traveltina
Guest
We got back last week from our 7 day trip to Grand Bahama Island. Here is my review...
CARIBBEAN DIVERS - We dove 4 days with Caribbean Divers. When I made the reservation with Caribbean Divers, I was told by the gal at the desk to call her when we arrived on the island. I wasnt able to call her until 5pm and they close at 4pm so we didnt know if we were going to dive the next day or not (very frustrating). I left a message and we decided to go to the dive shop at 7am the next day. The hotel by the dive shop (Bell Channel Inn) told us they would be there at 8 so we waited around. Around 8:30 she showed up and told us that the morning dives we had scheduled were now going to be afternoon dives that day. I wanted to pay her for 8 dives each, but she would only allow me to pay for 6, because there might be some weather problems. We found out that the only problems she was looking out for is if they didnt have enough divers to go out. I had scheduled 4 days of 2 tank morning dives, but we did all afternoon dives except for 1 day. We had to call her every night to find out when/if we would be diving the next day. We were told that they wouldnt take us out if there were only 2 of us - we barely got to dive the last day but some other divers called and booked at the last minute.
Other than the horrible administration of this dive operator we had a great time diving with them. Presley Knowles, the owner took us out on every dive. His nephew Jerry helped out on 3 of the 4 days we dove. On our first dive we descended to 6 or 7 Caribbean Reef and Black Tip sharks. Quite a rush especially for us since we were shark virgins! We saw sharks on 6 of the 8 dives we did with them. Presley took us to the same dive sight that UNEXSO and XANADU do their shark feeds at. In the morning there werent many sharks but when we went out at 1pm (1 hour before the 2pm UNEXSO feeding) the sharks were there ready to eat. We also saw huge Nassau Groupers, and Southern Rays. Presley told my husband that he doesnt take divers on wall dives because he doesnt want the risk. He also said he prefers to do resort courses over certifications because they are quick easy money. We dove with 10 resort course divers during the week.
Presleys boat was adequate. He had tank racks with bungies, but only a 5 gallon bucket for cameras. There was a open rung ladder to get out of the water but you had to climb over the back of the boat once you got up the ladder (or wait for Jerry to take your gear off for you).
I would not dive with Caribbean Divers again because we spent the week wondering if we were going to be able to dive the next day not what I wanted to be doing on my dive vacation.
If we go to Grand Bahama again we will try diving with Grand Bahama Scuba, recommended by Tavi from the Scuba Board. We didnt try them this trip because they were 20 min from our resort a drive that would have been well worth it I presume.
UNEXSO We scheduled the dolphin dive and the shark feed dive with UNEXSO both on the same day. For the dolphin dive we were loaded on to a 30 boat with about 6 other divers. Everything went well and the dive staff was friendly and helpful. We rode in our boat to another bay and then followed a little boat with the dolphin trainers out to the dive site. The dolphins were let out of their cages, and followed the trainers boat to the site. During the dive the dolphins went around the circle of divers, first they came over to us and allowed us to pet them. Next they brought a ring over to us, we took it, they went and got a fish from the trainer, then they took the ring from us and passed it to the next person. Third was the best, we stayed vertical, a few feet off the bottom with our right arm extended out to the side, shoulder joint locked, the dolphin came and put his nose in our hand and spun us around twice. Last the dolphins came and gave us a kiss, with our regulators out of our mouths. There were two dolphins, but we did each trick only once with one of the two dolphins. We debated for quite a while on whether to do the dolphin dive or not because it was $189 per person I have mixed feelings about whether it was worth it but it was a neat experience. My husband believes it was definitely worth it.
Before our morning dive, I watched as UNEXSOs catamaran loaded up with 25 divers for their 2 tank dive trip. We talked with a man who had done all of his diving with UNEXSO, he said that the staff was good but it was very crowded on the boat.
In the afternoon we went back to UNEXSO to do our shark feeding dive. This time we took the catamaran (huge boat), and we had 8 divers again. The catamaran has no place to put your tanks except under the bench seats. The shark feed was very exciting and well worth the $90 per person. All 8 divers were lined up on the bottom (about 45) on their knees, 2 safety divers wearing partial chain mail suits stood on both ends of the line, with a 4 piece of PVC pipe to push away any sharks that got too close. When the divers were situated, the videographer and the feeder came down in full chain mail ($9,000 suits I hear). I think there must have been more that 20 sharks there. The animals came as close as 2 feet from me, I was on the end and the safety diver was constantly pushing them away with his pipe. Very cool!
