Ray and Pam
Contributor
I found our trip to be pretty much like everyone says. Airport delays, good food, good diving and DMs, nice resort, nice people, an older group of divers with a more relaxed quiet atmosphere. In many of my pics around the resort there arent’ any people in them but all three boats were running.
Arrive GCM on Sat about 3pm had the “Meet and Greet” thanks you KathyV, we probably didn’t need it but when we returned to GCM the following Sat at noon we would have needed it if arriving from the US. Airport personnel were out to direct us past the herd, stay to the right,to the right to the right and straight to our luggage which would have been waiting there for us if we had sent it ahead the previous nite. Our 5pm flight to Cayman Brac was delayed about and hour ending up in a storm in the dark so no island views. Our return trip was delayed about an hour also but got pics/video of Cayman Brac, Little Cayman and Grand Cayman.
Checkin was quick and easy, very soon had a minifridge delivered to the room. First floor room was adequate, good size shower/bathroom with soaps,shampoos, etc, king bed, closet with hangers, big tv with about 10 channels. You entered from the road side by the tennis courts, but after that pretty much left the room on the pool/bar/beach side which had a small patio table and 2 chairs. From here you go everywhere, bar, office, restaurant, bar, pool, beach and hammock, bar, volleyball, dive shop and pier/boats. There is also a washer/dryer room next to the ice machine and clothsline at the end of the tennis courts, opposite end of where the bikes are stored. Room could have used more tabletop area for setting things on. Set up the ironing board which served well as a table to lay things out on. There was also a coffee maker coffee,tea, filters etc in the room.
The dive boats were great, big and roomy, dry storage at the front, sit in shade or in the sun. Briefings were thorough, a map was drawn at each site showing the boat location to the reef(s), which route the DM was taking, special areas to see critters were pointed out, and how to get back on the boat. Usually a buoy line would be out but due to currents sometimes you jiust had to come up at the ladder. DMs Brent(sp) and Bubbly Barbie were great. There would be about 18 divers each day, I was on the back so was one of the first in, sat on the back, gear was brought to you and put on and you jumped in. We never felt crowded like being between two other divers all trying to gear up at once. Come back, hand your fins up, climb up and sitdown on the back of the boat, gear was removed and placed back at your seat.
The diving was varied, sometimes deeper that I prefer on the 2nd dive, vis was always good to amazing, there would be some areas that were just dead but then some awesome reef and coral heads next to it. The surface was normally rough especially on the northwest side. On the southwest side the cracks in the reef where fun swimming thru down on the sand then coming up to a big coral head. Think “elkhorn forrest” was my favorite. Actually were some areas of elkhorn and staghorn growth. Saw our first real shark, Caribbean reef?, on two different dives, nice turtle hung around on the Tibbetts for awhile, groupers following divers around looking into the same holes on the Tibbetts as the divers, green moray, spotted eagle ray at the end of the last dive.
One day on the boat they asked who did not want to do the Bloody Bay Wall trip, I guess too many people didn’t want to spend the time and money so it never happened. I had originally wanted to stay on Little Cayman just to do the wall.
I gained about 8 lbs between the 3 buffet meals every day and two bicycle trips to the liquor store. Friday BBQ was as advertised, I tried to eat all the ribs but they just kept coming. Steak, chicken and shrimp were good also.
The resort is located so you get sunrises and sunsets, can also take a short bike ride to the end of the island for sunset.
Afternoons were hangout at the pool or on the beach hammock or lounge chair in the sand, never crowded. It was really hot riding a bike about 2 or 3 in the pm. The beach was better than I had heard, the sand was fine for short walk but perhaps gets worse as you walk further west away from the resort.
Didn’t go look at the shore diving areas much, after 2 morning dives and the afternoon heat.
Food was plentiful and good, I liken it to cruise ship food which I like. There would be about 3 desserts and I had to try all of them …at each meal. All the servers, housekeepers, front desk, etc were warm and friendly.
I would definitely go back to the Brac or Little Cayman or even Grand Cayman which we haven’t really dove. Only dove 2 cruise ship days on the west side of GCM, haven’t seen the East Side diving. The CBRR special with Maduro was a good bargain when you figure in all the food. Next time I would try to focus more on the shore diving and afternoon shallow boat diving.
At this time of my life my favorite dive day is when I can get up, lay around drink coffee for awhile, get breakfast, walk around the grounds a bit then either do a dive from the pier or get on a dive boat for like an 11am dive and 2pm dive on a sloping reef so I have the option of going 90’ or just hanging around coral heads or reef in about 30’ water. Then have option of doing an evening dive from the pier during rush hour. So don’t know where the spring vaca is going to be but in the fall it’s back to Bonaire.
