Trip Report Grand Cayman Trip Report: Lighthouse Point/Divetech

[mi000ke]

Totally awesome to see this one of the best get their well deserved kudos. Just curious who among the posters has actually has first hand experience? I have yet to have had the opportunity but know them from local reputation. I only know them from DMs they have employed who have the best things to say. How do the rest of them base your comments just to make them legitimate and not what you read online.

I've done 20 dives with DiveTech and always found them (and especially their DMs) to be professional, friendly, knowledgeable, helpful and to provide an excellent diving experience. The divers I met on their boats seemed to tend to be more experienced overall than what I find with some of the other outfits I've gone with, but that is not to discourage anyone with less experience from using them as well. I just see it as a strong endorsement of DiveTech.

 

[caydiver]

Haha. We would all love to have great divers aboard all the time whether they are new or experienced!! It makes for a better experience for everyone. Unfortunately we don’t always have a choice. We get what we get when they book. We have some couples who will book charters depending on who else is around during their holiday so the diving is unimpeded! It has been very busy here for March and April (ironically not Presidents Week but Kaaboo got in the way). All the boats have been full regardless — a much needed boon for ops but not so much for guests who like a limitless more space. This year the late Easter/Passover seemed to have everyone at full capacity and turning people away. If you want to avoid the masses always best not to travel when there are school breaks.

 

[Divetech Cayman]

Hi Nicki,

Thanks for your kind words! I was your boat captain for a few of the days you dived with us, and on the day we saw the 3 sharks at Tarpon Alley. I'm glad you and your family had a good time.

Making reservations: I did most of my communication via email. When we arrived, several requests hadn't been communicated to the shop (my husbands request for 100s, changing person #4 from diving to snorkeling) despite acknowledgement of those requests. It all got handled, but I was glad to arrive early enough to get our requests handled before we started diving.

I would like to chat with you a bit more about this part. All of our records are kept on computer, we had air 100's logged for Brian on the roster, Scott's start of day captain report on the 14th says they were onboard. I'll send you an email so we can discuss offline. We take pride in our customer service, so ff there were errors, even slight, we'd like to find out why, so we can keep this from occurring again.

The divers I met on their boats seemed to tend to be more experienced overall than what I find with some of the other outfits I've gone with, but that is not to discourage anyone with less experience from using them as well. I just see it as a strong endorsement of DiveTech.

Thanks for the kind words Mike. This is a common mis-conception though. Very often we have new divers aboard our boats. In fact many of them are divers who have just completed their open-water class with us on our shore diving site, and are doing their first ever boat dives with us. I think the reason for this is many new divers feel intimidated by others with more experience, and may keep quiet that they are new.

Tony

 

[caydiver]

Hey Tony just proves you guys make good divers out of your students!

 

[jonhall]

Totally awesome to see this one of the best get their well deserved kudos. Just curious who among the posters has actually has first hand experience?

Did my checkout dives in 1998 with DiveTech and again in 2015 when they were at Cobalt Coast. Both times were great - fantastic staff. Although I've gone with other ops more recently, I'm going back next April and hope to use DiveTech again for some dives.

 

[Doctorfish]

I think that Divetech runs a pretty good operation but I prefer ops that run big boats with limited number of divers ( +/- valet service). I have personal experience with DNS and Wall to Wall but I am sure there are others who do so. DNS and Wall to Wall both have 36 foot boats and limit to 10 divers. I know Divetech has a boat out due to an incident but I don't think they generally have a max diver policy of a similar nature.

All the west side ops use more or less the same moorings and dive the same sites. They have to be quality operations to stay in business in such a competitive environment. Every diver I know who dives GC regularly has dive op preferences for different reasons.

As another accommodation option, there are a number of very nice condos at the north end of Seven Mile Beach which would allow for beach, rather than ironshore, as well as easy access to the northwest shore dives, the yacht club and West Bay Dock. Being at he north end of the beach, also quieter area than further south.

 

[umhlangan]

Totally awesome to see this one of the best get their well deserved kudos. Just curious who among the posters has actually has first hand experience? I have yet to have had the opportunity but know them from local reputation. I only know them from DMs they have employed who have the best things to say. How do the rest of them base your comments just to make them legitimate and not what you read online.

I did about 10 dives with DiveTech last July (staying at LP) and IMO they are one of the most professional ops I have ever used. My main memory of the trip, besides the fantastic diving, was how easy they made everything seem. The staff are all experienced, capable and friendly - and that goes a looong way.

 

[Divetech Cayman]

Couple of follow up questions - did you book the diving, condo. and vehicle rental as a package deal? I'm a fan of 'turn key' trip arrangements, and it makes life easier. Got any topside pics to post, like of the room?

Richard, we do offer full packages - including accommodation, diving, meal plans and rental cars. Or you can just pick ’n mix what you want. We are happy to help all request, either by email at info@divetech.com, or use our toll-free number 877 946 5658.

For pictures of the accommodation options we offer please check our packages page: https://www.divetech.com/packages

If you are traveling alone, they do offer some one-bedroom accommodations but I don't know if these have any kitchen facilities, see the link below. https://www.divetech.com/couples.

Hi Kathy, happy to shed some light on this. The on-site condos at Lighthouse Point are all 2-bedroom / 2-bathroom units with full kitchen facilites, washer/dryer, big living area and seaview balcony. All units are identical in lay-out, they just differ in what floor they are on.
In our off-season (Apr - Dec) we do offer a one-bedroom couple special at reduced rates as per the link you shared. This would these same 2-bedroom units, the only difference is the guest bedroom and bathroom would be locked off. All other facilities of the condo are still available.
For pictures please check: https://www.divetech.com/lighthousepoint

For double occupancy we can also offer the Grand Caymanian Resort and the Shangri La boutique villa as a year round option.

I did about 10 dives with DiveTech last July (staying at LP) and IMO they are one of the most professional ops I have ever used. My main memory of the trip, besides the fantastic diving, was how easy they made everything seem. The staff are all experienced, capable and friendly - and that goes a looong way.

Thanks for your very kind words, and so nice that you had a great trip!
One of the things we pride ourself on is that we have one of the most extensive selection processes for dive staff in the industry. As a result our staff consists almost solely of more mature, experienced and career-orientated dive professionals. Many also come from a successful career outside of the diving industry.
Of course we do like to have fun and enjoy the Caribbean lifestyle (we didn’t leave corporate careers behind for the paycheck ), but we are the types of personality that is intrinsically motivated to do a good job.

Menno