West Side dive op recommendations

[Alucard]

I like to set up my own gear as well. Most ops will be happy to let you do so if you ask. Just get to the boat early to be able to do so.

Yeah, it's usually on the smaller boats during the surface intervals it can become a bit of a logistical nightmare if everyone is bouncing around trying to get their gear set up. I have been on some boats that insist that people stay out of the way while they exchange tanks and such like.

 

[Doctorfish]

Sounds like an argument for going out with operators who use bigger boats. That way you have more space as well as shelter from the sun, wind, rain.

 

[Alucard]

I think that there are pros and cons to both, personally. But we are getting off-topic.

 

[KathyV]

The dive industry is very competitive on Grand Cayman so it is unlikely that a "bad operation" would stay in business very long. Even the big operations tend to have larger boats so there's usually not any problem with cattle boats. We have dived with several ops over the years and haven't had any bad experiences, but lately we have dived with Cayman University Divers and liked them very much.

My only advice is to make sure that you are not likely to be put on a boat with a lot of cruise ship divers. That happened to us years ago, once on Nassau and once on Grand Cayman - so now we make a point of asking before booking . Small ops are a safer bet if you want to avoid cruisers.

I have never dived with Don Foster's but I know that they often work with the cruise ships, and Red Sail Sports also provides dives for some cruise ship groups - but I think that RS keeps them on a separate boat - but I am not sure about that. We have dived with Red Sail Tortuga Divers on the East End and they were just fine.

One thing that is unlikely to happen on Cayman, but it was a surprise to us in Florida years ago, as we were checking in with the dive shop, we were surprised to see a bunch of divers carrying spear guns onto the boat. That wasn't what we wanted so we cancelled our reservation and left.

 

[mi000ke]

Red Sail Sports also provides dives for some cruise ship groups - but I think that RS keeps them on a separate boat - but I am not sure about that.

I dive a lot with Red Sail, and have not encountered many cruise ship passengers, so you may be right about the separate boat. They also have large boats which never seem to get crowded regardless of how many are on board and provide a lot of room to maneuver when setting up equipment. Then again I dive with LTD, Indigo, and Neptune's and don't recall many cruisers, and their small boats are never very crowded either. I suppose as long as the dive op limits the number of divers based on boat size, you will have plenty of room - and all the ops I've gone with seem to do this.

I just checked on the Cruise Critic forum and, FWIW, the ops that get recommended the most for cruise ship divers are Cayman Turtle Divers, Don Fosters, and Eden Rock Dive Center

 

[KathyV]

I dive a lot with Red Sail, and have not encountered many cruise ship passengers, so you may be right about the separate boat. They also have large boats which never seem to get crowded regardless of how many are on board and provide a lot of room to maneuver when setting up equipment. Then again I dive with LTD, Indigo, and Neptune's and don't recall many cruisers, and their small boats are never very crowded either. I suppose as long as the dive op limits the number of divers based on boat size, you will have plenty of room - and all the ops I've gone with seem to do this.

I just checked on the Cruise Critic forum and, FWIW, the ops that get recommended the most for cruise ship divers are Cayman Turtle Divers, Don Fosters, and Eden Rock Dive Center

Someone once told me that Red Sail usually only works with the Disney cruise ship divers, but I don't know if that is current information.

And I don't mean to give the impression that cruise ship divers are bad people or bad divers because that's not true. It's just that there can be a lot of them and it's usually their first time with the specific dive op and dive boat so they may need some hand-holding. Often they are learning to use unfamiliar rental equipment and they may be operating on the ship's timetable and trying to cram a lot into one day in port.

But I recognize that many cruise ship divers are traveling with non-diving family members and they are just trying to get in a little diving while still spending time with family, and that's a good thing.

And there have been times when we've needed some hand-holding ourselves! In general, I'd rather skip diving with a bunch of cruisers, but if I ever take a cruise I will probably have to eat my words!

 

[mi000ke]

Someone once told me that Red Sail usually only works with the Disney cruise ship divers, but I don't know if that is current information.

And I don't mean to give the impression that cruise ship divers are bad people or bad divers because that's not true. It's just that there can be a lot of them and it's usually their first time with the specific dive op and dive boat so they may need some hand-holding. Often they are learning to use unfamiliar rental equipment and they may be operating on the ship's timetable and trying to cram a lot into one day in port.

But I recognize that a lot of cruise ship divers are traveling with non-diving family members and they are trying to get in a little diving but still spend time with family and that's a good thing.

And there have been times when we've needed some hand-holding, too! In general, I'd rather skip diving with a bunch of cruisers, but if I ever take a cruise I will probably have to eat my words!

I got my start as a Caribbean cruise ship diver, so I can sympathize with their predicament. We always booked independent of the cruise company and tried to blend in with the others as much as possible. We carted our own gear so that probably allowed us to "pass" more easily The issue we found on those occasions where the cruise schedule required us to book through the ship was that they tended to fill up the dive boats more. But I don't recall having any bad experiences. That said I am sure all of the Cayman dive ops will limit the numbers regardless of where the divers are from.

 

[Doctorfish]

One of the things that seems to recur on this and other threads is the number of posters who list diving with 3, 4 or even more ops on Cayman that they dive with. This suggests to me that they might not have been happy with the original company and are shopping around, or they booked late when boats were full. My own philosophy is that once I find a good operator, I stick to them exclusively. That way we develop a relationship, I get to know the owner and the DMs, and can usually get a discounted rate as a multiday diver and repeat customer. In addition, as I tend to dive GC the same time every year, many of the other divers on the boat do as well. Nice to make friends and dive with some of the same people.

By the way, cruise ship divers can be a PITA as they often are occasional divers with a long time since last dive. They also almost invariably use rental gear they are not familiar with. This can happen on any boat but seems to be more prevalent with cruisers. This may start an argument on the board but so be it.

 

[Alucard]

One of the things that seems to recur on this and other threads is the number of posters who list diving with 3, 4 or even more ops on Cayman that they dive with. This suggests to me that they might not have been happy with the original company and are shopping around, or they booked late when boats were full.

As I fall into that category I am going to address this one. On the contrary, I have been very, very happy with the three dive ops I have been out with.

So why three ops? Well, I have been Cayman to dive since my OWC in 2005 and I went with the dive op that our local Dive Shop had recommended - Divetech. Had some wonderful dives with them. I appreciated how they did everything from the beginner diver to the tech stuff, and I liked how they encouraged us to think about what we were doing rather than doing it all for us - I feel like I became a better diver because of that.

I now go to the island about twice a year (it will be three times this year) and have developed friendships with different dive ops what are local to where I stay. InDepth (love their boat) and Cayman University Divers (love the underwater communication devices and service level) both fall into that category.

I tend to do more shore dives these days, just from a cost perspective, but can highly recommend all three of the ops. I know DiveTech is under new ownership and there have been some changes at both of the other companies as far as staff turn-over, but they are first-class ops.

Add to this that I was getting tired of people that only ever went with one dive op saying things like "they are the best on the island!" or "Look no further!" when they had nothing whatsoever to compare it with. I didn't want to be that person. I am still open to going out with other boats, to experience what they have to offer, because I feel that each has their pros and cons.

 

[Doctorfish]

Different strokes. I too am tired of people raving about one dive op without having experienced others. Over 20+
years, I have experience with multiple ops on GC, but at this point I I have one favorite and am loyal to them. The only exception would be if diving East End.