Diving in July

[igneous]

We haven't booked a hotel yet, but we'll be on Grand cayman in late july and will have a rental car. Do we NEED to dive the stingray city location? It looks like its so shallow a dive isn't totally necessary, but if its going to make it that much better I have no issue with it.
I keep reading about some of the shore diving around turtle reef and lighthouse point, but then I read about the boat dives on the north wall as well and get confused about what I should prioritize. We might bring our masks and fins, but besides that will need to rent. Should we rent gear for a day or two and just rent a tank for the shore dives? I can't quite figure out what makes the most sense.
As far as dive operators I keep reading about divetech and DNS as good ones to go with.
Basically we want to dive for a couple days or so, and we want to hit up the "must see" sites as a priority. If we can save a few bucks by doing it efficiently that would be great but its not the main focus. Any tips on how we should set this up? I realize there isnt a single way to do it, but I would imagine there is a bit more consensus when there are only 2-3 days available. We're decent divers, but fairly intermediate. So we dont need our hands held all the time, but don't want to be thrown into sketchy situations on our own either. Thanks

 

[howswedeofme]

You don't need to do the stingray city dive, but it is fun. The dive is very shallow (12-15 feet), but it was more enjoyable for us than the sand bar experience. We did ours with Dive Tech. The dive isn't in the same location as the sandbar. For the dive, you get to feed the stingrays out of a bottle typically and they like to rub their bellies on the top of your head. When you're done feeding them, a few usually follow the group around for the rest of the dive around some of the dollops of reef. For the sandbar, there are usually a bunch of boats out there and people snorkeling or standing on the sandbar. It can get pretty crowded. The stingrays bombard your feet and a guide tries to grab one for you to pet and kiss. I found it pretty overwhelming. And, you can still get a stingray kissing photo underwater on the dive if you want - a few people in our group did.

Stingray Waterports (technically next to Macabuca but not a formal shop) rents out full sets of gear for $35 a day or $125 for the week. Our friends rented from Stingray and the rental rig included a computer (which I think is required to dive with Dive Tech). I'm not sure what the rate is for the dive shop on site at Turtle Reef (Sun Divers).

DiveTech and DNS are both fantastic. DNS does go north sometimes, but also leaves earlier than all the other boats (by 7:30a) so if they stay close to northern SMB/West Bay they get to the "good" dive sites before the other boats. DiveTech seems to like to go north as much as they can, which is great diving but does take a long time to get out and back. The other plus with DNS is that you get back to the dock early since you leave earlier and have more time to fit in maybe two shore dives instead of one in the afternoon. If I only had two days to dive and wanted to get as much in of the good stuff as possible with as much variety as possible, I'd do one day with DNS of an earlier morning two-tank and then two afternoon shore dives (or one afternoon, one night dive) OR the Stingray City dive that afternoon and then a night dive. I'd do the second day with DiveTech to try to hit the north wall and a later afternoon shore dive (or if DNS is going north, do two with DNS to keep the early start rolling). You can call ahead to either op see if they plan to go to the north wall that day or not (weather depending). Even with getting in later in the afternoon (usually around 1:30), you could still do two shore dives before it gets dark if you don't push bottom time or do one with daylight and one dusk/night dive. I'd recommend Turtle Reef for the night dive - it's a very good set up and very difficult to get lost. Neither op will throw you into any sketchy situations.

As for my "must see" sites, I recommend Big Tunnels, Big Dipper, and Trinity Caves for the West Bay area (if I had to only pick two, I'd pick Big Tunnels and Trinity Caves). Hepp's Wall isn't too far past the West Bay dock and might be a closer option, as well. If the main all is anything like the mini wall we dove (Hepp's Pipeline) then it would be a fantastic dive. I haven't done enough on the north wall to have any favorites yet.

 

[tkaelin]

My two cents.
1. If you only want to dive a couple dives dont' worry about "must do" dive sites. On boat dives, most dive ops don't or wont' tell you or commit in advance to any particular sites. You will likely enjoy any of the main sites that are frequented by most ops.
2. Stingray City. A personal choice but I would not waste my time. I much rather be on a wall or diving in a "natural" setting rather than sitting in sandy shallows surrounded by stingrays looking to be fed. That would get old for me real quick.
3. On rental, if you are only diving a couple dives, I would recommend diving with the same op on consecutive days. This avoids the time renting and returning gear multiple times.
4. Depending on what part of the island you are staying, Divetech on the West or Oceanfrontiers on the East would be good options. If staying on the West and you dive with DT you have the choice of AM and PM 2 tank boat dives and depending on the package shore diving included at Lighthouse point. OF also does 2 tank AM and 2 tank PM everyday except no 2 tank PM on Sat.

Good Luck and have fun.

 

[Damselfish]

Are you only there for a few days, or only want to dive for a few days on a longer trip? You want to pack in as many dives as you can, or just dive like in the morning and do other stuff in the afternoon? And what else do you want to do? Might make a difference in where is best to stay, which may affect where you dive.

Sticking with one op (aside from maybe renting shore tanks someplace) makes sense, there is overhead in changing ops. You have to figure out their routine and they have to check out you. You don't want to get different rental gear each day, and it's sometimes more hassle to take gear (yours or theirs) from one op to do shore diving elsewhere, especially if you're using a valet sort of op that takes care of gear for you.

If you can get a dive package for a few days at Compass Point/Ocean Frontiers on the East End, you could do 2 tank morning and afternoon boat dives with them. And maybe a night dive if you hit the right days. However, that's far from the shore diving, including the places you mentioned. And also far from a lot of other stuff on the island, which suits some people but not others.

