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[WreckWench]

IMPORTANT INFORMATION EVERYONE REALLY SHOULD READ AND UNDERSTAND BEFORE BOOKING A SINGLEDIVERS.COM TRIP...because you agree to them in the terms and conditions when you book our trips:

 

IMPORTANT INFORMATION in this post is linked from every trip you are looking at booking so everything below applies to all our trips:

• We are posting it here to keep the main trip details post cleaner and more streamlined YET still containing via the links to this thread, the important information related to how we run our trips
• You will be agreeing to all of this information as part of the trip sign up process re: terms and conditions when you book one of our trips.
• You should know before you sign up for a trip, the things about our trips that we hold you responsible for, namely ALL INFORMATION in this post and ALL INFORMATION in the 'Trip Topics' notably the '#1 Trip Details Topic' and ALL INFORMATION in our member 'Trip PM'  to which you are added to AFTER you book your trip and which we use to communicate to you privately about the trip you are taking with us; and finally we use 'What's App while traveling to keep you apprised of ALL TRIP ISSUES you need to be aware of so you agree to download What's App's fully encrypted and free app so that you can receive 'on the fly trip updates while traveling and during the trip.
• If you have ANY questions please contact us via trips@sinledivers.com and we'll get back to you quickly.  We want you to have an amazing time BUT we need to cover these matters so we are all o the same page...or is that..diving in the same pool!

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT ALL SINGLEDIVERS.COM TRIPS:

 

ABOUT US:

• We have been leading trips with an all volunteer team for nearly 30 years now and have learned many things along the way that help to prevent trip/travel issues; enable us to more quickly deal with them when they arise; keep our members safe; and enable us to offer an amazing experience right down to the last detail.  Sometimes you may not understand why we do the things we do... we always try to explain as we go but you certainly will understand once you've experienced a trip with us. And sometimes you may not agree with how we approach things...but they work and in the end... we have an extremely high repeat rate for members on our trips so please 'try it our way' the first time and if you see a way to improve...please do share with us so we can  keep improving and continue to offer amazing trips and experiences for years to come.

 

WHAT TO DO:

1. Have an open mind about something being different. Different is not always better but it often surprises us and yes in a good way.
2.  Remember that we are a dive club on steroids so run entirely by volunteers. Please treat them for the invaluable resource and 'gift' that they are. I and my team of awesome volunteers love our club and want you to love it too. We also want you to have the best trip experience ever...so much so that we go the extra mile to help everyone to do many things no other group would do because its too time consuming or hard.
3. Understand that you are part of a GROUP and not an individual at a resort. GROUP TRAVEL is not for everyone and we get it. Some people are just not suited for group travel so if you try us once and its not your cup of tea, no harm no foul.
4. Please remember that there is 1 group leader and often times 10-20 members on a trip. The group leader simply can not give the same level of attention that the staff at a hotel/resort could give you if you are a party of 1.  HOWEVER having a group gives us clout to do things that a party of 1-2 can not do. So understand the trade offs and we will understand if the 'group thing' is not best for you. Conversely please understand if we see that you are not suited for group travel no matter how much you want it to work out that we will let you know. Just as we need you to let us know if our group is not for you...we will also let you know if we see that our group is not a good fit for you. This helps everyone.

PRO TIP:   Go with the flow and understand sometimes there is always 'someone on a trip that just does not fit in well with others'. And if you can't find that person... well it just might be you.

 

 

OTHER INFORMATION THAT YOU SHOULD KNOW AND ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR

 

• DIVE AND TRIP INSURANCE INFO YOU NEED TO KNOW... PLEASE CLICK HERE
• YOUR SPECIAL NEEDS/ REQUIREMENTS...PLEASE CLICK HERE
• ALL THINGS FINANCIAL ... PLEASE CLICK HERE

[WreckWench]

INSURANCE MATTERS RELATED TO ALL SINGLEDIVERS.COM TRIPS:

 

 

TRAVEL LOGISTICS & TRIP INSURANCE:

• The world is CRAZY, it is CONSTANTLY CHANGING (and not always for the good), TRAVEL LOGISTICS are nightmarish and flights are constantly changing, airlines shut down, or experience delays or cancellations and that is just in the US. If we can't do a good job then how can you expect other countries especially small 2nd and 3rd world countries where we go diving to do better? You can't.

