Grand Cayman East Side - Recomendations and Advice

[South Florida Steve]

Heartfelt thanks to all who chimed in! The advice is welcomed and well put and will be taken to heart.

 

[Damselfish]

I tried White Sand once. They were not a first class operation at the time.

Curious, when did you use White Sands, was it recently or a few years ago? Their website early on definitely looked more like a general watersports operation with diving maybe available as an afterthought. - didn't look remotely like any kind of serious dive operation. I looked at their website recently and there is much more information about diving, not that that was hard. Wondering if they are getting more serious about diving of late, or just more serious about the website. I personally will stick with OF, but I'd wondered if it was worth going out with WS once if it was convenient, just to check it out.

 

[Joneill]

Curious, when did you use White Sands, was it recently or a few years ago? Their website early on definitely looked more like a general watersports operation with diving maybe available as an afterthought. - didn't look remotely like any kind of serious dive operation. I looked at their website recently and there is much more information about diving, not that that was hard. Wondering if they are getting more serious about diving of late, or just more serious about the website. I personally will stick with OF, but I'd wondered if it was worth going out with WS once if it was convenient, just to check it out.

I'd guess it's more about the website - OF is impossible to beat for serious scuba in Grand Cayman (at the very least, on East End). What is interesting is that White Sand comes up as # 1 and OF as # 2 for East End on TripAdvisor but it is because of how they group things as Scuba/Watersports/Tours/Outdoor Activities and don't capture Scuba as a separate category - a little misleading for those who don't understand this!

 

[releck97]

Curious, when did you use White Sands, was it recently or a few years ago? Their website early on definitely looked more like a general watersports operation with diving maybe available as an afterthought. - didn't look remotely like any kind of serious dive operation. I looked at their website recently and there is much more information about diving, not that that was hard. Wondering if they are getting more serious about diving of late, or just more serious about the website. I personally will stick with OF, but I'd wondered if it was worth going out with WS once if it was convenient, just to check it out.

It was about 3 years ago. Definitely a second-rate operation. Nice people, but too many issues. I would prefer to use an on-site operator, but we went back with OF for the remainder of our boat dives. Convenient? Yes. That's about it. We always avoided Tortuga/Red Sail because we were told that they ran their dives on strict schedules and did not give divers the opportunity to dive their computers.

 

[covediver]

Stayed at Compass Pointe/Ocean Frontiers last August. A first-rate operation all around.

I agree with the respondents description of the East End--spread out, a few restaurants, grocery, kind of isolated so rental cars are a necessity. You say you are with a large group of non-divers. I was with divers so I can't say what there is to do other than dive and eat, which is what we did. If you plan on diving Georgetown, either stingray city or the destroyer, the drive from the East End is a long one. Roundabouts are an interesting traffic control device.