assorted Little Cayman questions

[Damselfish]

I've been to Little Cayman a few times (4?) and have always stayed at LCBR. Thinking of going soon and have a few questions -

- I was thinking of trying Southern Cross Club for a change. I think I've read the food is good, but how much variety is there? My husband is a picky eater - no fish, hates many veggies - but always seems to find enough he likes at LCBR. Since SCC is smaller, was wondering if he would have a problem there.

- If you stay at Conch Club and do the meal plan at LCBR, do you ever feel rushed getting back and forth for stuff or feel it's inconvienient?

- How is LCBR on dive time restrictions nowadays? (Or SCC or CCD, for that matter.)

- Is Island Air still in business or did Cayman Airways drive them out? I can't find much sign they're still for real, but hard to believe it wouldn't have been mentioned on here someplace!

 

[zf2nt]

I've been to Little Cayman a few times (4?) and have always stayed at LCBR. Thinking of going soon and have a few questions -

- I was thinking of trying Southern Cross Club for a change. I think I've read the food is good, but how much variety is there? My husband is a picky eater - no fish, hates many veggies - but always seems to find enough he likes at LCBR. Since SCC is smaller, was wondering if he would have a problem there.

- If you stay at Conch Club and do the meal plan at LCBR, do you ever feel rushed getting back and forth for stuff or feel it's inconvienient?

- How is LCBR on dive time restrictions nowadays? (Or SCC or CCD, for that matter.)

- Is Island Air still in business or did Cayman Airways drive them out? I can't find much sign they're still for real, but hard to believe it wouldn't have been mentioned on here someplace!

Island Air is no longer providing regularly scheduled service. I believe they still exist, but only for charters. In any case, your only option now is Cayman Airways.

If you're concerned on dive time restrictions, you should send email to the different operations and enquire about the current policy. This is a valid concern, IMHO. Last winter the policy at LCBR was a max of 45 minutes on the first dive and 50 minutes on 2nd and 3rd. That well could have changed by now, particularly since there is/was a new manager of dive operations starting in November. This is a difficult call to make: most of the divers cannot make their air last even that long, then complain if they have to sit on the boat in rough seas and wait for divers who can stretch their air out. On the other hand, some people chafe at being told to come back "early" because of this. When you ask around at the different resorts, you need to be careful about how you phrase the question. I believe one of the resorts requires the guests to play "follow the leader" with the DM for most of the dive, until they come back to 30' on the hardpan, and then the divers can stay down as long as they want there at 30'. For my own preferences, this would be far worse than being told I could go off on my own but had to be back in 45 minutes.

 

[Kevin4diving]

Maybe you should check out Paradise Villas and Paradise Divers. This operation is top shelf. I dove with them last year. I also heard their restaurant "The Hungary Iguana" is a favorite gathering place for quests from other reorts for food and beverage. I enjoyed the food and menu. Only complaint I have about Paradise Villas is th hard matresses.

 

[nipi]

Anu, the chef at the Iguana, treated us to an excellent curry night only last Saturday.

 

[CJ's]

I'm not totally sure but I've heard that Paradise Divers are no longer operating but instead are sending their divers to Conch Club Divers.
Can anyone confirm this?
Either way the only people who can give you a definite answer to the bottom time question are the operators themselves.

CJ

 

[sdwho]

When my wife and I were at LCBR this past August, time limits were not a big issue. Generally speaking, we tried to be among the first divers in the water and then were among the last to come out. Basically, we got back under the boat around 45-50 minutes into the dive and then did another 10-15 under the boat, before finally doing our safety stop.

sdwho

 

[Zebra mussel]

Ive stayed at the Conch club and did the meal plane with LCBR. We never felt hurried by any means. Food is buffet style and surprisingly good. Because of the number of people in our party,it worked out to be less expensive at the Conch Club than staying in the rooms at LCBR. The units are very clean,comfortable and spacious.Lots of room to spread out. Far better..IMO than a hotel type room. It is about a 5 minute walk away....but you can use LCBR bicycles to get around at no charge. If I would do it again,I would go back to the Conch Club . I guess you have to see how things work out econimiclly depending ion the number in your group.

 

[zf2nt]

I'm not totally sure but I've heard that Paradise Divers are no longer operating but instead are sending their divers to Conch Club Divers.
Can anyone confirm this?
Either way the only people who can give you a definite answer to the bottom time question are the operators themselves.

CJ

The resorts on Little Cayman all shuffle divers back and forth among themselves whenever they have staffing or equipment problems and somebody can't run their own boat. You might have hit Paradise Divers on a day when they didn't have staff or had a problem with their boat or maybe they only had 1 or 2 divers. In such a case, they would call around to see who had space and book you on somebody else's boat. It happens all the time. The good news is that the resort operators are all good friends and help each other out when needed.

 

[CJ's]

Thanks,
I realise that there is a high degree of cooperation between dive-shops, as we have here in Grand Cayman also, but my question was whether you had actually been diving with Paradise divers recently as I had heard on the grapevine (or marl road as we call it in Cayman!) that they were no longer operating at all?
Rumours are often wrong so I was just looking for some local corroboration.
Any ideas?

 

[-hh]

Generally speaking, we tried to be among the first divers in the water and then were among the last to come out.

The FILO (First In, Last Out) approach is useful, but it can befraught with hit-or-miss from week to week. Two common things that I've found that tend to foul it up are:

...when there's a gang of "Type A" personality novices who charge to the back of the boat to all try get in first, even though they'll end up being FIFO's.

...when the boat's mostly veterans onboard and everyone's trying to FILO

Between the two, the latter's not as problemmatic as the first, since vet's are generally quick to get into the water, so everyone gets off the boat quicker and thus, the time spent waiting is minimized.


-hh