This was my 2nd liveaboard experience - the other was only 3 days in the Great Barrier Reef. I was VERY happy with this trip. I have been diving in Belize before (mostly near Bacalar Chico Marine park on Ambergris Caye), but was never able to spend a lot of time at the outer islands.

I'll start with the best part - the diving! The crew was fabulous - always friendly, very efficient, and always willing to buddy up when my husband didn't do the dive. They offered 4 dives a day AND a night dive after dinner. Because we were there for 10 days, I didn't feel the need to do EVERY dive, and there was NO pressure to do more than what I was comfortable doing. They did not coddle the divers, but they did answer any and every question you had. Diving was from the back of the boat, and it was a small step in and a ladder out. They took great care of everyone's cameras, and there was a separate wash tank for electronics. In addition, plenty of plugs for battery recharging. I especially liked their tank refill setup. All you had to do was separate the regulator from the tank and the refill hose was right there - one for each pair of tanks. Soooo easy to get ready for the next dive!

All the dive sites has something special to see, and the dive briefings were thorough and varied. We saw all the major Caribbean reef fish, Caribbean round and Southern stingrays, eagle rays, reef sharks, hawksbill and green turtles, lobster, large and small crabs, tiny feeder shrimp. I also saw some unusual fish - cowfish, filefish, toadfish, spotted drum (my personal favorites!).

Second best - the food. I wish the food hadn't been so good...it was hard to not eat too much. We had a nice custom breakfast (there was always a special, but you could also custom order), then a dive, then a freshly prepared snack, then a dive, then a lunch buffet (sometimes hot dishes, sometimes sandwich fixings), then a dive, then a hot snack, then a dive, then a lovely, delicious dinner, then a night dive. If you weren't diving any more that day, you could have complimentary wine or beer any time. Always available - tea and coffee - sodas and juices - breads and spreads - cookies and chips.

Third best - accommodations. The public areas of the ship were very nice. Nice salon, nice dining room, nice upper deck with hot tub and lounge chairs for warming up between dives. The rooms were tiny, tho...really tiny. Nicely appointed, but small. 1 double bed with a single bunk above it. It would have been nice if the upper bunk swung up and latched away. It did feel a little claustrophobic for the person on the inside of the lower bed. There was one larger room up on the main floor (more expensive, but might be worth it if you want more room). You can check out the Aggressor website for pictures.

A trip like this is made or broken by the other people - the crew was super nice - all six of them - I loved them all. In addition, the other 16 guests were also very nice. Divers are the best people to travel with - they are easy going and love to talk about their other trips. Almost everyone on the trip was a returnee to Aggressor - many of them had been on 5-8 other Aggressor and Dancer boats. I think that says everything. I know that WE will be back.