Booked for the Sunset House, next month!

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TexasTaxi

Registered
Messages
23
Reaction score
15
Location
Texas
# of dives
50 - 99
I'm going to blame my wife, for her indecisiveness, constantly planning our trips at the last minute!

We first started looking for resorts in our timeshare network. None are really "dive" resorts, but a few say they have on site scuba. So, we were looking at the Grand Caymanian. The timeshare rooms were all full, but my wife found rooms through Expedia ... and booked, last month.

I called, to see what we needed to do to book our dives, and found out that they do NOT have on site scuba, but instead, Dive Tech will pick you up in a van, drive you to a dock, and you go from there. Not a big deal, but my wife got spoiled at Anthony's Key last year and now she hates to tote her gear back to the room, to store it ... much less take a van, to and from the boat.

I then contacted Sunset House. Five weeks out, and they still had a few rooms left. It was a major ordeal to cancel the other reservation, even though we paid extra for the cancellation insurance. Yesterday, the Grand Caymanian was finally cancelled and a new room booked at the Sunset House.

We're there from 8/8 to 8/15 ... 12 boat dives, 1 stingray city and 2 Kittiwake dives are on the books, and I hope I can convince her to do some shore dives to maybe squeeze in an even 20!

She'll be looking for "other" stuff to do in the late afternoons/evenings. Any suggestions?
 
Finding timeshares on islands that are best for diving is difficult, never mind anything like a true dive resort that is in the right location on the island and has good dive facilities. There aren't many and what there is does tend to book early.

In defense of your wife and for future reference, the Grand Caymanian seems like a good value and was not necessarily a bad choice. The dive op there (DiveTech) is very good. It's true they drive you to the dock from there, but that is true of a lot of places on Grand Cayman. And leaving from those other locations may often get you to better diving than the boats leaving from Sunset House. Also true there is no on-site shore diving at the Grand Caymanian, but your package with DiveTech would probably include free shore diving at their other location at Lighthouse Point, which I think is better than the shore diving at Sunset House. So staying at the Grand Caymanian may not be nearly as convenient as a turnkey operation like Sunset House. And it's not valet diving, but then neither is Sunset House. But there are always tradeoffs.

There are ops where you may need to take a van to the boat, but they will take care of your gear for you. And places you can walk onto the boat or into the water from your room, but you will need to deal with your own gear. And variations between. Sometimes you can't have everything and have to pick which conveniences are most important to you. :wink:
 
As far as stuff to do, the mangrove snorkeling and bioluminescence kayak tours have always sounded interesting, but we have yet to get around to it. There is the botanic garden and Crystal Cave. Camana Bay is a new complex of shopping, restaurants, movie theater, etc - you may not want any of that, but there is a really cool 5 story tower lined with mosaic undersea murals, which is free and pretty cool. Also other large undersea mosaics around the property that are less obvious - look up under the passageways. If you (hopefully) have a car it's fun to drive around the island and check out the well known tourist sights like the blowholes, Hell, and maybe Rum Point (ideally on a non-cruise ship day.) There's the Turtle Farm, if you don't object to the whole concept of the turtle farm. A lot of that stuff you probably wouldn't do twice, but if you haven't been to GC may as well check some out.

If driving, try to avoid rush hour. Yes, they've got rush hour there.

If you by any chance geocache, there are some fun ones there.
 
Just an FYI, it is my understanding that the Cobalt Coast Resort on Grand Cayman has some timeshare condo units. That is a dedicated dive resort with an onsite dive op and a house reef - and conditions should be good for shore diving that area (and other areas of the island) in August.

I'm not very familiar with timeshares but I think that they don't automatically include the diving package and/or the all-inclusive package but you can add them. They do provide valet diving and they recently did some remodeling including the pool and hot tub and shore diving facilities. I have never stayed there but we have visited and did some diving with Reef Divers at that location.
https://www.cobaltcoast.com/

@TexasTaxi you should consider renting a car for all the locations you've mentioned. The only spot where you might get away without a car is Sunset House, but it would be an advantage to have one there, too.
 
Sunset House is awesome. It is undergoing changes that are bringing it forward in leaps and bounds thanks to the watchful eye of Mike Pennington. Definitely go on the 3T North if it offered while you are here. Also My Bar at Sunset House is a favorite with visitors and locals alike. There is more to do in the area. Grand Caymanian is a hike anywhere. You will love it.
 
