Hi Catalina Canuck,
What they said.
Dive Dive Dive, and Naussau Scuba Center have both gone out of business during the last 2 years.That is sad. I dived with DDD in 1998, 2000, and 2002, and NSC in 2004, and enjoyed both operations. Afaik, Stuart Cove's is the only dive op on the S end of New Providence (the island where Nassau is located).
I dove with them last week,for the first time, and the stated conditions/criticisms are at least partially true (how "partially" would depend on what you are used to/ looking for)
SC's is a very big op, with many divers, many boats, and somewhat restricted dive times- depending on the individual diver's air usage.The scenes at the dock are at times evocative of the NYC subways regarding crowds-especially during the time when the a.m.divers are returning from the boats, and the p.m. divers are arriving from the buses. But it seems to all work out. In general, the crews were professional, friendly, and helpful.
In my 5 "2 tank" dive trips, the number of (non-crew) divers on the boat I was on ranged from 7 to 20. I only felt "crowded" on the boat when the number got past 15. Even then there usually was room to move on the boats. The boat you/your group were on was assigned each day, although requests in advance seemed to be honored.
Dive times were in the 30 (1st dive-usually the deeper of the 2 dives-max depth 80';100' if both buddies have a computer.) to 45 minute range-based on DM instructions.Typically, we were back on the boat in 35-50 mins. On 8 of 10 dives, I surfaced with over 1000 psi in the tank, as did about half of the divers on the boats-although some people had to come up early due to air consumption.
On all the 2-tank dives, the first dive was a "led" dive, and the second was an "unled" dive (However a DM was in the water for most of the dive) buddy pairs could "do their own thing"-within the time frame stated.That said, I felt the dive times were not appreciably different than when I dove with DDD or NSC.
One morning, when the shop was "understaffed" ( their word) the boats got out 15-20 mins. later than usual, and to get back in time for the p.m. schedule, the 2nd dive was cut to 30 mins.
Having said all this, I plan on diving with SC's when I return to Naussau.
One other thing: my SO is a non-diver. We Stayed in the Cable Beach area, and she found some (not a lot) shopping in the stores inside the Wyndham and Raddison, where there is also a Casino. There is also a "straw market" across the street. On the advice of some residents we had met, she decided to not go into Nassau alone to shop. (The locals had told us it is "seedy" during the day, and "dangerous" at night.) They indicated that going in a small group, during the day, would probably be "ok".Just something to keep in mind.
Good Luck, and enjoy your trip,
Mike
