cjames
Contributor
The particulars....
Flight: Austin to Cayman via Continental (used points)
Stayed at: Marriott Courtyard (used points)
Dove with: Divetech
Length of Stay: 7 days
This trip was designed around spring break in Texas. We had a total of 10 people in the group including 3 kids and my teenage son. All of us are frequent fliers on Continental, so that was a given and most of us are Marriott, hence the choice there.
We were to leave Austin around 11 AM and ended up because of weather missing our connection and getting moved to a Cayman Air flight. Thanks to the Continental folks because we were one of the few parties that got moved onto the flight, otherwise we would have missed two days of our vacation. To make the travel day even more interesting, Cayman Air's computers were down so they were handwriting tickets.
We made it to Cayman ok and to our amazement, all but 2 of our bags made it. One that didn't was my dive bag which was a bummer, but at least all of my camera gear got there. It took them 3 days to get my dive bag to me. Grrrr!
The Marriott Courtyard is a nice property for that class of hotel (one oriented to business travellers). The rooms were clean and have refrigerators (great for snacks for the kids). The staff was pleasant and very helpful. The only negative for the property is that they are across the street from the beach and the cruise ships dump buses of their people at it every day they are in port. So your nice, quaint beech suddenly has 500 people scurrying to get their allocated 3.4 hours of sun in before running back to the boat.
We dove with Divetech based on recommendations from this board and were very happy with the choice. They picked us up every day from the Courtyard and took us to the shop. The staff was very friendly and professional. Since my gear hadn't arrived on my first day of diving they gave me a day of rentals for free, which helped take the sting out of lost luggage. They were running two boats last week both pretty comfortable and neither with more than 14 divers at a time. They are a tech dive shop and there were usually folks diving CCR rigs. I'm definitely going to try one next time. I highly recommend Divetech and will dive again with them.
The diving was overall pretty good. The first day or two we were stuck on the west side of the island because of weather. The first couple of sites were fairly scoured from the hurricane and honestly I was a bit concerned. The second day however we hit some better sites including the wreck of the Oro Verde which is a nice spot. I met Cindy (can't remember her last name) who dives Cayman often and she showed me exactly where to find yellow jawfish with eggs. Bless her!!!
Later in the week the wind died down and we were able to get to the north side. My two favorite dives were Penny's Pinnacle and Blue Pinnacle. Very pretty wall dives with healthy coral life. We also did a night dive at Turtle Reef that was very nice. If you're a photographer, it is one of the best macro night dives I've done.
Of course you can't go to GC without doing Stingray City. My son and one other diver were on scuba, with everybody else on snorkel. The wild life interaction is unbeatable. If you're taking pictures be aware that there is a lot of sand in the water and you have to deal with lots of backscatter.
One other interesting thing that Divetech offers is a turtle release program. You can adopt a turtle from the farm, name it and get to let it go into the ocean. The kids loved it. They got to touch it for a few minutes before they got into the water, then got to snorkel with it for a bit before it headed out to sea. The Divetech folks did a fantastic job giving the kids a memorable experience while taking care not to stress or injure the turtle.
Photo by Sylvester Ruffin
Dining:
Neptune - Italian, pricey, decent, but not great food.
Yoshi Sushi - Fantastic service, very good food.
Deckers - Great service, very good lobster
Cracked Conch - Great service, excellent food and drinks, pricey
The Wharf - fantastic location, great food, good wine list, entertaining for the kids when they feed the tarpon, pricey
Overall it was a good trip. My one hold back on Cayman is how expensive it was. The diving was twice what we usually pay in Cozumel. Food, drinks, taxis all seemed high especially when you take into account the exchange rate between Cayman and US dollars. I probably wouldn't do a family vacation there again because of the cost. Also, unless you are travelling with kids and are a marriott rewards person, then I wouldn't stay at the Courtyard again. The full service Marriott is nicer and has a private beach.
Flight: Austin to Cayman via Continental (used points)
Stayed at: Marriott Courtyard (used points)
Dove with: Divetech
Length of Stay: 7 days
This trip was designed around spring break in Texas. We had a total of 10 people in the group including 3 kids and my teenage son. All of us are frequent fliers on Continental, so that was a given and most of us are Marriott, hence the choice there.
We were to leave Austin around 11 AM and ended up because of weather missing our connection and getting moved to a Cayman Air flight. Thanks to the Continental folks because we were one of the few parties that got moved onto the flight, otherwise we would have missed two days of our vacation. To make the travel day even more interesting, Cayman Air's computers were down so they were handwriting tickets.
We made it to Cayman ok and to our amazement, all but 2 of our bags made it. One that didn't was my dive bag which was a bummer, but at least all of my camera gear got there. It took them 3 days to get my dive bag to me. Grrrr!
The Marriott Courtyard is a nice property for that class of hotel (one oriented to business travellers). The rooms were clean and have refrigerators (great for snacks for the kids). The staff was pleasant and very helpful. The only negative for the property is that they are across the street from the beach and the cruise ships dump buses of their people at it every day they are in port. So your nice, quaint beech suddenly has 500 people scurrying to get their allocated 3.4 hours of sun in before running back to the boat.
We dove with Divetech based on recommendations from this board and were very happy with the choice. They picked us up every day from the Courtyard and took us to the shop. The staff was very friendly and professional. Since my gear hadn't arrived on my first day of diving they gave me a day of rentals for free, which helped take the sting out of lost luggage. They were running two boats last week both pretty comfortable and neither with more than 14 divers at a time. They are a tech dive shop and there were usually folks diving CCR rigs. I'm definitely going to try one next time. I highly recommend Divetech and will dive again with them.
The diving was overall pretty good. The first day or two we were stuck on the west side of the island because of weather. The first couple of sites were fairly scoured from the hurricane and honestly I was a bit concerned. The second day however we hit some better sites including the wreck of the Oro Verde which is a nice spot. I met Cindy (can't remember her last name) who dives Cayman often and she showed me exactly where to find yellow jawfish with eggs. Bless her!!!
Later in the week the wind died down and we were able to get to the north side. My two favorite dives were Penny's Pinnacle and Blue Pinnacle. Very pretty wall dives with healthy coral life. We also did a night dive at Turtle Reef that was very nice. If you're a photographer, it is one of the best macro night dives I've done.
Of course you can't go to GC without doing Stingray City. My son and one other diver were on scuba, with everybody else on snorkel. The wild life interaction is unbeatable. If you're taking pictures be aware that there is a lot of sand in the water and you have to deal with lots of backscatter.
One other interesting thing that Divetech offers is a turtle release program. You can adopt a turtle from the farm, name it and get to let it go into the ocean. The kids loved it. They got to touch it for a few minutes before they got into the water, then got to snorkel with it for a bit before it headed out to sea. The Divetech folks did a fantastic job giving the kids a memorable experience while taking care not to stress or injure the turtle.
Photo by Sylvester Ruffin
Dining:
Neptune - Italian, pricey, decent, but not great food.
Yoshi Sushi - Fantastic service, very good food.
Deckers - Great service, very good lobster
Cracked Conch - Great service, excellent food and drinks, pricey
The Wharf - fantastic location, great food, good wine list, entertaining for the kids when they feed the tarpon, pricey
Overall it was a good trip. My one hold back on Cayman is how expensive it was. The diving was twice what we usually pay in Cozumel. Food, drinks, taxis all seemed high especially when you take into account the exchange rate between Cayman and US dollars. I probably wouldn't do a family vacation there again because of the cost. Also, unless you are travelling with kids and are a marriott rewards person, then I wouldn't stay at the Courtyard again. The full service Marriott is nicer and has a private beach.
