H2O Gal
Contributor
I have never written a trip review, but after all the negative publicity this boat has gotten lately I thought I ought to, so here goes:
This is the second time I have been on this boat. The first was the first year they started and the price was discounted, and this time we dove using the Dancer fleet's "Dive the world" discount. My hubby and I are budget divers, and the price for both trips was very attractive--they were only about $500 each higher than a Blackbeard trip and the boat was much nicer.
The boat: it is 100 feet long with six cabins. Each cabin has its own sink, shower and toilet. Five cabins have a double bed with a single bunk above it. The cabin in the bow has four single beds. The rooms are small, but there was adequate storage for everything, so they were comfortable. The temperature was good--the AC wasn't too cold.
The dive deck was nicely laid out. Each "station" had a big storage bin beneath the seat to hold your gear. The tanks were filled quickly between dives, and the nitrox ran a healthy 34% consistently the entire week. This is the first time I have had to worry about my O2 load almost as much as my nitrogen! There are two showers on the back platform with hot water and most of us showered there...I only used the shower in the room one time. There is a hot tub on the sun deck and it was great for warming up quickly after a dive.
The food: The food was good and plentiful. It started as a continental breakfast for the early risers, and was followed by a full cook to order breakfast. Then there was a snack between the first and second dive, followed by a hot lunch starting with soup every lunch, another snack between the third and fourth dive, a big dinner, then hot chocolate served on the dive deck after the night dive. There was also a big jar of cookies available all day along with fruit. If you were hungry it was your own fault! A special nice touch was I am a vegetarian, and instead of merely filling up on the salads and vegetables (which I told the chef Casey would have been fine) he had a special dish prepared just for me!
The diving: It was typical Bahamas diving-reefs, walls-many with my personal favorite, swim-throughs, a few wrecks, coral gardens. Throughout the week we saw turtles, rays, octopus, and sharks-lots of sharks. Lots of different types of tropical fish, and unfortunately, too many lionfish. They are beautiful to look at, but I HATE them. Some of the reefs had quite a bit of algae on them, and then the boat would move only a mile or two to the next dive site, and there wouldn't be any. No apparent rhyme or reason to the algae...
We dove five dives a day except the last, where we did two. A nice touch is when you come back onto the dive deck after rinsing off, a crew member would drape a hot towel on you! Nice touch...which leads me to:
The crew: The boat holds only 14 divers, and there were 5 hard-working crew members. They were superb-not just attentive to your needs but fun and friendly. I got to know them all well, and they felt more like friends than employees. I can't say enough about how they went the extra mile to make our trip enjoyable! So thanks to Capt Dennis, Mate Ernie, chef Casey and videographer David (who made us all look like movie stars), and Zac, whose youth and exuberant energy was uplifting--I wish I could have bottled it and used it for the trip home!
So in conclusion--especially if you are a diver on a budget, and want incredible value for your dive dollars-book a trip on this boat with confidence! I know one cruise in particular had myriad problems, but I think the Dancer fleet has worked them out. We have had two great trips on the Carib Dancer and I wouldn't hesitate a second to book a third in the future!
This is the second time I have been on this boat. The first was the first year they started and the price was discounted, and this time we dove using the Dancer fleet's "Dive the world" discount. My hubby and I are budget divers, and the price for both trips was very attractive--they were only about $500 each higher than a Blackbeard trip and the boat was much nicer.
The boat: it is 100 feet long with six cabins. Each cabin has its own sink, shower and toilet. Five cabins have a double bed with a single bunk above it. The cabin in the bow has four single beds. The rooms are small, but there was adequate storage for everything, so they were comfortable. The temperature was good--the AC wasn't too cold.
The dive deck was nicely laid out. Each "station" had a big storage bin beneath the seat to hold your gear. The tanks were filled quickly between dives, and the nitrox ran a healthy 34% consistently the entire week. This is the first time I have had to worry about my O2 load almost as much as my nitrogen! There are two showers on the back platform with hot water and most of us showered there...I only used the shower in the room one time. There is a hot tub on the sun deck and it was great for warming up quickly after a dive.
The food: The food was good and plentiful. It started as a continental breakfast for the early risers, and was followed by a full cook to order breakfast. Then there was a snack between the first and second dive, followed by a hot lunch starting with soup every lunch, another snack between the third and fourth dive, a big dinner, then hot chocolate served on the dive deck after the night dive. There was also a big jar of cookies available all day along with fruit. If you were hungry it was your own fault! A special nice touch was I am a vegetarian, and instead of merely filling up on the salads and vegetables (which I told the chef Casey would have been fine) he had a special dish prepared just for me!
The diving: It was typical Bahamas diving-reefs, walls-many with my personal favorite, swim-throughs, a few wrecks, coral gardens. Throughout the week we saw turtles, rays, octopus, and sharks-lots of sharks. Lots of different types of tropical fish, and unfortunately, too many lionfish. They are beautiful to look at, but I HATE them. Some of the reefs had quite a bit of algae on them, and then the boat would move only a mile or two to the next dive site, and there wouldn't be any. No apparent rhyme or reason to the algae...
We dove five dives a day except the last, where we did two. A nice touch is when you come back onto the dive deck after rinsing off, a crew member would drape a hot towel on you! Nice touch...which leads me to:
The crew: The boat holds only 14 divers, and there were 5 hard-working crew members. They were superb-not just attentive to your needs but fun and friendly. I got to know them all well, and they felt more like friends than employees. I can't say enough about how they went the extra mile to make our trip enjoyable! So thanks to Capt Dennis, Mate Ernie, chef Casey and videographer David (who made us all look like movie stars), and Zac, whose youth and exuberant energy was uplifting--I wish I could have bottled it and used it for the trip home!
So in conclusion--especially if you are a diver on a budget, and want incredible value for your dive dollars-book a trip on this boat with confidence! I know one cruise in particular had myriad problems, but I think the Dancer fleet has worked them out. We have had two great trips on the Carib Dancer and I wouldn't hesitate a second to book a third in the future!
