First post, newer diver...
My wife and I are looking at both SCC and BA for May. Prices seem to be about the same but how are the rentals? We have mask/snorkel/fins and would need to rent everything else. Does BA rent computers? After reading the posts it seems BA may be a little better for us with the smaller groups? At BA, if you do the 5 night, 3 day dive package, can you do shore dives on the 4th day? Likewise, can you do shore diving on the 6th day on the 7 night package? We would be leaving late afternoon the next day. Night dives recommended? Any problems walking into town to eat at night?
Our local shop and dive instructor do SCC but the posts on here have made us look more into BA. We like the idea of being at a smaller resort.
Well tanks and weights are included in the dives. Tanks are AL80 and I believe you could order an AL100 if you wanted.
Rentals: I rented a BC & Reg set up up x 10 days. The BC was of good quality, not weight integrated, so a belt was needed and that was supplied.
The Reg/Octo/SPG were used but worked well. I did have a problem with a leaky SPG on one dive. It turned out to be an O-ring on the swivel, they replaced it, showed me how to do it actually. Octo & Reg worked fine.
I imagine they can rent you a computer, but I had my own.
You can shore dive any time you want. I did a couple of dives about an hour before sunset. Night dives are not a problem either, I saw someone out every night from my room, could see their lights moving along.
You just leave the tank in the rack when you are done. Since I came back so late, the dive shop was closed, but the guy at the front desk had a key, let me in to hang up my gear, no problem.
Also, just because you have a 3 or 5 or 7 day package doesn't mean you can't go out on the boat more. I had a 5 day dive package, but went out on the boat 9 times.
They would either call me in the room or ask me if I wanted to go out, and of course since I came to dive, I went.
I walked into town a few times. It takes about 15-20 minutes. Easy for me, but sometimes I would walk in and just take a taxi back or vise versa. No problems vey safe, except for the cracks in the sidewalk, they are hard to see at night so use some caution.
If you walk into town to Mega or Chedrui (grocery stores), it is best to take a taxi back if you are hauling lots of goods. I didn't the first night and my arms were pretty sore.
All in all I enjoyed the Blue Angel very much. Dive shop is small but run well. They always try to group people by skill level. They let us dive our air or computer, which was cool.
I have a friends that only goes to SCC and they love it.
You really can't go wrong with either one of these places, but they are each different.
Have fun. hard not to.:goingdown:
Just the pick me up I needed this morning.
