Dive Op Review

I have been diving for over 10 years. This was my first "liveaboard" trip. I was very exited. I was going with a good buddy Divemaster named "Larry" and his "instructor" Buddy named Joe.

Continental offers a direct flight for me from Newark to Belize and even though we were 1/2 hr late departing, we quickly made it up in the air. Customs was a breeze entering.

We waited for the van for Nekton to pick us up and were met by Jeff, a young college student aged lad. Alex, the driver, picked up our bags and kept us company while we wated for the next plane to arrive an hour later... Not very cool , considering it was 90 + degrees out... SO I waited in the van..Nice and cool in there. They weren't making multiple runs to the airport as Gas prices were recently hiked.
We were then driven through the very poor area of Belize to make our way to the Princess Hotel which was a bit diasppointing, considering it was the hub of the local area. It had a funky smell you couldn't get rid of. This hotel was the ONLY thing in the area to see or do , so we made the best of it and got a day room. I had a nice fresh shower to wash away the travel grime. We then proceded to the Bar/Restaurant area reminiscent of a scene from a movie. We were definitily away from the rest of the world at this point.

The dinner was ok , fried grouper. The rum was potent as we sampled the local varieties. ONE BARREL is the local "bacardi".. Make sure and pick up a few bottles before you hit the boat.. The local beer called "BELIKIN" was also tasty with three dif. varieties to choose from.
I picked up 2 cases for the three of us and a few bottles of Coke for the rum.

We got to the boat around 8:30 , had the welcome aboard briefing , met the crew, signed my life away , standard policy.. We had a few more beers then off to bed with fish dancing n my head..

Nekton changes you to "boat time" and sets your watch accordingly. However , my knucklehead roomate obvioulsy didnt set his watch appropriately , therefore awaking me at 05:30 .... I guess he was as excited as a kid on xmas.. I was too, so we watched the sun come up, had some breakfast and met everyone for the morning dive briefing on the sundeck.

On our first dive we saw two dolphins race past us and laughed at us and our silly gear.. Stoopid humans..

The visibilty was astounding with ranges from 150+ ..
Water temps in the 80's , air temps in the 90's . Even hit 100 one day..

I did 5 - 6 dives a day, including the morning and night dives..

The food was decent, with a full turkey dinner one day, shrimp dinner the next. Grouper, pork and lots of other good foods. You definitely worked up an appetite here.

The rooms were not huge, but big enuff for two 6 ' guys ..Water pressure not great..But lots of fresh water.

I would rate them an 8 overall. Why ?

A few things..
1. Zero entertainment. We had to make our own fun. BRING MOVIES(DVD) or else you will be stuck watching tired old movies from thier "collection"
Everyone was a little older than me , 35 ... So they were in bed by 9 pm. Me, Im ready to party all night.
2. The rooms were a little funky too, Everything was wet, so its a little understandable.
3. the ship is defintiely beat up, a fresh coat of paint would do wonders.

Will this stop me from going back? Hell no, I 'm booked on the Oct. Roqual trip to Cay Sal Banks.. See ya there !

here is the link to some Belize photos taken by joe and his new Sea'nSea. He need a little more practice with it however. Enjoy :-D

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/jpazos4012/album?.dir=/71ae&.src=ph&.tok=ph0GVyCBHo0d87Z1

[img]http://www.scubaaddict.com/uploads/812ad0b6-52e5-2ad7.jpg" />