Jamaica in January

[skierjp]

I'm new to the site. Thanks for the good info.

We will be going to Sandals Whitehouse in mid-January. This will be our 2nd visit to Sandals. Absolutely the best vacation we've had so we are looking forward to the Sandals treatment. The diving was average in 2009 off Negril. We don't expect great diving but hope to have warm water. Is there a website for water temps? Thanks

 

[SeaSoulSelf]

skierjp: I found these links:

NDBC - Caribbean Sea Recent Marine Data

Marine Forecast : Weather Underground

Hope that helps!

 

[skierjp]

Returned from Jamaica yesterday. Weather was great. The diving was good with water temp between 79 and 82. The Sandals Whitehouse crew was excellent. Its time to start planning for the next trip and will welcome any recommendations. The all inclusive, couples only resort is definitely the top choice for us.

 

[SeaSoulSelf]

Thanks Skierjp for the review.... We had heard some good things about SWH, but we stick with Couples Negril for the same reason (couples/AI/included diving).

Another alternative is Sandals St. Lucia -- have some friends that repeat there quite a bit. We have made great friends at CN, so we make that an annual trip. We know another couple who did Sandals Bahamas, but they didn't care for it only because they were not allowed to do any advanced dives due to the number of OW divers in the group.

Happy Diving....

 

[ibj40]

We just got back from a week in Negril last week...hadn't been there for 26 years.
Water temp was 80F and it was sunny w/air temp around 80F also

The diving was decent, not spectacular ...the deeper you go the fewer fish.
Couldn't convince the crew to do more shallow dives <arg>, nor do the wall dive

The coral and sponges are fine and growing nicely, but there is a lack of decent sized fish
except for lion fish ... a guest DM was spearing about a dozen per dive.
Did not see a single French Angel, nor decent sized parrot, nor any large groupers....not in 6 dives ..
saw one small turtle, two eagle rays and a couple of large lobster, and one nurse shark in a cave ...that is for a full week! not as I remembered it!

the typical schools of grunts and sergeant majors,etc were only when snorkeling the shallows

Will be going back to Riviera Maya next year, where just from shore snorkeling we saw turtles , rays, and many more fish every day.

BTW, Negril is on the sheltered south west side of Jamaica with the wind comes from shore ...the new Grande Paladium is on the North side where the wind blows from offshore daily ...heard from another traveler that boat was only able to go out one day out of a week stay, whereas we lost only one day when a front came through.

Stew Corman from sunny Endicott

May I ask where you stayed and who you dove with?

Thanks!

 

[RDRINK25]

Just returned from Sandals Negril for 2 days of diving. Water was a nice 82f only dived with the Sandals dive shop. At Sandals they will take you out 2 times a day 1 deep dive followed by a shallow dive where all the resort divers are taken. I was able to convince the op to let us do a deep dive as our first by showing our recent logs and AOW card. The DM's where fun and a blast to dive with. Like everywhere else Lionfish have taken OVER!!! We did get in with a baby dolphin and say a large spotted eagle ray on 1 of the deep dives. The reef seams very active with smaller fish and all in all we would go back! Here are a few pictures!

 

[bluewatertoy]

We just returned from our week vacation at the Grand Palladium. We did 2 days of diving with the on site dive operator. The diving was pretty much what we had expected with the research that I had done previously. There was a huge lack of marine life on the reefs we dove along the coast in front of our hotel. We saw one nurse shark, and a couple of spotted eels. We had dives in the 40-65 Ft. range. The reefs themselves were in decent condition with some amazing structure to some of them, with huge canyon type formations. As far as the lack of marine life goes, if they would get rid of, or police the fish cages, I am sure the reef and fish life would be spectacular in a few years.