We dove with them the week of 6/21. Flew down a day ahead of time so we could look around the island a little and give our luggage time to catch up, which, thankfully, wasn't necessary this time around. Flights in went well and transfered to the resort with no problems.
We stayed at the Alexandra on Grace Bay Beach the first night and were quite pleased. We had a one bedroom ocean view condo on the fourth floor. Very nice room with kitchenette. The resort is relatively new and we were there in low season so there were very few people around at all. I'd say maybe twenty to thirty guests at most. The staff was very friendly and eager to please. We ate a couple of meals at the on site restaurant and the food and service were decent. Grace Bay Beach is as pretty as everyone says with beautiful water and fine powdery white sand. We took a night time stroll on the beach and saw virtually no one except for two policeman patrolling on ATV's.
I can highly recommend Grace Bay Medical Center if you're in need of such services. I had an emergency develop and called them at 4 PM on Friday afternoon. They said to come right over and the doctor would see me. I was seen by the doctor within ten minutes of arrival. Doc diagnosed me and then called the pharmacy next door and told them not to close until I got there. Gave me prescriptions for antibiotics and pain meds and sent me on my way. Literally saved our dive trip!
Didn't get to explore the island like we had planned due to my medical problem but did venture out for dinner at the Coco Bistro. The food and service were both very good. The outside palm garden dining area provides a very nice atmosphere. It's a little pricey but from what I've read this is true of most of the restaurants on Provo.
The crew welcomed us aboard the Explorer II and took care of our luggage for us. We were given cold drinks and offered snacks before giving us a brief orientation about the boat, the diving and basically how the week would go. The crew was very good. They were always helpful and maintained a good attitude throughout the week. The overall condition of the boat was good. Had one issue with a toilet not flushing but the engineer fixed it immediately after I brought it to his attention. Hot water was plentiful all week. We stayed in cabin # 6 right across the hall from the galley. We were afraid this might be noisy early in the morning when the chef got up to fix breakfast but we never heard a sound.
We thought the food was very good all week and, for the most part, there was plenty to go around. More about this later. Meals were almost always served buffet style. There was a nice variety that I would think satisfactory to most people and was always served hot. Snacks were available in between dives and coffee was available pretty much anytime. The fridge had a good supply of cold drinks and beer. The fly deck had it's own fridge full of cold beer so you didn't have to keep running up and down the stairs.
All of our diving was done off of Northwest Point and West Caicos. Our big disappointment of the week was not getting to dive off of French Cay. Steadily blowing winds had built 8-10' seas and the captain said the crossing would be miserable. I'm prone to seasickness and therefore was in no mood to test that. The diving was very good overall with the exception of one site where the coral wasn't too healthy. We saw all the usual Caribbean critters: jacks, grunts, barracudas, groupers, cleaner shrimp, crabs, lobsters, eels, rays, turtles, nurse sharks and reef sharks. This was our first experience diving with sharks and they definitely add an extra element of excitement. They were around on several dives and would often come quite close but were never aggressive. One shark had a large hook caught in the corner of it's mouth with about 50' of fishing line trailing behind him. One of the DM's took some snips down and cut about half of that off. Tried to get more but the cheap snips broke on the second attempt. Had two nurse sharks follow us around for most of one night dive trying to hunt by our lights. The jacks were also doing this and became obnoxious at times when they would fly right over your shoulder after prey. After the night dives the crew was waiting with warm towels, hot chocolate and creme liqueur. They also poured warm water down the wet suits of those who needed to warm up in a hurry. My wife particularly liked this added touch. We also did one dawn dive and I highly recommend this. Seeing the reef wake up and come to life as the morning sunlight filtered down was really special.
We dove Nitrox 32 all week and they were always well within limits and fills ranged from 3,100 to 3,400. They logged all divers going in and coming out as well as deepest point of dive and ending pressure. Most everyone dove on their own but there was always a DM or two in the water. They were always available to guide you around the reef if you asked.
One big problem we did have was with some of our fellow divers. There were two families aboard who had six teens between them who ranged in age from 13 to 18. The teens were just downright obnoxious. They monopolized the salon area all week. They pretty much claimed the couches as theirs and also had their choice of movies running all the time. When the dinner bell rang, look out lest you get trampled in the stampede. They were first in line for every meal all week. Four of the teens were boys and you know how much they can eat. They all left the line with their plates piled high. There was enough food to go around once they got done but just barely. Snacks were always put out between dives but many people never saw them. The teens were always first up from the dives because they always swam around the reef like madmen and burned up their air in a hurry. Once on board they tore into the snacks with no concern for the other divers to follow. And the parents? Totally AWOL the whole time. Our teens wouldn't act that way and, if they had, it wouldn't have happened more than once! The rest of our fellow divers were all super nice and we greatly enjoyed meeting them and diving with them.
We were quite happy with the trip and would definitely dive with them again.
