Dive Review of Aggressor Fleet in
Micronesia/Palau

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Aggressor Fleet: "Palau - Worth the long trip from US", Dec, 2017, by Gregg Backemeyer, FL, US ( Sr. Reviewer 9 reports with 7 Helpful votes). Report 10133 has 1 Helpful vote.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	The Palau Aggressor was a good, functional boat with an interesting lift system aft to bring the dive boat onboard making for easy access and ease of use. It's powered by twin 1000hp CATs with jet drives. This allowed us to circumnavigate the German Channel which other liveaboards with traditional screws can't do. This saved over a day of traveling around and allowed us to dive the better sites, longer. The cabins are bunk beds which is not ideal but was OK. They discourage using the electrical outlet in the room for charging, etc. And the only one outlet to the side of the wash basin was wholly inadequate for cabin charging of equipment and other things anyway. The chef was awesome and the food was excellent. We were there over the holidays and they gave each of us a gift (Palau chocolate covered macadamia nuts) and prepared a feast for both Christmas eve day and Christmas day evening meals. I've been on several liveaboards and the Palau Aggressor crew was one of the friendliest and helpful I have ever experienced. The dive masters will either leave you alone or provide almost custom service depending on your needs/preference. The diving is simply awesome. We did most of our diving in the Philippine Sea. The reefs are in great shape - probably how many in the world were 40+ years ago. The amount of and different types of coral is incredible. The fish were thick of many varieties. We witnessed the red snapper spawn which was unbelievable - this only happens 2 or 3 days a month, based upon the lunar cycle, so we were blessed. I can't begin to describe this. They gave us 3 night dives. A total of 25 dives total. More than a few required the use of reef hooks due to the current. This diving is not for the beginner. I felt I got my money's worth. My air integrated PDC of many years failed me about 2/3 of the way through the trip. They hooked up a pressure gauge to my reg and lent me one of their PDCS and didn't charge me a dime. They did charge $100 for NITROX for the week which seems a bit absurd as air fills, I believe, weren't even available. Oh well...more and more liveaboards have stopped charging for NITROX fills. Perhaps it's time for Aggressor to look at doing the same. Each Aggressor boat/operator is a franchisee so they are motivated to charge for "local" extras like enriched air. Traveling to Palau was a challenge for me. I couldn't really get any good flights from south Florida (I'm an America guy and they don't go there) so I jumped over to Houston on Southwest and hooked up with my dive buddy. We then flew United. I don't care for United for many reasons. Even on these very long international flights they don't provide a decent meal service. All they have is a few things to buy for a fee and their food was marginal. Regardless, the ordeal of the flights was more than worth it to dive Palau. Even though it can rain in December we were pretty fortunate and experienced very little rain. A cyclone had moved though the area the week before and nice weather followed. I took a rain jacket and never used it. I took my LavaCore and a 3mm. I never donned the 3mm and after a few days put it back in my luggage. They say no gloves are allowed but I wore mine when we were hooking up on the reef. They looked the other way...I wasn't the only one! This is definitely a place to put on your bucket list of places to dive before you die!
Websites	Aggressor Fleet
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	Over 1000 dives
Where else diving	French Polynesia, Mexico, Caribbean, Guadalupe Island, Socorro Island, South Florida, ABC Islands, Honduras, Hawaii, Panama, Turks & Caicos, Bahamas (Tiger Beach, Bimini, et al), BVIs, AVIs, Bermuda, Dominican Republic, Solomon Islands, Galapagos Islands, Palau and more
Closest Airport	Koror, PW (ROR)	Getting There	Through Hawaii and Guam from the US. We stopped briefly in Yap inbound. A lot of flights/time.
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny	Seas	surge
Water Temp	78-82°F / 26-28°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	40-100 Ft/ 12-30 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	Common sense on max depth with NITROX; most dives were 60+ minutes.
Liveaboard?	yes	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	1 or 2	Mantas	1 or 2
Dolphins	1 or 2	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	The Palau Aggressor's facilities for UWP are OK but not great. But I had what I really needed.

Report currently has 1 Helpful vote

Subscriber's Comments

By Bobby Munno in NY, US at Feb 23, 2018 21:27 EST

What's up Old Man? It was great meeting and diving with you! Excellent trip aside from the commute. Hope to see you again. Let me know when you're in NYC and keep me informed of your next destinations. I'll do the same.

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Dive Review of Aggressor Fleet in Micronesia/Palau

Aggressor Fleet: "Palau - Worth the long trip from US", Dec, 2017,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Subscriber's Comments

Dive Review of Aggressor Fleet in
Micronesia/Palau