Group trips vs. going ourselves

[mcohen1021]

Like it’s been said previously, there are pros and cons to both. Personally, I prefer to go with my wife and no one else. Reason is because we follow our own schedule rather than it be a 4+ person decision/vote.

Recently, I flew into MIA a day early on a 6 am flight for my Brac trip for the purpose of seeing key west for one day. The plan was to haul arse back to MIA for Cuban food that night. I know we could have done whatever we wanted but when we got back, the couple we were with complained about being tired and we got kinda pressured into eating at the hotel. Had we been alone, we would have been at la Careta.

Also, add a large group from the dive shop and you end up on the 52’ dive boat with 25 divers split off into 2 groups. It’s a clusterf, followed by a one-up post-dive conversation of “who saw the biggest ____”, followed by the “well I saw a bigger ___ back in 85…”

Well I can throw this here football over a mountain and if coach had put me in 4th quarter we would have won state, I guarantee it…

I think I used to be more social, but with age, experience and the increased idiot factor I see, I prefer to keep to myself and my scuba partner.

 

[The Chairman]

Maybe shops did that a long time ago (when it was harder to get info, and when I wasn't looking at such trips anyway) but not now.

Some still do it. We were in Coz when an LDS owner storms up to me and accuses me of trying to poach his clients. "What the hell are you talking about, Homes?" Apparently, his peeps and SB peeps talked. We were charging $1150 and the LDS was charging $1700. We got another boat dive a day, a night dive was included, unlimited shore diving and our NitrOx was cheaper. It turned out that the shop owner was paying more than our peeps. He would have to sell at a loss to meet our price and for less of a trip at that.

 

[Hoag]

I personally have no problem if the LDS makes a profit off of the trip. They are providing a service and it is only fair that they get paid for their effort. They will arrange air (sometimes), ground transportation, hotels, on trips to Bonaire, they organize and book the car (truck) rentals. If there is a problem, then I deal with my LDS rep on the trip (often the LDS owner in my case) and not some stranger in a tourist area who knows that they will never see me again.

Yes, the LDS will make a profit. This will be either a free trip for them or maybe a monetary profit or maybe a little of both. I personally don't mind that because IMHO, they also provide a service.

 

[BDSC]

We were in Coz when an LDS owner storms up to me and accuses me of trying to poach his clients. "What the hell are you talking about, Homes?" Apparently, his peeps and SB peeps talked. We were charging $1150 and the LDS was charging $1700.

I've had a few folks like myself approach me about going in with them and me taking half the boat and them taking half the boat on a liveaboard. Of course once I explain to them that I don't take a free spot, we all share in the commission, we all pay the same thing, and I'll be able to price the trip for my friends anywhere from $600 - $800 less than their folks or more, then they don't think it's such a hot idea. I did have one guy ask me if we decided to book a boat together, could I ask my folks to promise not to tell the other group how much they paid.

 

[Damselfish]

It's unfortunate that some LDS are known to ghost some of their customers when it comes to services and or attention-that's the nature of how some owners run their ops. This is one of the reasons why I refrain from using dive shops for anything other than air fills as I can get most or all of my equipment online. As for their markup in group trips, it's an unfortunate reality if you're not aware of it. I guess what you can in this instance is find out when and where the group is traveling and then book the reservation directly with the company.

I like the owner and he's not charging extra. He's always been really good as far as the shop and repairs. Low key on sales, helpful, fixes things inexpensively when it makes sense and sometimes free, only place I've never had a gear failure _after_ service. So I felt good about booking with him, but I get the sense it simply doesn't occur to him there are other things that would be helpful and add value beyond booking the boat and taking care of the payments. (It's Indonesia - there are definitely more things to figure out and coordinate.) We'll see as it gets closer. I'm stuck with this trip, as it's long ago booked and mostly paid for. (We've done one lovely trip with BDSC, and in a couple simple emails he provided more helpful info and organization than I suspect I will ever see from this particular shop owner, and he's not getting anything extra for it. Yay BDSC.

We actually don't do a lot of group trips, we do like to travel on our own and it's rare the scheduling even works out for us. But sometimes it's fun, and sometimes it's difficult to get on some popular liveaboards at the best times otherwise as they are heavily booked by groups years in advance. And sometimes it's nice (speaking as the person who normally does all the trip planning) to just pay and let someone else do it. I love to research trip ideas but have trouble pulling the trigger sometimes - if I see a trip that I've always meant to do but never gotten around to, and it's laid out in front of me to just say yes or no, that can be tempting.

I've certainly not looked at trips run by a zillion shops and obviously people have had different experiences in what shops charge, or not.

 

[BDSC]

sometimes it's difficult to get on some popular liveaboards at the best times otherwise as they are heavily booked by groups years in advance.

I know sometimes folks think I'm crazy for booking trips up to three years in advance but it's like you said, if you want to go to a popular destination and you want the entire liveaboard, you need to book that far out. In 2014 I booked the two trips to the Sea of Cortez this year. Last year I was booking trips for 2019. When I go to DEMA next wek I'll be looking for a liveaboard to Indonesia for early 2020.

 

[scbaNE2179]

I think I used to be more social, but with age, experience and the increased idiot factor I see, I prefer to keep to myself and my scuba partner.

This is one of the reasons why I scuba! So I don't have to talk to people underwater! Although on livaboards I HAVE to be social.

 

[Damselfish]

I know sometimes folks think I'm crazy for booking trips up to three years in advance but it's like you said, if you want to go to a popular destination and you want the entire liveaboard, you need to book that far out. In 2014 I booked the two trips to the Sea of Cortez this year. Last year I was booking trips for 2019. When I go to DEMA next wek I'll be looking for a liveaboard to Indonesia for early 2020.

How did the second Cortez trip go? I was watching the hurricanes and wondering if you were getting any snotty weather from them.

 

[BDSC]

How did the second Cortez trip go? I was watching the hurricanes and wondering if you were getting any snotty weather from them.

It went great. That storm way down south headed west so it missed us entirely. Never felt a thing from it. Overall the trip was much like the August trip. Most of the sites were repeats but did a couple of different ones as well. We did see a lot more rays on this trip. Several large schools. Food and crew were great as usual.