Vacation to Pompano - Questions

[STATDIVER]

The DM said the problem was that it was so common for dive operations to cancel dives for lack of divers that people were signing up with 2-3 operators and then waiting to see which ones actually ran. Then there were the people who do the opposite--sign up with nobody until the last minute, waiting to see which ones got enough divers to run the trip. As a result, a trip may be canceled for a lack of divers when there were enough divers waiting to see if the trip would run before signing up for it. Last minute trip cancellations are so very common that they affect the way people sign up for trips, and the way people sign up for trips creates last minute cancellations--a truly vicious cycle.

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It's definitely frustrating. When I originally scheduled that Wednesday trip with ScubaTyme, he told me we were the only ones scheduled for the day, but that most of the time people signed up at the last minute. However, even though he said he typically requires 4 to go out, he said that even if it was just my wife and I that he would still do the trip for us. I don't know if that's a common policy with them or if he was just being nice or something, but that is one of the comments he made that sealed the deal for me booking with him. Unfortunately, his boat messed up and we never were able to make the trip with them anyway.

With that said though, the one other person I talked to down there that seemed to have the "if you sign up, we're going diving, end of story" policy was the folks down at American Dream Scuba in Ft. Lauderdale. it's ultimately who we ended up going with on Wednesday anyway, and had it not been for me really wanting to go to the United Caribbean with PDC on Monday I would have probably booked with them that day as well just for the guaranteed trip. The drive to Ft. Lauderdale wasn't that bad all in all, the drawback was mostly just with us being on a family vacation, there are a lot of moving parts when it comes to different people wanting to do different things on different days etc...so the shorter the drive, the better for everyone. My mom was keeping our one year old son while we were diving, so we needed to be back on some days as soon as possible for her to do things she had planned etc.

Anyway, it is what it is. We enjoyed it. I would definitely prefer to not be in a situation where I'm unfamiliar with the area, I'm down there to dive, and I find out less than 24 hours prior to a trip that there are problems...sending me into spending the afternoon on the phone scrambling to find a trip. Especially when we picked the place to stay that we did based on proximity to the beach, as well as to the availability of dive shops/charters. In hindsight after talking with folks on the boat with South FL Diving Headquarters, we would have had no cancellations with them if we had booked with them from the beginning, but there was no way to know that at the time. Luckily it all worked out.

 

[Johnoly]

.... Luckily it all worked out.

Great report!!
Any favorite food/dinner stops that you really enjoyed ??

 

[boulderjohn]

Make divers pay in advance. If the diver doesn't give fair notice (24 hrs) for a cancellation, they lose their money. If a dive boat has to cancel because of the weather, they could issue refunds.

Seems like this could solve the scheduling issues and guarantee a boat gets paid if people cancel. Downside is, no tip money from the ones that cancel, I guess.

The people canceling problem is apparently because of their overbooking trips in order to avoid being shut out of a trip. If people only canceled for really good reasons, it would not happen often. I have only canceled a planned dive trip a few times, and each time it was because of illness. If you feel ill enough not to dive, then you should not dive, and you should not feel pressured to do the dive despite being sick because you already paid for it.

 

[drrich2]

Is there a time of year when people can book with a strong assurance of going out? My perspective is that of the vacation diver; someone who pays round trip airfare, hotel, rental vehicle and takes a week off that can be hard to get committed to from work, so when I show up somewhere, I'm not keen on 'maybe, maybe not' dive trips. Things can happen anywhere; boat breaks, you get bumped to accommodate some big group (should be rare, and not such an issue if they move me to another boat so I still dive), but, well, it's like I read online when booking plane trips; what's the % 'on time' equivalent for a given dive boat op.? I don't like doing the 'dive op. shuffle,' either.

One of my interests in scuba is why some destinations 'rise to the top,' & others get pushed back to 2nd or 3rd tier, or are hardly recognized at all. In southeastern FL, the upper Keys seem to 'rule,' West Palm Beach & Jupiter get mentioned pretty often...but I've been trying to figure out why I don't see more dive trip reports from Fort Lauderdale/Pompano. Seems like beaches & other topside attractions, plus an airport many can fly into (& Southwest serves; 2 free checked bags!), coupled with good diving ought to make it a regional leader. But the 3 times I've flown to Fort Lauderdale for diving, we picked up our rental & headed to Key Largo (once) or Jupiter (twice).

Any thoughts on why Fort Lauderdale/Pompano dive trip reports don't seem more common? I don't think I'm imagining it... Maybe they do enough local business that pulling in out-of-staters isn't a big deal?

Richard.

 

[STATDIVER]

Great report!!
Any favorite food/dinner stops that you really enjoyed ??

