Saipan Submarine offers more seats for residents

With the COVID-2019 outbreak causing a sudden decrease in the number of tourists in the CNMI, that has opened up many seats aboard the Saipan Submarine under Saipan Tours. The company sees that as the perfect opportunity to offer more seats to CNMI residents who may want to explore the underwater wonders of the Saipan Lagoon.

According to the tour supervisor Ron Wright, since tourists are Saipan Tours’ main clients, most of their passengers are tourists and not enough numbers of residents are taking the underwater trip. Now, with the sudden drop of tourists and many open seats, this is an excellent time to take advantage and join the crew on their route.

“We’re trying to come up with a price that works not for only us but also for the schools and the residents,” said Wright. In a recent event, Agape Christian School took advantage of the special promotion that was offered which was $15 per student and teachers were free.

Wright stated that the promotion for the schools is actually a two-day event, which includes a lesson plan that focuses on not only the submarine but also about the water and the fish on the first day. The next day is when the students and teachers will be able to see what was presented.

The crew doesn’t only accommodate their guest, but also the ocean itself. Wright stated that as they go through their route, if they see trash or something that doesn’t belong in the water, they would take a separate boat and dive into the ocean to collect the things that aren’t supposed to be in the water.

Wright has been in the tourism industry for 20 years and has been with Saipan Submarine for three years. The biggest significant change he has seen is that the pilot, Stanley Aldan, and his crew, have started serving families. Before, they would just get tourists into the boat, not knowing if they were separated from their family or not, and then start the trip. Now, the whole crew puts more thought into not separating families and making sure that families are seated together.

Aldan has been the pilot of the submarine for 11 years and is considered a veteran. One of his earliest memories of being a pilot is seeing a rare 400-lb African pompano. Aldan says that the submarine tour is the best experience for mostly younger children and people who don’t know how to swim but want to see fish and other sea animals.

The Saipan Submarine has already started on their school promotion and they’re currently working on special promotions for larger companies and first responders and their families.

For more information, call (670) 322-7746.