Kathy, Cobalt Coast was my first pick, (when we decided to re-book) but they were full ... we already had our airfare.

You're right about the timeshare. The ones that offer diving, do a la carte. We just wanted a place where the boat picked you up at the resort. All inclusive isn't important to us as we'd rather roam around and eat/drink at other places too. There are several timeshare "networks", and in our network (Interval International), the only resort on the island was the Grand Caymanian. I wish Cobalt Coast was in our network.
 
Sounds like you'll be fully booked diving during the day. I also would have suggested the nighttime bioluminescence snorkeling trip, but the full moon is happening Aug 15, so they might not be going out while you are there. You'll want to check on that.

The botanical garden is nice during the day, but you may not be able to get there in time depending on your dive schedule as last admission is at 4:30 pm.

Our typical evening, especially after a day of diving, is to get a drink, sit on the beach and watch the sun set. Then I'll attempt to drag my dear wife to some place to listen to music (especially look to see if the iconic Barefoot Man is playing anywhere - I think He's at the Wharf restaurant Saturday 8/10). Or we'll try one of the many great places to eat.

Another fun event is the Barefoot Beach BBQ at Kaibo, Rum Point every Tuesday 5:30pm – 9:00pm. You can either get a ferry at Camana Bay at 6 pm or drive up. Be ready to limbo and to ruminate on the existential question, " How low can you go?"

And if you want to get back at your wife, sign her up for the 13th Annual Cowgirl Dance Competition at the Lone Star Bar, Aug 9.

And don't forget to try to conch chowder at My Bar.
 
Damselfish is spot on. For future reference, most of the dive ops will pick up and drop off and some will even look after and store your gear between dive days so there is no need to lug around. Sunset mostly dives west side whereas west bay based ops regularly dive north when conditions allow and the boat rides would be shorter than from Sunset.

Don't get me wrong, you will still have a great time and great diving with Sunset and the house reef is a huge plus. Nothing better than a night dive followed by a beer at My Bar
 
I'm going to blame my wife, for her indecisiveness, constantly planning our trips at the last minute!

We first started looking for resorts in our timeshare network. None are really "dive" resorts, but a few say they have on site scuba. So, we were looking at the Grand Caymanian. The timeshare rooms were all full, but my wife found rooms through Expedia ... and booked, last month.

I called, to see what we needed to do to book our dives, and found out that they do NOT have on site scuba, but instead, Dive Tech will pick you up in a van, drive you to a dock, and you go from there. Not a big deal, but my wife got spoiled at Anthony's Key last year and now she hates to tote her gear back to the room, to store it ... much less take a van, to and from the boat.

I then contacted Sunset House. Five weeks out, and they still had a few rooms left. It was a major ordeal to cancel the other reservation, even though we paid extra for the cancellation insurance. Yesterday, the Grand Caymanian was finally cancelled and a new room booked at the Sunset House.

We're there from 8/8 to 8/15 ... 12 boat dives, 1 stingray city and 2 Kittiwake dives are on the books, and I hope I can convince her to do some shore dives to maybe squeeze in an even 20!

She'll be looking for "other" stuff to do in the late afternoons/evenings. Any suggestions?
You will have a great time and you have a nice package. My Bar has very good food, I particularly like their Indian Food dishes. Great sunset views. There are a couple of better shore dives on the island, but I quite enjoy the house reef at Sunset House. It has more to offer and explore than most people think. Just to be prepared, you will be assigned a dive locker for storing all of your gear. You can even store tanks in there if you plan to do a twilight, night or dawn dive. You are responsible each morning for getting your gear from the locker to the boat. Not a huge deal, but something to be aware of and you may want a mesh gear bag for that purpose. After our morning boat dives, we would typically come off of the boat and walk the few steps to the outdoor shower and rinse tanks to rinse gear and then just leave our gear on the retaining wall adjacent to the rinse tanks. We'd dry off and then go to My Bar for lunch (right next to the rinse tanks). We would hang out as long as we felt like it and then do an afternoon shore dive or two. Leaving the gear down by the rinse tanks just made everything that much easier. Just grab a tank and gear up and a few steps to a giant stride into the water. Only took our gear back to the locker when we were completely done for the day or if we were going to take an extended break between diving in order to go back to the room or off site for a while.
 

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