We bought both videos (dolphin and shark) for about $55 total. The videos were good, about 10 minutes each no bells and whistles, just some back-ground music. UNEXSO has a lot of apparel for sale, most of it very expensive. My husband bought a embroidered polo for $70.
CLUB VIVA FORTUNA - We got a great package through Yahoo Vacations for 7 nights at Club Viva Fortuna, Grand Bahama, including air from Omaha. Club Fortuna is an all-inclusive resort which includes all meals and bar drinks.
When we arrived at Viva Fortuna, we were checked in by a staff member who didnt seem very concerned with giving us any details. We received a room key and our TV remote, and went and dropped off our bags. We then had to make an additional trip to the front desk to get our safe key, this service is free of charge but the front desk didnt mention it. Later we had to make a 3rd trip to the front desk to give them a credit card number to be able to make local calls again not mentioned when we checked in. This staff member was consistent with the other staff members we encountered during the week lazy. However we got such a great deal that the lazy staff didnt really bother us.
When we first arrived were asked to meet with Beatrice for orientation. She gave us a sheet that says what time the meals are then tried to get us to sign up for a time share speal (90 min). We just told her we werent interested. A few other people tried to talk to us also but we told them we had already gone.
The food at the resort was very good. The food is served buffet style in the main dinning hall. For breakfast you can get a made to order omelet but it took at least 20 min every time. I think the omelet lady was only half there and moved slower than a snail. There was plenty on the breakfast buffet if you didnt want to wait on the her. Lunch always had pizza, burgers and hot dogs, along with varying buffet items. There was also a snack served from 4-6pm pizza, hotdogs, fruit and cookies. Their pizza was very good! Dinner again was various buffet items lots of Italian dishes we were craving something different by the end of the week. There was always plenty of fresh melon, oranges and pineapple at every meal. Also a nice salad bar for lunch and dinner. The food at the Italian sit-down restaurant was excellent the staff again was lazy however. The wine included with dinners was jug wine yuck! A bottle of wine at the Italian restaurant was $20 you could also purchase steak or lobster for an extra charge.
It appeared that the Bahamian staff at the resort werent giving the same privileges as the young Italians who worked various jobs during the day and performed in the shows at night. The Italians ate in the dining hall with the rest of the guest, and would sometimes bud in line in front of guests. We found most of them to be very rude they acted like we were interrupting their vacation. The Bahamian staff had to eat in a small building behind the kitchen. The bartenders were so-so. They received tips from many guests but didnt seem to favor them over non-tipping customers. All drinks are served in 8 oz. Cups which made for lots of trips to the bar.
Our room was clean and comfortable. The AC worked very well. The maid neglected to pick up a broken ceramic towel rack after we hung too much on it one night (who knew it couldnt handle 2 wet suits and 2 regulators?), which meant we had to be careful not to step on broken glass but again we got a great deal so who cares we wore shoes.
The beach at Viva Fortuna is awesome! White sand, and crystal blue waters. You can walk a mile or two in either direction on the beach. Plenty of beach chairs to go around also. The pool was nice also only one though. They closed down the pool to regular guests one evening for a party giving for a European tour operator. There were some very angry guests that night!
We decided to get a rental car for the entire week and we were very glad we did. Viva Fortuna is not within walking distance of anything. Without a car we would have gotten bored at the resort and the Taxi fares would have added up quickly. We rented from Brads Rental car for $280 for 7 days.
We didnt dive with Viva Fortunas dive shop because we figured it would be mostly resort course divers. From the looks of it that was not true. I am sure that we dove with more resort course divers on Caribbean Divers boat than Viva had all week. Viva Fortunas dive boat was about a 25 pontoon boat that looked like it was set up fairly well with tank racks. I would definitely try Vivas dive shop before I went to Caribbean Divers.
Overall we were impressed with the resort and the food, but not impressed with the staff. Still I would stay there again because it was a cheep and we had a great vacation despite the staff.