There were a few places that stood out, depending on what you are looking for.
We did lunch one day at this place in Pompano called "Burgers and Suds", and it was great. A true "hole in the wall" kind of place, not a real beachy place at all...but awesome burgers and food in general, as well as a fantastic beer selection. Probably one of my favorite discoveries over the week happened here, where I tried an IPA called A1A which is brewed locally in Pompano at a brewery called 26 degrees. Delicious.

For something a bit nicer, 101 Ocean in Lauderdale by the Sea was really good. That whole area is pretty neat, very pedestrian with many types of restaurants, shops etc. I had these diver scallops that were pretty fantastic.

Lastly, my wife and I went out one night up around the Deerfield Pier. We started at this beachside restaurant called Oceans 234. Great location, outdoor area is right on the beach, but it was a bit too fancy for what we were looking for. We hung out for a while, had a couple of beers and appetizers, and moved on. We ended up across the street at this little place called Flanigan's Seafood Bar and Grill, which was a bit closer to what we were looking for minus the beachside location. More of a dive bar kind of place, but the food was good, and the drinks were good as well.

Earlier in the week we also tried a place right next to Flanigan's called The Whales Rib, but the wait was ridiculously long, and the food was just ok imo. I only mention it because it's clearly a favorite down there, so maybe it was a bad night for us, I don't know, but I wasn't overly impressed.

I will say, one thing I felt was missing from that area was the "beachside tiki-hut" kinds of restaurants. Maybe it's just the way the real estate is owned down there, but that kind of thing just wasn't common at all, which was kind of disappointing at first since that is one of the things we were really hoping to find, but it is what it is. Also, outside of a place like Joe's Crab Shack, you can pretty much give up on finding crab legs during July.

One place I wish we would have went to was this place right by the marina where the dive charters mostly operate called The Rusty Hook. I heard their food was really great, and we actually were going to go there before we went out to Deerfield, but by the time we were getting out the door of the house it was only going to be open for another hour or so, so we just went elsewhere.

 

[Bubblesong]

One place I wish we would have went to was this place right by the marina where the dive charters mostly operate called The Rusty Hook.

This restaurant was part of Sands Harbor Hotel, in which the South Florida Dive Shop is located, am I correct? I have stayed at that Hotel twice, but still haven't tried the Rusty Hook. We always chose to walk towards beach and find various small places, and then go on to the beach. Maybe my next visit....

 

[seeker242]

Is there a time of year when people can book with a strong assurance of going out?

Yes, on the weekend. I go out almost every weekend and have never had a trip cancelled, except for weather.

 

[rek_diver]

The people canceling problem is apparently because of their overbooking trips in order to avoid being shut out of a trip. If people only canceled for really good reasons, it would not happen often. I have only canceled a planned dive trip a few times, and each time it was because of illness. If you feel ill enough not to dive, then you should not dive, and you should not feel pressured to do the dive despite being sick because you already paid for it.

The same could be said for the dive charter. If they maintained a policy that they will run regardless of the number of divers, then divers wouldn't feel the need to overbook in order to be sure they won't be shut out of a canceled dive trip.

Seems unfair to me that most dive operations have a policy that cancellations within 24 hours of the scheduled trip will forfeit the divers full trip deposit, however the dive operator retains the right to cancel a dive as late as the evening of the night just before the scheduled trip - keeping the diver "on the hook" with no time to find another boat.

Good business practice would be like the airlines do it. The flight goes regardless of how full it is. Can you imagine an airline saying "sorry we canceled the flight at the last minute we just don't have enough people to make it profitable".

 

[boulderjohn]

Seems unfair to me that most dive operations have a policy that cancellations within 24 hours of the scheduled trip will forfeit the divers full trip deposit, however the dive operator retains the right to cancel a dive as late as the evening of the night just before the scheduled trip - keeping the diver "on the hook" with no time to find another boat.

I was once called with the cancellation on my cell phone just as I was approaching the marina in my car.

Another time the dive shop decided there were not enough divers for the wreck trip they had scheduled, so after everyone had arrived, they put the people who had signed up for the wreck trip on the boat with the people who were lobster hunting. That was another lost day of diving for me.

Good business practice would be like the airlines do it. The flight goes regardless of how full it is. Can you imagine an airline saying "sorry we canceled the flight at the last minute we just don't have enough people to make it profitable".

I take it you have never experienced last minute flight cancellations. I have had more than a few. They don't tell the reason. I am pretty sure low numbers were involved with at least some of them.

 

[Johnoly]

....Good business practice would be like the airlines do it. ....

LMAO,,,now you opened a can of worms !!!

So dive boats now will have 1st class seats.......You are seated under the shade,,,,you are allowed off the boat before all the other divers,,,,there's an outlet under your seat to charge your phone with free wifi,,,,you get a hot towel,,,and instead of chips, it's a fresh fruit bowl with real silverware.