Generic Little Cayman Beach Resort
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AggieDiver
Contributor
It is possible to shore dive LC. I think he was saying there isn't shore diving in front of LCBR. Someody was talking about people blocking the shore dive entry at LCBR, and I think that was where the confusion came from.
Doctorfish
Contributor
There is good shore diving on the North Side and I've dived Jackson's wall from shore several times when the wind was blowing from the south too hard for the boats to get out of the cut. Reef Divers was happy to give us tanks and advice, and in fact organized shore dives for our group, provided a van and a divemaster when they could not get a boat out. The entry is from a beach and the swim to the wall is only about 50 meters. I'm sure there are other easy entry points on Bloody bay but I have not personally used them. I've seen people on the beach up near Bus stop and Coconut walk so I assume you can get there by car and then it would be a short surface swim to bloody Bay wall. I would use a float and flag if diving this area from shore as there can be a lot of boat traffic.
There is no shore diving in front of LCBR as the water is very shallow and the long swim out to and through the cut would be dangerous. Same goes for Pirates and Southern Cross. Sam McCoys is on the North near the West end of the marine park so you should be able to access Bloody Bay wall from their dock. Don't think they still run a dive op so you would need to bring tanks and ask permission. The wall dends to be a little deeper down this way so I would favor access further East where the drop off starts much shallower.
There is no shore diving in front of LCBR as the water is very shallow and the long swim out to and through the cut would be dangerous. Same goes for Pirates and Southern Cross. Sam McCoys is on the North near the West end of the marine park so you should be able to access Bloody Bay wall from their dock. Don't think they still run a dive op so you would need to bring tanks and ask permission. The wall dends to be a little deeper down this way so I would favor access further East where the drop off starts much shallower.
carriemak
Contributor
I have been to Little Cayman Beach Resort at least 15 times, both with groups and without. When with a group we always ask singles if they want to join us. Some do, some don't. The LCBR you describe is far different than anything I have ever experienced. I am on a gluten free diet and the chefs always ensure I have something delicious for every meal. All of the staff is very friendly. Reef Divers goes out of its way to make sure you have a great dive. I can't say enough good things about Little Cayman Beach Resort and Reef Divers. Sorry you had such a disappointing time.
DiverCarlos
Registered
Hi PartyStar,
I too just returned from a week at Little Cayman Beach Resort. I agree with you and I will not go back. Very overpriced, under valued, disappointing, and yes, boring . Diving is ok mostly due to good visibility, but BORING compared to most places in the Pacific like Indonesia and the Philippines. I found myself "manufacturing" photo ops, after taking too many pictures of just groupers. What happened to the sea horses, octopus, and other interesting critters that I remembered from years ago in the Caymans? There was a noticeable lack of fish and way more lionfish then the dive staff claims they see. Diving was cattle boat style and we repeated dives to the same sites, mostly by request because other sites were just plain boring.
On a positive note, I did find that Alex and Will worked hard to make diving as safe and enjoyable as possible, but some of the other dive staff need to be replaced.
As far as maintenance and hotel staff goes I had to ask six times for a item to be sent to my room, the air conditioner was clogged with dust/mold and had to be repaired three times during our week long stay, the door locked malfunctioned and had to be completely replaced, and the beach had bottles and debris on it all week and no one picked it up. I cleaned the beach on the last morning of my last stay while the maintenance crew looked on and managed to easily fill a large bag with trash.
The buffet food was decent, not great, but if you missed the limited meal windows then you had to eat at the bar and this was at an extra charge.
Bike and Kayak use was not included and it felt like we were constantly being nickeled and dimed for things that would be included at any other resort at this price point.
They did not offer three tank dive trips until we suggested it to them, they did not offer dawn dives, they did not offer two tank afternoon trips, and they only typically offer one night dive per week.
I have scratched Little Cayman off my list of dive locations and will just save my time and money for truly unique dive locations and properties.
I too just returned from a week at Little Cayman Beach Resort. I agree with you and I will not go back. Very overpriced, under valued, disappointing, and yes, boring . Diving is ok mostly due to good visibility, but BORING compared to most places in the Pacific like Indonesia and the Philippines. I found myself "manufacturing" photo ops, after taking too many pictures of just groupers. What happened to the sea horses, octopus, and other interesting critters that I remembered from years ago in the Caymans? There was a noticeable lack of fish and way more lionfish then the dive staff claims they see. Diving was cattle boat style and we repeated dives to the same sites, mostly by request because other sites were just plain boring.
On a positive note, I did find that Alex and Will worked hard to make diving as safe and enjoyable as possible, but some of the other dive staff need to be replaced.
As far as maintenance and hotel staff goes I had to ask six times for a item to be sent to my room, the air conditioner was clogged with dust/mold and had to be repaired three times during our week long stay, the door locked malfunctioned and had to be completely replaced, and the beach had bottles and debris on it all week and no one picked it up. I cleaned the beach on the last morning of my last stay while the maintenance crew looked on and managed to easily fill a large bag with trash.
The buffet food was decent, not great, but if you missed the limited meal windows then you had to eat at the bar and this was at an extra charge.
Bike and Kayak use was not included and it felt like we were constantly being nickeled and dimed for things that would be included at any other resort at this price point.