To do some shore diving, it makes more sense to be on the West End. To want to maximize 2-3 days of diving, I would do 2 tank boat dives each morning, then spend the afternoons at the better shore diving spots. If you boat dive with Divetech at Lighthouse Point, that may include shore diving tanks with them for the day. If you want to mix it up, heard over to Turtle Reef for an afternoon of shore diving/eating/hanging out there, renting tanks from Sundivers there. It's a nice spot and the tarpon are cool.

You could also consider staying at Cobalt Coast, which is an AI. Boat dives in the am and on site shore diving in the afternoons. Shore diving there is a little more exposed and weather dependent, but in the summer good chance it will be fine. (Though I don't think the shore diving is as good there, partly because it's a rather long swim to the better stuff. But you can certainly go off-site to the other spots mentioned and rent tanks and dive those instead.)

As said, when diving for just a couple days, you're not going to have much control over what sites the boat goes to. You can request sites, but it depends on conditions, other requests, where they've already been in recent days, and whatever schedule of regular spots they might have. Of course you will have better odds of getting requests with an op that runs with fewer divers. Sometimes best to just go with the flow though.

As far as Stingray City/Sandbar area - I haven't snorkeled there, but have seen snorkel excursions in action from both topside and underwater, and think diving is a better way to go when you can. Whether it is worth whatever the cost difference is, or doing at all, is hard to say for someone else. I don't think it's worth giving up regular dives for, especially on a short trip. But it can easily be a last day thing when you're flying the next day. It's one of those things that's unique/famous/heavily promoted, the sort of thing many people need to get out of their system if they haven't done it yet. I think it's fun to do once for most people.

 

[Doctorfish]

I think Damselfish has this right.
.
Our own strategy to combine good diving and also be economical is:
AM Boat diving ( same operator )
PM +/- Night diving at Turtle Reef or Lighthouse.
If the weather is good, most operators go north rather than west, and the weather is good in July. All the operators want to dive the best sites for the day so do not worry about specific sites. The DMs want to dive a good site themselves and also want their clients to be happy. We almost always go with their choice.
I personally would not bother with Stingray City or the Kittiwake. The stingray experience is contrived and gets boring after a few minutes. The Kittiwake does not have much growing on it yet. If you are diving the west side, many of the ops will do the top of the reef at sand chute as a second dive so you can swim past the wreck anyway,


I love the shore diving at Cobalt. Despite the long swim, the miniwall is pristine and you can also make it to the main wall if you want.

North Wall diving with a few shore dives mixed in will give you a great experience.

 

[igneous]

Are you only there for a few days, or only want to dive for a few days on a longer trip? You want to pack in as many dives as you can, or just dive like in the morning and do other stuff in the afternoon? And what else do you want to do? Might make a difference in where is best to stay, which may affect where you dive.

Sticking with one op (aside from maybe renting shore tanks someplace) makes sense, there is overhead in changing ops. You have to figure out their routine and they have to check out you. You don't want to get different rental gear each day, and it's sometimes more hassle to take gear (yours or theirs) from one op to do shore diving elsewhere, especially if you're using a valet sort of op that takes care of gear for you.

If you can get a dive package for a few days at Compass Point/Ocean Frontiers on the East End, you could do 2 tank morning and afternoon boat dives with them. And maybe a night dive if you hit the right days. However, that's far from the shore diving, including the places you mentioned. And also far from a lot of other stuff on the island, which suits some people but not others.

To do some shore diving, it makes more sense to be on the West End. To want to maximize 2-3 days of diving, I would do 2 tank boat dives each morning, then spend the afternoons at the better shore diving spots. If you boat dive with Divetech at Lighthouse Point, that may include shore diving tanks with them for the day. If you want to mix it up, heard over to Turtle Reef for an afternoon of shore diving/eating/hanging out there, renting tanks from Sundivers there. It's a nice spot and the tarpon are cool.

You could also consider staying at Cobalt Coast, which is an AI. Boat dives in the am and on site shore diving in the afternoons. Shore diving there is a little more exposed and weather dependent, but in the summer good chance it will be fine. (Though I don't think the shore diving is as good there, partly because it's a rather long swim to the better stuff. But you can certainly go off-site to the other spots mentioned and rent tanks and dive those instead.)

As said, when diving for just a couple days, you're not going to have much control over what sites the boat goes to. You can request sites, but it depends on conditions, other requests, where they've already been in recent days, and whatever schedule of regular spots they might have. Of course you will have better odds of getting requests with an op that runs with fewer divers. Sometimes best to just go with the flow though.

As far as Stingray City/Sandbar area - I haven't snorkeled there, but have seen snorkel excursions in action from both topside and underwater, and think diving is a better way to go when you can. Whether it is worth whatever the cost difference is, or doing at all, is hard to say for someone else. I don't think it's worth giving up regular dives for, especially on a short trip. But it can easily be a last day thing when you're flying the next day. It's one of those things that's unique/famous/heavily promoted, the sort of thing many people need to get out of their system if they haven't done it yet. I think it's fun to do once for most people.

I probably want to dive for about half the trip(4 total days), but its more dependent on seeing some great stuff. I probably dont want to get repetitive unless it greatly increases my odds of seeing new and different things. Its less about packing in diving into every single moment.

Thanks for all your responses, I'm blown away by all the level of detail in this thread. Thanks!

 

[EastEndDiver]

Sometimes if you dive the North Wall the Dive Op will bring you into Stingray City for the surface interval if you ask........done this a few times and only when no cruise ships in.

 

[Doctorfish]

To be specific, they may take you to the sandbar, not the dive site.

 

[EastEndDiver]

No........what I said for free diving maybe they will also take you to the sandbar.

 

[Doctorfish]

I stand corrected. Thanks.