| Value for Money | 7/10  |
|---|---|
| Overall rating | 6.5/10 |
By roo649 on 25th Sep 2007
| Value for money | 2/10 |
|---|---|
| Overall value | 0/10 |
 roo649's recommendation | |
Professional outfit, lots of equipment. English speaking (English first language), good staff.
Pushy 'sales person' type management, monopoly on diving on the island.
We were on our honeymoon and had decided to do a bit of diving as we were already divers. The owner seemed quite friendly but there was a lot of 'sales talk' - in fact he talked at us for a long time. We ended up doing an Advanced Diver's course, thinking this would be something new to add to our knowledge - which was fine.
When out on the boat they turned out to be less than the laid-back friendly personalities one normally associates with divers. While there is no doubt diving is a risky sport and therefore needs to be treated carefully, theses guy's attitudes in the end made me a nervous wreck, thus probably only contributing to a lack of safety rather than preventing it. They would frequently hurry us on - not what you want on a relaxing break, especially on your honeymoon, and it always felt as if they were just trying to get the dive over with as quickly as possible in order to get back to base to re-fill the boat with the next lot of customers. I've never been so stressed diving and I have been to a few dives sites in Thailand and Fiji.
In fact when getting off the boat I was breathing so hard due to being nervous that I was completely the opposite of the 'relaxed' person you're supposed to be when entering the water. As we hadn't dived for 2 years we were somewhat out of practice. Instead of helping to show us how to gear-up again they just ignored us, but were then impatient and to be honest quite angry sounding when we hadn't done it in time.
When my husband's fin clip fell off (despite one of the members of staff doing it up for him as he was having some problems) they got very tetchy with us and told Mark he was to pay for it. Paying for lost items is normal practice and seems fair enough on the surface of it - but not when the reason it fell off was because the staff hadn't put it on properly and the whole reason for losing it was because they were constantly rushing us.
In the end all the dives I felt very stressed with them around. Some other staff were all absolutely lovely but I noticed a distinct change in attitudes while certain people were around. No one seemed to have any fun any more. They were all great though and if it weren't for them I'm not sure I could have survived the course.
We were told we could do a wreck dive as part of our Advanced course - lured in with this promised treat I should say - and since Croatia's a bit of a mecca for them I did get quite excited about this prospect. Then we heard at the end that they had done this dive the day before with another group so wouldn't be doing it with us. Imagine my disappointment. Fair enough, in the diving world you can not always guarantee to see the things you want to see due to the nature of it, but a wreck is one thing that never goes away! I think this was very unfair to offer it to us and then not even give us a chance to see it.
Another thing that made me believe the whole business is far more about money making than customer satisfaction was their policy on torches. We were told we would need them for a cave dive and that they are 6 euros each to hire. What they didn't tell us was that we would get a few seconds actually looking at the cave walls, for which Mark and I frankly would never have needed a torch each (everyone's else's torches were shining around anyway) or at least could have made do with one between two. If we had had longer they might have been useful, but they were pointless and just another way of adding on cost.
All in all the diving was the worst I've ever had. I was very disappointed. Apart from the real lack of marine life (European diving not for me now!) the way we were treated just made me on edge the whole time. A diving outfit should not be run like this. I hope never to have to experience this again. The only reason we stayed with them is because they have a monopoly on the island and there was no where else to go.
Ironically they made us write in their comments book. I wrote something suitably neutral praising the good staff - hoping they could read between the lines but felt I couldn't write what I really wanted to say because I couldn't face the confrontation when they read it. I haven't written this review until now (honeymoon was last year) because I just wanted to put the whole sad affair behind me but actually now I'd quite like others to know how it was for us.
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