i will be going to the bahamas in nov., i was wondering what dive center i should use or stay away from. i will be staying at atlantis on grand providence/paradise island. i am only OW certified, and want to do recreational diving on reefs and to see the aquatic life. wouldnt mind diving around some wrecks.
bahama dive centers
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blawler1
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Although they are a big operator, they offer adventure dives that only carry a limited number of divers including the shark feedings and swim alongs, as well as DPV wall flying (6 divers max) Also, they offer free shuttle to and from most of the hotels on New Providence/Paradise Island.
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Here's my last trip report on Nassau:
"This a general report on diving New Providence (Nassau) with a focus on Dive. Dive, Dive Ltd.
The Diving
The best dive ops are down in the S-SW sector of the island, largely around Coral Harbour. These include Stuart Cove's (now also has satellite office at Atlantis Resort), Sunskiff, Nassau Scuba Center & Dive, Dive, Dive, Ltd. In fact, the latter 3 are within steps of each other. They are about 20+ minutes from the Cable Beach area & 40+ minutes from Paradise Island, depending of course on traffic & aggressiveness of driver. All offer free shuttle service, which is a blessing as cab fare would exceed your diving costs if you weren't staying locally at such places as the Orange Hill, Clarion, Coral Harbour Beach House & Villas, etc. DDD has some accommodations on site with kitchens and utensils, which could prove quite convenient & economical. Do be aware that you're a long way from any apres scuba "action" if that is important.
Each op offers its own attractions. SC, the most vigorously entrepreneurial of the lot, is a PADI Gold Palm shop which offers Nitrox as well as rebreather & DPV experiences. DDD offers Nitrox and mixed gases training & availability, and is PADI, NAUI, SSI, ANDI, NASDS & TDI certified. NSC is a PADI 5 Star IDC facility which in addition to the usual shark feed offers a diver feed experience ala UNEXSO in Freeport. Sunskiff is a no frills op which can serve small groups & other than the usual local dives. While prices vary somewhat according the training, dives or packages involved, overall of the big ops DDD seems the least expensive and SC the most.
This trip I dove with DDD. Their van picked me up & returned me on time each day. The shop has some very limited gear for sale, a full line of seemingly well maintained rental gear, including Sherwood regs, a drying room for storing gear overnight, rinse tank, and cooler with drinks & some munchies for sale. They will also serve you a basic lunch from the grill. Orders are taken on the boat on the way in between AM & PM dives. They have two boats which appear well maintained, although the larger boat is quite slow. They have radio, O2, first aid kits, marine heads & bottled water.
Offered are 2 AM & 2PM dives, a night dive with a minimum number of divers (think it's 4), the Shark Alley/Shark Feed dive, and excursions to Exuma, AUTEC Buoy & Blue Hole by special arrangement.
Sounds okay so far, eh? Well, the op falls down badly in several areas, most notably in the mixing of experience levels of divers and the need to adhere to a tight schedule given its 2AM & 2PM dive program, and there are some personnel and communication problems as well.
The combo of mixing of divers & tight scheduling results in what I term the dreaded "least common denominator diving." Unless you can make special arrangements with your own DM, you go down together, stay together & come up together according to the weakest diver, no matter that you may have more experience than the DMs. Unfortunately, there were some grossly inexperienced divers on my boat, including a very nice woman from Texas who guzzled air faster than I thought was compatible with life. Despite doing only relatively shallow dives (bounces to maybe 70' & then cruising at about 50') in easy if any current, they had to find her 100s for the next day just to get her (and us) a modest amount of bottom time. The combo also resulted in much "mother henning" and u/w regimentation regarding profiles, etc. It was a pain in the a**. After a morning of two very ho-hum dives on Friday (a chap on the boat from Montreal called them "bland," which describes them well), I skipped the PM dives I was scheduled to do. The viz was poor, coral & sponges not especially colorful or healthy looking, and marine life sparse, although the first "wall" (started around 65' & plateaued at about 100', with the group not going below 70'; they would scoff at calling this a wall dive in San Salvador) dive yielded a nice school of mixed Creole Wrasse & Blue Runners, while the Bahama Mama wreck dive on a small sunken booze cruise craft produced a couple of massive Nassau Groupers, a good sized Rainbow Parrotfish & Crevalle Jack, a pair of Midnight Parrotfish, and some of the usual smaller tropicals like Blue Tang & French Grunt.
