trip report: Grand Cayman (27 June 2004 - 4 July 2004)

Here's my trip report from Grand Cayman (27 June 2004 - 4 July 2004).

Summary
I stayed on the east end of the island at the Reef Resort in
Collier's. The Reef is a condo complex right on the beach with a dive
shop on the premises. I only dove 3 days, my girlfriend doesn't dive
(yet) so I did landlubber things too. Here's the quick overview of the
outfits i used:

Ocean Frontiers
East End
Good operator! Recommended!

Cayman Dive Lodge
East End
Good operator! Recommended!

Neptune Divers
7 Mile
Good operator but not much to work with. Recommended if you want to
dive the west end.

other:
Fantasea Tours
Snorkel trips to Sting Ray City/Sandbar
good operation. Small boat/outfit, not a cattleboat company.
Recommended!

Avoid:
Red Sail Sports
(Morritt's) Tortuga Divers (owned by Red Sail)


Details
Like I mentioned above I stayed at the Reef Resort/Condo. It is right
on the beach and the studio room was $150/night with one night free
for 5 nights purchased. I booked directly with them instead of with
travelocity/orbitz/etc as it was cheaper. The Reef is also a timeshare
place but they do not push it like they do in the states. The only
mention of a sales pitch we got came in a letter which we promptly
threw away. It's not a hotel so don't expect daily cleanings but they
do come by everyday for trash and fresh towels. Full cleanings are on
Weds and Sat. Ethel (the consierge) is fantastic and can help with
anything.

The Cayman (pronounced 'Caay-man', not 'Caymen') islands are decended
from the old British empire so driving is on the left side. Note that
a lot of cars are imported used and there are a lot of right side
vehicles. The biggest and most populated island (Grand Cayman) is
still nothing like Cancun, in fact the islands are downright sleepy.
Don't go there if you want to party and bar-hop, there very little of
that there. The diving is good (but not superb) and the diving on the
east end of Grand Cayman is better than the west end. East end diving
is a little harder: more surface waves, some surge underwater, it's
also a 30min drive from 7mile. It seems that the touristy-types stay
and dive 7mile so I didn't see any once-a-year cruise boat divers on
the east end. There are only 3 choices for diving the east end: Ocean
Fontiers, Cayman Dive Lodge(CDL), and Morritt's Tortuga Divers. A
pre-trip google of rec.scuba.locations showed that CDL and Ocean
Frontiers had rave reviews and I dove with both of them. They are
virtually identical operators, 5 minutes apart by car and dive the
same sites. And they now both provide towels. Ocean Frontiers is $90
for a morning(7:45am) 2 tank and CDL(8:30am) is $95 but CDL includes a
good lunch when you get back to the dock. CDL also has bigger boats
(more stable) but could potentiall carry more divers, Ocean Frontiers
is limited to 12 divers/trip max. CDL also has a slightly longer ride
to the dive site, they are located farther from the reef gap so tack
on 5-10 min more each way. Water and fruit are included of course. I
had no problems calling the morning of the dive (6-7am) to reserve a
spot, however July is the low season. CDL is a standalone shop but
Ocean Frontiers is associated with the Reef and another condo place so
during busy times they could fill up fast. Both organizations have
nothing but good things to say about each other and often send
customers each way if they are booked. Classy operators and I highly
recommend both of them. I could not find many good things written
about Morritt's Tortuga Divers and I stayed away from them. Good thing
too, even the locals all around the island had bad things to say about
them and their parent company, Red Sail Sports. I wouldn't dive them,
they have a cattleboat reputation on the island.

Wall dives on the east end are about at 100ft and are in much better
condition than the top. There's a fair number of fish and you can see
turtles, lobsters, and the other usual caribbean fish. Rays and
hammerheads are an occasional view. There are a lot of swim throughs
but they are short and no flashlight is needed for day dives.

A few days into the trip we took a snorkel trip to Sandbar (the
snorkel equivelent of the scuba sting ray city). I admit that it is
very touristy and it did irk me that wild animals were being fed and
tamed to make a buck. However I was curious and we were going
regardless. We went out with Derek and Fantasea Tours, kind of a small
time operation run out of a guys house/van. However I'm glad we went
with him, it's a small catamaran/sail and it was not filled to the
brim with cruise-types. There are other boats that are a little
cheaper, but you snorkel with literally 10x more people. It's a 45min
ride from west bay, if you're staying on the east end I'd recommend
going from Rum Point since it's much faster and less of a drive.
Anyways once there you get to feed the stingrays and hold them, just
be careful and remember while they are relatively tame they can still
pack a wallop. If you do this take an afternoon trip not a morning
trip. In the morning the snorkel site is filled with people from the
cruise boats.

My last dive was with Neptune Divers on 7 Mile Beach. They depart from
the public beach near the Courtyard Marriott and next to Seagrapes
Cafe, it's a small mom-and-pop recommended by locals. Casey and Keith
were good operator/owners but they don't have much to work with in the
way of dive sites. It is the west end of the island and it is beat up
and the fish just aren't there. It's not terrible, but the east end is
much better. Also note as a west end outfit they get the kid divers
with the once-a-year parental divers. Ack. Everyone rents, puts on too
much weight, and sucks air! I forgot to mention that most 7mile
operators depart at 7:30am (some at 8am) but Neptune departs at 9:15am
or so. You get to sleep in with them.

