Grand Cayman Dive Package

[DavidHickey]

Good Afternoon,
I'm trying to get to Cayman Nov 15 thru 19 and wondering if anyone could recommend a resort and dive package. I've been to Cayman many times but never went as a diver "was a lowly snorkeler at the time" any info would be appreciated. At this point I'm leaning towards the Sunset House. They have a pretty decent looking package.
Thanks
David Hickey

 

[cow_boy2]

hi dave - if it works for you I've got a unit booked the 10-19 - see my post here for details - open to more divers - Cheers, Daryl.

 

[worlddiver]

We are a fan of Divetech @ Cobalt Coast Resort on the NW side of Grand Cayman. They are off the beathen path but only minutes from the Seven Mile beach attractions but far away from the cruise ship area. Divetech will have everything you could every want out of diving, especially diving the Northwall sites. They have two tank boat diving with 2 one hour profiles (free computer rental if needed) and free 24/7 unlimited shore diving from 2 locations. The shore diving is just awesome right out front of their resort and then you need to tryout their underwater scooters. If you ever want to try out diving with no bubbles diving they have a Rebreather 1/2 day experience to 60' for a 1 1/2 hours with no bubbles. I liked it for taking photos. The fish just came right up to my camera.

Have a great trip....

 

[susan6868]

Hi David-
We are heading down to Cobalt Coast/Dive Tech Nov. 24-29. Never been there, just chose it based on all the excellent reviews from our friends here on Scubaboard. They have a Fall Special, and if I'm not mistaken, we got 6 days/5 nights, oceanfront king suite with two boat dives a day, unlimited shore diving, airport transfers to and from the resort, and a meal package for three meals a day for less than $1100 a piece (there are two of us). Spirit Air had fabulous airfare, under $400 each.
Check with Cobalt Coast as they are advertising fall specials through December 20th.
As I said, this is my first time to Cayman, but they've been awesome in helping me plan. There's a girl named Melissa there who has emailed me every few days in order to make sure we have no questions and we have everything we need once we get there. It's like having a personal planner- I've never sen anything like it.
Divetech has a great reputation, but I've talked to them by phone and via email. They've been great in helping us plan every detail, even booked our Sting Ray City dive.
Like you, we don't have al that much time, so we need to plan carefully and get as much diving in as possible.
The last thing I wanted to mention is that Divetech will let you dive both their shore dives at two different locations as much as you want and it's included in your package.
We are fairly new (Between 50 and 75 dives each) and Divetech assured us that the shore dives are great for novice divers. We've been a little leary about diving without a divemaster or guide but this will be our first unguided dives and we hope it at least once a day!
Well, sorry to be so longwinded but you asked! Hope that helps, and I hope we both get great weather!
Susan

 

[cmcdarris]

David,

We just returned last week (10/23/06-10/27/06) from GC. We stayed on the East end of the Island b/c it was more remote. We went with another couple and we all loved it. The sites are not over-dived as some of them are on the west side. I looked at Sunset House but it seemed somewhat outdated from some of the messages I read. We stayed at The Reef Resort in a brand new 2 bedroom condo. We had 10 dives with Ocean Frontiers, which had an office at The Reef Resort. I would highly recommend considering the East end. We loved Ocean Frontiers. We left our gear each day and they washed it off and had it set up the next morning. The boat captains took us to some great spots and the boats were limited in capacity (I think 10 was the limit) I understand that some of the others along seven mile beach are a cattle train, packed with lots of divers.

We purchased our package through Trip.com or Travelocity.com and got a good deal.

Glad to answer any questions.

Have fun.

 

[Divergirl4U]

I am very excited about my Cayman trip ... Would love to know the best places to dive ... I am advanced ow and I love wrecks ... I am staying north of Hell and I think I will use http://www.divetech.com/ for my dive Pkg ... I would also like to know about the best shore dives in the area.
Kim P
florida conch diver :mooner: active scuba board member :14:

 

[sdwho]

Our favorite shore dive in GC is Turtle Reef. Its just five minutes from Cobalt Coast and the main Divetech shop. Divetech has a shop at the Turtle Reef dive site so you can get tanks, weights,etc there. Its a shore dive that you can do many many times without feeling like you've repeated yourself. For example, you can spend a lot of time just in the shallow channel that leads out to the mini wall drop off. There are tons of juveniles in that area -- last trip we saw juvie puffers, spotted drum, angel fish, trigger fish etc. I'm talking really small: no morethan a couple of inches. We've also seen squid on several occasions in that area and almost always see peacock flounder.
If you go out to the drop off, you have two choices: left or right. Following the wall to the left you will encounter, eventually, a school of tarpon and (possibly) a very large barracuda. This summer there were silversides in the area as well. Midnight parrots, trigger, puffer,turtles, sting rays, all are commonly seen in the area and there are eels, lobsters, and crabs to be found if you look along the wall. If you go to the right you'll probably see angel fish, golden coneys, lobster etc etc.

Turtle Reef also is a fantastic night dive. On our most recent trip we dove the site almost every night and saw octopus every time (one night,when we went out around 9:30, we say 8 or 9 different octopus including one that was only a couple of inches in size.

You can make it as long or short a dive as you want. By ending in the shallows looking for juvies, we've stayed down as long as an hour and a half!!

 

[flyhimd]

My partner and I will be diving Cayman for the first time while on a Royal Carribbean cruise. Time in port is limited (9am-5pm, with the ship being tendered), so it'll be tight. Any recommendations for a dive operator and dive locations?

We're trying to avoid the cruise line's house arrangements; we're advanced open water and do a lot of photography...taking the cruise line's cattle boat trip will likely mean being packed in with once-a-year novice divers, will be too limiting in the "stay with your group" sense, and probably would end up at some shallow and over-dived site.

Any recommendaions appreciated! Also hitting Cozumel, Belize, and Costa Maya/Majauhaul on the cruise, diving in each port (talk about a spacious liveaboard).

Thanks.