Disappointed, I was nonetheless buoyed by the thought of tomorrow's dives at Shark Alley & the Shark Feed. And indeed things were looking promising at the dawning: water was calm, took the fast boat, and arrived at the site to find a sweet current going the right way to drift Shark Alley. Gadzooks, my regulator runneth over. We hit the top of the wall and float along ala Coz, watching schools of fish swim on by in bright light which brought out their colors to best effect. All is well. The first bummer, a minor one, was watching the DM, Alda, who was videoing the dive (this & Shark Feed on tape for $50), hit a heretofore extraordinarily healthy appearing pillar coral full on with her back while doing her camera work, and we're not talking a small bump here folks -- that coral was hurt. I could tell she felt badly because she hit herself on the forehead with her hand, but the damage was done. The fact that she was the one who always reminded everyone not to touch anything & was the most egregious "mother henner" made it sadly ironic.
Anyway, things quickly picked up when about a 6-7' Caribbean Reef Shark lazily passed by, lead by two tiny pilot fish finning their fannies off just inches in front of the shark's massive maw. While Remoras went about trying to find purchase for a meal, a school of silvery Black Jacks took turns darting to the shark's skin to pick parasites, while a merry coterie of juvenile Wrasse picked up their crumbs. It was one of those transcendent moments when the extended symbiotic chains which underlie all life on earth became so focussed I wanted to laugh out loud at the ineffable beauty of it all.
Unfortunately, my transcendence came to a jarring halt when one of the newbies swims up & signals Mother Hen that she is down to 1,000 lbs. It's like 20 minutes into the dive, we're at about 50', & Mother starts making the hand signal for "clucking" and we're frigging going to surface. I look at my SPG & have 2,000 lbs. left on a dive that is finally showing promise - I go ape. The minute we hit the surface I yank off my mask, which I proceed to lose, and start yelling about why we're only doing half a dive, but soon realize this is not only bad form, but patently futile, so I stew in silence for a bit.
The next dive is the Shark Feed, which involves dropping to about 50' to a coral rubble bottom. Everyone overweights about 6 lbs. as given the sharks really crappy near vision it's not wise to be flailing appendages during the feed proper. We form a semicircle, after which the DM, on this dive Andy, swims down with a 5 gallon plastic bucket of frozen fish, which he brings out a piece at a time on a long metal rod. The sharks of course gather at the sound of the boat, on this dive about 20 female Caribbean Reefs in the 4-7' range or thereabouts. This feeding apparently takes place nearly every day of the week, with different ops taking turns on different days. DDD has been doing it for 9 years. I do not agree with the severe reservations of some others on this board regarding this type of marine dog & pony show as they are not without value to both sharks & humans. Nevertheless, clearly this was not natural and represented an alteration of behavior, and left me feeling a little guilty. In any event, it was interesting to see them shut their eyes & extend their teeth before striking, and to see the 70 pound grouper who hangs around out maneuver them in tight quarters. One shark had a large fishing hook slowly rusting away in its mouth. Mating season had just ended, and some females showed some wicked scarring & bite marks. Geez, these dewds must have dyn-O-mite sex. Even though one shark did rake my head with a pectoral fin, I remained unfrightened, even though I sincerely wanted to be scared. When the food was gone, the players dispersed, and we spent some time looking for the teeth which they lose during the feed.
Fed up with the diving, I passed on the scheduled PM dives & diving the following day. I was planning on doing >$400 worth of diving with DDD, but they ended up getting $182.
As for personnel, Lindsey, a would be Rasta Man with great 'locks but a lousy Jamaican accent, who I also suspect is way below standard on the righteous herb index, was a true pleasure. Always smiling & easy going, he worked hard to see that everyone enjoyed themselves. Our Captain the first day, Tony, had an odd ball sense of humor & was a hoot once you got past the gruff. DM both days & shark feeder, Andy, was watchful and competent. If you want to make him happy, buy him lunch -- he loves that stuff off the grill. Alda was covered above, and little more needs to be said. She is clearly a well meaning DM and if Romper Room ever initiates an u/w segment to the show, she's a shoe in.
The nasty award goes to Mike, an instructor who seems to be charge of tanks & rental equipment. I had two interactions with him. On the first, I asked him to demonstrate the use of their particular O2 analyzer so I could check the one Nitrox tank I used. He rapidly mumbled a series of instructions, and then turned and walked away. Another diver & I then figured it out. The second interaction was when I came out of the drying room with a nice big hanger for my gear. Upon spying it, Mike said "Where did you get that?" I said it was in the drying, to which he responded, "I doesn't belong there," took it, and walked away.