Food places:
Over the Edge: north island. over the water, good and pricey but not
expensive.
Lighthouse: east end. over the water, good and expensive.
Lonestar: 7mile. American burger place.
Cayman Kai: don't know. Closed on Tuesday nights.
Rum Point: Outdoor/beach café. Good, inexpensive.
Cracked Conch: west bay. Good, nice view. Not expensive and around the
bend from the turtle farm.
Hell: there's nothing to eat in hell.


other advice/info:
- Grand Cayman isn't like downtown Cancun at all. Very quiet. If
you're looking for a big nightlife go somewhere else.
- East end diving is better than west end but a little harder as well.
- Hell is definitely overrated but it's only a few minutes from
Georgetown. If you're there for a week stop by, take a picture and a
buy the t-shirt.
- Turtles are availble to eat on the island. They have a turtle farm
which suppiles the meat and releases some turtles back into the wild.
Self guided tours are $6.
- East end to west end is 45min+
- It's not cheap. Food is a little above us average but drinks are
$10. So lunches for us came out to be $40-$50 and dinners $50-$100.
For two.
- West end dive boats generally leave early, many depart at 7:30, a
few at 8am.
- Speed limits range from 25km/h to 50km/hr. Many people drive about
2x the speed limit but there are cops about.
- Very little crime. The island police report for the week before us
consisted of: a stolen car, a foiled burglery, and a guy shooting
rabitts. But rabitt shooter had all his firearm permits in order so
the day was saved.
- the local radio stations are good
- US currency is accepted everywhere. CI$1 = US$.80
- Often prices are quoted as just in $. Ask if in US$ or CI$.
- 15% gratuity is often included for you so remember to check before
adding a tip!
- Tortuga was the name originally given to the Cayman islands by
Columbus in 1503.
- Best to go shopping when there are no cruise ships docked.
Georgetown is empty then.
- Wait until departing GCM to buy Tortuga Rum cakes. It's cheaper at
the duty free shop at the airport and you don't have to lug them
around. But stop by a Tortuga shop on the island to get a 10% off
card. Cakes are good for 6 months, vacuum sealed. I like the Coconut
and Coffee flavors.
- Credit card are accepted everywhere, even american express.
- There are no ATM (cash machines) on the east end as of July 2004.
- There is a small strip mall going up in Colliers which will have a
pizza joint.
- Food for the most part is american. The only thing ethnic about the
cuisine is conch (pronounced ‘konk') and the jerk-spice.
- there are 2 difference sizes of post cards and require different
postage. CI$.20 for small and CI$.30 for large (to the US).
- some gas stations (esp those not in 7mile or georgetown) don't take
credit cards.
- if you stay for a while you will need to get a car. At the airport
head straight out and turn left. The rental places are across the
street in the little strip mall.
- Departing Miami Intl (MIA) is painful. Check in took over an hour,
TSA screening also took another hour. Many people missed flights.
Coming back wasn't nearly so bad but customs seemed more excessively
detailed than other airports.
- Miami to Grand Cayman takes you over Cuba and you can get some nice
photos.
- Grand Cayman has real electonic/camera stores with modern supplies.
Even for digital cameras.
- the east end can be windy. More chop in the ocean, etc.


-lance smith

outside@ziggyworks.com (lance smith) pounded away at his keyboard
resulting in:
:- East end diving is better than west end but a little harder as well.

Harder how?

Dan Bracuk
If at first you don't succeed, you run the risk of failure.
The Best of rec.scuba http://www.pathcom.com/~bracuk/RecScuba/


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Dan Bracuk <NOTbracuk@pathcom.com> wrote in message
> outside@ziggyworks.com (lance smith) pounded away at his keyboard
> resulting in:
> :- East end diving is better than west end but a little harder as well.
>
> Harder how?

Harder is relative- mostly surface waves and some surge. No big deal
but it did seem to bother the recently certified and some of the
divers I met on the west end.

-lance smith

I've been there four times, staying at Morritts Tortuga resort.

Although I may not completely disagree with you, how can you slag off the
Tortuga dive operation when you state that you did not dive with them? At
least they offer Nitrox and, if you're on the resort, its only a 1 minute
walk to the boat.

I have dived with Ocean Frontiers, Tortuga Divers, Ambassador Divers (a
small operator nearer to Georgetown), Sunset Reef and DiveTech (two
locations, one near Cobalt Coast and the other by the Turtle farm).

Ocean Frontiers are great, and so is DiveTech, they are both the only
mixed-gas (TriMix) centres on the island, and DT also have Apollo scooters
for hire. OF also offer camera & UW video for hire (I take my own gear).

With DT you can also simply hire cylinders and do the excellent shore dive
from their own jetty, the wall is a 5 minute surface fin out, that can keep
the cost down significantly.

You can also hire cylinders from Sunset Reef, just on the outskirts of
Georgetown (heading back to East End) and do the shore / wall diving there,
it's at the same location as Cathy Church's underwater photography centre,
which is a great place to get some photo tuition from a professional and
they do on-site E6 slide processing & mounting.

You also missed out on an excellent restaurant that's not expensive, the
Kaibo, near Rum Point. Good food, reasonably priced and excellent &
friendly service. Linda & I had a meal there on our wedding anniversary
last year.


"lance smith" <outside@ziggyworks.com> wrote in message
news:36f85e46.0408170700.60906f7e@posting.google.c om...
> Dan Bracuk <NOTbracuk@pathcom.com> wrote in message
> > outside@ziggyworks.com (lance smith) pounded away at his keyboard
> > resulting in:
> > :- East end diving is better than west end but a little harder as well.
> >
> > Harder how?
>
> Harder is relative- mostly surface waves and some surge. No big deal
> but it did seem to bother the recently certified and some of the
> divers I met on the west end.
>
> -lance smith