Flower Garden trips CANCELLED

[soonerwink]

All Flower Garden trips have been cancelled until at least August. Thats right it stinks. Our Flower Garden trip has been canceled. It is due to GREED by the owners of Fling Charters LTd. They can make more money by housing the workers cleaning up the oil spill than by doing these trips. Sharon actually told me they make more money. She tried to spin it that they are helping to keep the oil from reaching the Flower Gardens. All the reports I have seen from NOAA is that they do not expect the oil to move in that direction. I feel that they have a contract with us that they are not fulfilling. They said we were committed to paying for our spots, but I guess that they are not committed to fulfilling their end of the contract. Please spread the word on all the scuba forums and Internet sites about their customer service if you feel the same as I do. Also send her an email to: sharon@flingcharters.com to let them know how you feel. Like I said they are trying to spin it to make themselves look good, but in my opinion it is nothing but GREED.

I sure wish the Spree and Capt. Frank would come back to Texas. I received an email from him. that said they are committed to their customers to try and fulfill their trips, and wasn't going to help house the workers at the oil spill. Even though they could make more money. And the spill could even reach him in the Keys.

 

[soonerwink]

Here is a copy of an email I just received from the Fling:

FYI: The Fling is now in Pascagoula Mississippi working with a barge and crane that will be cleaning any boats that have oil on them before they are allowed to enter the bay. We have now cancelled all trips until August 14th. I do believe that we will be there longer and will keep everyone updated as soon as we get any information. I would like to thank the many dive shops and divers who had support us in our decision to work with the oil spill. I have had a few emails calling us greedy and selfish for doing this work. If we lose any divers because of our decision, that is their choice but we are doing the best that we can right now.

Angie West
Fling Charters
1203 N. Ave J
Freeport, TX 77541
(979) 233-4445
Fax- (979) 233-0040

 

[dwatson]

This is such bull**** !!! I took off from the everyday BS I deal with here at work (a Police Officer), excited about being able to spend some time with good dive buddies and even more so that the Flower Gardens trip was not affected by the BP F-up, and then the Fling pulls this??? For more money?!!! WTF? This was going to be my first EVER visit to the Gardens and was something I've anticipated for years and I tell you what I am more than pissed. Why can't the owners of the Fling be more like thier "sister" ship the Spree? Don't they realize Greed is one of the 7 deadly sins? I agree that the spill needs attention but I disagree that you should screw loyal customers over. Well I know it doesn't matter to them, but they just lost a customer and I fell that they're going to lose quite a bit more. I'm local, what about the people who took time off that lived out of state to come dive?

 

[paulw]

There is another thread about this subject here: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/te...ncels-all-most-june-trips-flower-gardens.html

You know it is unfortunate that the customers will not be able to have their planned trip, I am willing to bet for almost everyone the trip was highly anticipated and viewed as a vacation and from reading the posts on the other thread many feel cheated and I understand that, they made their deal first.
BUT
It is also unfortunate that the state of business has been so bad that the owners of the Fling had to make a choice, enough work to pay the bills or honor the agreements with the divers and I believe it had to be a very hard decision to make, one I am glad I did not have to make.

Many people have already taken sides on this but the fact is the trips are not going and being mad and talking bad about the owners of the Fling isn't going to change anything so instead of being un-happy we should find another dive to get happy about and go have some fun!!

 

[theduckguru]

With the uncertainty of the current economy + uncertainty of future tourist dollars diving the gulf, really how could you blame them?

 

[rakpix]

at least they let me know a month before my trip. those poor bastards scheduled in june have no time to arrange another dive elsewhere. this wouldn't be such a problem if there wasn't a monopoly on the flower garden banks, i agree. but what really irks me that the operators have the gall to spin this!!! you are accepting a contract for non-dive work. its your boat. you're going where the money is. its a free (dare i say 'liquid') market, so have fun ...


please don't come back ...


i'm going to wait until there is a committed dive op in the area, who has a more solid business model before i even begin to think about making this trip. i'm going to try and hit the clipper that weekend instead. perhaps american diving will one day have the resources and wherewithal to open up 1-2 day trips to the reef in a few years. until then, the flower garden banks live only in my imagination: the mv fling HAS PERMANENTLY LOST ONE MORE CUSTOMER.

 

[rakpix]

There is another thread about this subject here: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/te...ncels-all-most-june-trips-flower-gardens.html

You know it is unfortunate that the customers will not be able to have their planned trip, I am willing to bet for almost everyone the trip was highly anticipated and viewed as a vacation and from reading the posts on the other thread many feel cheated and I understand that, they made their deal first.
BUT
It is also unfortunate that the state of business has been so bad that the owners of the Fling had to make a choice, enough work to pay the bills or honor the agreements with the divers and I believe it had to be a very hard decision to make, one I am glad I did not have to make.

Many people have already taken sides on this but the fact is the trips are not going and being mad and talking bad about the owners of the Fling isn't going to change anything so instead of being un-happy we should find another dive to get happy about and go have some fun!!

paulw, you're forgetting the other half of capitalism: "WE ARE MARKET FORCES." the problem here, is i can't call up another dive operator and ask how much to board their next liveaboard trip to the banks. i can't pay ANYONE a premium price to insure i visit the flower gardens (which was the main driving force behind ALL my effort this year to train, get rescue / nitrox certified, and rack up saltwater experience) no matter how much ca$h i am willing to throw down for the experience!

in a healthy market, the fling's cold feet would be a huge financial boom for its competitors: THE FLING HAS NO COMPETITORS HOWEVER. so its move does nothing but wash 50-100 people's money down the drain! those dollars will never impact the Texas dive economy. Perhaps never the Texas economy as a whole, as people look outside the state for ANY coral reefs worth diving. Perhaps not the US economy as people look for last minute deals in Cozumel / Roatan / ABC.

Or many will simply putz around the lakes of Texas (beautiful as they are ... i think ... its kinda hard to see.) wasting those yummy, yummy dollars on ... electric bills ... as we collectivley Proof in the hot, steamy oven that is a Texas July X_X

 

[akscubainst]

Sorry your trip got canceled.

But I have to say, if it was my boat it would be a no-brainer, I'd do the same thing as they did. But really, If it was your line or side-line of business that had that opportunity would you rather pamper divers and break-even, or make 4X as much working 1/2 as hard.

 

[GrumpyOldGuy]

The dive boat operators are in survival mode. They are going to do whatever is needed to make it through the next year or two.

Missing you trips sucks for sure, but this guys may loose their boat, business and way of life due to the oil spill fiasco. It will get worse. At least they are giving you advance notice and being up front about it. It has been expected for weeks.

 

[Pearldiver07]

Let's see, keep scheduling dive trips, hoping that they don't get cancelled due to weather, or catch a long-term paycheck for less work.....

Yeah, that's darned self-centered of them.

You gotta remember, they're in business to make a living, not provide the most dive trips possible (basic economic theory here !!!)

If you think they're so easily replaced - have at it. And keep me up to date on how that goes. Or you could offer up the cash to keep them running dive trips.

Captain Frank and Melanie made a good decision in my book, regardless of how much I miss their operation. The weather in the Keys provides much more stable operations. There's a reason there aren't 10 different operators working the Flower Gardens NMS - it's tough to scrape out a profit. Or else we'd have lots of options.

I sympathize with your inconvenience, but look at the bigger picture here man.