The communication issue appears to be at the crux of my dissatisfaction with my DDD experience, and it seems hard to excuse. I told both Marcia & Steve, who are in the marketing & booking office stateside, on several occasions and by both phone & e-mail, that I was an experienced diver, didn't want "vacation diving" and to please not waste my time & money on lame dives. Both said they would contact Mark, the operations manager on site, and ask him to attempt to group divers & to get one of their all day special trips put together, but could make no guarantees. I said I understood that, just make a good faith effort. Well, it was painfully obvious that no such effort was made. When I mentioned it at the desk, everyone sort of stared at me quizzically. None of the DMs had heard anything about it. Even the two very experienced divers, Richard & Gary, who were staying right at DDD & diving with them for the week, and would have been logical candidates to ask, had heard nothing about it & moaned when they found out we might have been able to put something together.
In conclusion, I would say that if you want serious diving, go elsewhere than Nassau. If you must do Nassau, give your selected op much advanced notice that you want to be grouped with experienced divers & get on one of the "adventure" dive trips -- and get confirmation in writing. Sunskiff is probably your best bet for small groups & unusual dive sites, although it is not a luxurious op. I would not return to Dive, Dive, Dive, Ltd. except under very unusual circumstances.
If you will be satisfied with least common denominator, bland, regimented, but safe & easy "vacation diving," you will adore DDD.
Some Places to Stay/Things to Do
Nassau seems to have become much more of a year 'round destination than in the past, probably largely due to marketing & an expansion of facilities/activities, including those for families/children and those who want some high quality gambling in the vacation mix. It is served by many major & minor air carriers, plus being a popular cruise ship destination. Flights from Miami & Ft. Lauderdale on AA or Bahamasair are frequent and take only 30-45" depending on point of departure & type of plane.
As testimony to this extended popularity, I tried to get a room near Cable Beach or Paradise Island over the period June 24-28, a "low season" time, with two weeks advanced notice and was only able to find those at the very high & very low ends, neither of which are my choice. I do not know about low season availability at the hotels around the Coral Harbour area where the better dive ops are located, such as the Orange Hill, Coral Harbour Beach House & Villas, Clarion Resort South Ocean, cottages at Dive, Dive, Dive, Ltd., etc. These digs are some way from the "action" of Cable Beach, downtown & Paradise Island, however, and cabs are not cheap. It's $12 from the airport to the Cable Beach area & $25 to Paradise Island. There are no shuttles except for those operated by a select few hotels.
I finally found a room at gamblers' rates at the Nassau Marriott & Crystal Palace Casino on Cable Beach with the help of a dive buddy who has a strong contact there. This is a nice property right on the beach which had been getting long in the tooth (built around 1955) but has undergone a recent refurbishing. My room was more than satisfactory, with a small balcony, bathroom sinks in one area & separate, tiled shower room next to it. It was quiet & spotlessly clean, with fresh towels several times a day. Place has both a very good Italian & steak house restaurant, both of which offer fresh souffles in a variety of flavors - I went with chocolate. Also have a full a service health spa, motorized water sports, and a neat water slide in the free form pool. Casino is of moderate size & very accommodating as far as comps go. For you blackjack players, the rules are very liberal. Across the street is a long, rectangular park you can walk through. This being the rainy season, things are green & flowering, and the reddish orange topped poinciana trees are quite lovely. Beyond that is a golf course. To get downtown, take the #10 bus which comes by about every 5-10" and lets you see a bit of the area, including the cricket green & fish fry grounds. From downtown, which is bustling and somewhat dirty & tacky, $3 gets you a water taxi over to Paradise Island. Otherwise it is about a $14 dollar cab fare to PI. Probably the most outstanding aspect of the hotel was personnel. The staff were unbelievably pleasant and accommodating, and seemed devoted to your enjoying your vacation.
Be aware, however, that Nassau is not cheap, especially not the nicer resorts, and food is expensive. It is also pretty much customary to add a 15% service charge to food service. If you come here and want to do it on a shoestring, you'll need find small hotel or B&B with a kitchen and do your own cooking & cool your own drinks.
