Aggressor Reviews

[lawhorns04]

I'm a single diver and did Turks & Caicos as such in September of 2004. It was a phenomenal boat, but I've heard that the quality varies from location to location. Does anyone have any good recs as far as Aggressor trips? I'm considering the cayman, the belize or the utila one. Your help is greatly appreciated.

[scubarobin]

Originally Posted by lawhorns04

I'm a single diver and did Turks & Caicos as such in September of 2004. It was a phenomenal boat, but I've heard that the quality varies from location to location. Does anyone have any good recs as far as Aggressor trips? I'm considering the cayman, the belize or the utila one. Your help is greatly appreciated.

haven't done any of them, but from all the trip reports I have read, the Belize and Cayman trips are the best, Utila is worst (all dive sites can be done by land-based ops in Utila or Roatan). Belize is best overall I have been told - all dives are outer atolls and dramatic walls, tons of life, etc. Caymans trip is great except sometimes weather prevents them from getting all the way out to Little Cayman so the whole week is done at Grand Cayman. Still great diving but not getting to Bloody Bay Wall would suck.

[Travelnsj]

It does vary from location to location. I have know people who have dove the Palau and Kona Aggressor with rave reviews. I have dove the Galapagos Aggressor and loved it (although I do not like LOB's). I have known people who have dove the Fiji, Truk (when it was there) and the Sulawesi Aggressor have swore they would never do another Aggressor trip.

[fishballer]

just came back from agressor coco's island last month. older boat, but pretty nice folks on the boat.

not sure how their operation is on the other routes though.

[chinacat46]

I've done 23 live aboards and 6 were Aggressor and been very happy with 5 of them. I did the Turks & Caicos 04, Palau 05, Truk 05, Kona 05, Cayman 06, and Fiji 06. The only one I was unhappy on was the Fiji. Air Con went out and the crew seemed out of sync plus it was the only Aggressor that I thought the food was just lousy. The diving in Fiji was very good but the boat disappointed. They also have another boat in Fiji which used to be in French Poly. I've been on a lot of Peter Hughes(pedro) and Explorer Ventures(EV) boats as well as a number of smaller one boat operations. I'd say in general you can't go wrong with Aggressor, Pedro, or EV. Of the 3 I think I prefer Pedro as most of the boats have two single beds in them instead of bunk beds.

If you want to stay in the Caribbean I'd say the Cayman Aggressor would be a great trip. As some one stated they don't always make it to Little Cayman but if you go at the "right" time of year it usually is no problem. Bloody Bay Wall has some great dives and being on a liveaborad makes it so easy to do 5 dives a day.

I've done Belize twice but both times it was on Pedro's boat the Sun Dancer. That is also a good trip and definitely one of the nicer boats I've been on in 23 liveaboards. The Blue Hole dive though is way overrated IMO.

Another choice would be the Pedro boat Wind Dancer which spends time between Tobago and Grenada depending on the time of year. I did Tobago and thought that was real good diving for the Caribbean. Nice reefs, good fish life, okay viz, good variety.

If you want suggestions for the Pacific I got plenty of those too. Another suggestion is if you are going as a single don't book with a group. Group trips they try to fill up the boat so you almost always get a roommate. If you book with the company directly(Aggressor, Pedro, EV,etc...) you can talk to them and find trips which aren't full and if you get lucky score your own room. Plus the boat isn't full so there is more room on the dive deck and in the water.

[lawhorns04]

I'm thinking cayman then. I want to use miles and don't have tons of vacation time. I was going to go to Fantasy Island again, but I figure only getting a week to go a year should motivate me to try somrthing new. Thanks for the advice everyone, especially chinacat46.

[bubbles]

I have only been on one Aggressor Liveaboard and that was the Galapagos one back in 2005. It was fabulous. Absolutely NO complaints. Crew and DMs were fabulous, friendly, with exceptional service. They tracked our dive depths and times, but did not intervene. They just asked us to keep our dives to one hour or less so that we could keep on schedule. The land trips were just as fantastic as the diving. Can't wait to return to the Galapagos. Everyone aboard bought their video of the week's trip because it was so professionally done. Highly recommend this trip. ALSO, they were VERY safety oriented. Every diver was issued a dive flag (works better than a sausage there), a dive alert air horn, and an EPIRB in case of major drifting in the currents!

[georoc01]

I heard a rumor that Aggressor has taken over Peter Hughes?

[James1010]

In Puerto Morales there is a C56 which was a Coast Guard Cutter (I believe) which has 3 decks of which all are accessible. It was sunk in Puerto Morales as an artificial reef but also to boost the diving community there. I have dived the wreck and it is the most amazing dive I have ever been on. It's deepest point is somewhere around 90ft and it is also known as the best wreck dive in Mexico. I have a friend who runs the dive shop down there, you can find him on Wet Set Water Adventures of Mexico..the best little PADI dive center in the Mexican Caribbean his name is Paul and he runs a safe and great dive shop there with great prices. I highly recommend diving there. Tell him James sent ya.

[Steve Douglas]

I have dove the Okeanos Aggressor 10 times, the Galapagos Aggressor once, the Tahiti Aggressor once, and the Truk Aggressor(back in the early 90's)

It is a shame that in this economy, the new owner has decided to raise the Aggressor prices for the divers, lower the commissions for people who book the boats and lower the number of free spots as well which effects all the divers. Greed, plain and simple and I don't think I will be booking them again in the future just for the principal of the thing.
That said, the crew on the Okeanos is excellent and hard working with wonderful food and service. My one trip on the Galapagos Agg. was in the mid 90's and the crew was as lazy as you could get. I'm sure they have a different crew now. The crew, especially on the Tahiti Aggressor was very good as was the captain and crew on the Truk Aggressor. That captain now is the owner of the Truk Oddessy and I look forward to going back there in 2010. Of all the Aggressor boats, the Sulawesi Aggressor is the most unnecessary since Lembeh Straits is best done with one of the land resorts. (I recommend either KBR or Kasawari)
Steve