It's back to reality after 10 days on Grand Cayman. Stayed at and dove with Sunset House. The hotel is nice, certainly not the Ritz but then we weren't paying Ritz prices. And you can't beat the location, opposite side of town from the cruise ship insanity of 7 Mile Beach, but only a 10-15 minute walk from Georgetown. Rooms are basic, but clean and well maintained. Breakfast is made to order. Package included an oceanview room, breakfast, 2 tank morning boat dive, ground transfers, unlimited shore diving and the obligatory welcome rum punch.
The dive boats left promptly at 8:15 & 8:20. Generally there were only 8 divers on the boats and the crew made every effort to accomodate dive site requests for both dives. Briefings were complete and entertaining. Every dive had a choice of guided dive or buddy-dive. Profiles were set but didn't seem overly restrictive. Getting out a little eary gave us a chance to do the more popular sites towards the northwest point, but we also dove the south. Diving in the Caymans is always good, it's not operator dependent IMHO. Night boat dives were scheduled two nights per week, assuming that a minimum number of divers signed up (i think it took 6). And the reef out front is always popular for both day & night dives. Hard to complain when your diving is a couple hundred feet from your room....
The entire staff was pleasant and helpful, after 10 days our housekeeper felt like part of the family. The front desk staff was great with advice on restaurants, shopping, sight seeing and even comparison shopped rental car prices for us. We did rent a van for an afternoon's island tour, other than that we took cabs. We discovered that you could 'negotiate' cab fares but only after the cruise ships had left or in the evenings. If you like a particular driver, get their card and have the hotel call them for you. We did get better rates that way.
The dive boats left promptly at 8:15 & 8:20. Generally there were only 8 divers on the boats and the crew made every effort to accomodate dive site requests for both dives. Briefings were complete and entertaining. Every dive had a choice of guided dive or buddy-dive. Profiles were set but didn't seem overly restrictive. Getting out a little eary gave us a chance to do the more popular sites towards the northwest point, but we also dove the south. Diving in the Caymans is always good, it's not operator dependent IMHO. Night boat dives were scheduled two nights per week, assuming that a minimum number of divers signed up (i think it took 6). And the reef out front is always popular for both day & night dives. Hard to complain when your diving is a couple hundred feet from your room....
The entire staff was pleasant and helpful, after 10 days our housekeeper felt like part of the family. The front desk staff was great with advice on restaurants, shopping, sight seeing and even comparison shopped rental car prices for us. We did rent a van for an afternoon's island tour, other than that we took cabs. We discovered that you could 'negotiate' cab fares but only after the cruise ships had left or in the evenings. If you like a particular driver, get their card and have the hotel call them for you. We did get better rates that way.