Where ever you stay, do make the trek out to PI to see the Atlantis Hotel & Casino, a Disneyesque fusion of Monte Alban in Mexico & Bellagio in Vegas, this is a Sun International megaresort ala Sun City in South Africa for those who have been there. Unrecognizable as Merv Griffin's old place, with 2,300 rooms including a $25,000 night suite, a marina with more million+ dollar boats than I've ever seen, 7 acre snorkeling lagoon, massive aquarium which will show you more marine life than you'll see diving there, 40 bars/restaurants, 1,000 slot machines and 80 gaming tables & the world's gnarliest water slide. This baby starts from high atop a replica of a Maya temple, drops at a 90 degree angle open chute for about 40', and then courses through a Plexiglas tube through a tank full of nurse sharks. Actually very expensively & tastefully done if some sections, it's way too big & busy for me. Lots of teens & younger.
Anyway, my pick if you want to stay on PI is the Comfort Suites, just a stones throw from the Atlantis & a super value. Have stayed there on a couple of overnights on my way to various out islands & like it lots."
This should get you started.
DocVikingo
"This a general report on diving New Providence (Nassau) with a focus on Dive. Dive, Dive Ltd.
The Diving
The best dive ops are down in the S-SW sector of the island, largely around Coral Harbour. These include Stuart Cove's (now also has satellite office at Atlantis Resort), Sunskiff, Nassau Scuba Center & Dive, Dive, Dive, Ltd. In fact, the latter 3 are within steps of each other. They are about 20+ minutes from the Cable Beach area & 40+ minutes from Paradise Island, depending of course on traffic & aggressiveness of driver. All offer free shuttle service, which is a blessing as cab fare would exceed your diving costs if you weren't staying locally at such places as the Orange Hill, Clarion, Coral Harbour Beach House & Villas, etc. DDD has some accommodations on site with kitchens and utensils, which could prove quite convenient & economical. Do be aware that you're a long way from any apres scuba "action" if that is important.
Each op offers its own attractions. SC, the most vigorously entrepreneurial of the lot, is a PADI Gold Palm shop which offers Nitrox as well as rebreather & DPV experiences. DDD offers Nitrox and mixed gases training & availability, and is PADI, NAUI, SSI, ANDI, NASDS & TDI certified. NSC is a PADI 5 Star IDC facility which in addition to the usual shark feed offers a diver feed experience ala UNEXSO in Freeport. Sunskiff is a no frills op which can serve small groups & other than the usual local dives. While prices vary somewhat according the training, dives or packages involved, overall of the big ops DDD seems the least expensive and SC the most.
This trip I dove with DDD. Their van picked me up & returned me on time each day. The shop has some very limited gear for sale, a full line of seemingly well maintained rental gear, including Sherwood regs, a drying room for storing gear overnight, rinse tank, and cooler with drinks & some munchies for sale. They will also serve you a basic lunch from the grill. Orders are taken on the boat on the way in between AM & PM dives. They have two boats which appear well maintained, although the larger boat is quite slow. They have radio, O2, first aid kits, marine heads & bottled water.
Offered are 2 AM & 2PM dives, a night dive with a minimum number of divers (think it's 4), the Shark Alley/Shark Feed dive, and excursions to Exuma, AUTEC Buoy & Blue Hole by special arrangement.
Sounds okay so far, eh? Well, the op falls down badly in several areas, most notably in the mixing of experience levels of divers and the need to adhere to a tight schedule given its 2AM & 2PM dive program, and there are some personnel and communication problems as well.
The combo of mixing of divers & tight scheduling results in what I term the dreaded "least common denominator diving." Unless you can make special arrangements with your own DM, you go down together, stay together & come up together according to the weakest diver, no matter that you may have more experience than the DMs. Unfortunately, there were some grossly inexperienced divers on my boat, including a very nice woman from Texas who guzzled air faster than I thought was compatible with life. Despite doing only relatively shallow dives (bounces to maybe 70' & then cruising at about 50') in easy if any current, they had to find her 100s for the next day just to get her (and us) a modest amount of bottom time. The combo also resulted in much "mother henning" and u/w regimentation regarding profiles, etc. It was a pain in the a**. After a morning of two very ho-hum dives on Friday (a chap on the boat from Montreal called them "bland," which describes them well), I skipped the PM dives I was scheduled to do. The viz was poor, coral & sponges not especially colorful or healthy looking, and marine life sparse, although the first "wall" (started around 65' & plateaued at about 100', with the group not going below 70'; they would scoff at calling this a wall dive in San Salvador) dive yielded a nice school of mixed Creole Wrasse & Blue Runners, while the Bahama Mama wreck dive on a small sunken booze cruise craft produced a couple of massive Nassau Groupers, a good sized Rainbow Parrotfish & Crevalle Jack, a pair of Midnight Parrotfish, and some of the usual smaller tropicals like Blue Tang & French Grunt.
