Who is writing the dive operator reviews?

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Hate to disappoint you, but 95% of people who dive from cruise ships are once a year divers, most only doing a few dives per year.

robin:D

I'm a dive operator in St. Vincent, and with all due respect, I have had some AWFUL experiences with cruise ship crew. Not all, but enough to make me wary...

I have been booked 'yes there will be 8 of us can you do us a good discount' and then only 3 turn up... when time to pay comes 'the person that we spoke to in the shop said we could have it for less' - no that would be me that you spoke to and no the price that I quoted is what I expect you to pay... etc etc etc...

When dealing with cruise ship folk I ALWAYS play it super safe, as it takes only one accident to ruin a reputation that it has taken me years to build.

I am very sorry that you have had these experiences, but there is always 2 sides to every story.

There is a HUGE difference between cruise ship divers and in-resort divers, and as an operator I do my very best to provide enjoyable and safe diving for everyone. In some instances I provide 2 dive leaders, one for the in resort folks, and one for the cruise ship folks, should I have a mixed group on board.

It is wrong for an operator to assume that all cruise ship passengers are 'once a year' divers, but at the end of the day most cruise ship passengers are... and there really isn't much that we can do about that!

I am sure that the wetsuit issue with Froggies was an oversight, and we all make mistakes from time to time don't we...
 
On the other hand, sometimes you read awful reviews of dive operators that gave you good service. The internet gives everybody a voice. When researching a dive operator, we should probably disregard the very best reviews and the worst reviews.
 
Dive Op reviews seem to be written by fans more often than critics it seems. It does seem to be a good ideas to do extensive searching on an Op here, then read many reviews.

The problem Don is that being a critic here will get you labasted by those that are fanatics for the place you are critical about.
 
The problem Don is that being a critic here will get you labasted by those that are fanatics for the place you are critical about.

I am not convinced that is necessarily true. Two things will get you lambasted for sure:

- Posting a one-sided or selectively reported account alleging that an operator was unsafe (particularly with your first post on SB). I remember a brutal grilling a couple of years back where it turned out some wild allegations about an operator in Saba were unfounded - quite the reverse actually, the OP had been fairly unsafe with his inexperienced son, and tried to pin it on the operator.

- Criticising the diving in a particular area. I once suggested that I didn't think the diving in a certain part of the Caribbean was all that great, and I took a serious beat down.

I think if you do post a critical report, it is quite natural for others who disagree to post and say "huh, we thought they were fine when we dived with them..." Nothing wrong with that.
 

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