Little cayman trip report

[Amanwithaphone]

Now I don't understand at all. I can't see why they would not have let you on the boat unless it was already full.
Did Sharon, the dive shop manager know you were standing there? I've always found her to be very reasonable.

She was. There were 3 of us who arrived then and wanted to dive. I flew in my rashguard and dive shorts since I knew it would be close, at best. Her concern was re: getting paperwork done, getting an orientation to the boat, etc. My sense was if we had spent the 10m we spent arguing on prep, we might have made the boat wo holding it up and someone could have oriented us on the ride. Maybe 5m delay, but seriously doubt more. I doubt it was full since we were all scheduled to dive that am. I realize this would've taken a lot of effort and I don't mean to say they had any obligation to do it. Nonetheless, it would've been much appreciated if they had. I know I've been with outfits who would've made it work (perhaps smaller operations, like living the dream on GC). Otoh, I've been w outfits I doubt would have done it (e.g. scuba club cozumel). Anyway, it was v frustrating. The travel there was awful (not their fault of course), and catching a break would've felt really great.

I would also mention that the reef divers valet service is v good (great crew!), but no different to what u get from living the dream and ocean frontiers on GC. Definitely better service than budget ops.

 

[Doctorfish]

Sharon must have been having a particularly lousy day to have been that inconsiderate. If you were standing at the dock in a bathing suit, gear in hand, they certainly could and should have let you on the boat, looked at your C cards and done the orientation during the half hour run out to Bloody Bay.

Reef Divers valet service includes picking gear up at your room, set up on the boat, detailed briefings, snacks between dives, towels, changing over tanks and rinsing at the end of each day. Ocean Frontiers, LTD and many others are certainly comparable, apart from not hauling your gear to the boat.

 

[keyshunter]

Please remember that there is more than one side to every story, and I suspect that Sharon's version would be a bit different. In my opinion, Sharon is the best dive manager who has been at LCBR and I have known all of them over the past 25+ years. I have never seen her do something inconsiderate of a guest regardless of the kind of day she was having.

 

[Amanwithaphone]

I'm not meaning to throw stones @ Sharon. I try not to judge too much based on 1 interaction. If u asked her, she might've found me uptight and pushy. If you asked 95% of the operators I've been out with, they would say I was considerate and easy. I'm recounting what I found to be a very frustrating experience. I did need to rent a bc and reg, but had the rest of my gear, mentioned I was happy to dive air, and was dressed in rashguard and shorts looking at my boat in the dock for close to 10m. That sucked. I've been on boats several times where a diver had transpo problems, and we waited 5 or 10m. I never minded this and don't even recall anyone else grumbling about it.
I guess the 2 take aways I would leave folks with are:
A- Little Cayman is a tough spot for a short visit. I would not try again for less than 6 days.
B. Reef divers is not a very flexible operation. This doesn't mean they suck and doesn't mean they're bad folks. But, if you're used to a smaller op, you might notice a difference.

 

[AdivingBel]

I would agree Reef Divers works in a shoebox. That's not a dig at RD. In order to provide the type of service at the level they provide it, I don't know how else they would do it. For 90+% of the situations they encounter they are excellent. I dived with them at CBBR a couple years ago with the SB Surge. The Surge did their usual boat rotations so everybody got to dive with everybody. That's not how RD works. It was a pain in the a$$ for them given how they usually do things and if that was the only interaction I had with them, I wouldn't have been impressed. However I had dived with them at LCBR on multiple occasions with excellent results and could see how they were struggling to meet SBs needs. Given that they provide very specialized service in a very "controlled" environment, IMHO, it's unrealistic to compare them to a standard day boat. That said, sorry your trip didn't work out as planned (that's always a bummer). I hope you have a chance to try LCBR again in the future when you have at least a full week to enjoy the diving. IMHO, Bloody Bay Marine Park is some of the finest diving in the Caribbean and LCBR is one of my favorite places. Good luck & safe diving. All IMHO, YMMV.

 

[ReadyDiverOne]

I'm with @keyshunter and others on this: I've been to LCBR numerous times and think Sharon (and the Reef Divers and LCBR staff in general) is simply terrific--very hard to see her being anything less than super guest-friendly. For example, I went on a night dive once and, for a variety of reasons (including that there was a new DM who was not terribly familiar with the dive), it was a really poor dive. Several of us on the dive agreed that we would ask Sharon if she would not charge us for the dive but before we could even approach her she had heard from someone (maybe the DM driving the boat?) that we were unhappy and she immediately and enthusiastically said "this is not how we do things here, no charge, so sorry," etc. She could not have been more professional or considerate. In short, Sharon must have had a very good reason not to hold the boat for you (you do say that you hadn't gotten your rental equipment, etc., and that takes time).

And just FYI, at least from DC, LCBR is perfect for short trips; I've done multiple 4-5 night weekend trips there from DC and never had an issue. You can leave DCA and get to GCM by mid-day, leaving you the whole day to get over to Little. Yes, I know Cayman Airways has issues, but I've found them to try very hard to get you there. Once, I was the ONLY person on the flight over--they could easily have thought up some reason to cancel but they didn't.

My two cents.

 

[Doctorfish]

Don't get me wrong, I'm a Sharon fan as well; but in the way OP told the story originally, it seemed a bit unreasonable to leave him stranded. As more details start to unfold including the need for BC and reg rental, "a few minutes" delay is starting to sound a lot longer and explains why the OP was left behind.



As my friend the divorce lawyer says; there are actually 3 sides to every story, his, hers and the truth.