Have SB divers lost interest in GC?

[tridacna]

We’re going to LCBR in Oct/Nov for two weeks. The resort is 100% sold out. I’ve been trying to get extra rooms to no avail. I reckon that they’re doing just fine.

 

[azstinger11]

Where did you stay/dive/eat?

Stayed @ seven mile beach club. Good location, and free with our time share.

Dive Operators: DNS and Ocean Frontiers. Zero complaints, both were excellent and priced well

Food: sort of all over. Tukka, Over The Edge, Sunset House, Grand Cayman House, The Wharf, Peppers, Coconut Joe, Craft F&B, and I’m sure I’m missing stuff. Prices were just super high for good food (The Wharf, Grand Cayman), or very high for mediocre at best (the rest). Felt like I was paying steakhouse prices for worse than Applebees food. Our complaint wasn’t even the quality of the food, but more the food value.

 

[bmorescuba]

I took a group of 25 to Cobalt Coast (CC) April 2-9, 2022. This was a trip originally scheduled for April, 2020. We all know how that went. I rebooked the trip 4 different times before I finally got the group there. CC said we were the first large group to come in since the reopening. We still had to do entry tests and tests to get back in the US, but CC did everything they could to facilitate the process and no one had to quarantine. They were hurting for staff, but the staff who were there worked their a$$es off.

Food and service were great, resort was in pretty good shape, maintenance-wise. We were on the 3-dive package, and most of the people in my group were itching to get in lots of dives, so we shore dived every day and some nights. I was very sad to see the state of the brain and star coral from SCTLD. At that time, REEF divers were not taking any extra precautions to prevent the spread. I don't know the situation now. We enjoyed the great viz and calm seas (not always a given in early April). Highlights of marine life were loads of Caribbean reef squid (we counted up to 70 on shore dives right in front of the resort). Lots and lots of yellow-headed jawfish. Some fun dives on the Kittiwake and Oro Verde wrecks. I wandered off on my own for a couple shallower dives and stumbled on a school of tarpon in the daytime - that was super cool.

All in all, I felt a little bit like the magic wasn't there. The COVID restrictions, the SCTLD, the relative low density of any large marine life. I've done LC 3 times, Brac once, and GC 2 times. I've led trips to all 3. For me, the ranking is inversely proportional to the hassle of getting there and the development on the island. Little is the most spectacular, then Brac, then Grand. Grand is a lot easier to get to and I like the shore diving. Brac is moderately difficult and there's great shore dives, but they're more of a pain. And Little is a real travel hassle with no shore diving, but more pristine. I hope the damage of SCTLD can be contained and managed somehow.

Full trip gallery here.

 

[Kimela]

Do you think the diving off Cozumel is better?

Yes

EDIT: I went back to review my pictures from that trip and I still say yes, the diving in Cozumel is better than what we experienced in GC in August of 2019. The reef didn't look particularly healthy or colorful. We had signed up for a trip to Little Cayman in August of 2020 and of course it was canceled. Glad we didn't take the credit for the delayed trip because I believe that also was canceled. Too bad. I'd still like to do Little Cayman or Cayman Brac.

 

[scubadada]

Hi @bmorescuba

Good information and beautiful photos, thanks.

In the context of your previous visits, how widespread and severe is SCTLD? Was it prevalent at all dive sites or just some of them? Did you do much diving off the North Wall? Was SCTLD equally spread in the West and in the North?

I haven't done a land-based trip to Grand Cayman since 2011, it was in good shape then, first dived there in 1997. I did a few dives off GC in 2018 from the Cayman Aggressor V, but did not dive my favorite sites except for Babylon, which was still spectacular.

 

[scubadada]

Hi @jgttrey

Could you describe your experience with the current diving a bit more, shape of the reefs and corals, sea life, etc? Your perspective in light of previous visits would be valuable.

Thanks

 

[O-ring]

Heading back to GC next year on the Cayman Aggressor. Looking forward to it since I haven't been there in years.

 

[Jcp2]

GC was on our radar as a close substitute for Hawaii resort style vacation but then pandemic. It’s back on behind everything else already lined up. Maybe 2023 or 2024.

 

[AggieDiver]

I know that - I was just saying that, given their tight restrictions during the last 2 years, I was forced to dive in other places and GC is no longer my most dived location.

Gotcha, I misunderstood what you meant when you said it. I thought you meant you were not interested in going back because of ongoing restrictions. I am in the same boat that I would have gone back sooner if not for their slow playing the removal of their restrictions.

 

[mi000ke]

I was wondering the same thing. My wife and I just got back from 2 great weeks in Bonaire. We are thinking of another shorter, week trip before the end of the year and Grand Cayman is on the list. I'm particularly interested in how Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease has affected the diving, with it being present nearly everywhere around the island. Are there site closures, haven't read about it since the temporary closures on the North Wall at the end of 2020? We are thinking of staying at Cobalt Coast or Compass Point, both places we have stayed at before, but not for some time. We have also been to Little Cayman and Cayman Brac, but are hoping to skip the extra travel for this short trip.

@mi000ke ?

It's hard to tell yet about diver interest in Cayman Islands, as the islands haven't been open without restrictions for very long. Tourism in general is coming back strong. Our condo building is seeing the highest occupancy rate on rentals that we've seen in years. We are there Jan - May every year and rent out during the off season, and our off season rentals have doubled this year. That said, in my experience most visitors to Cayman are not divers, so the increase in tourism doesn't really say much about diver interest overall.

We were "stranded" on island for 18 months (Jan 2020 - May 2021) due to covid, and the diving during that time was great, and SCTLD was not too prevalent. I have not been able to dive (or drink) since then due to some heath issues (will be getting back in the water and the bars in January) and have not interacted with anyone from the diving industry since then, so can't speak to the current conditions. We were down for the last two weeks doing some renovations, and we saw a lot of dive boats out off SMB every day, so there is a least some activity.

In general Cayman, being fairly expensive, faces a lot of headwinds for folks looking for a diving vacation as opposed to a beach vacation with some diving. When we were looking for places in the Caribbean, good diving was my primary concern. Non-diving activities were key for my non-diving wife. We each got a vote, but hers is larger than mine. All in all it's been a good compromise, and I have never had a bad dive outing is all the years we've been here - and I can't say that for some of the other islands I dove at in the past.

I'll be posting more updates in January. And if any of you are going to be on island this winter, I'm always up for a dive or a beer or both.