Grand Cayman Dive Op???

[CaribQween]

Has anyone used or heard of Cayman Marine Lab for scuba diving in Grand Cayman? If so, could you share your experiences? I have not seen any posts by people who have used them in the past.

[MPM]

CaribQween, this is an older post I came across while doing a search for Cayman Marine Lab. I have seen some of your other posts (as you may have seen some of mine). We are on board the Carnival Legend January 17 - 24. I was originally planning on doing some shore diving at Sunset House on Grand Cayman. My wife is a massage therapist, and one of her clients highly recommended Cayman Marine Lab. It has gotten outstanding reviews on Tripadvisor. I just sent him an email this morning trying to get more details. One review I read looked as though the group did their surface interval snorkeling at Stingray City, between their two dives. Hope this helps:)

[CaribQween]

CaribQween, this is an older post I came across while doing a search for Cayman Marine Lab. I have seen some of your other posts (as you may have seen some of mine). We are on board the Carnival Legend January 17 - 24. I was originally planning on doing some shore diving at Sunset House on Grand Cayman. My wife is a massage therapist, and one of her clients highly recommended Cayman Marine Lab. It has gotten outstanding reviews on Tripadvisor. I just sent him an email this morning trying to get more details. One review I read looked as though the group did their surface interval snorkeling at Stingray City, between their two dives. Hope this helps:)

 

It's funny, I didn't see this post until this afternoon, but I wrote a post to you earlier today on the "Ambergris Caye" thread asking you when your Legend cruise is.

 

Thank you for the info on the Cayman Marine Lab. I appreciate you taking the time to reply to an older post. You know, when I found the website for them, it looked really cool because of it being run by a marine biologist who was a professor and researcher, etc. It just seemed like it would be so fascinating because of all of the info you would get. I actually sent a couple of emails to them trying to get info on whether they could do any dive combined with a Stingray City visit. But, all of their replies were really extremely vague and were just sort of saying leave it to them and they'd show us a good time. I just couldn't pin them down on what to expect at all. If they would have said anything about dives with the SI spent at Stingray City, I would have jumped on that. I've been searching for any way to do a dive in Grand Cayman, plus visit Stingray City. We finally went with another dive op that said they would get us back to the dock (seagrape beach) by 12:00. We're just sort of hoping that we can find a tour operator at the beach or at the tender pier that might be able to take us out to Stingray City in the afternoon and still get us back in time to tender back to the ship. Let us know what you find out from the Marine Lab, if you don't mind. And if you decide to go with them, please give us a review. Thanks again.

[MPM]

CaribQween - Alas, I wish I could say I had better luck with Cayman Marine, but I can't. Despite being highly recommended, I got one email back basically saying "we can accommodate you". I replied back asking for details, and to date have not received any. Who did you decide to go with? I have read some good things about Neptune Divers, and their email response has been good, and even helpful in recommending some places to shore dive it we wanted to go that route. Personally I would like to do a couple of shore dives, but my wife still doesn't feel totally comfortable without a "guide".

 

-Mike

[CaribQween]

CaribQween - Alas, I wish I could say I had better luck with Cayman Marine, but I can't. Despite being highly recommended, I got one email back basically saying "we can accommodate you". I replied back asking for details, and to date have not received any. Who did you decide to go with? I have read some good things about Neptune Divers, and their email response has been good, and even helpful in recommending some places to shore dive it we wanted to go that route. Personally I would like to do a couple of shore dives, but my wife still doesn't feel totally comfortable without a "guide".

 

-Mike

 

I hear ya. The first email I got from them said the same thing and then when I sent the second email trying to get details, I got the "leave to us" email.

 

But, it's funny that you say about Neptune's Divers because that is who we went with. Casey there has been great with emails. Check out their website at www.neptunesdivers.com (with the s on Neptunes). Click the "About Us" bubble and it tells a little about each of them. The thing that drew me in was that they take a maximum of 8 divers out. They give you a wall dive and a wreck or reef dive for $100 per person. After we booked through their website, Casey sent us an email with all of the details on where to meet them and what to do if there are any changes in times or where the ship docks. My husband and I are what I call very new to diving. Even though we have our Advanced Cert, we haven't been diving anywhere but in local quarries so far. So, I sent Casey an email explaining our experience level because I was a little afraid of us getting there with much more experienced divers and I didn't want it to cause problems for anyone. I certainly wouldn't want to ruin someone elses' dives just because we were afraid to do something more advanced than we were comfortable with. But, Casey wrote back and said thanks for letting them know our experience level and there would be no problems.