CARIBBEAN DIVERS - We dove 4 days with Caribbean Divers. When I made the reservation with Caribbean Divers, I was told by the gal at the desk to call her when we arrived on the island. I wasnt able to call her until 5pm and they close at 4pm so we didnt know if we were going to dive the next day or not (very frustrating). I left a message and we decided to go to the dive shop at 7am the next day. The hotel by the dive shop (Bell Channel Inn) told us they would be there at 8 so we waited around. Around 8:30 she showed up and told us that the morning dives we had scheduled were now going to be afternoon dives that day. I wanted to pay her for 8 dives each, but she would only allow me to pay for 6, because there might be some weather problems. We found out that the only problems she was looking out for is if they didnt have enough divers to go out. I had scheduled 4 days of 2 tank morning dives, but we did all afternoon dives except for 1 day. We had to call her every night to find out when/if we would be diving the next day. We were told that they wouldnt take us out if there were only 2 of us - we barely got to dive the last day but some other divers called and booked at the last minute.
Other than the horrible administration of this dive operator we had a great time diving with them. Presley Knowles, the owner took us out on every dive. His nephew Jerry helped out on 3 of the 4 days we dove. On our first dive we descended to 6 or 7 Caribbean Reef and Black Tip sharks. Quite a rush especially for us since we were shark virgins! We saw sharks on 6 of the 8 dives we did with them. Presley took us to the same dive sight that UNEXSO and XANADU do their shark feeds at. In the morning there werent many sharks but when we went out at 1pm (1 hour before the 2pm UNEXSO feeding) the sharks were there ready to eat. We also saw huge Nassau Groupers, and Southern Rays. Presley told my husband that he doesnt take divers on wall dives because he doesnt want the risk. He also said he prefers to do resort courses over certifications because they are quick easy money. We dove with 10 resort course divers during the week.
Presleys boat was adequate. He had tank racks with bungies, but only a 5 gallon bucket for cameras. There was a open rung ladder to get out of the water but you had to climb over the back of the boat once you got up the ladder (or wait for Jerry to take your gear off for you).
I would not dive with Caribbean Divers again because we spent the week wondering if we were going to be able to dive the next day not what I wanted to be doing on my dive vacation.
If we go to Grand Bahama again we will try diving with Grand Bahama Scuba, recommended by Tavi from the Scuba Board. We didnt try them this trip because they were 20 min from our resort a drive that would have been well worth it I presume.
UNEXSO We scheduled the dolphin dive and the shark feed dive with UNEXSO both on the same day. For the dolphin dive we were loaded on to a 30 boat with about 6 other divers. Everything went well and the dive staff was friendly and helpful. We rode in our boat to another bay and then followed a little boat with the dolphin trainers out to the dive site. The dolphins were let out of their cages, and followed the trainers boat to the site. During the dive the dolphins went around the circle of divers, first they came over to us and allowed us to pet them. Next they brought a ring over to us, we took it, they went and got a fish from the trainer, then they took the ring from us and passed it to the next person. Third was the best, we stayed vertical, a few feet off the bottom with our right arm extended out to the side, shoulder joint locked, the dolphin came and put his nose in our hand and spun us around twice. Last the dolphins came and gave us a kiss, with our regulators out of our mouths. There were two dolphins, but we did each trick only once with one of the two dolphins. We debated for quite a while on whether to do the dolphin dive or not because it was $189 per person I have mixed feelings about whether it was worth it but it was a neat experience. My husband believes it was definitely worth it.
Before our morning dive, I watched as UNEXSOs catamaran loaded up with 25 divers for their 2 tank dive trip. We talked with a man who had done all of his diving with UNEXSO, he said that the staff was good but it was very crowded on the boat.
In the afternoon we went back to UNEXSO to do our shark feeding dive. This time we took the catamaran (huge boat), and we had 8 divers again. The catamaran has no place to put your tanks except under the bench seats. The shark feed was very exciting and well worth the $90 per person. All 8 divers were lined up on the bottom (about 45) on their knees, 2 safety divers wearing partial chain mail suits stood on both ends of the line, with a 4 piece of PVC pipe to push away any sharks that got too close. When the divers were situated, the videographer and the feeder came down in full chain mail ($9,000 suits I hear). I think there must have been more that 20 sharks there. The animals came as close as 2 feet from me, I was on the end and the safety diver was constantly pushing them away with his pipe. Very cool!
