Dive Review of Island Dancer (Aggressor) in
Fiji and Tuvalu

Robert, I'm considering a trip on the Fiji Island Dancer and would greatly appreciate your input to a few questions I have. I have not been to the South Pacific, and of course would really like to see what it's all about, and just how much better the diving is versus the Caribbean (assuming this is true). The only liveaboard I've been on is the Belize Aggressor, and my wife truly needed it's large deck to sit in the sun and warm up, so this would be somewhat of a negative. In terms of time and money output, do you think this the diving would be substantially better than the Caribbean? I'm not real interested in sharks - how much emphasis is there on sharks? What about currents? I don't mind drift dives, but hate fighting a current. Did you arrive in Suva and go directly to the boat, or stay elsewhere to acclimate? Anyway, any input you have would be great. Thanks, Jeff in Denver.

OK, this is very subjective. Fiji is between Caribbean and other S Pacific destinations in quality of diving and difficulty travel / cost. Palau, Truk, Galapagos are more difficult to get to, probably more costly, and more specialized, and very, very special. Fiji is easy, direct flight LA to Fiji. It has often better coral, and some neat cultural experience compared to Caribbean. But your question was on the tradeoff of time and money with experience. Not sure. If you are thinking of someday Palau/Truk/or Galapagos, perhaps do another Caribbean trip and save money and time for those exotic destinations. The Naia is a better experience, but pricier. There is a reason they are booked full. On travel, I did same day to Suva and boat. One way was bus (Coral Sea?) and other way the short hop airline from Suva to boat. Airline was better. I usually go a day or two earlier for more complex travel, but this time I scheduled a long layover in LA, recheck my luggage there, and took a hotel shuttle for dinner during the layover. I used Suva Raffles last day for day room.

I forgot to add, Jeff, that many folks arrived on same day flight. I strongly suspect that the Captain would delay diving to accommodate if flight was late.