Trip Report: Grand Cayman

[leadweight]

My favorite dive buddy, the Mermaid, and I just returned from a week on Grand Cayman. We did a not very creative trip. Big hotel on Seven Mile Beach and a dive package with Bob Soto's.

The reason we used Soto's was that the Mermaid won a 6 day 2 tank per day dive package (with one extra dive for a total of 13) in a drawing for Seaspace volunteers. The list price of that package is about $440. Normally I have the sense to look for smaller dive operators.

The problem with Soto's is they are geared to cruise passengers, beginning and occasional divers. The routine is a first dive of 30 minutes plus a safety stop, a 40 minute surface interval followed by a second dive of 40 minutes plus a safety stop. The first dive will be to 100' the second in the 50'-60' range.

By being first into the water and last out you can streatch these times somewhat. Because the week after thanksgiving is usually slow the boats were not crowded. That actually made for shorter bottom times as the delay of getting a lot of people in the water would have worked to my advantage.

The divemasters (most are instructors) are US, Canadian and European. Some were real friendly and others cocky to the point of being obnoxious. There may be a cultural problem in the Cayman islands. An employee of another dive shop, dive down, exploded when I asked her if all the dive operators had short bottom times like Soto's. A bartender cut me off in mid sentence and two minutes later was rude to another customer.

To be continued....

 

[Robinhood]

I'm going on a cruise next week and have been trying sooo hard to find a dive operator for a semi private charter or at least a somewhat small operator. I've been unlucky...everyone is booked and I started a couple of months ago! I'm a DM/Intro Cave and DON'T want to be placed in a cattle car with newbies getting a short bottom time. Not that I have a problem with beginner divers...that's what makes our sport great and growing! I just wanted to do more of an advanced dive or two.

I'm stuck with the ship's shore excursion.
I've heard my cruise line primarily uses Soto's so I guess I will be experiencing the same 'fun'.;-0

 

[leadweight]

On the third day out the divemaster wanted everyone to get in the water and wait at the mooring bouy so we could all go down the line together. I really don't have the patience for that kind of baby stuff so I insisted on getting in the water and waiting on the bottom near the line. The DM gave in and that was worth an extra 7 minutes underwater. After the second dive he offered to get us "gold cards".

The gold card will allow you to get in the water as soon as the boat ties up. Sometimes this resulted in an extended bottom time. Only the last dive of the week was over an hour.

As for the diving, the deep dives on the west side had decent coral. The shallow dives on the west side were mostly in the same area out from where the Govenor's house is. Hard coral coverage in this area is poor and there is not a lot of soft coral. Visibility was ususlly over 100', with a few dives where it was in the 50' to 70' range. Water temp was 81F.

The North and South walls had more soft coral. One of the best dives of the week was at Tarpon Alley on the North wall. There were hundreds of tarpon (some big), a huge baracuda and not much coral. I did hear that there was some good shore diving up near Dive Tech, but we did not rent a car as neither of us were willing to drive on the left hand side of the road.

Soto's has two wonderful new Newton 46 dive boats and they have new 80 cf tanks on these boats. Most Grand Cayman dive operators supply 72 cf tanks. Like most operators they pick you up at your hotel in a bus. You must lug your gear to the front of the hotel each day, but they get it to the boat from there. The gear does get piled up high so hold onto things like lights.

These problems are not limited to Soto's. We heard the same things about Red Sail, although they went a bit longer on the second dive.

We stayed at the Marriot. It is a nice hotel, but may be too pricey for many divers. There was a sale that week so it would up being the same price as the rather beat up Treasure Island down the street.

Food and Alcoholic beverages are very expensive on Grand Cayman. If you like to drink, buy a bottle in the duty free shop in your home airport on the way down. The least expensive bottle of liquor in a shop down there will be about US$27. Beer is usually US $4.38 for a bottle, $3.44 during happy hour.

