies everywhere, small schools of barracuda… and garden eels. The last doesn’t sound exciting but we never did see those with Dancer, and while you could argue that the total absence of fish/sharks on our Dancer dives might not be about being put in at the wrong place, Emerald did seem able to show us lots of critters that stay put as well, that our dive supervisors on the Dancer seemed unaware of. From there, to a gorgeous beach for lunch. We hung around since our schedule was flexible to the tide for the best diving, went down to German Channel and it was heaven—three mantas, all of whom came down for cleaning and then went up and did those slow graceful cartwheels through the sea above us. Back on the boat, Emerald encouraged us to have a final swim if we wanted (ok, so we could pee before the ride back, but a swim is a swim Then on the way back the captain gave us a REAL tour of the Rock Islands—we kept veering into what looked like a sheer rock wall and it would be a tiny channel—Afterward, Ana and I were talking about how stunned we were. It was the Dancer that sucked, not the diving in Palau. I had another full week (happy days!) Ana had two more days and was pissed off beyond belief that she’d wasted that time and money on the Dancer. And for good reason.
I know some people on the forum seem to have had really good experiences-- the crew got the week off after our trip, so maybe they had all cashed out a little early in their heads... Still, I would never recommend the Dancer to anyone. There are other liveaboards, plus tons of land-based operations in Palau-- avoid the Dancer, save your money and don't end up regretting your choice, is what I would say. I hope this is helpful!
Sorry to hear about your bad experience. Thanks for posting it. I am looking at one day doing a liveaboard in Palau, and it sounds like the Dancer is to be avoided. Your detailed debrief on your experience is appreciated.
Just a note to say thank you for your detail-filled report. Sometimes people come here and make their first or second post ever, and it's like "This boat sucked! Don't ever go there!" and that's the whole thing. Or it's just an unreadable jumble or rant with no feel of perspective.
Your report was readable and had lots of examples of WHY you didn't like the experience, so that as readers, we feel a bit more like we can judge for ourselves - or at least understand your point of view.
So, thanks for taking the time, and I'm so glad to hear you had another week, and that it was a good one.
+1. Thanks for sharing. Sorry your hard earned cash didn't get you a good dive vacation, sharing your experiences will hopefully keep others out of the trap. I badly wan't to go to Palau one day, but I don't want to go to Palau "badly" when I do!
Appreciated the detailed review. And the positive parts, like the cook's excellence, and the land-based op. that later did you good service. Adds a sense of credibility that 100% negative posts often lack. Glad you got some good diving in, too.
I think of a place like Palau as a once in a lifetime experience I'll never have. If I coughed up the cash to go, and it didn't rock, gotta say, I'd be bitter.
Meant to say that its very surprising given the many positive posts about operation of Tropic Dancer and the Aggressor. I understand that both are almost identical, common ownership / management and that the crew will interchange between ships. My wife and I will be in Palau this July for a week and we're considering live aboard v land-based. I was leaning toward live aboard to maximize dives. Backpacker, can you provide more info on fish n fins? How many dives were you doing and when did you return to dock? I was leaning toward aboard but your post is quite disturbing. I've been waiting a long time for this trip and would be horrified if it turned out the way yours did. Sorry you had to go through that.
Hi everyone-- I'm glad my report was helpful! And stiffing on the tip was tough b/c the non-American staff were so great, and they needed the money the most-- I did write to the company, tho! Steve P, yes, the liveaboard definitely maximizes dives BUT (and other folks can chime in) b/c the good dives are so tide- and current-dependent having 5 dives a day locks you into a schedule where you aren't necessarily diving any of the sites at the right time. That said, some people have had great experiences on other liveaboards. W/Fish'n'Fins you get 2 dives a day, leaving 8:30-9AM, coming back usually 3-4ish, altho' we came back a little early when some people wanted 3. Something to know about F'n'F: if you want to do 3, you need other people to sign up, AND they'll usually come back to the shop to drop off the 2-tankers so your 3rd is always in the lagoon (i.e. bad vis, old wrecks, shallow).It's a 45 min/hour ride out to the sites and back, and with 2 tanks they basically hang out in-between to catch the best tide/current for the second, so the third dive is always pushed back. Maybe Sam's does a better job with letting you do 3? I'd ask whether the boat comes all the way back to the shop in-between 2 & 3.
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Then on the way back the captain gave us a REAL tour of the Rock Islands—we kept veering into what looked like a sheer rock wall and it would be a tiny channel—Afterward, Ana and I were talking about how stunned we were. It was the Dancer that sucked, not the diving in Palau. I had another full week (happy days!) Ana had two more days and was pissed off beyond belief that she’d wasted that time and money on the Dancer. And for good reason.
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