Cobalt Coast Resort

[scoobydrew]

Hi all, I work for Divetech and find it interesting to hear how the news spreads.

Divetech did indeed used to be where Sundivers are now and just how leaving there to go to Cobalt was a new beginning which made the company bigger and better, such will be this move. As per previous posts, Lighthouse point will be one of the locations we will work from but we are in discussions with other hotels about working in conjunction with them from their location.

There was a comment about Kids Sea Camp, we will indeed be continuing this program and full details will be disclosed once we establish the most suitable accommodation for the event.

On the subject of tec v rec, we do indeed cater to tec divers but the vast majority of our customers are recreations divers. I have been in the company now for two years and have never been on a boat that mixes tec and rec divers, the rule is a boat is simply one or the other. We do have rebreather divers on our recreational boats but they are diving exactly the same profile as open circuit divers.

These are exciting times over here and the next few years in Divetech are going to be awesome.

 

[Alex777]

Divetech did indeed used to be where Sundivers are now and just how leaving there to go to Cobalt was a new beginning which made the company bigger and better ...

As I recall, Divetech was located at both Cobalt Coast AND Turtle Reef for a while and then lost its lease at Turtle Reef. How did that make the company "bigger and better"?

If the new Kimpton Hotel plans to have an on-site dive op, Divetech may (?) be angling to get its foot in that door. Just sayin'.

 

[Damselfish]

yes, Divetech did not 'leave' Turtle Reef to go to Cobalt. They had both locations for quite some time. Years IIRC. The package of the 2 shore diving locations was a big marketing point.

I never saw them mix tech and rec divers on the same boat. But like most places you could wind up with a real mix of divers on the same boat, and they weren't past dumbing it down to the lowest common denominator.

 

[Alex777]

Sadly, this has become increasingly common at most dive ops. A few (OF, DNS) make efforts to run a novice boat and an experienced boat but it can't always be done.

 

[scoobydrew]

As I recall, Divetech was located at both Cobalt Coast AND Turtle Reef for a while and then lost its lease at Turtle Reef. How did that make the company "bigger and better"?

If the new Kimpton Hotel plans to have an on-site dive op, Divetech may (?) be angling to get its foot in that door. Just sayin'.

Alex - I stand corrected, as I mentioned I have only been here a couple of years so was not around when we were in the location Sundivers now use. My meaning behind "bigger & better" is that Divetech has grown year on year and the point behind the statement is that it will continue to do so.

The Kimpton...? well if that transpires then it will be news to me!

 

[KathyV]

Any word on who would be taking over for Craig at LCBR? Glad y'all had a good trip! Bummed a bit that we weren't in a position to commit to the trip with y'all earlier this year. We will miss you by one day...flying in Sunday as long as Danny looks like he will be minding his own business and staying north of the Antilles (or better yet, fizzling out in the dry air) later next week.

AggieDiver, are you back from LCBR? Please post a report as soon as you are settled in!

 

[Doctorfish]

As I mentioned earlier, I stayed at Cobalt and dove Divetech for a week. The boat group was an odd mix of newbies, recreational and tech divers; essentially everyone who was staying at Cobalt. I felt that the sites chosen were always a compromise for one of the groups. I guess the number of divers was not enough to warrant their using 2 boats. I have not dived with Divetech since, except to do shore dives.

As I recall, Divetech was pushed out of Turtle Reef rather than leaving for another location. Lighthouse was opened later. IMO, not as good a site as Turtle Reef.

 

[AggieDiver]

AggieDiver, are you back from LCBR? Please post a report as soon as you are settled in!

I am back...in a way. We flew in last night and I got home around 9pm. Then I got up at 5am to catch a flight to Tulsa for a couple of days at a job site. So a full report with pictures will have to wait until I get home. It was a great week of diving with dead flat calm conditions for 5 of the 6 dive days.

I will talk about it more in the full report, but there was one issue with the dining room that had quite a few folks confused and upset. I am planning to reach out to the manager for her input because I suspect the intention was good but was communicated poorly. They were marking certain tables as "reserved" in the dining room. Not sure who they were reserved for or for what reason, but by day two, pretty much every table for 2 or 4 in the main dining area had a reserved sign on it. The end result was that if you were not part of one of the large groups that had their own table, you had to sit outside in the un-air conditioned tables. Within a day or two, Claudia and some of the other dining room staff noticed people were getting kind of ticked off at seeing all the reserved tables empty while they were forced to eat in the outside di ing area, so she just started grabbing people and saying "here, this is yours...don't worry about the sign."

So kudos to the dining room staff for seeing that it was a problem and responding accordingly. But I would say it was a serious mistake on somebody's part to allow the tables to be reserved in the first place. I will say that in all the years I have been going there, it was the first time I felt anything less than entirely happy and satisfied with the dining experience. But only because of the reserved table issue. Not because of the food or anything the dining room staff did. Eing forced to eat outside was only really an issue at lunch time when it was really hot...but nobody wants to pay for a premium dive trip at a relatively nice resort and then feel like a 2nd class citizen by being forced out of the main dining area because they weren't part of a group and/or didn't know that tables could or would be reserved.

More later when I get a chance, but this is as much as I want to type on my phone right now.

 

[scubadada]

I have only been visiting and diving in Grand Cayman since 1996 so may not have the dates exactly correct. Divetech has been in business since 1994 and either started at or moved to Turtle Reef shortly thereafter. I first dived at Turtle Reef in 1997. They were the original, and only, operator at Cobalt Coast since it opened in 2000. This was Divetech's 2nd site. They "left" Turtle reef at the end of summer, 2007 and Sun Divers took over. Divetech opened Lighthouse point in the late Fall of 2007, I dived there in 2008.

Now we're here, would be glad to see additions or corrections

 

[AggieDiver]

Just wanted to give an update on this for anybody who reads this thread and sees what I posted above about reserved tables. I will explain things in more detail when I start a separate trip report thread later this week, but here is the quick and dirty version. I sent an email with my concerns to the front desk at LCBR with a request to route the email to the management. I received a call maybe an hour later. I spoke to Eduardo who is the new supervisor over the bar and dining at LCBR, and he thanked me profusely for the email and indicated that as of today, there will be no more reserved tables. He stated that it was kind of a unique situation last week (I think because the resort was quite full and had several large groups), but he also understood how it was perceived and I think is making the right choice to not do reserved tables anymore. So kudos for them to not only respond promptly to my email in person via a an international phone call, but to make a meaningful change to avoid confusion or upsetting guests. Sometimes the measure of an organization can be seen best not when things are going perfectly, but in how they respond when things are not going perfectly.