WHAT TO DO:

1. Your only recourse is to protect yourself.  Here's how:
2. Plan to arrive with 1 full day of flight time from your carrier in case you or bags do not make it. Nearly all our trips build an extra 1-3 days onto the trip to act as a buffer to ensure you and your luggage does arrive in time for the trip. We book the extra nights for you and help you find a roommate to defray expenses if you like and we keep everyone in the same hotel for safety purposes.
3. Get TRIP Insurance to cover your trip.  Something is better than nothing but many policies seem like they offer a lot and they do not. Read the fine print.
4. Get a LIVEABOARD RIDER to cover you in the case of a liveaboard loss which is magnitudes larger than land based losses.
5. If you can't afford a trip insurance policy or are tempted to 'skip it' then understand no one can help you and they are certainly under no obligation to do what you won't do for yourself which is to protect your travel/vacation investment.

PRO TIP: Since trip insurance is expensive, get an annual policy for $2-3k of coverage if you typically do smaller trips or $3-5k if you do bigger trips. This works best if you do several trips a year and you can replenish any coverage due to claims by adding more insurance to it. You can also increase it or decrease it at anytime until the policy renews. Basically you 'set it and forget it' and you have basic coverage on every trip the minute you book it so it will cover (up to your limits) all weather, all pandemics (if you use DiveAssure.com ) and all health issues you have because you are ALWAYS COVERED.

 

PRO TIP 2:  The cheap, inexpensive policy the airlines offer you when you book a ticket are ONLY for the airfare you paid for your trip. They offer a max of $200 for other losses associated with your trip. In essence the max you'd get towards your dive trip would be $200. These policies are not very useful in our opinion.

 

 

PANDEMICS & WORLD SHUT DOWNS & TRIP INSURANCE:

• Pandemics are not part of most insurance policies notably DAN does not offer pandemic coverage but DiveAssure.com does if its in place before the pandemic is 'named'.
• World shut downs can not be foreseen so it up to you to have a combination of tools in your arsenal namely trip insurance that covers pandemics and/or other world shut down events.

WHAT TO DO:

1. Your only recourse is to protect yourself.  Here's how:
2.  If signing up for a trip more than 12 months in advance call your insurance provider to see if they will give you coverage as most online systems do not let you buy a policy that far out.
3. DiveAssure.com DOES allow you to get a policy for a trip you booked more than 12 months out but you have to call them directly. (Let us know and we will get you the number)
4. Get TRIP Insurance to cover your trip.  Something is better than nothing but many policies seem like they offer a lot and they do not. Read the fine print.
5. Book your policy WHEN YOU BOOK YOUR TRIP. This ensures you have coverage in place when you need it.

PRO TIP: Since trip insurance is expensive get an annual policy for $2-3k of coverage if you typically do smaller trips or $3-5k if you do bigger trips. This works best if you do several trips a year and you can replenish any coverage due to claims by adding more insurance to it. You can also increase it or decrease it at anytime until the policy renews. Basically you 'set it and forget it' and you have basic coverage on every trip the minute you book it so it will cover (up to your limits) all weather, all pandemics (if you use DiveAssure.com ) and all health issues you have because you are ALWAYS COVERED.

 

 

INJURY, ILLNESS, WEATHER  & TRIP INSURANCE:

• The most common reasons people can not go on a trip or can't dive when on a trip is due to injury, illness or weather. All of them can ruin your vacation unless you  protect yourself.
• DiveAssure.com has helped SingleDivers.com to honor a claim that other carriers have refused. We even have a VIP process for our members to ensure their claim is 'correct' before sending to underwriting. This is also when we ensure that if extraordinary measures were taken that the right people know so the claim is no denied later because it does not 'mark the check boxes perfectly'.
•  Any insurance is fine and we will help you file a claim with any carrier but have worked for many years with DiveAssure and they really come thru for our divers.

WHAT TO DO:

1. Your only recourse is to protect yourself.  Here's how:
2.  If signing up for a trip more than 12 months in advance call your insurance provider to see if they will give you coverage as most online systems do not let you buy a policy that far out.
3. DiveAssure.com DOES allow you to get a policy for a trip you booked more than 12 months out but you have to call them directly. (Let us know and we will get you the number)
4. Get TRIP Insurance to cover your trip.  Something is better than nothing but many policies seem like they offer a lot and they do not. Read the fine print.
5. Book your policy WHEN YOU BOOK YOUR TRIP. This ensures you have coverage in place when you need it.

