Cayman Travel

[Mgnau]

:D My wife and I are booked on Delta to visit the Caymans in March. Has anyone had any problems getting to the Caymans and have your gear not show. I'm concerned because we have 2 stops on our trip. Any recommendations for packing ? Should we carry on Regs and Computer and pack the rest of our gear in general luggage ?

This is the first trip that we have taken with our own gear.

[Drew Sailbum]

There is only one absolute must - carry at least one certification card on your person. You will have a real hassel without it. I'd also recommend carrying on a prescription dive mask.

Almost everything else could be rented.

Lost luggage is not unheard of and it may be a full day until your bag catches up with you. The more stops you have enroute, the greater the chance that one or more bags won't make it.

To Cayman, most carriers do a good job. The small prop planes that fly between Grand Cayman and Little Cayman have limited capacity. If travelling to LC on a weekend, you may be asked to choose one of your bags to come on a later flight. When leaving, your hotel may help send one of your bags ahead so that it will be waiting for you in GC.

[Luckyfishrag]

I would carry the regs and computers on as a carry on. You would be VERY sad if there were lost! We purchased a Akona two regulator carry bag for ours and there is plenty of room in there. We even put in our camera, binoculars too... It has backpack straps as well as a handle. Pretty nice. I would carry it.
Lucky;)

[Cave Diver]

When I travel, my regs and computer were in a carry on bag. Wayyyyy too much $$ invested in them have them lost or damaged by baggage handlers.

*Hint* make sure that your computer is OFF before flying or security guards may get a little tense. Trust me on this one... :D

[Washy]

Mgnau once bubbled...
:D My wife and I are booked on Delta to visit the Caymans in March. Has anyone had any problems getting to the Caymans and have your gear not show. I'm concerned because we have 2 stops on our trip. Any recommendations for packing ? Should we carry on Regs and Computer and pack the rest of our gear in general luggage ?

This is the first trip that we have taken with our own gear.

I assume you are connecting in Miami?

They lost our luggage their on our trip. I say lost more like missed the connection...

Another Brit on my flight who does the Miami routing to Cayman all the time says it does happen often if the connection time between flights is tight.

In all fairness to the luggage people though our divegear (and clothes) was with us the following evening (albeit too late to change for dinner) although we did have to call the airport in call 3 or 4 times to confirm that it was on it's way (probably just me fussing though....)

Enjoy Cayman!

Oh PS I always carry-on my computer and reg...

[Tim Ingersoll]

After more than fifteen years of travelling to and from the Caribbean I have come up with one hard and fast rule: I will not travel through Miami. Period. No exceptions.

[caymaniac]

Traveling through Miami airport is like traveling through a third world country at times. In Miami airport is where my dive bag was broken into and my two sets of regulators were taken. If at all possible, I try to avoid Miami as well. Our last trip was through Houston and this coming year our plane tickets will take us from Houston to Grand Cayman, it's a gamble if you have to travel through Miami. The year before last we went to T & C through Miami, the security lines had us standing for well over two hours to get to our boarding area. :eek:

Dive Safe,
Caymaniac

[Damselfish]

also toiletries, bathing suit, a few clothes, whatever. It's pretty common general packing advice to put medicines, a change of clothes, the stuff you need the most, fragile/valuable stuff, etc. in your carryon. However you define that list, it applies to a dive trip as well. Sure you can rent gear or buy clothes, but if your bags get lost a carefully packed carryon could make life better and the whole thing slightly less of a bummer.

Agree on the Miami thing. Hard to avoid, but I do when I can. There's cattle boats, then there's cattle airports! (My last Carribean trip ended with a night spent in the Miami Airport hotel, after 4 hours locked in a plane on the tarmac. The original problem was weather related, but it was handled incredibly badly by the airport and airlines. What a mess.)

[Tim Ingersoll]

Damselfish once bubbled...
My last Carribean trip ended with a night spent in the Miami Airport hotel, after 4 hours locked in a plane on the tarmac. The original problem was weather related, but it was handled incredibly badly by the airport and airlines. What a mess.

Was that you? I was on that plane. LOL - same thing happened to us on the way back from St. Croix. Never again!

[Damselfish]

Tim Ingersoll once bubbled...


Was that you? I was on that plane. LOL - same thing happened to us on the way back from St. Croix. Never again!

but we weren't the only plane stuck. It was on 8/5.

[DiverDave76]

Had a computer and gold coin stolen in Miami when we came through there on the hom home from the Galapagos.

Dave;-0

[DivePartner1]

Tim Ingersoll once bubbled...
After more than fifteen years of travelling to and from the Caribbean I have come up with one hard and fast rule: I will not travel through Miami. Period. No exceptions.

Regrettable, I do a lot of work in Miami, so I experience the misery often and agree with Tim.

You can get to many places in the Carib via USAirways, which goes through Charlotte, and Delta often jumps via Atlanta, which spares the misery of Miami. On America, you're pretty much stuck with Miami. In the worst case, you have to change airllines and go through security again--an unwinnable situation.

[Tim Ingersoll]

You hit the nail on the head. From the northeast fly USAir or Delta. I stopped flying American after the last fiasco in Miami. I truly believe that most Caribbean airports are managed better and are safer than Miami.

[o2scuba]

Cave Diver once bubbled...


*Hint* make sure that your computer is OFF before flying or security guards may get a little tense. Trust me on this one... :D

Interesting. What is the concern?

I travel quite a lot. Each time I go through security, I am required to turn on every single electronic devise in my posession. ie: dive computers, cameras, laptop, PDA, cell phone, etc. I was under the impression that this was to be sure each devise is in fact legit, and not some kind of explosive (or dummy packed with drugs).