Trip Report CAYMAN BRAC BEACH RESORT/REEF DIVERS

[Budgirl]

First of all, the resort was fantastic. Wonderful location, clean and cold rooms, pool was stunning and included a hot tub. Plenty of lounge chairs and hammocks on the beach. The food - every meal was top notch and the staff was so friendly and knew everyone's name. Very impressive. I had a massage by Grace and it was one of the best massages ever. I was very impressed with the resort and the people.

We had high hopes for our dive trip with Reef Divers, but unfortunately, the service fell short of expectations. Before even stepping onto the boat, we were faced with approximately ten pages of waivers to complete, which felt excessive and tedious. While safety and liability considerations are essential, the sheer volume of paperwork detracted from the excitement of the experience.

Once onboard, the focus of the briefing was more on boat cleanliness rules than on essential diving procedures, which felt excessive and misplaced. While maintaining a clean and respectful environment is important, a 30-minute session emphasizing trivial matters like "no snot" and "no peeing in wetsuits" seemed unnecessary and took away from what should have been a professional and welcoming introduction to the diving experience.

Our disappointment continued when an issue arose regarding my husband's dive eligibility. Having forgotten his dive computer on the second dive of the day (shallow dive), he followed a conservative dive profile as an experienced diver. Note this was the on Thursday and we had been diving with the same crew since Sunday - so they were familiar with the fact that he was a conservative and very chill diver. Despite this, the dive shop made the abrupt decision to ban him from the afternoon dive that day, which, while frustrating, seemed to be an enforcement of their rules. However, what was completely unacceptable was being notified just five minutes before departure the next day that he was barred from diving on the last day at the resort—without any prior discussion or explanation. Forced to argue our case through the boat captain, as the onsite manager refused to speak with us directly, we finally received approval from the head guy that happened to be at the resort that day from the states. The lack of communication, inconsistency in rule enforcement, and dismissive attitude from management made for an unpleasant experience.

Adding to our concerns, we witnessed a troubling safety issue on another vessel. An overweight and out-of-shape diver, who was reportedly a frequent guest of the resort, was allowed to vape onboard and appeared exempt from standard safety rules. This preferential treatment led to an alarming situation where an ambulance was called—an incident that could have been avoided with proper enforcement of diving protocols. Seeing this disregard for safety reinforced our impression that the operation prioritized personal relationships over professionalism and diver welfare.

Overall, our experience with Reef Divers did not meet our expectations, and with all of the options available in the Caribbean we won't return.

 

[ReadyDiverOne]

Kind of surprised no one has weighed in here, so I will. Although I've never been to Brac, I've been to LCBR on multiple occasions and dove with Reef Divers each time and never had anything remotely like this happen. Very weird, maybe there had been some incident in weeks prior that made them all hyper anal, maybe they'd had new training, I don't know. In my experience, the LCBR dive op was tightly run and had their rules but I never saw or experienced them acting so rigidly. I'm pretty sure, especially since it was your 5th day of diving, that LCBR would have let your husband do the pm dive.

With respect to the last day of diving, as I recall, at LCBR you can do the morning dives but not the afternoon dive, given altitude and DCS concerns re the flight the next day. Is that what was going on?

Finally, really bizarre that this apparently highly anal operation would allow such flagrant violations of the rules by that one diver you mentioned.

I'm very curious to know whether anyone else can shed light on what's going on at Brac.

In the meantime, I would suggest you try LCBR! Sounds like staff is better and I'm told diving is better--very difficult to beat the Bloody Bay Wall!!

 

[Budgirl]

Agree it was a bizarre experience and hopefully they will review their internal management processes accordingly.

And next time I find myself in the Caymans I would go to Little for sure. We have now done both and agree that Little Cayman is so much better.

And I don’t think it was a DCS concern as it was the morning dives that were initially cancelled. In the end, I am glad good sense prevailed but I would have preferred to avoid the drama.

 

[scubadada]

Hi @Budgirl

You didn't mention anything about the diving in your review, how was it, condition of the reef, sea life?

Why was your husband initially refused diving on the last day? Surely, it was not the nitrogen exposure from the morning before that was not captured on his computer.

How was the vaping you observed related to the ambulance call you describe?

I have only been to Cayman Brac once in 2017. My experience with Reef Divers was very different than yours.

 

[Budgirl]

Hi @Budgirl

You didn't mention anything about the diving in your review, how was it, condition of the reef, sea life?

Why was your husband initially refused diving on the last day? Surely, it was not the nitrogen exposure from the morning before that was not captured on his computer.

How was the vaping you observed related to the ambulance call you describe?

I have only been to Cayman Brac once in 2017. My experience with Reef Divers was very different than yours.

