which RCI resort has the best diving???

[BrianM]

Hi everyone,

My company offered us a timeshare week thru R.C.I. to exchange for a vacation and I am trying to figure out where is the best place to go for good warm water diving? I am assuming there must be a lot of RCI owners on this board so someone must have addressed this question before, but when I did a search in this thread for RCI, it said there were no results.

I searched on www.RCI.com and I found a resort in the cayman islands and a few places in the bahamas, but none of them really seem to be designated as suitable for the "hard core scuba addict"...lol. We are hoping to find a place in the bahamas, BVI, Belize, Bonaire, or anywhere in the pacific.

My girlfriend and I are both very experienced divers with rescue cert and we would probably dive 5 days of a 7 day trip, minimum!!! We would probably be better off on a liveaboard trip but since this RCI exchange has been offered, we want to find something that will work and be worth the expense of the airfare and food + the diving cost. Any suggestions or experiences diving at a RCI resort would be appreciated!!! Thanks, Brian

 

[Damselfish]

Well, stay anyplace in Cayman and you can dive. You might be using an offsite op instead of strolling to the boat from your room, but that's fairly common in Cayman anyway. But when do you plan to go? The RCI site doesn't mention it but Morritts is not reopened yet since Ivan last year. I think I read Indies Suites is not reopening at all. Don't know about Coral Sands. Divi on Brac should certainly be fine for diving (if it makes it through this hurricane season!)

The board doesn't like 3 letter searches, but you can search on RCI* - still doesn't come up with much though.

 

[BrianM]

Hi Damsel,

That's the place I was considering, Morritts. That would be nice of them to mention it's closed...haha. We plan on going in November or first half of december. I liked that they had a dock there, so I figured we could get them to pick us up in the a.m. at the dock instead of driving to a shop...oh well. The place you mentioned, Divi, is that RCI?? I will have to look a little closer

Thanks

Brian

Well, stay anyplace in Cayman and you can dive. You might be using an offsite op instead of strolling to the boat from your room, but that's fairly common in Cayman anyway. But when do you plan to go? The RCI site doesn't mention it but Morritts is not reopened yet since Ivan last year. I think I read Indies Suites is not reopening at all. Don't know about Coral Sands. Divi on Brac should certainly be fine for diving (if it makes it through this hurricane season!)

The board doesn't like 3 letter searches, but you can search on RCI* - still doesn't come up with much though.

 

[Drew Sailbum]

Hi Damsel,

That's the place I was considering, Morritts. That would be nice of them to mention it's closed...haha. We plan on going in November or first half of december. I liked that they had a dock there, so I figured we could get them to pick us up in the a.m. at the dock instead of driving to a shop...oh well. The place you mentioned, Divi, is that RCI?? I will have to look a little closer

Thanks

Brian

Well, as the resident expert on Morritt's (I worked the dive shop there pre-Ivan), let me chime in. Morritt's Tortuga Club and Morritt's Grand are RCI timeshare properties on the East End of Grand Cayman.

Morritt's is planning a partial reopening in September 2005. The dock was destroyed by Hurricane Ivan, and has not yet been rebuilt. Many of the oceanfront units were heavily damaged and will eventually be rebuilt.

Plans are in the works to reopen Tortuga Divers. At this point, logistical concerns (how to get tanks, fuel, gear, water, and people on/off the boats) of operating without a dock are being worked through.

Indeed, as mentioned, Indies Suites has been sold to St Matthew's Medical School for development into student housing.

 

[rje634]

St. Lucia is a good RCI destination the diving is great and there is a resort there, Windjammer Landing, that always seems to be available. Very nice, we traded our Maui 1 bedroom and got a private 2 bedroom villa with a private plunge pool at Windjammer. Here are some of my posts about it:
http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?p=706606&highlight=lucia#post706606
http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?p=697344&highlight=lucia#post697344

 

[Father]

I'm resurrecting this because I'm looking for options both in a resort and a live-aboard/cruise. I already asked about the live-aboard in another thread. Figured since this one was already on the boards I'd bring it back to life.

 

[SouthSideScubaSteve]

I see units at the following resorts pop-up from time to time:

Morrit's (2 locations) in Grand Cayman
Buddy & Divi in Bonaire
El Cid & Park Royal in Coz
Divi Carina Bay in St Croix

All of the above are "dive friendly" from what I can tell (thru research on Trip Advisor, here and by word of mouth) and either do not requrie All Inclusive plans (which don't include diving anyway) or have "reasonable" AI rates ....

 

[oly5050user]

I see units at the following resorts pop-up from time to time:

Morrit's (2 locations) in Grand Cayman
Buddy & Divi in Bonaire
El Cid & Park Royal in Coz
Divi Carina Bay in St Croix

All of the above are "dive friendly" from what I can tell (thru research on Trip Advisor, here and by word of mouth) and either do not requrie All Inclusive plans (which don't include diving anyway) or have "reasonable" AI rates ....

We have a RCI timeshare at the Galleon on Key West. Not really a dive destination. We have traded it for El CID on Cozumel. Used on site operator, Babieca scuba. Had a nice stay, cannot go wrong had breakfast at Ernesto's a block away and at Casa del mar across the street.
Tried more times than I can count to get a week on Bonaire thru RCI, at Buddy dive, next to impossible.

 

[diversteve]

"Both" Morritt's are really the same place.

Morritt’s boasts three properties in one resort, Morritt’s Tortuga Club, Morritt’s Grand Resort and Morritt’s Residences.

https://lmsolinc.biz/

Divi Flamingo is doing major renovations this spring also. Divi Resorts Continues to Invest in Multi-Million Dollar Upgrade to Bonaire Resort | Travel Agent Central

Renovations on the 129-room resort begin in October with completion scheduled for summer 2015. The upgrade covers rooms, grounds, lobby, pools, beach, restaurants and bars, back of house, exterior décor, dive facilities and retail.

I'm pretty sure the earlier announcement said they'd be done by the start of summer also.

Guess they didn't factor in "Island Time"...

Is there anything listed for Turks & Caicos? I think the diving there is better than Cayman.

 

[Father]

So my wife booked us for Morritt's Tortuga Club in Grand Caymen.

Now that it's narrowed down... are there any "must dive" sites there?
Looks like they have walk-in/beach dives, which I'm all about. I think they have a boat as well that probably goes to pretty generic spots. Anything more advanced would probably mean looking outside of the resort.