stay/eat at LCBR - dive with conch club divers?

[yaml]

finally going to L.Cayman; very much like the looks of LCBR and heard about the good food; BUT also heard the LCBR boats were crowded while conch club usually had a max of about 12-15 divers AND always arrives at the dive sites ~30 minutes ahead of LCBR so has first pick; also, then, gets back to the pier after 2nd dive before LCBR; have also read about and been told (by my local DM) about "not so professional folks " at LCBR; i am sure it was an infrequent occurrence, but even once on a trip is too much; heard good things about conch club divers; CC divers handles all the gear so no hauling, etc. actually we are fairly spoiled and usually try to limit our boat to 8 divers when we travel, so the idea of diving with 20-25 of my "closest friends" on the same reef at the same time leaves us kind of cold; would also consider staying at the conch club condos but don't really want to cook and they (conch club) said that LCBR no longer lets the CC residents buy a "meal plan"; would appreciate any and all comments re: diving with LCBR and or conch club divers; any one stayed at LCBR and dove with conch club? thanks - there will be at least 6 of us possibly 8;

 

[AggieDiver]

Would get more traffic/answers posting this on the Cayman Islands forum, but here is what I can tell you. I have not dove with CC, but they operate from the same dock as LCBR. First, I have never been on a Reef Divers boat with more than 20 people. I have only been on one with more than 16 people maybe a couple of days out of 4 week long trips. They generally seem to have around 10-16 people, and the boats are plenty roomy such that it doesn't feel crowded with that many people onboard. As for the way the operations treat divers, they are the same. You will get the same valet service, the same kind of dive briefings, the same kind of care for your gear by the staff, etc. at either operation. The "getting to pick 1st" from the dive sites is really not a big deal. There are plenty of great dive sites on LC and you will generally get to dive whichever ones you want if you request them early in the week. They get there 30 minutes ahead, by leaving the dock 30 minutes earlier...which means getting up 30 minutes earlier in the morning. I am not a morning person, so I like the later departure. Keep in mind this isn't Cozumel, so you aren't talking about 20 boats competing for 10-15 prime dive sites...Even at peak times of the year, you will almost never see more than about 6-8 boats (usually fewer) with 30+ prime dive sites.

I guess my bottom line is that if I were staying at one of the condos, I could see diving with Conch Club, but I don't really see the point in staying at LCBR and diving with anybody besides Reef Divers. The two operations are so similar that without seeing the name on the front of the boat, you would be hard pressed to say which is which. The one thing I will add about Reef Divers is that they are generally running multiple boats. If you find yourself on a boat with a diver or divers you can't stand, you can ask to be moved to another boat and have a good chance of getting what you ask for. Conch Club only has one boat. So if you don't like who you are diving with, tough. Also, depending on who and how many are diving with Conch Club during the week, they sometimes don't go out in the afternoons...meaning you have to switch over to an RD boat for afternoon dives.