scubamickey
I'm a GIRL!
divingjd:Thanks for the explanation on the "minimal deco." I can see why you are concerned. I've had DMs who didn't like the fact that I like to do my safety stops at 20 ft. and do short deep stops on deep dives if it's not a real multilevel dive.
If you are willing to consider Grand Cayman, look at Cayman Brac and Little Cayman. The diving's great and you are not required to dive with a DM. They declare the pool open and off you go. There's a DM available to give tours if anybody wants them. Both operations there I am familiar with (Reef Divers at Little Cayman Beach Resort and Brac Reef Resort, and Dive Tiara at Divi Tiara on Cayman Brac), tend to set up your gear. I always want to set up my own gear, just because it's a good idea and because others have done it wrong when I have let them, so I either just tell them I will do it myself or make sure to check it all myself. The Divi is pretty reasonable. There is a pretty fair number of bigger animals (turtles, groupers of all sorts including goliath groupers, barracuda, tarpon, nurse sharks, not many other sharks), but if you can learn to like the smaller critters, there are lots of them. I can highly recommend LCBR and the Divi.
It's not so much that I don't like the smaller critters, it's just that I usually the one that can't see them . I really like swimming through schools of fish better. I can do without sharks, though.
Thanks for the recs. I will check them out. I had been seriously considering Cocoview in Roatan, but I get the feeling they cater to vacation divers (based on their required check out dive to set your weight).