Its official...going to Brac Reef 5/12-19

[AggieDiver]

Thanks for the report NAIB. It sounds like not that much has changed since last time I was there. Any word on how harshly the dive profiles were enforced? My previous experience was that if you didn't push too hard and weren't making the whole group wait on you, they weren't very upset if the profiles got stretched a bit.

 

[NAIBdiver1]

We had no problem at all with the length of the dive. We were always first off/last on. Also we're into shooting videos and were off by ourselves 95% of the time with no hassle from the boat crew.

At first I was annoyed with the "Valet" diving, but actually that made more time for us to dive. By the time they did all the valet stuff for all the other divers returning to the boat, that made for quite abit of extra time for us in the water.

All of our dives were an hour +

Have a good time.

 

[caymaniac]

Okay, some differences between Divi and the Brac Reef:
. 1. At the Divi you could choose your dive boat/DMs. At the Brac Reef you get what they give you.
2. At the Divi you could choose your dive site from the ones that were listed on the boards. At the Brac Reef you get to dive where they decide.
3. At the Divi you could give suggestions on where the boat dive would go....you could ask for the Bluff area or go to Little Cayman nearly every day- $30 extra. At the Brac Reef they don't take dive site suggestions, you go where they decide, LC is once aweek if conditions allow.

Now that the Divi's closed you have a choice of Craig or Brac Reef. You know the prices at the Brac Reef, Craigs prices are : $150.00 for a two tank dive.

The Brac Reef does have good personal service, valet diving ect., -- their customer service is not there, dive sites ect.
I just returned last week from a 10 day trip to the Brac. The food was not as good as the Divi's, but it was still good. The dive conditions were rough for three days then calmed down to mirror smooth. Our longest dive 1:10, our shortest 48 min. Viz was good, from 60 to 100. The day we left, it looked abit windy again.

 

[divingjd]

I usually find Caymaniac's comments right on, but this time I have to disagree. We found the food at the Brac Reef better than at the Divi. Not a huge difference, but enough to notice. We got plenty of opportunity to choose/suggest dive sites. They generally (not always) asked where we wanted to go. We did not get to choose boats at the Divi, either. Both operations made boat assignments, but there was some flexibility if you asked about it. I really liked the Divi and was disappointed when it closed, but I liked the Brac Reef better.

 

[NAIBdiver1]

I really liked the boat and the crew that we were assigned to. They were among the best we've had at any resort and when we return, we'll request them for sure.

The food was outstanding - again better than any AI we've had anywhere ! and the service couldn't be beat. One night my gf wasn't feeling so good and the waitress made here a tray and delivered it to the room for her.

I wouldn't hesitate going back - maybe this winter.

 

[AggieDiver]

My only time at Divi was in 1995, and my only previous visit to Brac Reef was in 2001, so I really don't have a recent frame of reference on either one (which is why I asked). My impression from those two visits (and one to LCBR, Brac Reef's sister resort on LC) is that Divi may have been a bit more free with their boats and less rigid about who got on which boat, etc. But I think caymaniac may have had a bit of an extreme experience in terms of not getting any level of choice about where the boats go. My understanding is that some of the rigidity around destinations and dive profiles at Brac Reef is driven by the meal schedule, as they want all the boats back by a certain time and don't want to be serving lunch for 3-4 hours a day while boats come and go. I can understand that from an organizational point of view, but for a premium priced dive oriented resort, I would think that for 99% of their guests, the diving is more important than the meals. I know bluff runs and LC trips take longer and burn more fuel in the boat (which has a much bigger price tag now than in 1995), but I suspect that if you asked the dive shop management for the trip ahead of time instead of springing a request on the captain 5 mins before the boat leaves the dock, you would find Brac Reef nearly as willing to accomodate requests as Divi was. I know when we dove with Craig while he was working for Brac Reef, he was very open to accepting requests, as long as the conditions were conducive to them...meaning if there was likely to be alot of current or bad viz at the requested site, he was likely to say no and suggest an alternative. He even tried to get us to one of the off-shore seamounts, but when they took a vote on the boat, one of the divers was uncomfortable with a drift dive without being in sight of land, so we didn't go.

Either way, I will report back on how things go when we get back, and thanks for all of the input from everybody.

 

[caymaniac]

Hey Aggie, Vickie was driving the boat. Manny was the other DM on the boat. I asked for a number of different dive sites on the Brac, but Vicki always went where she wanted. There are some sites that are spectacular that are almost never dived. If you go, ask for a couple of sites that they might bulk at because they might have to use an anchor; "StingRay Tower" and the bouy to "Strawberry Wall" is off but is a spectacular spot. I have gone to the Brac about 12 or more times since 1989. I have been at the Brac Reef two of those times for a short time 1 to 3 days previous to going to the Divi timeshares and this time we stayed at Caribe Sands, all the other times I stayed at the Divi condos, three times at the Divi hotel. I think we had more current this year than anyother year and we have usaully gone near the first of April, once in Oct. and once in Sep. I had no problems with dive profiles or dive times. Brac Reef always took the time to help me with my camera gear and the valet diving portion of each trip. Why do you have to do night dives at Sgt. Major is beyond me, Tarpon reef is great as others were requested but guess where the boat went. There is great diving at Radar and Buchcaneer at night what's the deal? They might actually have to drive the boat to get there. There were no request for dive sites filled all week, I think there was a bit of PMS happening! The worst was going twice to Atlantis, in my view it's not a great dive site and not worth two trips! I hope you have better luck! I'll post some of my pictures latter.

 

[caymaniac]

 

[AggieDiver]

Thanks for the heads up. Is Vicki the same one who was a DM in 2001? Shorter blond that used to be a forensic psychologist in Ohio or something like that? If so, I could see that. Also might have had to do with the strong currents. I know they don't like to drift dive, and moored diving in currents with any inexperienced divers on the boat is asking for trouble. We did a night dive on the Tibbetts in 2001 and that was actually a pretty cool dive. I agree with you on the Atlantis site though...I am kind of hoping we can find a way to avoid it altogether as I have heard it is kind of cheesy. I can see them avoiding any sites where they would have to anchor on the basis of reef protection, but it also seems odd that they wouldn't honor any requests all week. Oh well, who knows the reason. I will let you know what we find out when we are there.

 

[BracReef]

Thank you to everyone for their comments and for those that have stayed with us in the past and those that were fortunate to get in on the 2-for-1 special!! If any past guest of Brac Reef's is interested in visiting again, please contact me for our repeat guest discount. Be sure to opt in on our website to receive our email specials.

If anyone has any questions regarding Cayman Brac, I will be sure to point them to this post! You all have pretty much summed it up for me! Should there be something is not covered, I will be more than happy to answer any questions.