Thanks everyone for the quick responses - if there is anyone else with suggestions please feel free to chime in or PM me. I have come up with a few more detailed questions based on your answers and I hope that you will keep helping me out on the details.
1) For the land based opperations - how long is the boat ride from the resorts? Obviously the liveaboard would be the ultimate for convience but I am curious how long the ride is if we do go land based for the "must-do" dives (I am at least 18 months away to try and figure out what those dives are).
2) Does the Blue Lagoon resort have nitrox (and up to what percentage)?, doubles and stage bottles or are those available at trukstop, truklagoon resort dive centre, or odyssey only?
3) For the land based options - do they take you back to the resort between dives or do they take all the tanks out for 2 dives and do the surface interval in the boat?
4) I have heard of the odyssey having and O2 bar to hang off for your shallow stops - is this still the case and do the land based operators have something similar?
5) How often is the wind an issue - obviously it is protected from the major weather but from what I've seen it is still big enough that with enough wind from the right direction the waves could build and I am wondering if we are land based and the boats are small are we going to get blown off more likely then if we were on the odyssey?
6) Tied into #5 - how big are the boats that the land based charters use?
7) Is it possible to get picked up at the Blue Lagoon dock by the trukstop boats? I just got back from Cozumel and that was an option where you could dive with another shop that wasn't located at your resort and they would pick you up in the morning.
8) For the odyssey - does anyone know what the minimum amount of time is that you can stay on? What I am thinking is if we do a couple of days at the Blue Lagoon (or another landbased option) and a few days on the odyssey or is the odyssey a minimum of a week booking?
Thanks everyone
The dive sites are 10 to 20 minutes away from Blue Lagoon and you can add another 5 minutes for Truk Stop. Both places dive the exact same dive sites as the liveaboards so you are NOT going to miss anything by saving $1000. You might get 4 dives a day on the liveaboards (remember the diving is deeper than many other places) and you only get 3 with land based operations.
Truk stop has doubles and stage bottles and will blend nitrox to any % you want. I'm not sure about blue lagoon.
Neither operation returns to the resort between dives. Truk Stop usually finds a small island to rest if there is any boat movement at all. Some have interesting artifacts such as machine gun bunkers.
I lived on Truk as the operations manager at Truk Stop for 4 months. We never missed a dive day and only had wind and waves twice in that entire time and even then we didn't miss any dives. The dive boats hook onto markers of the wrecks themselves.
The boats are locally made boats that will accomodate 6 to 8 divers without being crowded. They are not the best boats I've ever seen but they are very good.
I'm not sure if Truk Stop would pick you up at Blue Lagoon. They probably would but I'm not sure why you would do that. Truk Stop is very safe. I lived there and walked the 300 yards of so to town everyday. I wouldn't walk around at night but other than that you can walk as much as you like during the day. It's not pretty but it is very safe. Many locals and expats eat at Truk Stop almost every day and the food is pretty good if not slightly expensive but considering how far the island is from anywhere else, it's not that bad. A large grocery is very close and sells snacks, food and beer. Beer is less than half of what you'll pay at Truk Stop or Blue Lagoon. Send Truk Stop an email to ask questions about pickup from Blue Lagoon. The dive operator is very professional and completely certified. The same cannot be said of the staff at Blue Lagoon.
Truk Stop certainly did have communications 2 years ago. I installed the wireless router myself and was able to use Skpe and other phone services but it is very slow. The owner actually has an Internet phone with free connection to the US that you can certainly use in an emergency. He may even let you use it for other uses. Connection is difficult if you see 3 or 4 other people all using laptops.
The Odyssey does not return to port during it's one week excursion even though you can often see it sitting out in the lagoon. It is almost always full with 1 week charter divers.
I love liveaboards personally and would choose them anytime finances were not an issue. In many cases you can get twice as many dives but that is not the case at the lagoon. I'm sure some people on some days can get in 5 dives but that is really pushing things in the lagoon. Some dives will be 130 feet or more but many are less than 80 feet. This is one place I wouldn't want to have a problem as the medical facilities are really poor and the chamber is iffy and only run by volunteers.
Blue Lagoon is very isolated and you are basically stuck for the week unless you hire a cab. I would not walk out of the compound so your food and snack choices are very limited. The hotel is very old and not as well kept as Truk Stop. Truk Stop is an old style hotel but is very clean but not very modern. You can get ocean front rooms for only a few dollars more than a standard room and they are worth it. They have a huge deck for relaxing as well as a long pier but they don't have the landscaped grounds like Blue Lagoon. Most expats agree that the food is better at Truk Stop. Most people like the outside bar at Blue Lagoon better than the no view indoor bar at Truk Stop.
You can't go wrong whatever your choice. Don't lose any sleep over the liveaboard option if it's not in the cards.