Arrive GCM on Sat about 3pm had the “Meet and Greet” thanks you KathyV, we probably didn’t need it but when we returned to GCM the following Sat at noon we would have needed it if arriving from the US. Airport personnel were out to direct us past the herd, stay to the right,to the right to the right and straight to our luggage which would have been waiting there for us if we had sent it ahead the previous nite. Our 5pm flight to Cayman Brac was delayed about and hour ending up in a storm in the dark so no island views. Our return trip was delayed about an hour also but got pics/video of Cayman Brac, Little Cayman and Grand Cayman.
Checkin was quick and easy, very soon had a minifridge delivered to the room. First floor room was adequate, good size shower/bathroom with soaps,shampoos, etc, king bed, closet with hangers, big tv with about 10 channels. You entered from the road side by the tennis courts, but after that pretty much left the room on the pool/bar/beach side which had a small patio table and 2 chairs. From here you go everywhere, bar, office, restaurant, bar, pool, beach and hammock, bar, volleyball, dive shop and pier/boats. There is also a washer/dryer room next to the ice machine and clothsline at the end of the tennis courts, opposite end of where the bikes are stored. Room could have used more tabletop area for setting things on. Set up the ironing board which served well as a table to lay things out on. There was also a coffee maker coffee,tea, filters etc in the room.
The dive boats were great, big and roomy, dry storage at the front, sit in shade or in the sun. Briefings were thorough, a map was drawn at each site showing the boat location to the reef(s), which route the DM was taking, special areas to see critters were pointed out, and how to get back on the boat. Usually a buoy line would be out but due to currents sometimes you jiust had to come up at the ladder. DMs Brent(sp) and Bubbly Barbie were great. There would be about 18 divers each day, I was on the back so was one of the first in, sat on the back, gear was brought to you and put on and you jumped in. We never felt crowded like being between two other divers all trying to gear up at once. Come back, hand your fins up, climb up and sitdown on the back of the boat, gear was removed and placed back at your seat.
The diving was varied, sometimes deeper that I prefer on the 2nd dive, vis was always good to amazing, there would be some areas that were just dead but then some awesome reef and coral heads next to it. The surface was normally rough especially on the northwest side. On the southwest side the cracks in the reef where fun swimming thru down on the sand then coming up to a big coral head. Think “elkhorn forrest” was my favorite. Actually were some areas of elkhorn and staghorn growth. Saw our first real shark, Caribbean reef?, on two different dives, nice turtle hung around on the Tibbetts for awhile, groupers following divers around looking into the same holes on the Tibbetts as the divers, green moray, spotted eagle ray at the end of the last dive.
One day on the boat they asked who did not want to do the Bloody Bay Wall trip, I guess too many people didn’t want to spend the time and money so it never happened. I had originally wanted to stay on Little Cayman just to do the wall.
I gained about 8 lbs between the 3 buffet meals every day and two bicycle trips to the liquor store. Friday BBQ was as advertised, I tried to eat all the ribs but they just kept coming. Steak, chicken and shrimp were good also.
The resort is located so you get sunrises and sunsets, can also take a short bike ride to the end of the island for sunset.
Afternoons were hangout at the pool or on the beach hammock or lounge chair in the sand, never crowded. It was really hot riding a bike about 2 or 3 in the pm. The beach was better than I had heard, the sand was fine for short walk but perhaps gets worse as you walk further west away from the resort.
Didn’t go look at the shore diving areas much, after 2 morning dives and the afternoon heat.
Food was plentiful and good, I liken it to cruise ship food which I like. There would be about 3 desserts and I had to try all of them …at each meal. All the servers, housekeepers, front desk, etc were warm and friendly.
I would definitely go back to the Brac or Little Cayman or even Grand Cayman which we haven’t really dove. Only dove 2 cruise ship days on the west side of GCM, haven’t seen the East Side diving. The CBRR special with Maduro was a good bargain when you figure in all the food. Next time I would try to focus more on the shore diving and afternoon shallow boat diving.
At this time of my life my favorite dive day is when I can get up, lay around drink coffee for awhile, get breakfast, walk around the grounds a bit then either do a dive from the pier or get on a dive boat for like an 11am dive and 2pm dive on a sloping reef so I have the option of going 90’ or just hanging around coral heads or reef in about 30’ water. Then have option of doing an evening dive from the pier during rush hour. So don’t know where the spring vaca is going to be but in the fall it’s back to Bonaire.
