Where in the Caribbean should I go diving in mid-late November?

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@Ironborn - if you do indeed find appropriate accommodations that suit your needs and will not be staying at one of the resorts and are just looking for a dive operator who will take you to the best diving that weather permits on any given day and will be super flexible and work with you regarding pick up, etc.. then you can't do better than to talk with and consider Cayman University Divers and Brad Nelson. Shoot him an e-mail or give him a call and tell him what you want to do for the week and see what he has to say. I am sure he will give you some discount for the amount of diving you want to do and you couldn't get a better and more personalized experience from arguably the guy who has the most experience on the island. Grand Cayman Scuba Diving with Cayman U Divers
Additionally, you can ask him about accommodations-- wouldn't surprise me if he has some good hookups that would suit your needs. My very best dives and experiences on Grand Cayman have come as a result of Brad and Cayman U and for any future trips to GC, I will dive exclusively with him.
 
I probably take back anything I said - now knowing the budget and dining restrictions, and that you won't be renting a car, makes a big difference in recommendations. It certainly makes Cayman more difficult. Not impossible, but personally I don't think I'd do Cayman within those parameters and the other things you've mentioned. There is certainly fast food and lower priced food options, but generally scattered around and mostly not places you'd walk to from the places you'd stay. I've never used the buses there but get the impression it's not a quick way to get around and you'd waste a lot of vacation (dive) time relying on them, which is going to be incompatible with doing 4-5 a day. A reliable hotel shuttle might work out better, and occasionally a cab might just make more sense. There is much to be said for getting a place with at least a fridge and microwave and making a trip to a grocery store to stock up on milk, cereal, bread, peanut butter, prepared entrees. I'm sure you can operate a microwave even if you don't have one? If the Holiday Inn has a decent shuttle and they had rooms with a kitchenette that might work decently, but I don't know if they do.

I don't think there is a perfect answer to what you want, and anything close is liable to book up before you find it.

The lodgings market really isn't biased towards couples. Mostly a room is a room no matter how many people are in it. I wouldn't expect a hotel to cut the basic room rate in half because there's one person staying in it instead of 2. (Or double it because there's 2 instead of one.) Lodgings do themselves a disservice sometimes by posting all rates ppdo and listing single supplements, because it looks bad to solo travelers. I suppose it's messy to post too many different permutations of rates and packages if they are working in dives, meals, or anything else. But the bottom line is going to be pretty much the same. In fact, you will sometimes find places offering promos that favor single travelers, when they want to fill rooms.

I would not use the word "biased" to describe where various ops dive either. It's a pretty good size island, and they can simply only go so far in the time they have. Most Caribbean islands don't even have diving on all sides like that.
 
Most dive ops will try and get you the best diving available for the local conditions, and land-based ops will try to minimize long boat rides but still provide good dives. The gc ops are no different, on the East End they will dive east, north, and south depending on conditions. The West Bay Ops tend to dive west, north, or south depending on conditions. I wouldn't call that a bias, it just makes sense. If you want to dive some of the best sites on all three islands then wait for the aggressor and start praying for perfect weather!

Also, keep in mind that Aggressor is a big boat and it cannot moor at every site, it has to moor on sites that can handle a boat that size.

There are good dive options available on all the Cayman islands, including LOB, day boats, and shore dives. You'll never see them all in one trip, either land-based on LOB.
 
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It says that the rates are based on two guests - would there be a single supplement?

That is the other problem that I have encountered in trying to find lodgings - the rates (when they actually do list any rates at all - many places don't even list their rates) are usually based on at least double occupancy. The whole lodgings market appears to be heavily biased in favor of couples or larger groups and unfavorable to solo travelers.

Hotel rooms, condos, etc. prices are for the unit, not the number of people. They tell you a "based on" number to give you an idea of the comfortable number of people that could stay in that unit. Also, because Cayman law prohibits packing people in to unsafe levels and overcrowding.

