Yeah, I agree that you can learn more sometimes from the negative, if you see patterns developing. However, you can also get some negative reviews that just couldn't possibly be farther off base. For instance, there was just a review posted about Little Cayman Beach Resort in the last couple of days that just went off on the place...called it "Overpriced, poor service, poor maintenance, questionable dive shop practices" and rated it one star. Once you drill down into it, it boils down to a bunch of little things like a dusty air conditioner, it took too long to provide him with an alarm clock, a door lock malfunctioned, they don't pick up trash off the beach often enough, and the dive operator wouldn't let somebody dive after they locked out their computer.
Ok, I can understand that people have different ideas of value, so if he felt it was overpriced...I can understand that. The alarm clock? Do you have a phone? If so, why do you need an alarm clock? Also, I have to doubt his story based on my experiences there. When I have asked for things like a different pillow for my wife, they immediately went with me to the housekeeping space and let me pick one out. I simply don't believe it took multiple days and multiple requests to get one. Similarly, when we have been there, they cleaned the beach either every day or every other day...but it is the ocean, and every high tide brings a new load of detritus. So I just don't believe they went all week without doing anything. They had somebody out there with a rake every day cleaning up the area around the pool and down towards the beach. The door lock? It is an island...next to salt water...things break. That isn't a maintenance issue, it just happens. They fixed it that day...what more did he really want out of them? I can argue all those points as issues he could comment on if he chose, but I don't think any of them singularly or all together warrants a 1 star rating.
But the part of his review that I think gives us the window into what really happened comes when he starts talking about the dive operation and their computer lockout policy. Basically they offer free use of the computer to any diver who doesn't have one. I have seen when new divers say yes to the computer several times. The DMs give a very detailed sit down discussion with the divers about how the computer works and what can cause a lockout. During the boat briefing that everybody gets their first day on the boat, they are very explicit that if you lockout your computer, you will sit until the computer unlocks, which can be up to 48 hours. This isn't for punishment, as the reviewer claims, it is for the safety of the diver, since Little Cayman has next to no medical facilities and no chamber on the island. Reef Divers is the most safety conscious dive operator I have ever been with, and I have seen their briefings and actions on this first hand a number of times. There is simply no way any diver got one of their computers and wasn't trained on how it worked and how to avoid a lockout. With that said, if the lockout occurred, it ties the hands of the operator. They can't assume a computer malfunction and put the diver back in the water. In the review, it was mentioned that some time after the fact, a diver produced a "backup computer" that supposedly was on the dive with him as well. If it was not produced at the moment the lockout was noted, how can the DM know where the computer was or whether it was on that diver or somebody else? They simply can't take that chance of letting the diver back in the water, and they make that policy very clear up front. Any diver who was surprised by the policy or felt punished for "the computer beeping at them" doesn't belong in the water in the first place, because they clearly aren't paying attention to the DMs and clearly don't understand how their equipment works if they refer to a full computer lockout as It beeped at me".
The last reason I suspect that review is off is that they claimed that the same person in the dive shop did the same thing last year to somebody else. That can't be true, because they would have been dealing with the dive shop manager for that kind of issue, and Ben Webb who was the manager for several years is no longer there. It really bugs me to see a review like this because the title of the review cites questionable dive shop practices as if they were somehow putting divers in danger, when that insinuation couldn't possibly be further from the truth. If there is anything they could be guilty of, it would be exercising an overabundance of caution in trying to protect the diver from their own stupidity. That isn't a "questionable" practice in my book, it is a commendable one, and it is a shame to see it characterized otherwise.
Oh well...off my soapbox...
