Posted 23 January 2011 - 12:56 PM
Hi All,
I have to agree with Rumblebee $1250 is a lot of money for FI. I was there in the last week of July and had many conversations with Rich, the new booking agent. He told me the new managment will not take over until the end of Nov 2010, and that even then the management was not new, it was the old mangers before the ones whos contract expired in Nov. He told us that the owners wanted to take back the resort. I was out on the new boat, it is a very nice boat, it is however what I call a "cattle car" boat, it looked like it was going to take 20 to 30 divers depending on how it was configured. As for the rooms, I always stayed in the rooms down by the dock, It is going to take more that a coat of paint and a new a/c unit to bring them to what I would call a "good" room, all the beds and furnishings need replaced, my table only had 3 legs and had to be leaned against the wall to stand up. The water was a problem, many times no water at all, and not hot water when it was running. I was using the showers at the dive dock because they had pressure and hot water.
The Food, let me say by starting I have never LOST weight on a dive rip until this trip to FI. The food was bland and did not have many choices. I noticed a lot of the same meals served from one day to the next, i can understand using leftovers, but not for 3 - 4 days. I talked to the management about having some bacon with breakfast, i was told every day that it would be there, i did not see any bacon for the entier week i was there. If you wanted made to order eggs, you had to hunt down the cook and give her your order.
The dives, the diving on that side of the island are great, Tha dive crew was the same as I have had on other trips, and have made friends with, there was lots of complaining being done by the dive crew as to the way they were being treated by the current managment and of the upcoming "new" management. The dive staff was "chewed out" several times in front of the guests by the current management and the "Rich" the soon to be booking agent.
I had several conversations with Rich about where the resort was going, he told me they want to get it back to being a "dive" resort. I think that is where Fi needs to be, not a resort for the Europeans, which is where it was. As for the price, I think it is very overpriced for what ther have to offer now. i think that if Fi gets their act together and returns to their roots, then it will become a great place for divers to dive and have fun.
OK, where and I going with this? I have been to FI 8 different times, I liked the resort when is was for divers, I do not think the new management caould have turned the resort around since Nov when the contract expired from the old management. I think I am going to Pass on this trip and give Fi some more time to improve. I really hope they can return to being the place I used to visit because i like the place.
George aka diveteacher
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