Disappointed, I was nonetheless buoyed by the thought of tomorrow's dives at Shark Alley & the Shark Feed. And indeed things were looking promising at the dawning: water was calm, took the fast boat, and arrived at the site to find a sweet current going the right way to drift Shark Alley. Gadzooks, my regulator runneth over. We hit the top of the wall and float along ala Coz, watching schools of fish swim on by in bright light which brought out their colors to best effect. All is well. The first bummer, a minor one, was watching the DM, Alda, who was videoing the dive (this & Shark Feed on tape for $50), hit a heretofore extraordinarily healthy appearing pillar coral full on with her back while doing her camera work, and we're not talking a small bump here folks -- that coral was hurt. I could tell she felt badly because she hit herself on the forehead with her hand, but the damage was done. The fact that she was the one who always reminded everyone not to touch anything & was the most egregious "mother henner" made it sadly ironic.
Anyway, things quickly picked up when about a 6-7' Caribbean Reef Shark lazily passed by, lead by two tiny pilot fish finning their fannies off just inches in front of the shark's massive maw. While Remoras went about trying to find purchase for a meal, a school of silvery Black Jacks took turns darting to the shark's skin to pick parasites, while a merry coterie of juvenile Wrasse picked up their crumbs. It was one of those transcendent moments when the extended symbiotic chains which underlie all life on earth became so focussed I wanted to laugh out loud at the ineffable beauty of it all.
Unfortunately, my transcendence came to a jarring halt when one of the newbies swims up & signals Mother Hen that she is down to 1,000 lbs. It's like 20 minutes into the dive, we're at about 50', & Mother starts making the hand signal for "clucking" and we're frigging going to surface. I look at my SPG & have 2,000 lbs. left on a dive that is finally showing promise - I go ape. The minute we hit the surface I yank off my mask, which I proceed to lose, and start yelling about why we're only doing half a dive, but soon realize this is not only bad form, but patently futile, so I stew in silence for a bit.
The next dive is the Shark Feed, which involves dropping to about 50' to a coral rubble bottom. Everyone overweights about 6 lbs. as given the sharks really crappy near vision it's not wise to be flailing appendages during the feed proper. We form a semicircle, after which the DM, on this dive Andy, swims down with a 5 gallon plastic bucket of frozen fish, which he brings out a piece at a time on a long metal rod. The sharks of course gather at the sound of the boat, on this dive about 20 female Caribbean Reefs in the 4-7' range or thereabouts. This feeding apparently takes place nearly every day of the week, with different ops taking turns on different days. DDD has been doing it for 9 years. I do not agree with the severe reservations of some others on this board regarding this type of marine dog & pony show as they are not without value to both sharks & humans. Nevertheless, clearly this was not natural and represented an alteration of behavior, and left me feeling a little guilty. In any event, it was interesting to see them shut their eyes & extend their teeth before striking, and to see the 70 pound grouper who hangs around out maneuver them in tight quarters. One shark had a large fishing hook slowly rusting away in its mouth. Mating season had just ended, and some females showed some wicked scarring & bite marks. Geez, these dewds must have dyn-O-mite sex. Even though one shark did rake my head with a pectoral fin, I remained unfrightened, even though I sincerely wanted to be scared. When the food was gone, the players dispersed, and we spent some time looking for the teeth which they lose during the feed.
Fed up with the diving, I passed on the scheduled PM dives & diving the following day. I was planning on doing >$400 worth of diving with DDD, but they ended up getting $182.
As for personnel, Lindsey, a would be Rasta Man with great 'locks but a lousy Jamaican accent, who I also suspect is way below standard on the righteous herb index, was a true pleasure. Always smiling & easy going, he worked hard to see that everyone enjoyed themselves. Our Captain the first day, Tony, had an odd ball sense of humor & was a hoot once you got past the gruff. DM both days & shark feeder, Andy, was watchful and competent. If you want to make him happy, buy him lunch -- he loves that stuff off the grill. Alda was covered above, and little more needs to be said. She is clearly a well meaning DM and if Romper Room ever initiates an u/w segment to the show, she's a shoe in.