 

We had thought about doing some shore diving in Grand Cayman also, but then we thought about it and we didn't want to go on our own and take a chance on missing out on the very things that Grand Cayman diving is known for. And, as your wife, we were a little uncomfortable going "unguided" too. But, there are some places that will provide a guide for shore diving if that would end up being a good compromise for you.

 

But anyway, below is the info we got from Neptune's Divers just to give you an idea of everything. Good luck with whatever you choose. And don't forget to let us know how things went when you get back. Safe Diving!!

 

Here is the info they gave me in the first email:

 

"Our 9 AM 2 tank trip consists of a 100ft. max wall dive followed by a 50 ft. max reef or wreck dive on either the West, North or South Side of the island depending on water and weather conditions for that day. “Mother Nature” rules.

We would ask you to meet us at 8:30-8:45 AM at the boat on Public Beach/Sea Grape Beach on 7 Mile Beach which is a short 5- 10 minute cab ride from your cruise ship’s dock. If you get on the first tender to shore you'll have plenty of time to get to us. I would pick you up, but downtown Georgetown is a madhouse and I’d never be able to find you. We pull our boat right up to the beach... you can't miss us and I would be looking for you. There are tons of cabbies waiting at the dock and they all know where Sea Grape/Public Beach is. We would be back in by no later than 12:00 and there are tons of taxis and buses waiting at Public Beach to take you back to your ship.

 

The cost for your dive trip would be $100 US PP. BC/reg rental is $30 US PP. Mask and fins are $10 US for the set. Tanks and weights are included.

You will find all of our info including a secure reservations page on our web site at www.neptunesdivers.com to safely leave your credit card info to reserve your spaces.

You will not be charged anything if the ships do not dock because of weather, etc. Your space will not be held unless you fill out this form with the credit card info. We only take out 8 divers max per trip so it is highly recommended that you pre book very soon to save your spaces.

I will send back a prompt email confirmation with additional information to print out to take with you so that you have the info handy including our phone number, where to catch the bus, where to meet us and when, etc.

Cancellation policy:

We have a 24 hour cancellation policy. Of course, this does not pertain if your ship does not dock because of bad weather. If your ship does dock and you do not show, you will be charged. There is email capability and "ship to shore" phone on board your ship if you need to contact me. Or you can call me at a previous port of call."

[MPM]

Thanks Michele for the info. If I have to pay for a "guide", I think I am going to get on a boat:) We are fairly new to diving as well, but made one trip earlier this year on Carnival out of San Juan. We dove in St Lucia, Dominica, and St. Kitts. It couldn't have been easier, and we learned a lot just by hanging out with other divers with a lot of past experience. Grand Cayman is our first stop, so for me a shore dive had a lot of advantages. Besides being cheaper, we could relax, get our bouyancy set (new wet suits this time around, not sure yet exactly how much weight we will need), and take our time. While the people we have dived with on a boat have always been patient with us, it always feels a little rushed. People that have a couple hundred dives under their belt already know exactly how much weight they are going to need, and seem to get their gear on 50% faster than we do. By then the tendency is to rush the safety check. Again, it has never been an issue with the people we are with, I just don't want to be the one "holding up the show". Plus, my wife is always nervous for the first dive, and then settles down once she is underwater. She is then usually good for the rest of the trip. Who am I kidding, at the end of the day, I will probably do the dive my wife wants to do:rolleyes:

 

~Mike

[CaribQween]

Thanks Michele for the info. If I have to pay for a "guide", I think I am going to get on a boat:) We are fairly new to diving as well, but made one trip earlier this year on Carnival out of San Juan. We dove in St Lucia, Dominica, and St. Kitts. It couldn't have been easier, and we learned a lot just by hanging out with other divers with a lot of past experience. Grand Cayman is our first stop, so for me a shore dive had a lot of advantages. Besides being cheaper, we could relax, get our bouyancy set (new wet suits this time around, not sure yet exactly how much weight we will need), and take our time. While the people we have dived with on a boat have always been patient with us, it always feels a little rushed. People that have a couple hundred dives under their belt already know exactly how much weight they are going to need, and seem to get their gear on 50% faster than we do. By then the tendency is to rush the safety check. Again, it has never been an issue with the people we are with, I just don't want to be the one "holding up the show". Plus, my wife is always nervous for the first dive, and then settles down once she is underwater. She is then usually good for the rest of the trip. Who am I kidding, at the end of the day, I will probably do the dive my wife wants to do:rolleyes:

 

~Mike

 

That's exactly why we considered doing shore diving at first in Grand Cayman. Since we haven't been in salt water yet, we know we're going to have to adjust our weights for that and it's going to take a little time to get that right. And we weren't sure if when you go out with a boat tour if you even have any chances to do buoayancy checks or if it's just like "gear up, we're going down". I hate feeling rushed and getting flustered because I don't want to hold everyone else up either. But when you start rushing through everything that's when you start missing stuff and then you're not diving safely. And I have to admit, I'm always nervous too which doesn't help things :o.

