This was my 10th liveaboard trip, 3rd with Peter Hughes. Others were with Aggressor Fleet (4), Caribbean Explorer (2) and Bottom Time II.
Delightfully uneventful with Canadian/American Airlines.
The boat is accurately described on the Peter Hughes website I was a bit leery of having 20 passengers on board but the dining room was not crowded at all and the dive deck was no more (or less) crowded than any other liveaboard I have been on.
Staterooms - Ours had twin single beds. Others had bunks and there were two suites. We had ample storage space in our room.
The Food - I expected it to be great and it was.
The Service - I expected it to be great and it was. Nice little extras included heated towels after the night dive (the Sea Dancer had heated towels after every dive) and a thermos of hot chocolate sitting beside a bottle of Bailey's waiting for us after the night dive.
As good as I have seen in the Caribbean. Nice corals, gorgonians, sponges, and lots of small and big fish to see. We dove the Lighthouse Reef area most of the week, and had one dive at the Blue Hole. All dive sites, except Blue Hole, were the reef/wall type. There were 26 total diving opportunities of which Patti made 22 and I made 23.
Beware of - the need to navigate. Moorings were usually a fair distance from the wall and the boat tended to swing on the mooring line. I actually had to use my compass a couple of times. Also, on the Friday, the dive times were 0600 and 0800 hrs. This was in order to get the boat back to Belize City at a decent hour. Finally, if you have an early arrival, you should know in advance that you can't board until 1500 hrs. They will take your luggage on board and invite you to sit around the Radisson Hotel, which is right across the street from the pier.
Our choices for Friday afternoon, were to visit Mayan ruins, go to the zoo, walk around town, get a massage, or just hang around the boat. I went to the zoo and really enjoyed it. Friday night dinner was on the boat. On Saturday, we were all kicked off the boat at 0800 hrs. Those with early flights were taken to the airport, and the rest of us hung around the Radisson for a few hours, and then taken to the airport.
Super trip. I would recommend it to my friends.
| Trip Dates1998-10-17 to 1998-10-23 | Trip Report Index |