We found a particularly good restaurant with moderate prices about 2 blocks from the Marriot. It is called Cimboco. The food is kind of a Caribbean/Continental fusion. Don't miss it. There is a free buffet on Friday evening at Fidel Murphy's. Don't worry, they will make it up on the drinks. Everyone is there. The Treehouse is a kind of romantic spot on the water. Food is good but not stellar, with moderate prices. I enjoyed the Treehouse burger at US$10.

Who should go to Grand Cayman? Well, if you tend to blow through a tank quickly, enjoy dive briefings in understandable English, and like to stay in a swanky vacation spot rather than some third world dive camp, it could be your thing. Frankly, I think the diving is better almost everywhere else in the Caribbean (and really good at nearby Little Cayman Island). If you want to spend a week totally focused on diving, go somewhere else.

Your mileage may differ.

 

[Northeastwrecks]

My only suggestion would be to see if you can chat with the operator about extending the dive limits.

I just returned from a week with DiveTech. After discussing experience and intentions, they let me do pretty much whatever I wanted. They also provided a couple of private tours that were just incredible.

 

[leadweight]

Robinhood once bubbled...
I'm going on a cruise next week and have been trying sooo hard to find a dive operator for a semi private charter or at least a somewhat small operator. I've been unlucky...everyone is booked and I started a couple of months ago! I'm a DM/Intro Cave and DON'T want to be placed in a cattle car with newbies getting a short bottom time. Not that I have a problem with beginner divers...that's what makes our sport great and growing! I just wanted to do more of an advanced dive or two.

I'm stuck with the ship's shore excursion.
I've heard my cruise line primarily uses Soto's so I guess I will be experiencing the same 'fun'.;-0

Just remember, on the second dive if you are a bit slow getting out, they can't do anything about it.

 

[leadweight]

Northeastwrecks once bubbled...
My only suggestion would be to see if you can chat with the operator about extending the dive limits.

I just returned from a week with DiveTech. After discussing experience and intentions, they let me do pretty much whatever I wanted. They also provided a couple of private tours that were just incredible.

Long time, no sea (sic). Glad you had fun.

Like I said, we did Soto's because the Mermaid had a freebie. I have heard good things about Dive Tech before. As dive operations go, I did find Soto's to be somewhat less flexible than others. The experience/intentions discussion has worked well with other dive operators and it is always worth a try

 

[Tim Ingersoll]

leadweight once bubbled...
Who should go to Grand Cayman? Well, if you tend to blow through a tank quickly, enjoy dive briefings in understandable English, and like to stay in a swanky vacation spot rather than some third world dive camp, it could be your thing. Frankly, I think the diving is better almost everywhere else in the Caribbean (and really good at nearby Little Cayman Island). If you want to spend a week totally focused on diving, go somewhere else.

Your mileage may differ.

Very well said. Little Cayman offers so much less and more if you take my meaning. If there is great diving, booze, hammocks and food (maybe not in that order) then what more do you really need? Shopping? Thats what the airport gift shop is for. Traffic? Noise pollution? Tourists all covered in oil? Yuck, I can get that at the local Y. I look forward to spending hours diving and hours doing absolutely nothing. I don't want someone else's vacation. I want mine.

That said, I will admit to taking advantage of free lodging and going to St. Thomas within the last week. I mean come on, lets be rational - if it is free I will make large exceptions.

 

[Zippsy]

Robinhood once bubbled...
I'm going on a cruise next week and have been trying sooo hard to find a dive operator for a semi private charter or at least a somewhat small operator.

Have you tried to get in touch with caymancase (http://www.scubaboard.com/member.php?s=&action=getinfo&userid=377)? After giving up on a bigger operator with their cocky dm's/instructors, my family did some dives with neptune divers (just the three of us) and enjoyed the experience tremendously.

 

[Robinhood]

They were booked too. I'll try sending a PM...maybe that'll help. Thanks!

 

[jhspb]

You must have had better luck with the weather on your trip we couldn't go North due to conditions during 21 Nov - 25 Nov. It's hard to disagree with your assessment of the west end diving. I'm really looking forward to trying some east end diving on GC hoping it a bit different from the hastle of seven mile tourista strip and especially hoping the diving comes closer to LC or the Brac.

Joe