The nasty award goes to Mike, an instructor who seems to be charge of tanks & rental equipment. I had two interactions with him. On the first, I asked him to demonstrate the use of their particular O2 analyzer so I could check the one Nitrox tank I used. He rapidly mumbled a series of instructions, and then turned and walked away. Another diver & I then figured it out. The second interaction was when I came out of the drying room with a nice big hanger for my gear. Upon spying it, Mike said "Where did you get that?" I said it was in the drying, to which he responded, "I doesn't belong there," took it, and walked away.
The communication issue appears to be at the crux of my dissatisfaction with my DDD experience, and it seems hard to excuse. I told both Marcia & Steve, who are in the marketing & booking office stateside, on several occasions and by both phone & e-mail, that I was an experienced diver, didn't want "vacation diving" and to please not waste my time & money on lame dives. Both said they would contact Mark, the operations manager on site, and ask him to attempt to group divers & to get one of their all day special trips put together, but could make no guarantees. I said I understood that, just make a good faith effort. Well, it was painfully obvious that no such effort was made. When I mentioned it at the desk, everyone sort of stared at me quizzically. None of the DMs had heard anything about it. Even the two very experienced divers, Richard & Gary, who were staying right at DDD & diving with them for the week, and would have been logical candidates to ask, had heard nothing about it & moaned when they found out we might have been able to put something together.
In conclusion, I would say that if you want serious diving, go elsewhere than Nassau. If you must do Nassau, give your selected op much advanced notice that you want to be grouped with experienced divers & get on one of the "adventure" dive trips -- and get confirmation in writing. Sunskiff is probably your best bet for small groups & unusual dive sites, although it is not a luxurious op. I would not return to Dive, Dive, Dive, Ltd. except under very unusual circumstances.
If you will be satisfied with least common denominator, bland, regimented, but safe & easy "vacation diving," you will adore DDD.
Some Places to Stay/Things to Do
Nassau seems to have become much more of a year 'round destination than in the past, probably largely due to marketing & an expansion of facilities/activities, including those for families/children and those who want some high quality gambling in the vacation mix. It is served by many major & minor air carriers, plus being a popular cruise ship destination. Flights from Miami & Ft. Lauderdale on AA or Bahamasair are frequent and take only 30-45" depending on point of departure & type of plane.
As testimony to this extended popularity, I tried to get a room near Cable Beach or Paradise Island over the period June 24-28, a "low season" time, with two weeks advanced notice and was only able to find those at the very high & very low ends, neither of which are my choice. I do not know about low season availability at the hotels around the Coral Harbour area where the better dive ops are located, such as the Orange Hill, Coral Harbour Beach House & Villas, Clarion Resort South Ocean, cottages at Dive, Dive, Dive, Ltd., etc. These digs are some way from the "action" of Cable Beach, downtown & Paradise Island, however, and cabs are not cheap. It's $12 from the airport to the Cable Beach area & $25 to Paradise Island. There are no shuttles except for those operated by a select few hotels.
I finally found a room at gamblers' rates at the Nassau Marriott & Crystal Palace Casino on Cable Beach with the help of a dive buddy who has a strong contact there. This is a nice property right on the beach which had been getting long in the tooth (built around 1955) but has undergone a recent refurbishing. My room was more than satisfactory, with a small balcony, bathroom sinks in one area & separate, tiled shower room next to it. It was quiet & spotlessly clean, with fresh towels several times a day. Place has both a very good Italian & steak house restaurant, both of which offer fresh souffles in a variety of flavors - I went with chocolate. Also have a full a service health spa, motorized water sports, and a neat water slide in the free form pool. Casino is of moderate size & very accommodating as far as comps go. For you blackjack players, the rules are very liberal. Across the street is a long, rectangular park you can walk through. This being the rainy season, things are green & flowering, and the reddish orange topped poinciana trees are quite lovely. Beyond that is a golf course. To get downtown, take the #10 bus which comes by about every 5-10" and lets you see a bit of the area, including the cricket green & fish fry grounds. From downtown, which is bustling and somewhat dirty & tacky, $3 gets you a water taxi over to Paradise Island. Otherwise it is about a $14 dollar cab fare to PI. Probably the most outstanding aspect of the hotel was personnel. The staff were unbelievably pleasant and accommodating, and seemed devoted to your enjoying your vacation.
