BettyfromToronto
Contributor
Got back last weekend from a fabulous week`s vacation at Couples Negril. Couples is like Sandals is that there are no kids or singles...just couples. 
And also like Sandals..the diving is free. This is NOT our annual dive vacation but our vacation to be pampered but also get in some diving.
We did 2 dives per day (9:00 and 1:30pm) and weren`t sure at first if we`d like them split versus the normal 2 tank dives we are use to in the morning but it was really okay. We arrived around supper time on the Saturday after the dive shop had closed so we went down a bit earlier on Sunday morning and got a locker with key assigned to each of us. Great for storing your equipment for the entire week. Secure enough to leave everything including our prescription masks and even our dive computers. So nice not to have to carry anything back to your room every day. Even though you are supposed to sign-up one day in advance there was no problem taking us out on both dives that day. We then signed up each day for the next day for the rest of the week. There was another couple diving all week who are fairly new so the morning dive was never deeper than about 50-55 ft. We had as few as 3 on the boat and the most was 13.
So for the next five days we were up early for a light breakfast then diving from 9am to about 10:30 or 11am. We had to take out our equipment to the boat every morning minus the tanks. You walk out to what was supposed to be about waist depth but for us it was more like shoulder depth but no problem. After the morning dive we just left everything on the boat except our wetsuits (which we were wearing) and headed back in for lunch. We hung up our wetsuits on a rack outside the dive shop and then headed over to lunch at the beach grill in wet bathing suits and bare feet. Love that! After lunch was spent relaxing on the beach lounge chairs until about one. Then back out for the afternoon dive. We were usually back around 2:30pm and after rinsing everything and putting things away we went either to the beach again or the pool to relax until dinner time. We did this for 5 days for a total of 10 dives.
We weren`t going to dive on Friday as we wanted our gear to dry. (Trying to avoid more weight for the flight home) Then I got this great idea to do the morning dive using their equipment since it is all free.
5 new divers (3 American guys + a German couple) arrived the day before so it was the first time that we had 13 on the boat. A little crowded but the boat could handle it okay. 4 were OW and the rest of us AOW so they brought two DM and split us into two groups doing different sites. We actually got to 86 ft and it was a nice dive where I saw 3 turtles. Their equipment was pretty good but after having a BCD with the integrated weights I hated having 18lbs on my hips. :shocked2:
Couples offers a free resort course Mon-Fri consisting of pool session + one dive from about 8am-12noon. (You have to sign up the day ahead and it fills up fast) They then try to get you to buy the OW certification course. Alot of people did do this as it only took one more day. One thing I really liked was that these resort or certification dives were not done on our dives. They were taken out after we returned from the morning dive. They were never mixed with the certified divers until they were certified...which was one couple on the last day. (adding to the big count of 13)
The plan for our last afternoon was to walk the beach, play bocce ball and take out one of the catamarans. But it started to pour rain at lunchtime and it soon became a full fledged t-storm so all that was scrapped. We ended up spending our last afternoon relaxing in the beach grill talking to an interesting guy from Texas who we had dove with most of the week.
The diving was good but not great....but we expected that. We had a great time and are booked again for next September. In the meantime, we have had a change of plans and are not going to be visiting Hong Kong with a side dive trip to the Philippines so we have booked a week`s vacation at Scuba Club Cozumel. This will be our dive vacation for 2012 and we hope to get in about 16-17 dives in 5 days.
If you want a nice resort that includes free diving then I highly recommend Couples Negril.
And also like Sandals..the diving is free. This is NOT our annual dive vacation but our vacation to be pampered but also get in some diving.We did 2 dives per day (9:00 and 1:30pm) and weren`t sure at first if we`d like them split versus the normal 2 tank dives we are use to in the morning but it was really okay. We arrived around supper time on the Saturday after the dive shop had closed so we went down a bit earlier on Sunday morning and got a locker with key assigned to each of us. Great for storing your equipment for the entire week. Secure enough to leave everything including our prescription masks and even our dive computers. So nice not to have to carry anything back to your room every day. Even though you are supposed to sign-up one day in advance there was no problem taking us out on both dives that day. We then signed up each day for the next day for the rest of the week. There was another couple diving all week who are fairly new so the morning dive was never deeper than about 50-55 ft. We had as few as 3 on the boat and the most was 13.
So for the next five days we were up early for a light breakfast then diving from 9am to about 10:30 or 11am. We had to take out our equipment to the boat every morning minus the tanks. You walk out to what was supposed to be about waist depth but for us it was more like shoulder depth but no problem. After the morning dive we just left everything on the boat except our wetsuits (which we were wearing) and headed back in for lunch. We hung up our wetsuits on a rack outside the dive shop and then headed over to lunch at the beach grill in wet bathing suits and bare feet. Love that! After lunch was spent relaxing on the beach lounge chairs until about one. Then back out for the afternoon dive. We were usually back around 2:30pm and after rinsing everything and putting things away we went either to the beach again or the pool to relax until dinner time. We did this for 5 days for a total of 10 dives.
We weren`t going to dive on Friday as we wanted our gear to dry. (Trying to avoid more weight for the flight home) Then I got this great idea to do the morning dive using their equipment since it is all free.
5 new divers (3 American guys + a German couple) arrived the day before so it was the first time that we had 13 on the boat. A little crowded but the boat could handle it okay. 4 were OW and the rest of us AOW so they brought two DM and split us into two groups doing different sites. We actually got to 86 ft and it was a nice dive where I saw 3 turtles. Their equipment was pretty good but after having a BCD with the integrated weights I hated having 18lbs on my hips. :shocked2:
Couples offers a free resort course Mon-Fri consisting of pool session + one dive from about 8am-12noon. (You have to sign up the day ahead and it fills up fast) They then try to get you to buy the OW certification course. Alot of people did do this as it only took one more day. One thing I really liked was that these resort or certification dives were not done on our dives. They were taken out after we returned from the morning dive. They were never mixed with the certified divers until they were certified...which was one couple on the last day. (adding to the big count of 13)
The plan for our last afternoon was to walk the beach, play bocce ball and take out one of the catamarans. But it started to pour rain at lunchtime and it soon became a full fledged t-storm so all that was scrapped. We ended up spending our last afternoon relaxing in the beach grill talking to an interesting guy from Texas who we had dove with most of the week.
The diving was good but not great....but we expected that. We had a great time and are booked again for next September. In the meantime, we have had a change of plans and are not going to be visiting Hong Kong with a side dive trip to the Philippines so we have booked a week`s vacation at Scuba Club Cozumel. This will be our dive vacation for 2012 and we hope to get in about 16-17 dives in 5 days.
If you want a nice resort that includes free diving then I highly recommend Couples Negril.
