Normandy on Loyal Watcher

[millychew]

dont know he was 25 ish from manchester. lots of spots. great at mixing the gas. said he could not stand the food any longer nor the mood swings from linda. think she ruled the roost on that boat

[MATTBIN]

Originally Posted by onthetrain

Well a liveaboard provides a lot more than a day boat. IE a bed, accomodation, food etc. Even if the food was poor the skipper had to buy it. In this case the skipper took the boat to France incurring fuel charges etc.

On a day boat the Skipper does not have an overhead if they don't go out (excepting insurance, mooring fees etc).

If you booked a weekend away including a hotel etc and the diving was cancelled due to weather you would probably still have to pay the hotel charges etc.

That's fair enough and I would expect some charges to remain as fixed items but I would expect some refund on the 'diving' part of the 'holiday', in much the same way as a package tour, if part of it goes skywards you get a partial refund.

Matt

[onthetrain]

Originally Posted by MATTBIN

That's fair enough and I would expect some charges to remain as fixed items but I would expect some refund on the 'diving' part of the 'holiday', in much the same way as a package tour, if part of it goes skywards you get a partial refund.

Matt

I understand what your saying Matt, but I guess I would say that the Skipper charters you the boat. He or she is not responsible for the diving part other than to shot the wreck and pick you up.

I guess the Skipper would say that 'I offered you 5 days diving on the wall of Plymouth Breakwater. I fulfilled my obligation to get you some diving despite the weather, you chose not to dive'.

Alan

[Adrian Kelland]

Originally Posted by MATTBIN

That's fair enough and I would expect some charges to remain as fixed items but I would expect some refund on the 'diving' part of the 'holiday', in much the same way as a package tour, if part of it goes skywards you get a partial refund.

Matt

If the weather is poor on any holiday I would be surprised to get a refund. There should only be refunds if the thing that goes wrong is something that the contractor (holiday company/boat owner) has control over. Anything else is goodwill or as stated in the contract.

Adrian

[And]

Hi

I would say that if the trip is cut short then the skipper has reduced the amount of money he will spend on fuel, food, labour, and wear and tear on things like compressors, engines etc. Therefore there should be room for a refund which will not impact the profits of the trip if it had completed all the days. Instead it looks like the skipper in this case can pray for bad weather as that means they make more money, which is the wrong balance really, but its his choice, and he runs the risks of reports like these being read by many hundreds of divers.

The fuel cost of going over to France surely is in the price, being a trip to Normandy in the first place? A surcharge seems to be ill calculated.

As far as quality of food and accommodation, then liveaboard owners will need to realise that on average the divers will be aboard for around 20 hours a day, and only in the water for four!

Andy

[MATTBIN]

Originally Posted by Adrian Kelland

If the weather is poor on any holiday I would be surprised to get a refund. There should only be refunds if the thing that goes wrong is something that the contractor (holiday company/boat owner) has control over. Anything else is goodwill or as stated in the contract.

Adrian

Adrian
on any 'normal' holiday I would agree, after all if a tour operator books an hotel for X number of people some will want it sunny, some may not care etc, so it would be impossible to sort out the refund arrangements for the whole group to cover every eventualkity in weather conditions. Diving holidays however are a different matter entirely, we dive in sun or rain but not say in force5 conditions, day boat operators work on this basis and presumably make a profit, they too can get a whole weeks diving blown out, but still refund. I dont see why if the boat stays in harbour the day rate for the dives cannot be calculated and refunded.

Now lets not get in a big ruck over this as clearly we have different opinions and I suspect neither of us is so entrenched not to see the others view and really its down to the skipper, as And says reputations are spread on the net and maybe some will book with a skipper that doesnt refund maybe some wont, when the No's get bigger than the Yeses the skippers will go out of business maybe. Or it could work the other way. Either way the end result is we will know which business model works

Matt

[Adrian Kelland]

Originally Posted by MATTBIN

Adrian
on any 'normal' holiday I would agree, after all if a tour operator books an hotel for X number of people some will want it sunny, some may not care etc, so it would be impossible to sort out the refund arrangements for the whole group to cover every eventualkity in weather conditions. Diving holidays however are a different matter entirely, we dive in sun or rain but not say in force5 conditions, day boat operators work on this basis and presumably make a profit, they too can get a whole weeks diving blown out, but still refund. I dont see why if the boat stays in harbour the day rate for the dives cannot be calculated and refunded.

Now lets not get in a big ruck over this as clearly we have different opinions and I suspect neither of us is so entrenched not to see the others view and really its down to the skipper, as And says reputations are spread on the net and maybe some will book with a skipper that doesnt refund maybe some wont, when the No's get bigger than the Yeses the skippers will go out of business maybe. Or it could work the other way. Either way the end result is we will know which business model works

Matt

No problem Matt, lets hope the weather is good to US this w/e.

Adrian

[MATTBIN]

Lets put it this way,
Plymouth - known to be a bit wet - Yes???

Went there last weekend, brilliant sunshine as soon as we got there, rained when we left.
Same the weekend we took Adam to Uni, same the weekend we collected him

So if the weather is belly up this coming weekend - I am not taking the blame this time

Matt

(Tom will though!)

[Dave_S]

Ok then,

so LW isn't getting such a good write up here, what would people suggest as an alternative, given we're [group of friends] looking to try and book a trip to normandy for next year

Dave

[Adrian Kelland]

Originally Posted by MATTBIN

Lets put it this way,
Plymouth - known to be a bit wet - Yes???

Went there last weekend, brilliant sunshine as soon as we got there, rained when we left.
Same the weekend we took Adam to Uni, same the weekend we collected him

Got the message yet?

We managed to get in for 45 minutes on the HMS Coronation site, but no joy on the Sunday. No surveying done.

Adrian