My wife and I were just at SCC in late June. We’ve done three trips to LCBR (last one was January 2018, but reviews I’ve read since then suggest it’s pretty much unchanged).
I think it depends on what you care about and how much the cost differential means to you. The differences we noticed between the two places:
1) Flexible arrival/departure dates. LCBR made (in our view) the unfortunate decision to force Saturday to Saturday bookings. With SCC, we were able to arrive on a Monday and left the following Tuesday because that was what worked best for our schedules. Additionally, other people have had challenging travel experiences when trying to make it from Grand to Little (or vice versa) with all of their luggage during busy times. For us, this is a huge plus of SCC.
2) Nicer/bigger rooms. SCC has a few different types, so your mileage may vary depending on what room you pick. We stayed in one of the “deluxe king bungalows.” It had a nice sitting area with a couple of chairs and a coffee table and then a cute little napping/reading bed that was built into a window area. We also had a large private patio with a couple of chairs and, as the original review in this thread observed, an outdoor shower. LCBR rooms felt more motel-ish to me. Their beachfront rooms have balconies, but they’re not very big. Having the extra space at SCC was especially nice in late June when daytime temps were in the mid/upper 90s, but it would be less needed at other times of year when the temp/humidity is not as oppressive.
3) Smaller/more boutique vibe. SCC has only 14 rooms. LCBR has 40. There were a couple of small groups of 4-6 people at SCC while we were there, but no big dive shop groups that you often find at LCBR. That’s fewer people at meals, fewer people rinsing/hanging gear, fewer people queuing at the bar, etc. We were also celebrating an anniversary, so we appreciated the smaller feel.
In terms of how this impacts the diving experience, it’s a bit of a mixed bag in my opinion. SCC has two boats. When we first arrived, the older of the two was out of commission and so they took out around 14 people on the newer boat. That was a bit crowded. Once they got the second boat fixed, they split it to be approximately 10 on one and 6 on the other. It was nice not having to share a site with lots of people, which is what I see as the main drawback to 18 divers on a boat, but SCC’s boats are not equal in terms of quality. The older one is a single engine and so you’ve got a longer commute out/back to the dive sites, which are already 30-40 minutes away. The exhaust also seemed to blow back into the seating area, which was unpleasant. Overall, I’d probably score this as a push.
One potential downside to the smaller size at SCC is that the third PM dive isn’t guaranteed. SCC requires 4 divers for the afternoon dive to happen. Even with 16 divers at the resort there were a couple of days where it didn’t happen because of lack of interest. There was no talk at all of a night dive (but we saw an LCBR boat head out at least one evening for a dusk/night dive). So if you’re hung ho on getting in as much diving as possible, that could be an important consideration.
4) Some platted dinners. As I think the original poster noted, there are buffets on three nights for dinner at SCC. The other four nights are all plated dinners. We thought two of them were very good, one was good, and the other was just okay. SCC does buffet only for all breakfasts and lunches. At SCC there were some good buffet days and some not so good days (cold cut sandwich station, running out of a protein at lunch). I don’t remember any bad buffet days at LCBR, but it was 5+ years ago. Overall, for us, a slight advantage to SCC here. Depends on how much you care about platted dinners.
Ultimately we were happy with SCC, glad we gave them a try, and would look to them first for the next time we return to Little Cayman — particularly if the Saturday/Saturday requirement would cause us to leave extra vacation days on the table.
