Coz versus live aboard.

[Graeme Fraser]

Pros and cons with both, but I love diving liveaboard's.

Apart from great diving, you just get to chill with like minded people, relax and enjoy the scenery.

I liken liveaboard's to Pavlov's dog. You live your routine by the ring of a bell:

BELL = Check hair
Hair dry - time to dive
Hair wet - time to eat

Simples

 

[Brules]

Reading all these responses - it doesnt seem like Blackbeards is anything I would be interested in VS Coz.......I would rather have my own room/hotel and get just as many dives in a day in Coz lol. Now if it was say Fiji or the Pacific, thats another story!

 

[amoses]

I went on a BlackBeards trip about 5 years ago. we WERE offered about 5 dives a day when possible, but did not always get them in. There were some people on the boat that got 22 dives in on that trip, I only did 19 because I am not a night dive fan as much. You do have to be comfortable sharing rooms with others, that was not a big deal for me. I am a social person and the amount of people on the boat was not overwhelming for me. For the price, I thought it was great. The diving in the Bahamas, however, was not nearly as good as the diving in Coz. This is largely due to the state of the coral reefs in the Bahamas. Most of the reefs are dying or dead from an over abundance of Algae and lion fish. If you like shark diving, however, then it was awesome for that. We saw Sharks on probably 75% of our dives. Caribbean Reef sharks mostly, but there were a couple of Bull and Tiger sightings also. if the reefs were in better shape, I would do that trip again. But, I go to Cozumel every summer, and I would not give that up. I might do both, but I would not trade Coz diving for Bahamas.

 

[Rob9876]

As others have said, both have their pluses and minuses. Blackbeards is about the cheapest cost-per-dive you can get for diving by boat in a Caribbean climate. My son and I both really like diving, but both of us felt that it kind of started to feel like work -- especially on the days with 4-5 dives, with bells for breakfast early and then on-off with the wetsuit and gear, bells for dive briefings, wolf down lunch and dinner in cramped spaces, etc. Not really much time for a nap or activities -- hardly time to get dry before the next dive, and don't want to lay on your bunk wet. We're both glad we did the trip, and would not rule out another trip, but we're in no hurry to go again soon. If we do go again, I'm going to give myself permission to skip a few dives to relax a bit more.

We went to Cozumel for a week about 3 months after our Blackbeards trip. We had 5 days of 2 tank diving, and added a couple of night dives (which were great). We did some morning dives, and some afternoon dives where we could sleep in a bit. The diving was better in Cozumel, and we had more time to relax and do other activities (and enjoy some great Mexican food at different restaurants). I think in general this type of trip is much more to our liking, but everyone is different.

 

[Rob9876]

P.S.: On Blackbeards we didn't really have any loud partying to keep anyone up -- by the end of the day, most people just had a drink or two and then crashed. You may want to bring ear plugs if snoring keeps you awake, though.