Divi Tiara-Cayman Brac

[Diver Lori]

We lodged our complaint with Liz, who passed it to Max. Max is the GM and also Liz's husband. Max simply blew us off and didn't bother trying to address our needs other than to make excuses. You will probably have no significant problems whatsoever if the resort isn't overbooked. Hopefully your luck is better than mine or Parrotman's.

Also, I recommend you take your regulators back and forth with you each day. They did the "fresh water" rinse on mine WITHOUT the dust cover.

Luck be with you.

 

[Aeolus]

I usually carry my regs and computer with me to the room, no matter wher I am staying (not that I do not trust everybody). Mostly because it is the primary safety link. I had one give out on me at 90 feet (loose spring) and that was just a little too exciting.

I was trying to find if there was someone on site who could correct any problems that might arise. Failing that, who should I contact to straighten it out, after the fact? It is a little disconcerting to be looking into remedies for restitution even before we leave. Hopefully, it will not come to that. It all can depend on so many other factors. I have seen reports on a resort that are scathing, while another give it a glowing thumbs up review. I have been on both sides of that situation as well. I can not fathom why it can change so much with the same personnel on staff. Most times, it is a combination of several events that makes it a less than enjoyable trip. One or two things, you can easily put up with, but at some point - enough is enough.

Thanks again for you input.

 

[Tiara GM]

WOW...

If I may, I would like to make myself available for any questions or concerns that any of the members of this forum may have.

I would like to clarify some issues.

Lori, I know that you had a bad experience. Your comments have validity, and we cannot go back and change the circumstance, nor the treatment you received. I did treat you in an inappropriate fashion, and I apologise. I will not make any excuses, and will take full responsibility for any loss of business incurred, and the fact that we may never have the pleasure of really spoiling you in the style that has become Max and Liz at Divi Tiara Beach Resort.

Hugh, thank you for your support, however, Lori's concerns of that week are most valid.

What can I say Lori? Since your departure, I have not felt comfortable with the activities of that week and have subsequently initiated changes to avoid this occurrence ever again. I will say that of the 122 people we took diving every day, we have had several compliment letters and staff accolades, but for me it is the one dissatisfied customer that leaves our little slice of heaven, that I am most concerned about.

Our property is undergoing some cool changes. We are busy installing a new roof on the rooms by the tennis courts, and we have confirmation of the purchase of a new vessel, and a Nitrox system. We are opertaing our resort on the capacity of divers we can handle and have therefore, limited room sales in order to avoid the discomfort of a crowded dive vessel. Hey, hopefully business will remain this great and we can buy 2 more vessels.

Is there anything we could do, to encourage you to experience our wonderful product under different circumstances?

We would love the oppertunity to spoil both of you again, and whilst I feel that you may not give us that oppertunity, if you would, I am 100% confident, that your experience would align with what Liz and I have and are continuing to create, which is a hassle free, valet style customer oriented friendly dive vacation.

We grow and learn each day and through each experience. Over the course of my tenure here so far, we have been more successful than in years past with our level of customer satisfaction. (I pride myself on that, and am sorry to have let you down). I am confident that for the years ahead that this will continue to improve and we will continue to be an industry benchmark, both in the positive aspects of how we do business and the manner in which we listen to the voices of our guests and the speed with which we take action to find resolutions.

Thanks for your time. I am sure many members will be responding. This is the first time I have heard about this forum, and I do not have the oppertunity to check it every day.

Please realise, that my intention is to communicate and provide information to all out there as to how we have and are responding to the voices of each and every one of our guests.

Over the past few weeks we have had some cool and unexpected sightings of Seahorses at various reefs. We have also seen a few reef sharks on Cayman Brac's north side walls.

Respectfully submitted

Max - GM - Divi Tiara Beach Resort

 

[SueMermaid]

:wave: Hi Max and Liz!

Like I said before, I found Divi Tiara to be one of the best diving weeks I have ever had, and *do* plan to return. sigh. I wish it was next week. ut:

 

[Tim Ingersoll]

Nice to hear someone admit when they were wrong. It seems to be a rare thing these days. It also sounds more like the Max that I met on the Brac.

