understood and that is a fair assessment, i was actually very happy with your review, it seemed balanced. i don't factor in the 'location' when considering reviews. Socorro is excellent diving, probably even if you go in a barrel and aggressor staff are always generally top drawer, but the air conditioning/electronics going our and the period of time you spent with a 'will we/won't we' have to go home concern, food being average plus other reviews i have had about the boat being a bit 'tired' means i am going to have to see some better reviews before i would opt for this over one of the others. Especially for socorro/pricepoint and the amount you shell out for this trip etc. and the vortex going into service ( still waiting for the first reviews on this)
i'm just happy you aren't one of those guys who is 'trip 11/10! the boat was infested with bedbugs, there was no aircon/we sank on the way home, but i saw galapagos ....so 11/10!'
i had an inaccurate reference/recommendation for one of my first liveaboards (socorro) and when i came back i asked the guy why we had such differing opinions and he replied 'oh yeah, all of your issues were valid and i hated them, but i really enjoyed the diving.... and i was like...dude, that's a review for the place...not the boat...why did you tell me to go on that boat?!' (same with staff.. pretty much 85%+ of liveboard staff i have met have ben excellent, so excellent is/should be a standard, excellent doesn't cancel out broken aircon/boring bland food/dirty boat etc in my book it's not the staff's fault if the boat is substandard, but also excellent staff don't excuse a substandard boat.)... now years later he has been on a lot more liveaboards and whenever i see him he put his hands up and says 'i know...i know..., but i had no idea there could be experiences like the arenui out there...it was my 2nd liveaboard, how was i to know it was really a 6/10 boat?!'....which is also fair.
Don't think you have given a 'negative review' and it has led to this, quite the contrary. I've been on quite a few liveaboards and i'll go on a lot of aggressors in the future.. i never really write off a boat forever based on a review and i really appreciated your 'good/bad/ugly' but based on my experience of liveaboards and the trigger points for a 'not terrible, but not as good as it should be', it would probably mean a miss for me....at least at the moment.
.....and 100% agree with your 'all boats have some issues' etc...but if you were paying someone $3 million+ a year to make sure your personal boat didn't have these issues........
very reassuring to hear the crew was up to the task though..seems like they really earned their tip!
