family 6 divers to Grand Cayman: Dive shop or private boat?

[Lopez116]

You should be aware that some ops cater to small groups because they have to - their boats are tiny. Others limit their load even though they have room for much more. The latter has been my experience with DNS for the last 5 years. Most divers I've been on a boat with is 7 others and that was an exception. Most of the time, it's 6 or less.

Also Cayman diving is much, much better than St. Thomas!

 

[Doctorfish]

Wall to Wall and DNS both limit divers per boat and use big boats. I'm sure there are other ops on GC with similar practice, but I don't personally know who they are.

I've been caught out by not booking early enough.

 

[mesulind]

Been going to GCM since the late 1980s. We have timeshare on East End as it is the BEST diving on the island. Always dive Ocean Frontiers. They limit number of clients on their boats and are top notch. They will also charter small groups. BTW, we usually have one or two weeks we do rent out for not much more than our maintenance fees. Feel free to contact me at mesulind@comcast.net for any info I can help you with!

 

[howswedeofme]

We just booked a Wednesday 3-tank dive with Ocean Frontiers because we have not dove the East End before. Happy to hear it's excellent diving, and a good dive op. We are going in January, so we won't be able to do the North Wall or Old Man Bay, but that just means we'll have to come back in the summer another time!

 

[phoenix31tt]

I can second ocean frontiers as a top notch dive op but their boats are bigger than say those over at SMB, but i must say this did not diminish the service received. It was less personal but the service was still excellent and professional.

If it's service you are worried about, i would not be worried going with a shop like ocean frontiers. If you are diving multiple days and want to do a new site ever dive or be able to have a greater voice in choosing your dive sites then booking through a shop that only carries 6 people per trip is fine (i dived with Deep Blue Divers and their boats are usually around that number, 6-8). There are shops that are more personal that you can charter but of course it will be more expensive and i'm not sure that you would be getting a particularly better experience

 

[scubadada]

There are a number of operators with small boats you could book with to go through a dive "shop." Quite a few don't actually have physical shops, though. We dove with Cayman 6 Pack Divers/Cayman Dive School two years ago (6-8 divers per boat) and had a very good experience, although I don't know what, if anything, has changed since then because they switched ownership and dive master staff since then. We are diving with Ambassador for at least part of our trip this coming January who also takes small groups (ask for Siggy as a DM - I think she is fantastic with all levels/ages of divers and why we are diving with Ambassador this trip!). Both C6P and Ambassador also do private charters (I'm assuming most would).

According to the website, Renee Knight still owns Cayman 6 Pack/Cayman Diving School Cayman 6 Pack Divers scuba diving specialists I have used Cayman 6 Pack several times with all 4 in the family and several times with just my son. Fantastic, flexible service. Both boats would be just perfect for a family of 6

 

[howswedeofme]

Per a close mutual friend, Renee sold the dive op earlier this year/late 2014. She's in real estate now: RENEE KNIGHT | Cayman Real Estate Agent | RE/MAX CAYMAN ISLANDS (beautiful picture, right?). She still DMs for the new owner though, I think. The website must not have been updated yet. I know they have two websites that had conflicting info when we went in 2014.

This time we're going with one of the DMs for our SMB boat dives that used to be at C6P because I know she'll make the beginner divers coming with us really comfortable. I agree that C6P is a great dive op, we had a wonderful time with them on our last trip and did a ton of diving with them.

 

[scubadada]

Per a close mutual friend, Renee sold the dive op earlier this year/late 2014. She's in real estate now: RENEE KNIGHT | Cayman Real Estate Agent | RE/MAX CAYMAN ISLANDS (beautiful picture, right?). She still DMs for the new owner though, I think. The website must not have been updated yet. I know they have two websites that had conflicting info when we went in 2014.

This time we're going with one of the DMs for our SMB boat dives that used to be at C6P because I know she'll make the beginner divers coming with us really comfortable. I agree that C6P is a great dive op, we had a wonderful time with them on our last trip and did a ton of diving with them.

Cayman Diving School Cayman Diving school also still has Renee as the owner. It would be great if the new owner would update the websites with current information. I would have to try the new Cayman 6 Pack before I endorsed it, Renee deserves much of the credit for my previous accolades.

There are many great operators on Cayman, I really like Wall to Wall, my last 2 visits were to Compass Point/Ocean Frontiers