 

[caymaniac]

I too love Tiara, in a way, I didn't mind Lori's rant because I would like to keep a slice of heaven for myself. Anyone has to admit, that with an apology like that, Lori has to forgive Divi Tiara. Max you deserve a slice of " BILTONG" (of course its difficult to figure how to get it to you)

Caymaniac

 

[Aeolus]

I have not had the pleasure of going to Divi Tiara as yet, but that will happen very soon - two weeks from tomorrow. Gauging by the note from Max, it seems like it should be a very pleasant experience.

 

[mchiapetto]

Very nice response to Lori's letter. I thought it was a very standup thing for you to take full responsibility with no excuses and apologize to Lori. When I read Lori's post, my initial response was that I would never go to Divi Tiara. In fact, there was a drawing for a free trip to Divi at my local dive shop a few days before I read this. And after reading it I was glad I had not won the drawing. If things were like what Lori shared, I did not want to go even if it was free!!!

But now.... I am thinking I might give it a try.

There was only one thing I thought was missing from your response. Since you admit that Lori had a poor experience. And you acknowledge the boats were over crowded. And you admit you did not respond appropriately to Lori at the time. So why don't you offer Lori something to make up for it.

I don't even know if she is interested. But it would seem appropriate to offer her a free trip for two. Or maybe a 2 for 1 deal. Something to try to compensate her for the poor experience.

And maybe if she went back, she could return to this board and post her experience and let the rest of us know if you delivered on your promises in your letter above.

The one thing I wonder is are you really sincere, or do you just write really good letters. It is one thing to write a response like this after you see the damage that a negative review like this can have on your business. But it would have meant more had you responded to Lori's complaint when she first apporached you. I hope this does not fit into the category of being sorry for getting caught, not sorry for what you did.

I will watch for posts from other scubaboard members before making up my mind on this one. What will be especially interesting is to see what experiences people have in the future.

AT any rate, thanks for taking the time to respond on this board and educate us as to specifically what you are doing to improve the diving experience at Divi Tiara.

 

[Aeolus]

Well, I made it back from the dive trip without any major problems. I would say that the resort is a fairly good buy, but it does need some work. They are supposed to doing some enhancements throughout the complex and there did seem to be a lot of activity in that regard. It does need a lot of maintenance done to it tpo bring it up to a good standard.

I did not need to contact anyone for any problems, but each person I heard about did not get their issues resolved. The only thing I couls say about the general operation was that the shops spent a lot more time closed than open. Perhaps that was because there was only about 14 people staying there while I was there. They said that they were expecting about 100 people to be there this week.

The diving was OK, but I was a bit disappointed in the quality of the coral and the marine life. The dive operation was adequate - I am not sure if I like the "valet" service - they set up your equipment and change tanks, store most of you gear at the end of the day, etc.

The package we had only included 2 dives per day and the cost of adding extras was a bit high ($32.50 for afternoon dive and $40 for night dive - which was only 30 minutes and not very good). The bloodworms were out in abundance on the night dive, so you had to operate mostly with the light off to avoid being taken over. Nitrox prices were outrageous ($12), at least four people I know of would have used Nitrox if the price had been more reasonable. Considering that we only had one boat and 10-12 people that is a high percentage. In fairness, they do not mix their own, but I wonder how much markup they added to the costs.

I might be induced to return, but it would have to be a really good price.

 

[dividiva]

