Starting in Belize. My two oldest kids and I went snorkeling on the Shark & Ray trip. Way cool. If you don’t absolutely have to dive Belize and/or have not done one of these type trips, then this is highly recommended. Tons of Sharks & Rays, very friendly, got to feed, hold, touch, caress, and look eye-to-eye with them for about 45 minutes. The reef snorkel was painful, because I wanted to be down there close to the reef, not just above it looking down. Perhaps the best part of the day was lunch afterwards at Caye Caulker. Quaint little village on an island near the preserve. Food was OK, but wandering down main street and into the shops was tres cool. The fresh OJ is to die for; they grow oranges for export, and the juice was better than anything I have ever had. It was exquisite for a OJ fan. We booked through Coral Breeze, and I would recommend them, although there are a bunch of others. The boat was good, fairly fast, and comfortable. Several people took the airplane version, and enjoyed the views almost as much as the snorkeling. My wife, Jen, and youngest kids did the cave tubing, along with 600 other guests. Though crowded, Jen gave it a big thumbs up. The divers who went in Belize said that it was a good tour. The dive op was very good evidently, and they were picked up at the ship, so they bypassed the pain of getting off the ship. I saw some pics from that trip a little later, and they echo’d some of the comments about the sparseness of the reef life. Everyone I spoke with said they would do it again…
Unfortunately, the weather was rough for the day in Cayman, and the port was closed. I missed out on diving with Neptunes Divers, but want to go back and use them again. They were nothing but professional and courteous.
Roatan was a disappointment. We had booked through Subway after having dove with them the past two years, with exemplary results. We had dove Mary's Place, Fish Soup, Freighter Wreck, and two walls just off Coco View that were incredible.
So, we were very interested in diving with them again, signed up in Dec. looking forward to visiting Roatan the most of any port. My two daughters and son were diving this time, so this made four; my wife and younger son were going to snorkel with them. We agreed to a three tank dive day visiting the Prince Albert wreck, Fish Soup and with one shallow (20'ish) dive to end, if the computers said OK. I have an email that covered it all, and mentions that the four of us were going out on a boat by ourselves.
No one from Subway mentioned until we arrived that they were kicked out of their old location near Cocoview at Christmas time, and found a new home further north and east. Less attractive neighborhood, trash everywhere... The real problem was the location being too far from the best dive sites. So, we show up on time (8:30 AM), pay, and get some equipment. Then we wait. No one mentioned that we were now waiting on five other divers and that we were all being crammed onto their small boat. So we waited. Did I mention that we waited? And, it was hot? A catamaran comes in, picks up about 50-75 snorkelers, then departs, and we are still sitting around. At ~10:00, the other divers arrive. They were staying on the island, and had dove with Subway the previous few days. It takes them a while to suit up, then we finally get moving.
Where to go? The DMs mentioned two locations that I had never heard of, and one of the other divers sat up and said that they had already dove one of them twice. And, could we go to <someplace cool>? Nope, too far away!!! I mentioned to the DM that we were scheduled to visit the freighter and Fish Soup. Nope, too far away. Another diver asked about Mary's place. Nope, too far away. All paying customers lean back and sighed disgustedly. So, we cruise about five minutes off shore and hit a wall. Nice wall, but almost anywhere in Roatan is nice. Short dive (one of the others tanks started at less than 3k). So, after dropping us off, the boat moves about 50 yards and drops off my wife and son to snorkel 50 feet above the wall in rolling surf!!!!! But, OK, we head back in for our SI and the snorkelers are done for the day. 30 minutes later, similar discussion, similar results. In fact, we hit the same wall, just further down. So, for our two tank dive, we dove one wall for 75 minutes. BTW, the rental regs breathed very wet and one BCD leaked a touch. My daughter wound up a little sick from drinking seawater through the reg and skipped out on the second dive, leaving my wife to dive the second undistinguished trip out.
Perhaps the expectations were too high, but the service was mediocre at best, careless/distracted is a better term. I would say that it was easily the worst dive op experience of my diving career. And, it wasn't just our family. The other divers were a bit peeved, too. Very frustrating...
It would have really cast a pall over our cruise, if not for the incredible diving in Coz with Liquid Blue. For all the problems that we experienced with Subway, LB was exactly the opposite. Exceptional service, great boat, only 7 divers on a fairly large boat, great dives. They use steel tanks (120s for my son and I, and 100s for my wife and daughter), set up everything just perfectly. Being a picky diver about my equipment, I went over our setups and was impressed that Jorge even pulled out a DIN-yoke adaptor to install my reg on the yoke tanks. He didn’t make any derogatory comments about our BP&Ws even putting the wings and STAs on for us without asking.
The dives… WOW! The current was very low due to a storm passing by, so we got to dive part of the Palancar caves on the first dive that is not usually on the agenda. We started down, glided through the caves (wow, so cool!!!), through lots of fish (almost a Fish Soup Lite!), by a couple of rays, a couple of sharks in the distance, a huge sea turtle just overhead, another just below on exit <open mouth, slobbering, mumbling in ecstasy>. At the bottom (115 FSW), we turn left (south) and continue up through ridges and coral heads. Tons more fish on the way back up. Jorge led us through the dive very efficiently, and pointed out the high lights. Best dive of my life!!!