PRO TIP: Since trip insurance is expensive get an annual policy for $2-3k of coverage if you typically do smaller trips or $3-5k if you do bigger trips. This works best if you do several trips a year and you can replenish any coverage due to claims by adding more insurance to it. You can also increase it or decrease it at anytime until the policy renews. Basically you 'set it and forget it' and you have basic coverage on every trip the minute you book it so it will cover (up to your limits) all weather, all pandemics (if you use DiveAssure.com ) and all health issues you have because you are ALWAYS COVERED.

  

 

 

 

 

[WreckWench]

PERSONAL MATTERS RELATED TO ALL SINGLEDIVERS.COM TRIPS:

 

 

YOUR SPECIAL DIETARY, MOBILITY AND OTHER NEEDS:

• Many of our divers need extra help..,or have special dietary requirements...or request special accommodations so they can better enjoy their trip.
• We stand ready to help but we need YOU to help us to help you. 

WHAT TO DO:

1. First you need to fill out our online "Special Request" form after you sign up for a trip.
2. Please be specific as you can. With so many special requests we may need to triage them or when not possible we go by the date that the 'Special Requests" form was submitted as part of your trip docs.
3. While we offer many ways for you to contact us and we do our best to retrieve your feedback from multiples sources...we MUST ask that you use the form we have set up for this purpose so as to not miss your requests because of info coming in too many different ways.
4. Stated a different way...we can only be responsible for what you have posted in your SPECIAL REQUEST FORM found in your SingleDivers.com online documents.
5. We ask that you understand that no matter how serious your limitations may be... we can not always guarantee that we can meet them100% but using our form, and doing so early, and clearly outlining your needs allows us to work to meet your needs appropriately...something we often can not do at the last minute given the frequency that people now make special requests of us.
6. And finally, if you do fail to use our form and have to make the requests last minute we will do everything possible to help you but possibly after we've accommodated those who were kind enough to follow our process. If you have any questions on this or anything else...please email trips@singledivers.com and we will help you.

PRO TIP:   Increase your chances of getting all your special needs and requests honored by filling in your online SPECIAL REQUESTS form EARLY, and COMPLETELY.  NOTE: If one of your 'special requests' is a specific roommate or dive buddy who is not your spouse or family member...be sure to have both parties request each other. The ensures it will happen and avoids misunderstandings. AGAIN TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE...if one party waits til the last minute it unlikely we can accommodate the request.

 

NOTE: Typically we can not guarantee specific rooms can be reserved for you. You are free to request any thing you want via your online documents special needs form and we will try to get them for you but we can not guarantee any special requests can be accommodated other than those related to injuries, diets, etc. We allow roommates to determine amongst themselves who sleeps where.  Our policy has always been to allow divers to work it out themselves and NOT assign or allow people to sign up for specific bunks/beds.  Please do not book this trip if you must have a specific room/ or rooming accommodations. If you are injured or have mobility issues please email us in advance to discuss via trips@singledivers.com and we'll discuss if the trip is suited for your specific limitation as well as if we think we can get the room type you need. Also if you have serious food allergies please contact us directly so we can communicate directly with the resort/operator to ensure they can meet your needs. Thank you for your understanding.

[WreckWench]

FINANCIAL MATTERS RELATED TO ALL SINGLEDIVERS.COM TRIPS:

 

PAYMENT OPTIONS:

 
SingleDivers.com uses a secure payment gateway fully integrated into our online booking system that allows you to pay for trips or merchandise using the following payment options:

• An online e-check that debits your checking account automatically without having to mail in a check or having your bank mail a check from your account
• An online credit card transaction that eliminates the need to fill to fill our a credit card authorization form.  (Note int'l cards please use AA as your *STATE* designation and 12345 as your zip code and the charge should go thru. Please also note that we only can accept MC and Visa)

PRICING INFORMATION:
 
SingleDivers.com provides its members with pricing that reflects all possible savings available including discounts from our over 10,000 member buying clout. We offer a CASH DISCOUNT that is always in BOLD RED LETTERS along with our regular pricing for easier comparison of all possible savings. The cash discount will be taken at the time of payment when you choose the "e-check" option.