Be aware, however, that Nassau is not cheap, especially not the nicer resorts, and food is expensive. It is also pretty much customary to add a 15% service charge to food service. If you come here and want to do it on a shoestring, you'll need find small hotel or B&B with a kitchen and do your own cooking & cool your own drinks.
Where ever you stay, do make the trek out to PI to see the Atlantis Hotel & Casino, a Disneyesque fusion of Monte Alban in Mexico & Bellagio in Vegas, this is a Sun International megaresort ala Sun City in South Africa for those who have been there. Unrecognizable as Merv Griffin's old place, with 2,300 rooms including a $25,000 night suite, a marina with more million+ dollar boats than I've ever seen, 7 acre snorkeling lagoon, massive aquarium which will show you more marine life than you'll see diving there, 40 bars/restaurants, 1,000 slot machines and 80 gaming tables & the world's gnarliest water slide. This baby starts from high atop a replica of a Maya temple, drops at a 90 degree angle open chute for about 40', and then courses through a Plexiglas tube through a tank full of nurse sharks. Actually very expensively & tastefully done if some sections, it's way too big & busy for me. Lots of teens & younger.
Anyway, my pick if you want to stay on PI is the Comfort Suites, just a stones throw from the Atlantis & a super value. Have stayed there on a couple of overnights on my way to various out islands & like it lots."
This should get you started.
DocVikingo
Soggy
Contributor
I dove with Stuart Cove's and was pleased with them. They pick up at all New Providence and Paradise Island hotels. Cattle boats, but they have several different large boats and provide a variety of experiences.
thanks for the replys. DocVikingo, thank you for the report. i am going with a group type package, alot of people but everyone does thier own thing. the ones i am going with including my wife do not dive, but some of the others do. i was told that one person in particular did alot of diving, but alas i do not know him, and he would help set things up. i just wanted to make sure they used someone reputable and good. i am a novice diver, 12 dives, so i do not want to be paired up with an advanced diver who i may slow down. i have been able on my last couple of dives to get 45 to 55 minutes of air on an 80. but new place, salt water and excitement may prevent that. i am starting to get a little long winded here so thanks to all again.
Just came back from Nassau. Went on Carnival Victory 10-20-03 out of Charleston, SC. Managed to get in a 2 tank dive with Stuarts Cove on their Shark Dive. WOW...water temp was 84, 1-2 ft seas, visability ~80ft. Some guys didn't wear a wet suit on the 1st dive, but on the second it was mandatory, that's the one where the sharks were fed. Overall a good although crowded operation, but since they were accomodating with pick-up and drop off at the port where we docked it worked out well overall. Of course they gouge you for pictures, and a video of your dive, but what the hell, when am I going to do that again?
busted
Guest
I dove with Sturat Cove's in June of 2002. Had a great time. It is a busy operation but the staff was very friendly and helpfull. They were good with new divers. We stayed at the Atlantis on Paradise Island. We were picked up every morning and it was about a 45 minute ride. No restroom on the boat, so you need to plan accordingly. The shark dive was great. Saw sharks on several dive's.
DesertEagle
Contributor
My experience is from a couple of years ago. I went diving with Nassau Scuba Centre and Stuart Coves.
The first day was with Nassau Scuba Centre. I paid a lot of money for what they call the Shark Suit Adventure. The first dive was a training dive which I felt I really didn't need. All I did was put the suit on, go down to depth and demonstrate basic skills like clearing my mask. More than anything, I think they want to make sure that a diver is comfortable in the suit. Since I learned diving in cold water, the gloves and hood were natural to me.
The second dive was the shark feed and they positioned me next to the food so I could get good closeup pictures. During the dive the sharks bumped me and nudget me. It was a little scary at first but the animals were pretty docile. I eneded up with some great closeup shots with my Nikonos and a 20mm lens. My only regret was not using a 15 becasue I could get so close.
What I liked about Nassau Scuba Center was that their operation offers a lot of personal service. Their boats are well-designed for diving and the staff was great with the shark suit adventure.
The next day was with Stuart Cove. This is a huge operation and they cater to just about everybody. The boat was more crowded but it didn't feel like a cattle car. I did their shark feeding dive, this time as a spectator. their dive felt a little more relaxed, or maybe it was me because I wasn't standing next to the food.
