birdman27
Contributor
Just got back from a week long trip to Turquoise Bay Resort, diving with Subway Watersports. It was a great trip. I will try to hit just the highlights. We were on a trip with 19 from our dive shop.
Resort
The resort is nice. Our room was clean and had an A/C that worked, even if we did have to set it all the way cold to get it bearable to sleep. My wife declared the bed the most comfortable we had on a dive trip, so that made for some very nice sleep. Food was buffet, but had a grill station for each meal cooking up something on the spot. I found the food to be hearty, if a little boring. They happily cooked up special food for the vegetarians in our group. The bar was lively and the bartenders made nice drinks. The staff overall was friendly and helpful. For the price, I was definitely happy with what we got. The beach area is being worked on, but still nice, though I saw few people down there the entire week. That likely had to do with all the bugs (no-see-ums, mosquitos) present.
Dive Shop
The dive shop was fine. The gear storage was cramped and a bit stagnant, so nothing really dried unless you could leave it out all afternoon. But, given the temperatures, the wet gear actually felt pretty good. There were a few issues with Nitrox and not having enough O2 tanks at the beginning of the week to mix for everyone, but I talked to the shop manager Darren and managed to get tanks for my wife and I all week (squeaky wheel and all). The staff was generally helpful and friendly. They ran out of 2lb weights, which was annoying, but I was able to trade with someone in our group who needed a little more weight. Our boat, the Luca, was nice and easily fit our group. Captain Billy did a great job. DMs Nelson and Maynor brought a good humor and trained eye to the table. Big shout out to Maynor for always going out of the way to help my wife and I look for specific things.
Diving
I want to say the diving was what I expected after reading many reviews, which is to say quite nice. We did a total of 17 dives on the week, with the majority on the north side near the resort (within 15 minutes) and one day trip to West End/West Bay, where we dove the El Aguila, Eel Garden and Overhead Reef. Generally, we would start out as one or two large groups, hang like that for 30 or so minutes, then splinter off to let everyone finish their dive based on air. Some people were annoyed that both guides would get out of the water between 50 and 60 minutes, but they always made sure everyone knew where the boat was first. I had no issues with it. Nearly every dive was between 60 and 75 minutes for my wife and I, minus the two night dives (around 55 and cut by staff to keep everyone together) and one dive where I could stop fogging so I called it just short of 60. Max depth ranged from 60 to 110 ft (El Aguila), with the average around 70. Through the week we saw four seahorses (3 yellow, one white), a few eagle rays, many large grouper, flamingo tongues, lettuce sea slugs, lots of crabs and lobsters, many varieties of shrimp, sting rays, many varieties of eels, numerous toadfish, and my favorites, two octopus on the last night dive (that I almost didnt do).
In general, this trip continued my trend of becoming more comfortable in the water and with my diving. Having a little more freedom made me more self sufficient, within reason, and allowed me to really test myself (as much as one can at 20 ft).
A note on following your training. One the third dive of the second day, my wife, our trip leader, and I were finishing up our dive, navigating a small canyon near the mooring. Upon exiting the canyon, we returned to the mooring, only to find no boat! We surfaced, spotted the boat, I inflated my sausage, and the boat came and picked us up. It turns out they had busted off the mooring and then needed to pick up another pair. I was glad my training kicked in; we stayed in the spot and we were prepared with safety equipment, as well as plenty of air had we needed it.
Below are pictures of some of my favorite critters (be they rare or not!) and just some of my better shots.
Flamingo Tongue
Oh hey!
I have no idea what this guy is, but really would like to know
Grouper at cleaning station
Dont know this guy either, but love the color/pattern
Toadfish (saw plenty)
Sailfin Blenny
Fourth of four seahorses we saw (and my best shot of the trip)
Lettuce Sea Slug
And of course an octopus
Resort
The resort is nice. Our room was clean and had an A/C that worked, even if we did have to set it all the way cold to get it bearable to sleep. My wife declared the bed the most comfortable we had on a dive trip, so that made for some very nice sleep. Food was buffet, but had a grill station for each meal cooking up something on the spot. I found the food to be hearty, if a little boring. They happily cooked up special food for the vegetarians in our group. The bar was lively and the bartenders made nice drinks. The staff overall was friendly and helpful. For the price, I was definitely happy with what we got. The beach area is being worked on, but still nice, though I saw few people down there the entire week. That likely had to do with all the bugs (no-see-ums, mosquitos) present.
Dive Shop
The dive shop was fine. The gear storage was cramped and a bit stagnant, so nothing really dried unless you could leave it out all afternoon. But, given the temperatures, the wet gear actually felt pretty good. There were a few issues with Nitrox and not having enough O2 tanks at the beginning of the week to mix for everyone, but I talked to the shop manager Darren and managed to get tanks for my wife and I all week (squeaky wheel and all). The staff was generally helpful and friendly. They ran out of 2lb weights, which was annoying, but I was able to trade with someone in our group who needed a little more weight. Our boat, the Luca, was nice and easily fit our group. Captain Billy did a great job. DMs Nelson and Maynor brought a good humor and trained eye to the table. Big shout out to Maynor for always going out of the way to help my wife and I look for specific things.
Diving
I want to say the diving was what I expected after reading many reviews, which is to say quite nice. We did a total of 17 dives on the week, with the majority on the north side near the resort (within 15 minutes) and one day trip to West End/West Bay, where we dove the El Aguila, Eel Garden and Overhead Reef. Generally, we would start out as one or two large groups, hang like that for 30 or so minutes, then splinter off to let everyone finish their dive based on air. Some people were annoyed that both guides would get out of the water between 50 and 60 minutes, but they always made sure everyone knew where the boat was first. I had no issues with it. Nearly every dive was between 60 and 75 minutes for my wife and I, minus the two night dives (around 55 and cut by staff to keep everyone together) and one dive where I could stop fogging so I called it just short of 60. Max depth ranged from 60 to 110 ft (El Aguila), with the average around 70. Through the week we saw four seahorses (3 yellow, one white), a few eagle rays, many large grouper, flamingo tongues, lettuce sea slugs, lots of crabs and lobsters, many varieties of shrimp, sting rays, many varieties of eels, numerous toadfish, and my favorites, two octopus on the last night dive (that I almost didnt do).
In general, this trip continued my trend of becoming more comfortable in the water and with my diving. Having a little more freedom made me more self sufficient, within reason, and allowed me to really test myself (as much as one can at 20 ft).
A note on following your training. One the third dive of the second day, my wife, our trip leader, and I were finishing up our dive, navigating a small canyon near the mooring. Upon exiting the canyon, we returned to the mooring, only to find no boat! We surfaced, spotted the boat, I inflated my sausage, and the boat came and picked us up. It turns out they had busted off the mooring and then needed to pick up another pair. I was glad my training kicked in; we stayed in the spot and we were prepared with safety equipment, as well as plenty of air had we needed it.
Below are pictures of some of my favorite critters (be they rare or not!) and just some of my better shots.
Flamingo Tongue
Oh hey!
I have no idea what this guy is, but really would like to know
Grouper at cleaning station
Dont know this guy either, but love the color/pattern
Toadfish (saw plenty)
Sailfin Blenny
Fourth of four seahorses we saw (and my best shot of the trip)
Lettuce Sea Slug
And of course an octopus