We bought both videos (dolphin and shark) for about $55 total. The videos were good, about 10 minutes each no bells and whistles, just some back-ground music. UNEXSO has a lot of apparel for sale, most of it very expensive. My husband bought a embroidered polo for $70.
CLUB VIVA FORTUNA - We got a great package through Yahoo Vacations for 7 nights at Club Viva Fortuna, Grand Bahama, including air from Omaha. Club Fortuna is an all-inclusive resort which includes all meals and bar drinks.
When we arrived at Viva Fortuna, we were checked in by a staff member who didnt seem very concerned with giving us any details. We received a room key and our TV remote, and went and dropped off our bags. We then had to make an additional trip to the front desk to get our safe key, this service is free of charge but the front desk didnt mention it. Later we had to make a 3rd trip to the front desk to give them a credit card number to be able to make local calls again not mentioned when we checked in. This staff member was consistent with the other staff members we encountered during the week lazy. However we got such a great deal that the lazy staff didnt really bother us.
When we first arrived were asked to meet with Beatrice for orientation. She gave us a sheet that says what time the meals are then tried to get us to sign up for a time share speal (90 min). We just told her we werent interested. A few other people tried to talk to us also but we told them we had already gone.
The food at the resort was very good. The food is served buffet style in the main dinning hall. For breakfast you can get a made to order omelet but it took at least 20 min every time. I think the omelet lady was only half there and moved slower than a snail. There was plenty on the breakfast buffet if you didnt want to wait on the her. Lunch always had pizza, burgers and hot dogs, along with varying buffet items. There was also a snack served from 4-6pm pizza, hotdogs, fruit and cookies. Their pizza was very good! Dinner again was various buffet items lots of Italian dishes we were craving something different by the end of the week. There was always plenty of fresh melon, oranges and pineapple at every meal. Also a nice salad bar for lunch and dinner. The food at the Italian sit-down restaurant was excellent the staff again was lazy however. The wine included with dinners was jug wine yuck! A bottle of wine at the Italian restaurant was $20 you could also purchase steak or lobster for an extra charge.
It appeared that the Bahamian staff at the resort werent giving the same privileges as the young Italians who worked various jobs during the day and performed in the shows at night. The Italians ate in the dining hall with the rest of the guest, and would sometimes bud in line in front of guests. We found most of them to be very rude they acted like we were interrupting their vacation. The Bahamian staff had to eat in a small building behind the kitchen. The bartenders were so-so. They received tips from many guests but didnt seem to favor them over non-tipping customers. All drinks are served in 8 oz. Cups which made for lots of trips to the bar.
Our room was clean and comfortable. The AC worked very well. The maid neglected to pick up a broken ceramic towel rack after we hung too much on it one night (who knew it couldnt handle 2 wet suits and 2 regulators?), which meant we had to be careful not to step on broken glass but again we got a great deal so who cares we wore shoes.
The beach at Viva Fortuna is awesome! White sand, and crystal blue waters. You can walk a mile or two in either direction on the beach. Plenty of beach chairs to go around also. The pool was nice also only one though. They closed down the pool to regular guests one evening for a party giving for a European tour operator. There were some very angry guests that night!
We decided to get a rental car for the entire week and we were very glad we did. Viva Fortuna is not within walking distance of anything. Without a car we would have gotten bored at the resort and the Taxi fares would have added up quickly. We rented from Brads Rental car for $280 for 7 days.
We didnt dive with Viva Fortunas dive shop because we figured it would be mostly resort course divers. From the looks of it that was not true. I am sure that we dove with more resort course divers on Caribbean Divers boat than Viva had all week. Viva Fortunas dive boat was about a 25 pontoon boat that looked like it was set up fairly well with tank racks. I would definitely try Vivas dive shop before I went to Caribbean Divers.
Overall we were impressed with the resort and the food, but not impressed with the staff. Still I would stay there again because it was a cheep and we had a great vacation despite the staff.
