Sea Passion Hotel Palau Lately Anyone

[sanjac]

I went there last year. The way they did the three dive divers was everyone did the two-dive boats together, then the third dive is after we return to Sam's. Most of the third dives were close by - Chandelier Caverns (awesome!) and Helmet Wreck (okay dive) and the like.

After three dives every day for five days, we were tired out. Didn't do much after the dives but sleep. Never even made it to Kramer's. But I'd do it that way again in a heartbeat. If you are there for several weeks, I would put in a two-dive day every third day or so to give you some down time.

Hope this info helps.

Jim

 

[sanjac]

BTW, the house reef was done from pierside - you can basically dive it on your own from Sam's, so anytime after your dive day is done, you can do the house reef then have dinner there.

Jim

 

[Travelnsj]

Thanks, Travelnsj, that sounds like good advice. Do you do three dives every day? Do they put the 3 dive people on a different boat from the 2 dive people?

Btw, your dive schedule is amazing. Excuse me while I turn pea green with envy.

Yes they usually put the 3 tank people on a different boat as you have an hour boat ride out to the sites unless you do a wreck in the harbor. And being I'm in Palau to Dive....3 tanks a day

Looking forward to seeing you in Feb travelnsj. Maybe we can do the house reef together.

That is a Plan!

 

[Sorrows]

Thanks Sanjac & Travelnsj for the information! I've just changed our tickets and plans and we will be spending the entire two weeks in Palau. We've only done that once before (Bonaire) and took a day off in the middle of the trip; I guess alternating two dives day and three dives day is a good way to accomplish the same goal. When we are on a dive trip, it's pretty much eat, sleep & dive. It does wear you out--but in a good way.

Personally, I always find boat dives tiring; I think it's the boat rides themselves, although I'm not sure why this would be. These are such long boat rides--beautiful scenery, of course, but I imagine there are people catching some sleep on the way back.

 

[bubba105]

I've heard that the house reef is a good place for a dusk dive and that there are mandarin fish there.

Bbubba, as I wrote in another thread, our flights--the flights--to Yap have been changed. The flights from Yap to Palau don't leave now until 12:55 a.m. (arrive 1 a.m.) But we could skip Yap and fly direct on the same day to Palau and arrive at a respectable 8:55 p.m. Right now that's the way we are leaning--which would give us a full 2 weeks in Palau. Do you think we'll get bored?

Is there a reason you only did 2 days of three dives? We thought we'd pretty much do three dives every day--is this too much? I know two dives with that much boat time can feel pretty tiring. Do they go to the same place for the 3rd dive each time?

Sorry to ask so many questions--and thank you for answering them!

Missing out on the Yap TSA thing & arriving an hour earlier, I'm in on that every time.

We did 2 boat dives because we were there with 32 friends & part of the fun was the daily party. We'd tie the boats together & laugh until after dark every day. Our 3 dive days were the day we went diving in Peleliu & 4 of us decided to do a 3rd dive instead of the Peleliu tour, which I've done on all my past trips. Peleliu Express was the "local" that day so we shot back to German Channel. We had one 3rd dive day in our package so we did that with everyone, also German Channel since we had such a great dive there on the Peleliu day, in the later afternoon. Just being on the boat all day is tiring so we just ate at the Bottom Time Bar & Grill, then went home to bed every night.

Boredom is not an option in Palau, always something new to see.

Keep the questions coming, it helps me relive the trip. If I could figure out how, I would post some pictures but unfortunately I'm a cyber idiot. On a couple of the dives the sharks got so close I couldn't get the whole shark in the frame.

 

[Sorrows]

Bubba--a shark so close you couldn't get it all in the frame? Dude, you just can't tease somebody like that and not follow through!

Here's a simple way to attach photos from someone who really is technically challenged; Hit the attach button on the bar above your reply post. Under "upload from your computer" hit browse, find the photo (I'm choosing something called "lionfish explosion") and hit upload. Wait for a minute or two. You will then see it listed under "manage attachments." Go back to your message box, hit the attachment button on the bar again, left click it and viola! It isn't a full-page photo, just a thumbnail, so people can choose to click on it or not.

 

[Sorrows]

We are about 55 days out from our trip and I am so hepped up about it that I can think and talk of little else. (work?) I can only hope I don't self-combust before we get there.

But since you are gracious enough to actually request more questions, here goes:

Did you (or anyone else) try the Nautilus dive?

Is the night dive worth it?

Any recommendations for a restaurant for a special birthday dinner?

 

[Kevrumbo]

Because of this thread, I'm 30 days out from my return to Palau (the first since 2004, and I went at least once annually for five consecutive years before then!). Took advantage of a recent email special from a travel agency here in SoCal that my local dive shop uses:
Great Palau Special!

Little more expensive package for Sams Tours & PPR, but then I will have higher expectations commensurate with the higher price and my previous experience with the fabulous marine life & diving the wonderful walls of Palau.

And looking forward to see the finally completed Sea Passion/Hotel Skeleton. . .

(Alii Sam! Diving with your ops for the very first time, then maybe with Tova & Navot for a few technical wreck dives on the Iro afterward --before flying out to the Philippines. . .)

 

[bubba105]

Well, here's hoping your instructions worked. Lets see if we get photos instead of attach. I added in a manta photo to get your juices flowing.








Wow, it worked. These are from a Canon 1200, one of those little cameras. I couldn't widen out any farther without backing up & I was hooked in. I'm talking just out of reach, not that I was touching.

 

[bubba105]

Kevrumbo, glad to hear you're going back, you know you won't be sorry. Reading your posts over the last few years has given me some great insights on the Pacific.

Sorrows, do the Iro Maru wreck, it is covered stem to stern with great corals. It's 80-90 feet so watch your deco. On the way up go on the mast, it has a ton of anemones & I had a full card. I'm not a big wreck fan but this is super nice.

Thanks for showing me how to post photos. You've created a monster. I mentioned mantas & a baitball at German Channel. We went to the cleaning station but they were still feeding up in the water column. The baitball was taking quite a beating while the mantas just glided by.







I went up for a close up.