It is only the dive and/or food type packages that are based on double occupancy. And why are you surprised by that? Two people are likely to consume more services and spend more money than one person so of course they are preferred by vendors.
 
Scuba diving was also historically industry-driven toward a 'buddy pair' mentality/practice, and some travel in groups. Solo divers seeking solo accommodation were probably a small minority. When I look at land-based options (not specific to Grand Cayman), I often see the presumption of a pair in dive resorts, but in free-standing hotels (eg.: Hampton Inn, Best Western), the rate is for the room, with perhaps a fairly negligible add-on charge for extra people.

When weather allows, the Cayman Aggressor IV will aim to hit Little Cayman, so I doubt it'll have the luxury to leave its base in Georgetown, go all the way over to the east end for a few dives, then onward. Also, the desire to hit the 'famous' sites (the Kittiwake and Sting Ray City) plays into that, too.

We hit the Doc Poulson wreck, Stingray City (not the sand bar) and Babylon before we left, and when we got back, the Kittiwake wreck and Devil's Grotto. Our only 2 Cayman Brac dives were both on the Keith Tibbetts Russian Frigate. They otherwise devoted our time to Little Cayman diving.

I loved the Cayman Aggressor IV for giving me what I bought in for; a lot of dives (25), a near all-inclusive 'turn key' trip with very few travel hassles (no rental car or wandering around driving on the wrong side of the road, etc...), and the blessing of diving by all 3 Cayman islands in a single trip, including 'brand name signature sites.' I took the required gamble on the weather; had it not cooperated, we would've dove Grand Cayman all week. I don't know what dive sites they focus on when that happens. I imagine it depends partly on whether the weather preventing heading to Little Cayman is causing problems at Grand, too.

Richard.
 
@Ironborn - if you do indeed find appropriate accommodations that suit your needs and will not be staying at one of the resorts and are just looking for a dive operator who will take you to the best diving that weather permits on any given day and will be super flexible and work with you regarding pick up, etc.. then you can't do better than to talk with and consider Cayman University Divers and Brad Nelson. Shoot him an e-mail or give him a call and tell him what you want to do for the week and see what he has to say. I am sure he will give you some discount for the amount of diving you want to do and you couldn't get a better and more personalized experience from arguably the guy who has the most experience on the island. Grand Cayman Scuba Diving with Cayman U Divers
Additionally, you can ask him about accommodations-- wouldn't surprise me if he has some good hookups that would suit your needs. My very best dives and experiences on Grand Cayman have come as a result of Brad and Cayman U and for any future trips to GC, I will dive exclusively with him.

@Trailboss123 Thank you for the recommendation, I actually did look into Cayman U when you recommended them earlier on this thread, and it does seem like a good operation overall and one that would be a good fit for my needs, if and when I decide to go with a terrestrial operator on GC.

Another one of their selling points, which I have not seen anywhere else, was their use of audio narration for the dives. To what if any extent was that feature a factor in the quality of your experiences with them?
 
@Trailboss123 Thank you for the recommendation, I actually did look into Cayman U when you recommended them earlier on this thread, and it does seem like a good operation overall and one that would be a good fit for my needs, if and when I decide to go with a terrestrial operator on GC.

Another one of their selling points, which I have not seen anywhere else, was their use of audio narration for the dives. To what if any extent was that feature a factor in the quality of your experiences with them?

It was not necessarily a selling point in my decision to dive with them the very first time, but I will say that once I experienced it, it was totally awesome and not just some novelty. It truly works! Brad can talk to you and you can hear everything he says, which is super cool. He will point out different sea life and tell you what each critter is by name or if you are looking in a different direction, he can get your attention to look elsewhere and not miss that shark passing by. You can't speak back, but you get the benefit of having a dive guide who can speak to you and narrate the dive. The system is very benign and unobtrusive. It is like putting on a bluetooth earpiece that attaches to your mask strap. Very cool! It is a truly great tool and a differentiator from others.
 
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