I would recommend both operations, depending on what type of experience you're looking for. As for shark feeding dives, it may alter the sharks behavior but if it weren't for dive tourism most of these sharks would have been turned into shark fin soup. I find it interesting that nobody has a problem with fishing which alters shark behavior- but scuba diving gets an undeserved bad reaction.
The first day was with Nassau Scuba Centre. I paid a lot of money for what they call the Shark Suit Adventure. The first dive was a training dive which I felt I really didn't need. All I did was put the suit on, go down to depth and demonstrate basic skills like clearing my mask. More than anything, I think they want to make sure that a diver is comfortable in the suit. Since I learned diving in cold water, the gloves and hood were natural to me.
The second dive was the shark feed and they positioned me next to the food so I could get good closeup pictures. During the dive the sharks bumped me and nudget me. It was a little scary at first but the animals were pretty docile. I eneded up with some great closeup shots with my Nikonos and a 20mm lens. My only regret was not using a 15 becasue I could get so close.
What I liked about Nassau Scuba Center was that their operation offers a lot of personal service. Their boats are well-designed for diving and the staff was great with the shark suit adventure.
The next day was with Stuart Cove. This is a huge operation and they cater to just about everybody. The boat was more crowded but it didn't feel like a cattle car. I did their shark feeding dive, this time as a spectator. their dive felt a little more relaxed, or maybe it was me because I wasn't standing next to the food.
I would recommend both operations, depending on what type of experience you're looking for. As for shark feeding dives, it may alter the sharks behavior but if it weren't for dive tourism most of these sharks would have been turned into shark fin soup. I find it interesting that nobody has a problem with fishing which alters shark behavior- but scuba diving gets an undeserved bad reaction.
Just got back from Nassau we were evacuated because of Jeanne two days early. I am a NC/NJ wreck and Police diver with 15+ years of diving experience. I have been to Nassau 6 times and use both Nassau Scuba Center and Stuarts Cove.
The Shop to STAY AWAY FROM is DIVERS HAVEN on Paradise Island. I had to do a rescue from 100 ft. as the boat DM/Capt. swam past and gave an OK. The full story should be in a Scuba magazine or DAN newsletter.
1998/2000/02 - Nassau Scuba Center is great . its small, friendly, and has an experienced and knowledgeable staff. Not the biggest or the newest but what I call a divers dive shop. The staff is truly friendly to all and they take the time to make you feel like you are home. They are a dive shop, not a tourist attraction.
1998/2000/02/04 - Stuarts Cove is not a bad shop, but a bit more impressionable for my likes. They did get the honor of my daughters first open ocean dive because of the satellite office at the Atlantis Resort. She is 10 and has grown up around the dive industry. The instructor at the pool was Nathan Jones. The best I have EVER seen with kids anywhere ( and I told Stuart personally ) . The Instructor on the boat Nicola was good with children. I think with any shop, as it gets bigger it naturally gets less personable. Boy have the gotten big.
We did not get to go out with Nassau Scuba as planned because of the storm.
The Shop to STAY AWAY FROM is DIVERS HAVEN on Paradise Island. I had to do a rescue from 100 ft. as the boat DM/Capt. swam past and gave an OK. The full story should be in a Scuba magazine or DAN newsletter.
1998/2000/02 - Nassau Scuba Center is great . its small, friendly, and has an experienced and knowledgeable staff. Not the biggest or the newest but what I call a divers dive shop. The staff is truly friendly to all and they take the time to make you feel like you are home. They are a dive shop, not a tourist attraction.
1998/2000/02/04 - Stuarts Cove is not a bad shop, but a bit more impressionable for my likes. They did get the honor of my daughters first open ocean dive because of the satellite office at the Atlantis Resort. She is 10 and has grown up around the dive industry. The instructor at the pool was Nathan Jones. The best I have EVER seen with kids anywhere ( and I told Stuart personally ) . The Instructor on the boat Nicola was good with children. I think with any shop, as it gets bigger it naturally gets less personable. Boy have the gotten big.
We did not get to go out with Nassau Scuba as planned because of the storm.
Ok...all in all...what place do you recommend to use as a diver operator in Nassau. I'll be going at the end of Nov. and want a good, descent place..not cattle boats either and hubby and I don't want a divemaster that we have to follow around like puppies and don't want to be on there with newbies. any recommendations would be great as too who is the best. thanks
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