Pro Dive Cairns Australia

[therat]

Hi all,
I'm new to the board and have a question?
My wife and I are booked on a live aboard ot of Cairns with an outfit Called Pro Dive.
I've had a couple positive comments about them on another Travel board and was wondering if anyone here had any comments?
we leave on Halloween and I'm getting hot to get wet...anybody got anything to say?

 

[h3o]

We booked a trip with them in May(4 hours before boat launch time). Pro Dive offered the 4 day Cod Hole/Ribbon Reefs trip we wanted (on board Spirit of Freedom) for $200 less than the price advertised online. The live-aboard charged about $150 I think for rental equipment for the whole trip, but Pro-Dive gave us a deal at $50. They have a nice shop in the middle of town in Cairns. Book when you get there instead of ahead of time and you'll save $. Some trips I researched before I left were up to 50% cheaper when we got to Cairns. (I.E. Taka's 5 day Coral Sea/Cod Hole trip was $550 AUD instead of 1,050 AUD.)

I highly recommend Pro-Dive, their staff was also very friendly and helpful, and the rental equipment they gave us was brand spankin new.

 

[caymaniac]

We used Pro-Dive for our June-July trip to OZ. Their store is a nice store in Cairns. When I first contacted Pro-Dive for pricing on the net. They gave me the Aussie price for a Mike Ball trip, Mike Ball meanwhile was contacting me about a trip and wanted to know what price Pro-Dive quoted, Mike Ball wanted me to pay quite a-bit higher price:wacko: . Pro-Dive gave us a good price with Diversity (Quicksilver). We did notice that there were prices for liveaboard trips, in downtown Cairns that were discounted quite a-bit, but when you fly 24 hours to a destination, I didn't feel I could count on maybe getting a good deal. So we were happy with what we purchased . If Australia was closer, we would go alot, but the distance is too far.
I'm sure you'll enjoy yourself, the Aussies really treated us nice and were very helpful where ever we traveled in OZ.
What else do you want to know?

Caymaniac

 

[wsmc831]

well, I do ;-)

Wife and I are heading to Australia for the holidays, and get into Cairns on a friday, anyone recommend a good outfit to go with, and if we should wait to book till we get there?

I think our problem is booking hotels, if we get there and don't find a trip going out (want a 3 day or so liveaboard) on Friday we might be stuck with nothing....

been researching a bit and if I don't get a job by then (silicon valley woes ;-) we'll be looking for something not real expensive, but we're both good divers and don't want a snorkling trip that ALSO has a few divers.....


just looking for opinions from people that have done it.

 

[h3o]

I was worried about the same thing too before I left, whether we'd be stuck with nothing at all... but I decided to take a risk and wait anyway... at the supposed HEIGHT of the dive season at GBR (May/June). When we got there, not only did ALL of the live-aboards have vacancies but they were so much cheaper than the prices advertised online.

There were 18 out of 28 spots filled on the boat I went on, and that was late May, early June. With so many live-aboard options and travelling traffic at a low, I'd wait... I highly doubt all decent live-aboards going up north will be full. Especially since you're on a budget, you'll find much better deals. For price value, Taka and Spirit of Freedom were the cheapest that are going out to the northern reefs and/or coral sea. Taka has a 5 day Coral Sea/Cod Hole trip for $550 AUD(when you book it there), and Spirit of Freedom has a 4 day Cod Hole/Ribbon Reefs trip for $750(when you book there). The Spirit of Freedom is a much nicer boat than the Taka, and a guy I met there that went on the Taka boat said it was a barf fest... but I guess that really depends on the conditions, the seas were a little on the rougher side when we went.

There are much cheaper live-aboards in Cairns, but they all go to the closer mass frequented spots. When are you thinking of going? If money is not a problem, maybe you'd be better off booking ahead, just for peace of mind. The money I saved allowed me to leave a nice tip and paid for 5 days worth of lodging at a hostel. Every dive shop and tour group there can book you on any of the live-aboards, so walk around town and explore the options and pricing. The deals I mentioned were computer print-outs posted on walls in the tour agencies and dive shops, so it seemed like a normal deal type thing... you could probably get a better rate, if you really wanted to... I was too excited about the trip and price and booked it pretty quick. So I personally would wait, we did the trip in May/June of this year, I have no idea what it is at other times of the year.

 

[caymaniac]

h3o once bubbled...
When we got there, not only did ALL of the live-aboards have vacancies but they were so much cheaper than the prices advertised online.
With so many live-aboard options and travelling traffic at a low, I'd wait... I highly doubt all decent live-aboards going up north will be full.
The Spirit of Freedom is a much nicer boat than the Taka, and a guy I met there that went on the Taka boat said it was a barf fest... but I guess that really depends on the conditions, the seas were a little on the rougher side when we went.

Take the Spirit of Freedom, if you are choosing between it and Taka. The Spirit of Freedom is the only boat we saw on the third day out - leaving from Osprey, it looked quite nice. We did see Mike Balls boat near Lizard Island which also seemed nice. From all those that we've talked to, and as well as when we were in Cairns, you could wait to get a deal while you are in town, none of the boats were full except Mike Balls boat the three weeks we were in the area. We were in Cairns and Port Douglas the last two weeks in June the first week in July. You do however want to go as far north as possible, as we traveled from North Horn at the far north point to the Ribbons the coral showed more storm wear and a little more coral bleaching. And you are right on about a barf fest which I heard took place after the week that we were aboard Diversity.

Diving is Fun,
Caymaniac

 

[underwater]

I can highly recommend the Undersea Explorer 6 day 6 night liveaboard from Port Douglas - about 60km north of Cairns.

Generally the longer you go for and the further out to the Coral Sea you go, the better the diving.

Please take an minute and check out www.underwater.com.au - Australia's hottest Dive Site. You can even win a trip on the Undersea Explorer on this site !

There is loads of local information as well as a discussion board and info on all the operators. And when you comne back from your trip, you can uplad you underwater photos and show them off to the world !

Hope to see you underwater ...

Tim

 

[cdiver2]

If you need acomadation in Cairns do a search for queens court I booked there by diverision travel agent but the hotel has a web site.

 

[quik]

We also plan to go to Cairns this november.

We contacted Pro-dive ( cos it's highly recommended by others on the net). They offer 590AUD for AOW course.

If there's a better deal when we get there, I prefer to take risk to save money!!

Quik=-)

 

[h3o]

Was that a typo? $590 for AOW? Does that include a 3-4 day live-aboard trip? Taka has AOW for an extra $71 (USD) and Spirit of Freedom has it listed for an extra $97 (USD). Check out www.divethereef.com
they'll list additional options available for every live-aboard trip such as AOW.