Here are a few pics from the week.
http://www.shutterfly.com/lightbox/view.sfly?fid=37d14d049559186b26cd1d30d33b21f1
We stayed at the Alexandra on Grace Bay Beach the first night and were quite pleased. We had a one bedroom ocean view condo on the fourth floor. Very nice room with kitchenette. The resort is relatively new and we were there in low season so there were very few people around at all. I'd say maybe twenty to thirty guests at most. The staff was very friendly and eager to please. We ate a couple of meals at the on site restaurant and the food and service were decent. Grace Bay Beach is as pretty as everyone says with beautiful water and fine powdery white sand. We took a night time stroll on the beach and saw virtually no one except for two policeman patrolling on ATV's.
I can highly recommend Grace Bay Medical Center if you're in need of such services. I had an emergency develop and called them at 4 PM on Friday afternoon. They said to come right over and the doctor would see me. I was seen by the doctor within ten minutes of arrival. Doc diagnosed me and then called the pharmacy next door and told them not to close until I got there. Gave me prescriptions for antibiotics and pain meds and sent me on my way. Literally saved our dive trip!
Didn't get to explore the island like we had planned due to my medical problem but did venture out for dinner at the Coco Bistro. The food and service were both very good. The outside palm garden dining area provides a very nice atmosphere. It's a little pricey but from what I've read this is true of most of the restaurants on Provo.
The crew welcomed us aboard the Explorer II and took care of our luggage for us. We were given cold drinks and offered snacks before giving us a brief orientation about the boat, the diving and basically how the week would go. The crew was very good. They were always helpful and maintained a good attitude throughout the week. The overall condition of the boat was good. Had one issue with a toilet not flushing but the engineer fixed it immediately after I brought it to his attention. Hot water was plentiful all week. We stayed in cabin # 6 right across the hall from the galley. We were afraid this might be noisy early in the morning when the chef got up to fix breakfast but we never heard a sound.
We thought the food was very good all week and, for the most part, there was plenty to go around. More about this later. Meals were almost always served buffet style. There was a nice variety that I would think satisfactory to most people and was always served hot. Snacks were available in between dives and coffee was available pretty much anytime. The fridge had a good supply of cold drinks and beer. The fly deck had it's own fridge full of cold beer so you didn't have to keep running up and down the stairs.
All of our diving was done off of Northwest Point and West Caicos. Our big disappointment of the week was not getting to dive off of French Cay. Steadily blowing winds had built 8-10' seas and the captain said the crossing would be miserable. I'm prone to seasickness and therefore was in no mood to test that. The diving was very good overall with the exception of one site where the coral wasn't too healthy. We saw all the usual Caribbean critters: jacks, grunts, barracudas, groupers, cleaner shrimp, crabs, lobsters, eels, rays, turtles, nurse sharks and reef sharks. This was our first experience diving with sharks and they definitely add an extra element of excitement. They were around on several dives and would often come quite close but were never aggressive. One shark had a large hook caught in the corner of it's mouth with about 50' of fishing line trailing behind him. One of the DM's took some snips down and cut about half of that off. Tried to get more but the cheap snips broke on the second attempt. Had two nurse sharks follow us around for most of one night dive trying to hunt by our lights. The jacks were also doing this and became obnoxious at times when they would fly right over your shoulder after prey. After the night dives the crew was waiting with warm towels, hot chocolate and creme liqueur. They also poured warm water down the wet suits of those who needed to warm up in a hurry. My wife particularly liked this added touch. We also did one dawn dive and I highly recommend this. Seeing the reef wake up and come to life as the morning sunlight filtered down was really special.
We dove Nitrox 32 all week and they were always well within limits and fills ranged from 3,100 to 3,400. They logged all divers going in and coming out as well as deepest point of dive and ending pressure. Most everyone dove on their own but there was always a DM or two in the water. They were always available to guide you around the reef if you asked.
One big problem we did have was with some of our fellow divers. There were two families aboard who had six teens between them who ranged in age from 13 to 18. The teens were just downright obnoxious. They monopolized the salon area all week. They pretty much claimed the couches as theirs and also had their choice of movies running all the time. When the dinner bell rang, look out lest you get trampled in the stampede. They were first in line for every meal all week. Four of the teens were boys and you know how much they can eat. They all left the line with their plates piled high. There was enough food to go around once they got done but just barely. Snacks were always put out between dives but many people never saw them. The teens were always first up from the dives because they always swam around the reef like madmen and burned up their air in a hurry. Once on board they tore into the snacks with no concern for the other divers to follow. And the parents? Totally AWOL the whole time. Our teens wouldn't act that way and, if they had, it wouldn't have happened more than once! The rest of our fellow divers were all super nice and we greatly enjoyed meeting them and diving with them.
We were quite happy with the trip and would definitely dive with them again.
Here are a few pics from the week.
http://www.shutterfly.com/lightbox/view.sfly?fid=37d14d049559186b26cd1d30d33b21f1
