Grand Bahama Dive Packages

[rcasey]

1) We are looking to go to Grand Bahama for 5 days/4 nights and are trying to find a good all-inclusive type with diving. It's not necessary that the diving be included but I have been reading some of the dive packages in my Dive Training Catalog and they look great but want to stay somewhere where there are other things to do (pool, nightlife, activities...etc). Most of what I have read are either on a boat or some 2nd rate hotel from what I can tell.

2) Any idea how much I should spend? Flight is easy because AirTran goes there direct from here in Atlanta, GA.

3) When? We were thinking of going around April or May.

Broad questions I know and I am searching this site and reading other posts for answers. Anything you can add would be greately appreciated.

Ryan

 

[cakil]

Hi
We just spend the christmas in grand bahama doing nothing but diving...
We stayed at the bell channel inn, whih is right in port lucaya and dove with caribbean divers.

This was the best package deal and I tought that it was a very good price.
for 5 nights of staying and 4 days of diving total of 10 dives each, we paid around 750 or something like that for 2 people.
the hotel wasn't luxirious or anything but it was clean and had a fridge and had huge closets for the dive equipment..and it is close to all the restaurants aaround port lucaya marketplace. (10 min walk maybe)

The best thing about diving with caribbean divers is that they are 5 min way from the most dive sites that we were back at the hotel by 10.30 am after 2 morning dives!

check out our bahama photos at:

http://photos.yahoo.com/ekizoglu1

underwater pictures are the second album with a shark picture.

 

[bosstone75]

Hey,

We also just got back from a trip to the Grand Bahamas and we actually had the benifit of seeing two different dive shops in action. The first 2 dives we went on was through Grand Bahamas Scuba who did a great job. For Carribian Divers, my girlfriend and I were able to generate a list of about 15 things we thought they did wrong including....

1) They had 3 people doing certification dives along with 4 semi-skilled divers and they only had 2 personel on the boat. They both ended up diving with us which left no one on the boat and not a lot of assistance for the 3 cert divers and the 4 experienced divers. This would have been alright for the experienced divers if the dive master didn't expect us all to follow him. He kept banging on the back of his tank with a piece of metal the whole time.

2) They made us come up with about 2000 psi in our tank when they said we were supposed to come up with 500-1000.

3) They didn't have the right size equipment for either of us and the equipment they did give us didn't strap in properly and left much of our stuff dragging on the sea floor. There was also a leak in my girlfriend's inflator hose that I'm sure left her with less O2 then desired.

4) They didn't engage the customers in conversation much. Grand Bahamas Scuba was much better at this.

There were many other things that went wrong and I guess if you get a REALLY cheap deal it might be worth it... but it also might be worth your while to check out Grand Bahamas Scuba. They're a more privately run organization and focus more on scuba diving and less on getting people through.

Hope that helps,
Bill

 

[cakil]

Well,
I definitely agree with your comments Bill about the caribbean divers. Actually, We named him "**** Presley" after this. it was very cheap, but I could list another list here on what was wrong about them..

The diving was great, though. But I agree, you don't treat your customers like that ever! We were surprized by the way Presley talked to us or treated us in general. It was cheap and diving was great, adn we just thought we got what we paid for!!

If you want just cheap and goog diving (diving will be good if you are in grand bahama anyways) and don't expect great service, and expect "not friendly manners" you can go with caribbean divers.
We also did the shark feeding dive with Xanadu and thought their operation was very well run and people were friendly. The only thing is you can save about an hour each day by being close to the dive sites. with xanadu it took us 35 minutes to get to where presley got in 5 minutes.

my 2 cents..

 

[cakil]

I guess the nickname we used was in the "to be cencored list" anyways what I meant was the "german dictator"

Well,
I definitely agree with your comments Bill about the caribbean divers. Actually, We named him "**** Presley" after this. it was very cheap, but I could list another list here on what was wrong about them..

The diving was great, though. But I agree, you don't treat your customers like that ever! We were surprized by the way Presley talked to us or treated us in general. It was cheap and diving was great, adn we just thought we got what we paid for!!

If you want just cheap and goog diving (diving will be good if you are in grand bahama anyways) and don't expect great service, and expect "not friendly manners" you can go with caribbean divers.
We also did the shark feeding dive with Xanadu and thought their operation was very well run and people were friendly. The only thing is you can save about an hour each day by being close to the dive sites. with xanadu it took us 35 minutes to get to where presley got in 5 minutes.

my 2 cents..

 

[-=>Larry<=-]

My family & I just returned on Saturday [1/10] from spending a week - I'm still in the compose portion of a trip report.
The short version of it is that we had an EXCELLENT experience with GBS. [I can state a specific positive for GBS for each of bosstones negatives for Carribean]. Fred & Suzuki were great hosts and pretty much let us dive our dives within what I consider a very reasonable set of expectations.
I consider it WELL worth the few xtra $ over the cattle boat operations.

 

[Tavi]

Great operation, good folks.

I can't wait to go back!!

It's also nice if you can stay at Ocen Reef Yacht Club and Resort.

They have lots of tours and activities. Pool/bar Restaurants on site.
And Grand Bahama Scuba is right there. You can walk to the dive boat from your room.

If you stay elsewhere, arangements can be made to get there.

 

[munkispank]

I wanna go-s'not fair