Second dive was on the mine sweeper wreak. Max depth 77, but we were down for almost 45 minutes. Again, Jorge led us around the ship (upper section only), ‘twas way cool. As you passed through the doorways, the rooms were filled with silver dollar type fish by the millions. In one room, they were grouped around a large, evidently predatory, fish, as the schools formed a liquid sphere around the larger fish leaving him in foodless void.  Great way to end the trip & the dive. Michaela and the LB crew were tremendous; will definitely use them again.
All in all, a trip to remember. Some highs, some lows, but lots of fun. For future Valor cruisers, have a ball; it is a great ride…
Jerry
Unfortunately, the weather was rough for the day in Cayman, and the port was closed. I missed out on diving with Neptunes Divers, but want to go back and use them again. They were nothing but professional and courteous.
Roatan was a disappointment. We had booked through Subway after having dove with them the past two years, with exemplary results. We had dove Mary's Place, Fish Soup, Freighter Wreck, and two walls just off Coco View that were incredible.
So, we were very interested in diving with them again, signed up in Dec. looking forward to visiting Roatan the most of any port. My two daughters and son were diving this time, so this made four; my wife and younger son were going to snorkel with them. We agreed to a three tank dive day visiting the Prince Albert wreck, Fish Soup and with one shallow (20'ish) dive to end, if the computers said OK. I have an email that covered it all, and mentions that the four of us were going out on a boat by ourselves.
No one from Subway mentioned until we arrived that they were kicked out of their old location near Cocoview at Christmas time, and found a new home further north and east. Less attractive neighborhood, trash everywhere... The real problem was the location being too far from the best dive sites. So, we show up on time (8:30 AM), pay, and get some equipment. Then we wait. No one mentioned that we were now waiting on five other divers and that we were all being crammed onto their small boat. So we waited. Did I mention that we waited? And, it was hot? A catamaran comes in, picks up about 50-75 snorkelers, then departs, and we are still sitting around. At ~10:00, the other divers arrive. They were staying on the island, and had dove with Subway the previous few days. It takes them a while to suit up, then we finally get moving.
Where to go? The DMs mentioned two locations that I had never heard of, and one of the other divers sat up and said that they had already dove one of them twice. And, could we go to <someplace cool>? Nope, too far away!!! I mentioned to the DM that we were scheduled to visit the freighter and Fish Soup. Nope, too far away. Another diver asked about Mary's place. Nope, too far away. All paying customers lean back and sighed disgustedly. So, we cruise about five minutes off shore and hit a wall. Nice wall, but almost anywhere in Roatan is nice. Short dive (one of the others tanks started at less than 3k). So, after dropping us off, the boat moves about 50 yards and drops off my wife and son to snorkel 50 feet above the wall in rolling surf!!!!! But, OK, we head back in for our SI and the snorkelers are done for the day. 30 minutes later, similar discussion, similar results. In fact, we hit the same wall, just further down. So, for our two tank dive, we dove one wall for 75 minutes. BTW, the rental regs breathed very wet and one BCD leaked a touch. My daughter wound up a little sick from drinking seawater through the reg and skipped out on the second dive, leaving my wife to dive the second undistinguished trip out.
Perhaps the expectations were too high, but the service was mediocre at best, careless/distracted is a better term. I would say that it was easily the worst dive op experience of my diving career. And, it wasn't just our family. The other divers were a bit peeved, too. Very frustrating...
It would have really cast a pall over our cruise, if not for the incredible diving in Coz with Liquid Blue. For all the problems that we experienced with Subway, LB was exactly the opposite. Exceptional service, great boat, only 7 divers on a fairly large boat, great dives. They use steel tanks (120s for my son and I, and 100s for my wife and daughter), set up everything just perfectly. Being a picky diver about my equipment, I went over our setups and was impressed that Jorge even pulled out a DIN-yoke adaptor to install my reg on the yoke tanks. He didn’t make any derogatory comments about our BP&Ws even putting the wings and STAs on for us without asking.
The dives… WOW! The current was very low due to a storm passing by, so we got to dive part of the Palancar caves on the first dive that is not usually on the agenda. We started down, glided through the caves (wow, so cool!!!), through lots of fish (almost a Fish Soup Lite!), by a couple of rays, a couple of sharks in the distance, a huge sea turtle just overhead, another just below on exit <open mouth, slobbering, mumbling in ecstasy>. At the bottom (115 FSW), we turn left (south) and continue up through ridges and coral heads. Tons more fish on the way back up. Jorge led us through the dive very efficiently, and pointed out the high lights. Best dive of my life!!!
Second dive was on the mine sweeper wreak. Max depth 77, but we were down for almost 45 minutes. Again, Jorge led us around the ship (upper section only), ‘twas way cool. As you passed through the doorways, the rooms were filled with silver dollar type fish by the millions. In one room, they were grouped around a large, evidently predatory, fish, as the schools formed a liquid sphere around the larger fish leaving him in foodless void.  Great way to end the trip & the dive. Michaela and the LB crew were tremendous; will definitely use them again.
All in all, a trip to remember. Some highs, some lows, but lots of fun. For future Valor cruisers, have a ball; it is a great ride…
Jerry