HOW TO PAY:

• As you sign up for a trip you will add either the trip deposit amount or the full trip price to the shopping cart. You can also add any extras you wish to purchase but you will have to pay for them whenever you sign up for them. So if you are not ready to pay for nitrox now but want us to know you will be adding it to your order...please use the comment box to let us know ultimately what you are signing up for it. Just understand we will not show you listed as doing something until it is paid for.
• When you are ready to pay for the extras you want you will click on the BOOK NOW button for the trip you are on and select the add-on(s) that you wish to pay for, add them to your cart and then check out. Depending on the trip you may need to click on the purple TAKE ME TO THE ADD-ON'S BOX. You will then either pay via e-check or credit card depending on whether you want a discount for cash or prefer the convenience of payment over time.
• When its time to make a progress payment you will click on MY TRIPS under TRIPS on the main menu. You will see "Make a Payment" under PAYMENTS in the upper right. Then choose what you are paying for and complete your payment.
• After each order you place with us you will receive an email order and payment confirmation. If you do not receive these TWO email confirmations (one showing the order at full price and one showing what was debited from your account including the cash discount) check in MY PAYMENTS to see if the payment was successful. If you do not see the payment in your My Trips then MAKE THE PAYMENT AGAIN. You will always get an order confirmation email every time you attempt an email but you will ONLY get a Payment Confirmation email when your payment was successful. If you need assistance please email .
• The MY PAYMENTS section is located under the PAYMENTS option found in the upper right of the MY TRIPS area of our site which is found under the TRIPS tab in the main menu.

IN GENERAL:

• Only payments received via our secure online payment gateway/portal will be accepted and will qualify for early payment discounts. (So check before you book for any discounts you may qualify for as they can not be applied after booking.)
• If you are unable to use the gateway please provide a complete description of the problem/error you are encountering INCLUDING A SCREEN CAPTURE of the error and EMAIL to admin@singledivers.com
• If International/ Non-US Clients and your credit card payment does not work, either use AA as the state and 12345 as the zip or please use our traditional written credit authorization form to submit your credit card payment. To receive this form EMAIL admin@singledivers.com

[WreckWench]

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[WreckWench]

 THINGS YOU AGREE TO WHEN YOU BOOK A SINGLEDIVERS.COM TRIP:

 

TERMS & CONDITIONS
All SingleDivers.com trips require:

• You complete the necessary documentation as referenced above for each trip you sign up to take with us. A $75 document fee will be applied if you fail to submit your online and uploaded documents withing 21 days* of signing up for a trip or within 3 days if signing up within 45 days of departure. NOTE THIS DOES NOT APPLY TO AIRFARE UNLESS SIGNING UP WITHIN 45 DAYS OF DEPARTURE.  *Remember the Forms can be edited at any time up to 30 days prior to departure with updates such as insurance purchase/renewal, change of address, even preferences for rooming and diving so there is no reason to delay your initial Forms submissions.  This enables us to meet the reporting deadlines imposed by our suppliers.
• SingleDivers.com LLC reserves the right to refuse service to anyone.
• You read all the trip details before booking and commit to being responsible for post trip booking follow up by use of our TRIP PM, FORUM DISCUSSIONS  and in some cases emails. You commit to ask us how to use these tools if uncertain and commit to keeping your premier membership dues current and email on file current so we can contact you. Our tools require your dues and email to be current to work. Any delays/expenses/issues due to lack of trip information will be borne by the trip goer and NOT SingleDivers.com as we regularly and routinely use these tools to communicate extensively with you. If you are not hearing from us it means you are not using the tools we have in place. Email trips@singledivers.com for help.
• You have read the EXPERIENCE REQUIRED & TRAINING/WORKSHOPS information in the online trip details to ensure that you are able to safely and comfortably meet the requirements of the trip. Please contact to further discuss any questions you have about attending one of our trips. We often accept students who would not otherwise meet the stated trip requirements because they are taking a class that will then enable them to meet the trip specifications and they will be diving with an instructor or dive master during the dives.
• We require Dive Insurance for all dives and trips as stated above and we STRONGLY recommend trip insurance for all dives and trips but in some cases require it due to vendor specific mandates. Please see the online trip details under INSURANCE to see if the trip has optional or mandatory trip insurance requirements.
• We require Trip Insurance during CHRONIC CRAZY TRAVEL TIMES AND/OR COVID. While we can not force you to buy it we will not help you attempt remedies from the resort, suppliers etc because you chose to gamble your dive trip investment away.
• In the event of cancellation, your trip insurance will be your first line of defense. Secondary remedies include some rights afforded to you based upon when you have to cancel your trip in writing. Please see THIS link for full additional trip cancellation details.
• Please read THIS link for our Guaranteed Double Occupancy Policy, Rooming Policies, Payment Terms, the "Ex" Rule et