Covid-19 and Cayman travel...

[mi000ke]

Cayman Aggressor had an advert in today's Cayman papers looking to hire a salaried dive master/crew member ($400/week + commissions, room, board and uniforms). Assuming essentially 100% of their business is comprised of visitors, and that there would be few to no locals who would sign on to a liveaboard once diving opens up in a couple of weeks, I'm wondering why they would be hiring. Hopefully they know something we don't about borders opening soon.

 

[-MJ-]

Probably renewing a work permit for an existing employee rather than hiring more staff..

 

[caydiver]

Or perhaps starting the process for staffing. Every job has to be advertised so Caymanians have first dibs at it. I don’t think they are doing renewals right now unless they were in for review before the processing. Got an email from Ocean Frontiers today about their reopening for staycations. I wish them well. I get the hotels doing it but don’t see many locals paying for a dive centric staycation. It’s to easy to dive whenever you want here. Wish them and the others well. Different story for the Sister Islands but travel there is prohibited from GC. Soon come.

 

[KathyV]

The Margaritaville Resort in Cayman is closing and is scheduled to reopen under a new name in late October.

We stayed there one night during our last trip as guests of Cayman Airways because our flight to Little Cayman had been cancelled due to bad weather. We were not very impressed with the resort but to be fair, we were tired and disgruntled and it was raining, so maybe that colored our opinions.

 

[caydiver]

To be fair it is closed already just like all the other hotels/resorts. When it reopens it will do so under a different name just like The Beachsuites did last year. The rebranding comes as no surprise.

 

[tridacna]

Any changes regarding re-opening? Still Sep 1?

 

[caydiver]

The hotels may (we may hear at today’s press conference otherwise Friday’s) do soft reopens starting 22 June for staycations. It will certainly be limited as WP staff are pretty much gone or scheduled to leave on evac flights. However if the ports reopen on 1 September it will not be for visitors. It will be for returning residents (still hundreds waiting to be reunited with loved ones), mail and perhaps limited business travel. However the 14 day isolation in gov chosen facility will make it hard for anyone who does need to come. On the bright side it should mean that “touch” services will be allowed again. Childcare, salons, etc., are still not possible. Childcare is a big one as many families have nannies while they are at work. Construction is reopening currently, however the new runway project has been ongoing so at least they made use of the airport shut down time. Ironically this year there is very little Sargassum here unlike last season when we were inundated and the south shore and Northside were very negatively impact. Guess if it is not one thing, it’s another.

 

[mi000ke]

Diving resumes June 21!

 

[BrackaFish]

Diving resumes June 21!

Soon come. And the water is nice

 

[Snoweman]

In Depth Water Sports posted that locals are allowed to dive again on Facebook.