They did not offer three tank dive trips until we suggested it to them, they did not offer dawn dives, they did not offer two tank afternoon trips, and they only typically offer one night dive per week.
I have scratched Little Cayman off my list of dive locations and will just save my time and money for truly unique dive locations and properties.
drrich2
Contributor
Diver Carlos:
Read your post and wanted to follow up a couple of things you mentioned.
I've never been to Indonesia or the Philippines. Some who have and post on this forum indicate the Caribbean does not compare well with those places. So this would not necessarily be a problem with LCBR, or even Little Cayman, for those who are happy with Caribbean diving.
I wonder to what extent location factors into price point, though. The scuba diving resort 'industry' is competitive and often low margin. If LCBR were grossly overcharging & under-providing for their location, I imagine someone would out-compete them soon.
It's like housing. The house that costs $200,000 in southwestern KY might cost a million in parts of California.
It may be that part of the cost of LCBR has to do with being on a tropical resort in coastal Little Cayman.
I'm not debating your experience, just commenting with some ideas from perhaps a different perspective.
Richard.
Read your post and wanted to follow up a couple of things you mentioned.
I've never been to Indonesia or the Philippines. Some who have and post on this forum indicate the Caribbean does not compare well with those places. So this would not necessarily be a problem with LCBR, or even Little Cayman, for those who are happy with Caribbean diving.
I wonder to what extent location factors into price point, though. The scuba diving resort 'industry' is competitive and often low margin. If LCBR were grossly overcharging & under-providing for their location, I imagine someone would out-compete them soon.
It's like housing. The house that costs $200,000 in southwestern KY might cost a million in parts of California.
It may be that part of the cost of LCBR has to do with being on a tropical resort in coastal Little Cayman.
I'm not debating your experience, just commenting with some ideas from perhaps a different perspective.
Richard.
Mike
Contributor
I have to admit I've had LCBR on my dive list for awhile, and my expectations of the place are on the high side. I'm expecting the diving experience to be one of the best in the Caribbean, and I'm expecting the resort to be very, very pleasant, with great food, not good. My expectations are this way based on two things - 1) all the people who rave about the place 2) the relatively expensive prices to stay there and to get there. I firmly believe in you get what you pay for so therefore based on the pricing structure my expectations aren't out of line.
I don't think I'm alone in this thinking so it's kind of depressing now to see so many people trying to mitigate the OPs review by basically lowering expectations of the place down to nothing more than just another average dive centered hotel with okay diving. If that's the case then what really is the draw to going there? There sure seems to be some confliction on how everybody raves about it and in this thread everybody is lowering the bar on the place and making the OP sound like he's way out of line in his expectations.
I don't think I'm alone in this thinking so it's kind of depressing now to see so many people trying to mitigate the OPs review by basically lowering expectations of the place down to nothing more than just another average dive centered hotel with okay diving. If that's the case then what really is the draw to going there? There sure seems to be some confliction on how everybody raves about it and in this thread everybody is lowering the bar on the place and making the OP sound like he's way out of line in his expectations.
drrich2
Contributor
Mike:
I don't have an issue with some of the criticisms PattyStar and Diver Carlos raised; in fact, I believe negative criticism in reviews is important from time-to-time, precisely to avoid the situation you could've been set up for; a lot of hype = great expectations that the actual trip falls short of leading to disappointment. Some of what Carlos dealt with sounds bad, especially when paying a high price.
It does raise an interesting question (perhaps not to be delved into at length in this thread); how does a trip to LCBR stack up against, say, a trip to (pick your mid. level resort) Cozumel? Or CocoView Roatan? Obviously LCBR is more expensive, so why do people go there? Is it just to try something different? Because some say Little Cayman and Cayman Brac have better diving than Grand Cayman? Or is it a perception that LCBR is more 'upscale?'
If LCBR is seen as more upscale than mainstream dive resorts, why is that? Do they advertise as such, offer certain luxuries, or is it due to the price, or over-enthusiastic reviews?
Richard.
P.S.: If any of you guys spend any time at CruiseCritic.com reading cruise ship reviews, you'll see some of the same 'It was great! No, it was lousy!' debating over cruises & cruise lines, the food served, service, etc...
I don't have an issue with some of the criticisms PattyStar and Diver Carlos raised; in fact, I believe negative criticism in reviews is important from time-to-time, precisely to avoid the situation you could've been set up for; a lot of hype = great expectations that the actual trip falls short of leading to disappointment. Some of what Carlos dealt with sounds bad, especially when paying a high price.
It does raise an interesting question (perhaps not to be delved into at length in this thread); how does a trip to LCBR stack up against, say, a trip to (pick your mid. level resort) Cozumel? Or CocoView Roatan? Obviously LCBR is more expensive, so why do people go there? Is it just to try something different? Because some say Little Cayman and Cayman Brac have better diving than Grand Cayman? Or is it a perception that LCBR is more 'upscale?'
If LCBR is seen as more upscale than mainstream dive resorts, why is that? Do they advertise as such, offer certain luxuries, or is it due to the price, or over-enthusiastic reviews?
Richard.
P.S.: If any of you guys spend any time at CruiseCritic.com reading cruise ship reviews, you'll see some of the same 'It was great! No, it was lousy!' debating over cruises & cruise lines, the food served, service, etc...
ianr33
Contributor
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