Freeport Grand Bahama

[sharky60]

I dove with Sunn Odyssey divers in April, Nick and Karen Rolle are wonderful people and run a top notch operation.
My wife and I were the only ones on the boat the whole week we were there, it was great! private diving for the price of a regular boat dive.
Davido the DM and Patrick the Rolle's son, who as doing his DM liscensing at the time, were our crew for most of the week with Erica their daughter joining us on a couple of dives.
The Rolle's picked us up at our hotel in the morning and returned us to the hotel after the dives. They were in the process of building a new dive operation headquarters that will have a pool and cabanas to stay in, but I'm not sure how far they are with the construction process.
They have at least 2 boats the one we went on was nice and roomy and would hold 8-10 divers, but I don't think they take out more than 8 at a time. One of their slogans is "uncrouded boats". They have a 20 year perfect saftey record, and it shows, the guys were very attentive to both my wife and I, she is a new diver of 4 years and I'm a veteran of over 22.
As for Grand Bahama Scuba, I don't know anything about them
All in all, I wouldn't use anyone else on the island, and I have never hear a bad thing about them on this board. I have recommended them to many people and all have been satisfied with their service also.
I can't wait to go back and dive with them again.
have a great trip and happy diving,
marc

Hi,

My husband and I are scheduled to go to Freeport from October 23rd through the 30th. We are staying at the Ritz Beach Resort.

I've been reading through the threads and am seeing most recommendations of dive ops as either Grand Bahama Scuba or Sunn Odyssey. We don't like to be on crowded boats - prefer no more than 10 people. Has anyone used both of these to be able to compare the two? It sounds as if either would be fine but I'm just curious about which would be the best between the two dive ops.

Thanks!
Terri

 

[caymaniac]

Hi,

My husband and I are scheduled to go to Freeport from October 23rd through the 30th. We are staying at the Ritz Beach Resort.

I've been reading through the threads and am seeing most recommendations of dive ops as either Grand Bahama Scuba or Sunn Odyssey. We don't like to be on crowded boats - prefer no more than 10 people. Has anyone used both of these to be able to compare the two? It sounds as if either would be fine but I'm just curious about which would be the best between the two dive ops.

Thanks!
Terri

Hi Terri, I have dove at both Freeport and Nassau. On Grand Bahama we (my wife and I) dove with UNEXSO. The beaches are nice on Freeport but beware of the locals that bump against you. I was offered drugs, women, and partying and I didn't appreciate it. We did the 'Shark' dive and really enjoyed it.

 

[sharky60]

terri,
just read on in the posts, I see your headed to the Mayan coast now. I'm a Cozumel regular and haven't dove the Mayan coast at all, please give us a trip report when you get back on how it was, who you went with and all the gory details.
If you get a chance, go to the Tulum archeological site, or if your feeling really adventurous, go to Coba, it's about 40 km (35mi+-) inland from Tulum. On the way to Coba there are 3 small Mayan villages in the second one I think it is there is a guy who carves mayan hyroglyphs from limestone blocks and makes mayan statues & other authentic mayan artifacts, I've bought several things from him over the years. very cool stuff.
sorry the Bahama deal didn't work out for you, but if you go next year please keep my friends at Sunn Odyssey in mind. I got a quick e-mail from Karen, she didn't say anthing about losing boats but it was just a quick note. She did say the island is quite a mess though so let's keep those people all in our prayers and hope they can get tourism back up and running soon, as it is really the only economy on the island.
best wishes,
marc

 

[tjtedrow]

I dove with Sunn Odyssey divers in April, Nick and Karen Rolle are wonderful people and run a top notch operation.
My wife and I were the only ones on the boat the whole week we were there, it was great! private diving for the price of a regular boat dive.
Davido the DM and Patrick the Rolle's son, who as doing his DM liscensing at the time, were our crew for most of the week with Erica their daughter joining us on a couple of dives.
The Rolle's picked us up at our hotel in the morning and returned us to the hotel after the dives. They were in the process of building a new dive operation headquarters that will have a pool and cabanas to stay in, but I'm not sure how far they are with the construction process.
They have at least 2 boats the one we went on was nice and roomy and would hold 8-10 divers, but I don't think they take out more than 8 at a time. One of their slogans is "uncrouded boats". They have a 20 year perfect saftey record, and it shows, the guys were very attentive to both my wife and I, she is a new diver of 4 years and I'm a veteran of over 22.
As for Grand Bahama Scuba, I don't know anything about them
All in all, I wouldn't use anyone else on the island, and I have never hear a bad thing about them on this board. I have recommended them to many people and all have been satisfied with their service also.
I can't wait to go back and dive with them again.
have a great trip and happy diving,
marc

Hi Marc,

Thanks for the info. I have heard great things about both Sunn Odyssey and Grand Bahama Scuba. Unfortunately, our trip was cancelled because our resort sustained damage from the hurricanes. I'm hoping we'll get to go next year.

I definitely like the idea of small groups. When we dove in Key Largo, we had a husband/wife team that took us out and the most people diving while we were there were 7 on one day. Most of the time it was just me, my husband, and our friend Terry. It was great!!

Terri

 

[tjtedrow]

terri,
just read on in the posts, I see your headed to the Mayan coast now. I'm a Cozumel regular and haven't dove the Mayan coast at all, please give us a trip report when you get back on how it was, who you went with and all the gory details.
If you get a chance, go to the Tulum archeological site, or if your feeling really adventurous, go to Coba, it's about 40 km (35mi+-) inland from Tulum. On the way to Coba there are 3 small Mayan villages in the second one I think it is there is a guy who carves mayan hyroglyphs from limestone blocks and makes mayan statues & other authentic mayan artifacts, I've bought several things from him over the years. very cool stuff.
sorry the Bahama deal didn't work out for you, but if you go next year please keep my friends at Sunn Odyssey in mind. I got a quick e-mail from Karen, she didn't say anthing about losing boats but it was just a quick note. She did say the island is quite a mess though so let's keep those people all in our prayers and hope they can get tourism back up and running soon, as it is really the only economy on the island.
best wishes,
marc

Oops, somehow I missed this one! We ended up cancelling our Mexico trip as well...I'm so bummed. We have been re-modeling our house and ran into some problems so we just aren't going anywhere this year. I'm having diving withdrawals!!!!! :11:

We all should definitely keep our prayers going for all the folks who suffered losses. I know they are used to hurricanes in those areas but not so many bad ones in a row like that. How devastating.

Terri

 

[tjtedrow]

Hi Terri, I have dove at both Freeport and Nassau. On Grand Bahama we (my wife and I) dove with UNEXSO. The beaches are nice on Freeport but beware of the locals that bump against you. I was offered drugs, women, and partying and I didn't appreciate it. We did the 'Shark' dive and really enjoyed it.

I had heard of locals bugging people to braid their hair but nothing about drugs & women. Of course, every time I go to Chinatown in San Francisco, I get offers for heroin and other drugs..I think they are everywhere now! It really is pretty sad. I don't mind the braid thing but I'm definitely not interested in either drugs or women!

I'd love to do the shark dive too. Did you try any of the dolphin encounters?

We're not going to be able to go this year after all but I'm hoping we will next year.

Thanks for the info,
Terri