Visit Date: April 2013

Beat up boats and mediocre reefs.

Visit Date: August 2011

We left on the Morning Star 8-20-11 at about 3pm. the seas were a little ruff and I suffered from some sea sickness that afternoon. I felt better on Sunday morning and started diving. However due to hurricane we went back to Nassau Monday afternoon. We all got to use the Captains phone and a customers phone to get flights off the island arranged. The captain said we could stay on the boat in dock until our flights (if you could get a flight). I booked a hotel room for Monday and Tuesday at the harbor club marina hotel night from the boat.

When we arrived back at port in the rain at 11pm Monday night. We went to the hotel. On Tuesday morning we got our gear off and our flight moved up to Wednesday morning as they were shutting down the airport at noon. We were not offered any help or rooms or anything from BB management. I hear from someone else that we may get 50% off vouchers for the next booking that I wont use as I rarely get a vacation.

I should have bought trip insurance. The crew of the Morning star was great but the management was missing in action and only cared about their boats and moving them to Atlantis marina. I got 6 dives in out of 9. the night dive I didn't go on due to very strong currents and most people came back right away. The seas were rough and the boat was rocking greatly most of the time.

The close quarters on this boat can be a problem if you have any abrasive type personalities on board as we did. This one ass had to be falling down drunk in the evenings and insulting and a smart ass to others including the crew. I wanted to clock him when while some were taking pictures of some cays and the beautiful water we were passing he had to say "oh wow an island gee did everyone see the island"

he also commented on a woman's weight. Guess there is one in every bunch.

If I had to do it again I would go Aqua cat for more space and privacy. My bunk was in the galley area and they sat in there and drank and were loud until after midnight. I got very little sleep.

Again the crew Captain Andy, dive master Adam. Devon, Scott, and Jerimey were all great. In addition there was an O'ring problem with rings blowing during fills constantly. My tank ring blew 4 times. I did manage to take 450 pictures. and my buddy did a ten min video of the shark dive.

When I got back on Wednesday afternoon I contacted BB via email about a refund or credit. they said Friday they would be in touch with the owner and each customer would get an email. I have heard nothing. The bottom line is communication between BB management and the customers during the on coming Hurricane event was non existant. We were left on our own to fend for ourselves once back in Nassau.

To the Captain Andy and the crew of the Morning Star who I tipped the full amount.

GREAT JOB

and to Scott. Thanks for the Ham and Cheese

Visit Date: June 2009

Tornados and strong winds prevented us from leaving home to board the Blackbeard's ship in Freeport Bahamas. When we called to let them know and asked about rebooking, we were told there are no refunds. Their website plainly states there are no refunds and tells clients to buy trip insurance (which we thought we had, but turns out it didn't cover this since it was not a named storm). However we thought that since they already had our $1758, that they would let us rebook on another date that had open spots. Their policy is to do so on a stand-by only meaning we must call on a given Friday to find out if there are open spots for the following Saturday departure. If there are available spaces, we must then use those 7 days to schedule time off work, get dog sitters lined up, buy airline tickets and so forth. All we asked was if we could reschedule and confirm for October 3 (or original trip was supposed to be June 13) since they currently have four open bunks.

They told us they would not lose the revenue they could get from selling those spots if they could avoid it, so the answer is no, we must wait until Sept 25 to know if we would be allowed to board on Oct 3. They asked me if I truly felt it was fair to have them lose $1758 just because our airline could not get us to them on time.

I told them I didn't see how they lost revenue when they already have our $1758 and have not serviced us in any way other than to insult us via e-mails that insinuate we are trying to get something for free.

We understand not bumping other paying customers with reservations. We would even understand a 10% rebooking fee. We do not understand the condesending manner they have nor their unwillingness to book us for a date that is during their admitted slow time of year when they have the benefit of our entire payment already in hand.

Be aware that DAN and Dive Assure cover trip cancellation due to medical emergencies or "named" storms so our trip insurance was not the coverage we thought. And Blackbeard's office attitude is that they have no reason to be accomodating or courteous for that matter.

I wish we had found the reviews on Yahoo prior to booking because I too wondered why the diving was 3-4 times per day instead of 4-5 times per day. Reading others' reviews about the lack of safety and the crew's preference for partying versus diving sounds like we would have wasted our $1758 even if we had been able to go.

UPDATE - I have a very understanding boss who allowed me to tentatively schedule vacation, and I had all things lined up just in case Blackbeard's did have any open slots. We were stunned when they did have open bunks (they they were willing to let us have) so we took our 7-day notice and got air tickets, dog sitters, vacation days, etc. and we were able to tmake the trip. After the way they talked down to us in June, we never thought they would follow thru on the Stand By offer but they did.