Dive conditions: water was around 81 degrees, visibility was 50+, reef was fishy lots of juveniles and variety, coral seems to be recovering as we saw a lot of new coral growth. Lots of brown algae on the roof which was sad to see. Saw a couple of eagle rays and reef shark and a nurse shark.

So the vaping guy on the boat was the same guy rescue was called to come pickup. He was not held to the rules on the boat since he frequented the dive shop. And was permitted to vape. Not sure if vaping contributed to his medical emergency but was just an example of poor management.

We were told by the boat captain that my husband couldnt dive because of the prior days incident of forgetting his computer on dive #2. We were already prohibited from dive #3 and sat that one out quietly. It did not make sense at all. In 20 years of diving we have never encountered this type of situation.

Also, we were there with a group that had been there previously and they were also surprised by the change in service. Maybe it was a one off, but I felt it was serious enough to write a review. We spend our hard earned money to take nice trips and we had a good time and only missed one dive but it would have been even more disappointing if we had to sit the last day out over something that was really nothing.

 

[tursiops]

Dive conditions: water was around 81 degrees, visibility was 50+, reef was fishy lots of juveniles and variety, coral seems to be recovering as we saw a lot of new coral growth. Lots of brown algae on the roof which was sad to see. Saw a couple of eagle rays and reef shark and a nurse shark.

So the vaping guy on the boat was the same guy rescue was called to come pickup. He was not held to the rules on the boat since he frequented the dive shop. And was permitted to vape. Not sure if vaping contributed to his medical emergency but was just an example of poor management.

We were told by the boat captain that my husband couldnt dive because of the prior days incident of forgetting his computer on dive #2. We were already prohibited from dive #3 and sat that one out quietly. It did not make sense at all. In 20 years of diving we have never encountered this type of situation.

Also, we were there with a group that had been there previously and they were also surprised by the change in service. Maybe it was a one off, but I felt it was serious enough to write a review. We spend our hard earned money to take nice trips and we had a good time and only missed one dive but it would have been even more disappointing if we had to sit the last day out over something that was really nothing.

You forgot to mention that you signed a waiver that says, in part:
"It is the intention of the undersigned to observe and obey the Cayman Island Watersports Operators Association’s Code of Safety Requirements and Standards as posted in the resort and dive shops. I also understand that if I violate any of these standards and procedures, regulations or laws, that my dive privileges may be cancelled."
Not having the computer violates the standards.

 

[Budgirl]

You forgot to mention that you signed a waiver that says, in part:
"It is the intention of the undersigned to observe and obey the Cayman Island Watersports Operators Association’s Code of Safety Requirements and Standards as posted in the resort and dive shops. I also understand that if I violate any of these standards and procedures, regulations or laws, that my dive privileges may be cancelled."
Not having the computer violates the standards.

Agree and we sat out the afternoon dive on the day of the incident. And I did mention that I signed a whole book of waivers which was excessive as compared to other dive destinations.

For us, it’s not the type of place that is worth the hassle or threat of losing a dive.

 

[ReadyDiverOne]

You forgot to mention that you signed a waiver that says, in part:
"It is the intention of the undersigned to observe and obey the Cayman Island Watersports Operators Association’s Code of Safety Requirements and Standards as posted in the resort and dive shops. I also understand that if I violate any of these standards and procedures, regulations or laws, that my dive privileges may be cancelled."
Not having the computer violates the standards.

Oh boo, that's unhelpful and not nice. OF COURSE they signed that and many other waivers. That's not the point. The point is, was Brac's enforcement of the waiver/rule reasonable? You can argue that prohibiting the pm dive, especially considering that the diver had been diving with them for 5 freaking days with no issues, was unwarranted. Certainly, the attempted prohibition the next day was way out of line and patently unreasonable.

 

[tursiops]

we sat out the afternoon dive on the day of the incident.

That is just good DCS management. You shouldn't have to be forced or even told to do that.

I did mention that I signed a whole book of waivers which was excessive as compared to other dive destinations

Yeah, you said 10 pages of waivers. That is hyperbole.

For us, it’s not the type of place that is worth the hassle or threat of losing a dive.

But it IS the kind of place that tries very hard to keep its divers safe, and does a really good job of it. But there is always the occasional diver who doesn't want to play by the rules, and often argues about it, and sometime even whines publicly about it. You probably won't be missed.

 

[ReadyDiverOne]

Wow @tursiops what on earth is up today? You know that the second morning dive is shallow, not to exceed 60-80ft, and usually involves at least 10 minutes off gassing under the boat. Then you have about a 90 minute surface interval before the even more shallow afternoon dive. Why so harsh??