Jamaica

[mcohen1021]

Cho! A wha yu tink yu duh galang lakka rude bwoy drop offa de boat? Jesum piece! Yu does bex me so!

LOL - you have me beat mon!

 

[agilis]

LOL - you have me beat mon!

Good luck and best wishes. I was married at a small interdenominational church in Sav (Savanna La Mar), the only one of my marriages that was not a civil ceremony, and the only one that lasted.

I have Jamaican relatives and friends, and I lived there for more than a year after leaving the service, a long time ago. After I started my academic career I spent two semester-long sabbaticals there devoted to studying Jamaican literature, and a few sweet summers devoted to simple but profound pleasures.

I speak (and occasionally dream in) pretty good Jamaican. It's fun surprising people there who don't expect to hear it from me. Despite all its problems, mother Jamaica still calls to me.

 

[ibj40]

Negril offers much better diving than Ocho, but the quality diving in either place has been degraded by resort development, road construction and resultant silt runoff, trucking in sand to replenish beaches eroded by wave action because the outer reefs have been partially destroyed by a multiplicity of causes, and all the sins against the reefs that have resulted from human commercial activity. I've spent a great deal of time in Jamaica, lived there from time to time, and witnessed the destruction of what had once been magnificent.

Still, if you are not expecting anything spectacular, the diving can be very pleasant. There is still a lot to see, and the island is beautiful.

We've only stayed and dived in Negril (so can't comment on Ocho Rios or Mo Bay), but couldn't agree with you more on your assessment. We first went in 2003, again in 2008, and back in 2013. We have seen improvements in the diving each time we've come back, and are planning our next trip now. And it is more than the diving, the on-shore attractions and tours are outstanding and our goal is to expand our travels outside of the general Negril area into such places as Kingston.

Even though we have stayed each time at an AI with an on-site dive op, for our second and third trips, we used on off-site op that offered a lot better level of diving, matched to our capabilities, as opposed to the on-site and the mixed bag of divers you find at a resort.

Don't dismiss the entire island out of hand.

 

[divezonescuba]

The diving in Negril is actually ok. Jamaica sometimes gets a bad rep for diving. Its probably because of the non-Negril areas of the island.

We stayed at Beaches. A lot of those all inclusives are actually part of the same corporation and follow the same pattern. They're lined up one after the other on the beach.

Run down to the dive shack as soon as you arrive, they have this weird method of scheduling the dives. You may have to do a checkout dive to do any other diving and you can't do the checkout dive unless you have registered for it the day before.

There are no docks. Bring a drybag with you as you may have to wade out to the boat off of the shore.

 

[mcohen1021]

Thanks for the information on beaches... I would imagine a lot of them make you do a check out guys... I will inquire with the resort... Oh and for those wondering its my girlfriends daughters wedding not ours lol

I did tell her that I wanted to you change resorts after the wedding and go from Ocho Rios down to Negril... Since I've never been there

 

[HazardSports]

Big chat on Beaches / Sandals here:
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/showthread.php?t=443794
I'm a big fan of the resort but depends on your trip priorities. Check out the thread - a lot of opinions to read !

 

[Cam F]

best thing to do is have a peek, heres a 3 min video I made of dives on the north coast in Runaway bay and Montego Bay. If you are in Ochi the Chris at Jamaica Scuba Divers will come and pict you up and dive you in Runaway Bay. The Planes in the footage are in Runaway bay too

Scuba Diving in Jamaica with Dolphins, Turtles and Eagle Rays - YouTube

Jamaicas reefs are suffering but as you can see from the movie there are still some good things to see

enjoy the wedding, I got married there too. Great choice

Cam

 

[Knight_of_Avalon]

We will be in Ocho Rios in May for a wedding...

So my first question is does anybody have any experience with beaches resort scuba diving? And what is your opinion of it?

I don't know if this is in time to help you, but I think I dived with Beaches Resort when I was in Jamaica .. oh, about two years ago. A lot of the resorts in that area contract their scuba diving out to a third party, and I'm pretty sure that my resort used the one based out of Beaches (I know they drove us there to catch the boat).

If it is the same group, then its all boat diving. The boat (at that time) was a little beat up, but it did the job, and the captain was certainly a colorful figure, spending the entire trip singing in Creole. And the divemaster seemed to know what he was doing - although he wasn't exactly thorough about checking our certificiations (they made sure we had basic our basic Open Water, and that was about it).

As far as I can tell, the different dive groups in the area are all on the same general schedule: recreational dives in the morning, with classes in the afternoon. And while several groups listed night dives, I couldn't find anyone actually offering one.

In terms of sea life, it was kind of a mixed bag. The dive master decided to throw out the first, pre-planned dive, and just did a drift dive in a random spot. And that was kind of depressing. The area we went through looked almost like a strip mine. Just sand and dirt, with the occasional (small) purple sea fan.

The second dive, off the shore from the Pear Tree nudist colony, was more impressive. It was a protected area, with lots of fish and coral rising up out of the depths. We went through a short (maybe five foot) coral cavern, with schools of fish swimming around us . . I haven't dived in the Caribbean much, but I had good time.

On a side note, you might want to wear your boots, even if you're not diving. There are a lot of sea urchins in the area, and aqua shoes (or boots) are highly recommended

 

[drbill]

I was supposed to attend my niece's wedding at Sandals in Ocho Rios last weekend. However, as a single, the room would have cost me about $500/night. I looked into off-resort accommodations but was told by many it was not safe to stay off the resort grounds. I had considered extending my stay to dive in Negril for a week. but I decided to cancel the entire thing.

The feedback that I got was that the diving was pretty bad. That wouldn't necessarily stop me as I see value in filming locations where the habitat has been seriously degraded and then using them as examples in my videos. However, I also heard that the dives were guided and were lucky to last 30 minutes and that the "unlimited diving" at Sandals meant a maximum of two dives a day. Really? No thanks.

 

[genxweb]

I believe beaches and Sandals are one in the same. The beaches brand caters to the family with kids where sandals deals with just couples. I dove in montego bay area when I went and we saw a lot of marine life including large spotted eagle rays and sharks. I was there in 2013. Most days I got 2 dives in and on days when the wife wanted to just chill at the pool I got 4 in. I took the morning boat and the after noon boat. The one down side was each dive is guided and you have to come up with them. though most of our dives were around 40 minutes give or take. I was also able to request a advance area to go dive with the guides one day when they did not have ow students. Max depth was 90 feet and we did about 40 minutes (multiple depths). I would however never rent any gear there as all the gear they had looked to be falling apart and leaking.

That is just my two cents.