I am sad that Divi has taken a turn for the worse by the sounds of things. I used to work for them as an instructor for 2 and a half years and loved every minute of it. I had guests that came back every year that I remembered and loved and still keep in contact with. I know first hand how crowded the boats could get, but we tried really hard to make things work with what we were given. With regards to the really long winded complaint letter I can guess who that boat captian was with out even knowing and I wish that you would of had someone other than him. As a instructor that deals with the same issues ever single day: Air tanks bubbling a little, people thinking they need to dive with a million pounds of weight, etc..... I gets tiring trying to explain the same things over and over again to people that won't listen and just yell at you.
In regards to the over crowded boats:
1) In the whole entire time I worked there I had over 20 people on my boat maybe three or four times and that was only because it was a whole entire group that came together and wanted to stay together. Now Divi does only have 5 boats and once in a while when head office over booked us we would rent another boat from another dive shop. I will say that head office doesn't look at the comfort of the divers while booking people they only look at the dollar signs and were a HUGE pain in our butts because of that. We had NO control over how many people they booked and they would fill that place until there was not another bed to be had. The word time to go for overcrowding is in July, Aug and sometimes June. I remember in September running one boat for a whole week with only one person on it.
2) For the most part, you would lose a majority of divers to the bar and beach for the afternoon dives so that is why they would combine boats. The staff takes care of the gear onboard. They rinse it and hang it in the gear sheds and then bring over the new gear and set it up for the divers. The divers gear bags all sit right under their gear so there is no confusion. The only time the gear would be left onboard would be if it was a group that was staying on that boat for the whole entire week.
Life vests are not a thing that you really need on board a dive boat when you have your own hooked up to a tank already. If the boat was going down or there was something wrong I think that I would grab my gear that has air attached. At least that is my take on that subject. (please do not take this as a smart ass remark, just the oppionion of one person)
I want everyone to think about this for one moment. When you have a rocking boat full of 20 divers all trying to get their gear on and trying to get themselves into the water, there are way more accidents and law suits. ( I know that many of you are thinking that I have done it a thousand time with out falling over, but think of all those inexperienced and not so coordinated people out there) To avoid injuries and we decided to get people to sit at the back swim platform and allow us to bring the gear to them, put it on their back, help them stand and keep stable while getting in. We held on to each person and (this may sound bad) if someone was unstable and looked like they may fall we would gently nudge them towards the water. Better to hit the water then smack on the boat. We were very good about this when I was there making sure that if anyone was "needing" to get off the boat they were the first ones in. This also gave us a chance to turn peoples air on an double check that it is one before someone jumps in. You know how many times when people do buddy checks the buddy shuts off someones air. Then that person jumps in starts decending gets one or two breaths and FLIES back to the surface freaking out. This helps eliminate that as well.
All morning dives left at 8am and unless you did a bluff run or went to Little Cayman you got back between 12:30 and 1:00 and the afternoon boat left at 2:30. If you went to Little Cayman or did a bluff run you should be getting back around 1:30 or atleast that is what the Dive Masters are told to be back for. If they did get back late most of the time they would have a later afternoon departure. That is what we did when I was there. If Cliffy is still there cooking if we were not back by 1:30 he would head out to the dock and pace around looking for us to round the corner. Funny little man he was.
O'rings........... This is a topic that drives most Divemasters and instructors CRAZY. I have had people standing on the boat putting their ear down to the take LISTENING for the hissing sound. Trust me on this if you can not hear it when you are standing infront of it you are fine. DO NOT EVER put your ear there because if for some reason it does go your ear is going to be ringing for the rest of the week. Hang out by filling stations when they turn the air on because that is when they normally go. The noise scares the crap out of people and you get a good laugh. A lot of regulators are designed to give you a small stream of constant bubble, which will not even lose you a breath or two of air over the course of a whole dive. People should be told that I think when they are being trained as it would save them a lot of stress while they are diving. On the same note though if someone does feel uncomfortable with it they should not have someone telling them to dive anyway, that they will be fine because that person will be stressed through the whole dive and not enjoy anything. If you ever feel uncomfortable have it changed. It only takes two seconds and if someone says anything to you tell them to screw off as you are the one that has to breath off of it and feel comfortable.
There are afternoon dives on Fridays, but Divi does abide by the rules written on all Padi dive slates. Flying after diving: You should wait a min of 12 hours after your last dive before fling and if you have done multiple dives over multiple days you should wait longer. On the old slates if you did multiple dives it used to make you wait 24 hours. Those are Padi standards that they will not break for fear of being sued if you get on the plane and bend yourself. If you are on Island air and leave on a later flight that is all you have to say and they have no problem with people going on the afternoon flight.
Holy cow that was really long winded..... All in all I still think that Divi is a pretty good Dive company in comparison to other places that I have worked through the caribbean. I am sorry to all of you who have had a bad experience and wish that I could change it, but I guess times change and so do places. I know that the Brac has beautiful diving and Brac Reef is Beautiful, with great boats and a incredible dive staff. They are truly first class. I would highly recommend them.
Thanks to anyone that took the time