Grand, Little, or Brac?

[carriemak]

I have to agree, I have never been a witness to the "dive nazi" attitude either, and we have been to LCBR 8 times and CBBR 3 times.
All the staff is fantastic, both at the dive shop and the resort.

 

[ronski101]

One of the reasons we like LC and Brac is their ability to maintain a schedule for both the diving and dining. Anyone who is habitually late is really selfishly stealing everyone elses vacation time and if the DM or Capt does not talk to them they are jeopardizing their tips at the end of the week which has never happened in the times we have been there because they have a vested interest as us divers do.

 

[jdcpa]

While one buddy team, first off and last in, is inconsiderate and all about me, I can live with that.

Where I have an issue with that behavior is with the second, third and even fourth buddy team trying to be first off and last in.

If I am last in and use my full 50/60 minute dive time and see eight to ten divers still in the water, that is too much.

All things in moderation is fine.

 

[AggieDiver]

My point wasn't really that you should maximize your dive time by always being the last out...my point was that if you want more dive time, get in the water early and then come up with the other divers. If all the divers come up roughly together, you can all maximize your bottom time without one buddy team making everybody wait by being 10 minutes behind everybody else. The DMs do have a schedule to try to keep, but if the whole group is on the boat on time in the morning and comes up generally around the same time at the end of each dive, they are not going to pull anybody aside and lecture them about dive times. It is only when one or more buddy teams repeatedly make the whole rest of the boat wait on them that they feel compelled to speak up about it.

 

[ronski101]

My problem is not with people taking a few extra minutes but with the herd of lemmings who all crowd around the ladders trying to get back on board at the same time. I just wait on the bottom until there is room rather than get bounced around waiting for a bunch of slow pokes.

 

[scubadada]

My son and I returned less than 2 weeks ago from a fantastic week on Little Cayman. We stayed at LCBR and dived with Reef Divers. This was our 1st visit to Little Cayman and was the best dive vacation we've had, and we've had some very good ones including many visits to Grand Cayman, and trips to Bonaire, Cozumel, Providenciales T&C, Costa Rica, Maui and Oahu, SE Florida and Key Largo... My apologies for the relatively provincial list but it's the best I've been able to do, so far.

We had a 2nd floor ocean room view that was fantastic. The cable TV service is not too great but no other complaints. The dining plan is absolutely fantastic. Meals are served buffet style over reasonable hours with incredible selections.

Reef Divers is incredibly well organized and very reliably delivers scheduled dives. We did all 3 scheduled dives each day except for the 1st day, when very significant winds and pounding rain precluded the afternoon dive. We did both night dives on Tues and Thur but did not do the twilight/dusk dive on Wed due to too few divers. We did travel over to Cayman Brac on Wed AM to dive the M/V Capt Keith Tibbets, a very good dive. On Thur we dived a great site called Tibbitt's Tops that has only been in place for about 3 months as part of the Cayman 365 plan.

Previous posts have mentioned possible draconian control by the Reef Divers DMs of dive times, this could not be further from the truth. My son and I were among the 1st divers in for each dive and were among the last divers out but never delayed departure. Our average dive time for dives was 64 minutes with a range of 53-68 minutes. There was no competition to get off the boat, at least partly due to the fact that we were with a very relaxed and friendly group of divers from a Raleigh, NC dive club called Gypsy Divers. Could we have dived longer, of course we could have. The tops of the walls are at 20-30 feet and both of us have SACs of a bit less than 0.4. This was a very good compromise to get in reasonable dive times but to also stay on schedule so that we could partake of the great meals and dive again later.

The second night dive of the week was the best night dive I've had from among about 30. We saw huge lobster, a prowling ocopus, a lineup of hermit crabs exchanging shells, a reef shark, and a huge school of squid among more mundane subjects.

On the only afternoon we had off, we toured the Little Cayman Marine Research Institute and the Iguana Preservation Project, both arranged by LCBR. We would have rode the provided bicycles if we wouldn't have been so busy diving or drinking at the great bar after diving.

So, I'm personally scheming on a return to Little Cayman, sooner than later.

Good diving, Craig

 

[diverrex]

My son and I returned less than 2 weeks ago from a fantastic week on Little Cayman. We stayed at LCBR and dived with Reef Divers. This was our 1st visit to Little Cayman and was the best dive vacation we've had, and we've had some very good ones including many visits to Grand Cayman, and trips to Bonaire, Cozumel, Providenciales T&C, Costa Rica, Maui and Oahu, SE Florida and Key Largo... My apologies for the relatively provincial list but it's the best I've been able to do, so far.


So, I'm personally scheming on a return to Little Cayman, sooner than later.

Good diving, Craig

We went to Grand Cayman last October and were disappointed with the lack of fish life. We just got back from Bonaire two weeks ago and were very pleased with the diviving and fish life. We've also been to Cozumel which we think has more fish than Bonaire. How does LC compare with Bonaire and Cozumel for fish life? We've been eyeing either Cayman Brac or Little Cayman for a future trip but our trip to Grand Cayaman has made us wonder.

 

[lulubelle]

There was no competition to get off the boat, at least partly due to the fact that we were with a very relaxed and friendly group of divers from a Raleigh, NC dive club called Gypsy Divers.

:giveusahug: Back at you Craig. I'd share a boat with you and your son anytime. That night dive was indeed one for the books.

 

[smokey braden]

diverrex,
we were in little cayman last month.
we dove bloody wall all week.
we saw the fish that we have seen in cozumel, bonaire, grande cayman, roatan and belize.
however, we saw all those fish in one week on one wall.
it was one stop shopping.
i think the word is variety.

 

[scubadada]

diverrex,
we were in little cayman last month.
we dove bloody wall all week.
we saw the fish that we have seen in cozumel, bonaire, grande cayman, roatan and belize.
however, we saw all those fish in one week on one wall.
it was one stop shopping.
i think the word is variety.

Smokey is right on. First of all, the Little Cayman walls are second to none, Grand Cayman, Turks and Caicos, Cozumel, Bonaire. The fish life is quite prolific and the variety is quite great. Many, many turtles, lots of lobster, and frequent huge Nassau Grouper. We saw about a dozen Reef Sharks including a group of 3 that stayed with us quite a while just over the wall at Nancy's Cup of Tea before we made the pinnacle. If sharks are your main goal, T&C is probably the better destinaton. Interestingly, eels were reasonably sparse with just a few spotted and green morays.

This is a great destination.

Best, Craig