Dominica, yes-no-maybe ??

[pelan-pelan]

Expect to be in Dominica next summer - based on what I've read here am looking forward to it. Many thanks for all the information.

 

[pilot fish]

We have a dive shop in Tampa sponcering a trip to Dominica. It is not all inclusive for the food though. What is the typical lunch and dinner cost at FT Young resort?
Just wondering if the 280 added for inclusive per person is well worth it.
Email energizedbunnny@aol.com if you dont mind.

Thanks

Yes, go for the meal plan because there is not a lot of choice in restaurants in town if you do not and paying as you go is more expensive at the hotel. We stayed at the Fort Young May 04 and had only the breakfast plan but ate at the hotel for dinner each night. Are you talking about $280 for 3 meals for 7 nights?

 

[pilot fish]

We are going in the summer. Have been speaking to people who have been to Dominica and found out:-

Three hotels in a row - Castle Comfort, Anchorage and Evergreen CC and Anch have dive operations. They share same house reef. Apparently not v spectacular - but it is difficult to tell with house reefs. If you're prepared to hang and wait you can see amazing things on a dull bit of reef - on the other hand you can get very bored!

Spoke to a couple who had stayed at Anchorage and they had enjoyed and would go back. Someone else said something about cruise boats and people from the cruises filling up the dive boats at Castle Comfort - and possibly other dive operations. But the dive operation at CC has been recommended by others.

And the inland hiking etc has been much recommended.

The only other thing that might be of slight interest is that people who travel to and from Dominica a lot have a strong preference for via Barbados airport rather than via Antigua airport.

How would you rate the Evergreen compared to the Castle Comfort?

Was told that Dive Dominica does not mix crusie ships "divers" with divers at Castle Comfort

 

[pilot fish]

Hi,
I have been to Dominica 3 times, once to hike and twice to dive. For diving I stayed once at Castle comfort and once at Fort Young, both times diving with dive dominica which is the dive shop for castle comfort. I think its a great island, the scenary is amazing and the people very friendly. Dive dominica is a great outfit they have 3 boats of different sizes and if you are diving with them you will generally be on the same boat with the same divers every day. Generally the cruise ship people go on a different boat. If you stay at castle comfort you can dive off their dock its OK there are a few fish and graden eels its not amazing but a good way to spend an hour.

The diving in Dominica is good there are loads of dive sites last trip I did 12 dives at 12 different sites. Frog fish , sea horses, eagle rays, turtles and a lot of fish. On the way back from one of the dives 2 dolphins played around the dive boat and even though it was time out of their day the boat crew stopped the boat and let us watch them for a few minutes until they swam off.

I hope this helps
Doug

I, too, stayed at Fort Young once and Castle Comfort once. The Fort Young was comfortable and close to town but no shore diving. Castle Comfort was bare bones, no frills, OK shore diving. I call Castle Comfort a Motel 6 with a dive op and ocean view.

 

[pelan-pelan]

How would you rate the Evergreen compared to the Castle Comfort?

Was told that Dive Dominica does not mix crusie ships "divers" with divers at Castle Comfort

I can only repeat what I was told. As a place to stay it seems more refined, secluded, possibly even romantic. They do not have their own dive operation but are right next door to CC or Anchorage. The person I spoke to would happily stay there.
He reckoned the comfort level was higher than Anchorage, it was a hotel rather than a dive lodge. But I don't know if it has a pool. It has a web site.

Good news about Dive Dominica. I was having trouble reconciling the good reviews of small numbers professional service with also the fact that they deal with the Cruise ship parties. Now I can see that both can be true.

 

[pilot fish]

I can only repeat what I was told. As a place to stay it seems more refined, secluded, possibly even romantic. They do not have their own dive operation but are right next door to CC or Anchorage. The person I spoke to would happily stay there.
He reckoned the comfort level was higher than Anchorage, it was a hotel rather than a dive lodge. But I don't know if it has a pool. It has a web site.

Good news about Dive Dominica. I was having trouble reconciling the good reviews of small numbers professional service with also the fact that they deal with the Cruise ship parties. Now I can see that both can be true.

I saw the Evergreen from the Castle C, they are next door, and was wondering if anyone has stayed there and how they would rate it. It looked nicer than the CC.Yes they have a small pool.

I asked about the crusise ships at CC when I stayed there and was told by the Dive D staff that they never mix the groups. They do mix divers staying at CC with diver guests at Fort Young but it's not too bad at all.

Domininca is very good, easy diving and is every bit as good as Bonaire. Domininca is a prettier island but has no night life, which I think is a plus

 

[tahitisweeti]

We are going on a Radisson cruise in Feb and are interested in setting up our own diving. As noted in these posts and with our past experience the 'cruise ship' diver tend to get hurded onto high capacity boats. Anyone have recommendations on ops that might pick us up at the boat and be flexible with times?

 

[BurBunny]

Nature Island Divers has been really good about setting up transportation to get me to and from the ship to their shop. While they do often have cruise ship excursions, Dive Dominica seems to have the dive concession with the ships, so you're not on cattle boats of other cruise ship divers.

 

[DougY]

Hi,
Regarding Dive Dominica mixing cruise ship divers with hotel divers. What happened both times I was there was that you went on the same boat every day with the same people, this meant it was easier for them to work out who had been to which dive sites. They generally had two boats out ever day. When cruise ship divers arrived they generally went on a boat together unless there were only one or two in whoch case they went with some of the hotel divers. However it does not matter much as they do not force you all to come up together.

Regarding running cruise cattle boats, I have never seen that at Dive Dominica when there was a cruise ship in they would put another boat on and it had no more people than the hotel boat.

I hope this helps
Doug

 

[Acrodog]

Just a bump - would love to hear more about Dominica and places folks would recommend staying.