Wednesday 24^th February, was Scuba Safari with Bill Acker day at the Manta Ray Bay Resort.  This event has really taken off, so much so we needed to take out Popou, our largest dive boat to carry all our guests.

Scuba Safari is a great way for guests to get to dive with Bill, the pioneer of diving in Yap.  He has discovered more than 50 sites here in these beautiful islands, so this is a wonderful way to get the spirit of discovery and group camaraderie all in one.   Bill tries to use these Safaris to search out potential new dive sites as well as visiting some of the more rarely dived areas.  He also doesn’t neglect some of the more famous sites so the weather and water conditions determine where these Safaris go each week.

Today 15 intrepid divers took to the Pacific for a three tank dive with lunch provided from the Mnuw; they were, Bill & Vicki Wells from Belmont CA, Johan & Maria Edelsvard from Taby Sweden, Andrew Revel from Heboken NJ, Brian Buzzeli from Pennsylvania, Reindhart Arnd & Ursula Nuutinen from Berlin Germany, Joe Becker from Beaverton OR, Craig & Colleen Barlett from Vermont, Alex & Dolores Sastre from Buenos Aires Argentina and Kriss Kirchoff from Libertyville IL.

This gang of divers joined Bill assisted by Chomed, one of our Dive Masters and Willy, the skipper of Popou.  They did Magic Kingdow, Spanish Walls (actually began North to see what that part of the reef was like) and the day culminated with Yap Caverns/Lion Fish Wall as a combination.  There were smiles all around both before and after the trip with the only disappointed people being those that were leaving the night before.

We have guests, and prospective guests, from around the world, and some of these people can not transit Guam, due to U.S. visa regulations.  For these people, the only way to get to Yap is via Manila to Palau to Yap back to Palau for a day and then back to Manila.  Not all that convenient but workable with the big drawback being prices for airline tickets.

Thanks to our friends at Continental, the price portion has been solved!  We now have a base price of $450 for airline e-tickets, from Manila to Palau to Yap back to Palau and back to Manila!  This is very good news indeed, especially for our friends not on the U.S. visa waiver program.

If interested, please contact Bill Acker directly at bill@mantaray.com.  He is here to help you and can now help you with flights from Japan to Yap, from Palau to Yap and from Manila to Yap, via Palau.

By the way, the reason we are doing all of this, is to help introduce you to the wonders of Yap and the ambiance of the Manta Ray Bay Resort.  The weather has been perfect lately, the diving superb and all that is really missing is – you.

As mentioned in the last blog post, Bill has been working with the good people of Continental Airlines in order to try and help our valued customers get to Yap cheaper and easier.  The result of these talks is a Special Net Fare Agreement between Continental and the Manta Ray Bay Resort & Yap Divers.

We have been given special net rates from Tokyo, Japan and Nagoya, Japan to Yap via Guam with an add-on fare for Palau.  The base rate starts at $600 per person from Nagoya and $650 from Tokyo.  The add-on for Palau, from Japan has a base price of $250.  We also have a base rate from Palau to Yap to Palau of $335.  We say “base rate” because there are some taxes and fees that go with these rates but, in general, they are very minor.  If this is of interest to you, please e-mail Bill directly at bill@mantaray.com and he will get a firm quote for you.

Continental Airlines is a new member of the Star Alliance which means carriers from Europe to Tokyo would include Lufthansa, SAS, Swiss Air, Austrian Air & LOT just to name a few.  If you are a frequent flier with any of these airlines, you will earn miles for your entire trip.  The best thing about these fares out of Japan is the travel time and ease with which you can get to Yap.  The connections in Japan are excellent, your bags are checked to Yap, or Palau, at your departure airport and the connections in Guam are excellent as well.  No layovers, no stopovers.  From your bed to our dive boat as fast as possible.

For those going to Palau with China Air, you can use our special priced tickets from Palau to Yap to Palau to help you expand your dive trip to two islands for the price of one trip.  Again, for more information, please contact Bill Acker at bill@mantaray.com.  We hope to see you in Yap soon!

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Now that Bill, Detlef, Jan and Daniel have finished the BOOT Show in Dusseldorf, Germany it’s time to begin the follow-up for the many inquires from our friends and potential European dive guests.  The largest single topic discussed at the show, by far, was the high cost of getting to Yap and the perceived difficulty of getting here.

Yesterday, Bill began working on solutions to these perceived problems and is working with Continental Airlines on a number of ticketing options and prices that will be available for our European guests.  If this program proves to be a success, then both parties may very well extend these options to North American travelers as well.

Please continue to watch this space for more specific details as they become available, or follow airline updates with RSS.

Hallo ihr alle,
ich bin wieder gut gelandet im Mikronesien und somit wieder im Manta Ray Bay
Resort bei den Yap Divers. Auf diesem Weg möchte ich mich nochmals bei allen Messebesuchern der BOOT 2010, bei Freunden, sowie bei denjenigen die Interesse an Yap gefunden haben bedanken. Solltet ihr Hilfe benötigen bei eurer Urlaubsplanung bin ich gern für euch da und gebe euch Rückanwort in Deutsch oder Englisch.
Bitte schreibt Detlef Trux an yapdivers@mantaray.com.

Bis bald, mit freundlichen Gruessen aus Yap.

Detlef Trux

Bill Acker, Yap Divers manager Jan Sledsens and Roger from German dive travel agency Roger Tours at the Manta Ray Bay Resort booth

Hello everybody,

I finally made my way back to Micronesia and Manta Ray Bay Resort
and Yap Divers. I want to take the opportunity to thank all visitors of the BOOT 2010 (Europe’s biggest dive show in Düsseldorf, Germany)
and extend my thanks to friends and those, who found a new interest in Yap.
Should you need assistance for your holiday plans, I will be there to help you and answer you in German or English.

Please send your inquiries to: yapdivers@mantaray.com.

See you soon, very best wishes from Yap,

Detlef Trux

Aftershow Yap family meeting in Düsseldorf's famous altbeerkeller "Schlüssel" (with Detlef on the outer left)