[UrAStar]

Thank you both for all of this info. Originally the boyfriend and I were planning on diving at all of our stops, including Grand Cayman, but now has decided to only dive in Cozumel and Roatan...I'm thinking of talking him into shore diving for part of our afternoon on the beach in GC. :o) Otherwise I'd highly recommend Neptunes Divers, because their customer service in the email above alone makes me comfortable with them.

 

Most of the time if you let the Dive Master on the boat know that you are new and/or haven't figured out your proper amount of weights yet they are not only more than willing to help, but they will carry more weights in their BCD in case you need some. - I have been diving for many years, but not consistently and have this problem all the time.

 

Good luck and I hope we all end up having a fabulous diving time in GC!

[MPM]

Michele,

 

Don't let me add to your nervousness:) As I mentioned, the people we have gone with on boats have always been very patient, it is probably just me who feels rushed. We actually did have one time when my wife was a little under weighted, so we just swam up to the boat and got a couple of extra pounds. We didn't even have to get back out of the water. I can tell from reading reviews about Neptunes that they are very experienced and helpful when dealing with newer divers. And their email response is some of the best I have experienced thus far. We are now confirmed with them for January 19th. Getting on one of the first tenders should be no problem, my wife definitely knows how to not take no for an answer:rolleyes: We will try to post a quick review when we get back.

 

~Mike

[CaribQween]

Thank you both for all of this info. Originally the boyfriend and I were planning on diving at all of our stops, including Grand Cayman, but now has decided to only dive in Cozumel and Roatan...I'm thinking of talking him into shore diving for part of our afternoon on the beach in GC. :o) Otherwise I'd highly recommend Neptunes Divers, because their customer service in the email above alone makes me comfortable with them.

 

Most of the time if you let the Dive Master on the boat know that you are new and/or haven't figured out your proper amount of weights yet they are not only more than willing to help, but they will carry more weights in their BCD in case you need some. - I have been diving for many years, but not consistently and have this problem all the time.

 

Good luck and I hope we all end up having a fabulous diving time in GC!

 

And thank you for your info. You can ask Mike, I'm big on sharing info (whether asked for it or not :o). Really though, in the short time that we've been diving, we've found the "dive community" to be filled with people that are really interested in helping each other out and of course, making sure that everyone dives safely. It's been really great.

 

We're diving Grand Cayman with Neptune's Divers, Belize through Shoretrips.com (you've probably seen the long thread about Ambergris Caye) and Roatan through Anthony's Key Resort which is a Carnival excursion. We decided not to do Cozumel because of it mostly being drift diving and also because we wanted to tour the island. Of course, since we're renting a car, we might end up throwing our gear in the back :D. I want to dive all of the ports, yet I want to do land tours and shopping and... well, you get the point. I just want to do it all. I'm going to need a vacation after we get back :eek:. I'd better start planning our next cruise ;).

 

I've seen quite a few different maps around out on the internet that show shore diving spots in Grand Cayman. They show you specific starting points and then tell you how far to swim out and in which direction in order to find certain things. It seems like there will just be restaurants or dive shops that have parking areas on the water with ladders there. I got this in an email from a dive op in Grand Cayman that offers guided shore dives but if you feel comfortable doing it yourself I'm sure you can just find a good map and go that route.

 

"EdenRock Diving Center is situated a short swim from two of the worlds best shore dives Eden Rock and Devil’s Grotto. The coral reefs rise in vertical cliff faces from a 40 foot sand bottom to within a few feet from the surface. Both Eden Rock and Devil’s Grotto are honey combed with caves, tunnels and grottos inhabited by many tropical fish, coral and sponges including Silversides and Tarpon.

 

The entry is down a diving ladder is into 4 feet of clear and calm Cayman water the bottom gently slopes out to 15 feet the rises to within a few feet of the surface before dropping to a sand bottom. There are many tunnels running through the reef with openings in the coral allowing sunbeams to light the way."

 

It just sounds so cool. Well, Good Luck and Safe Diving!!

[CaribQween]

Michele,

 

Don't let me add to your nervousness:) As I mentioned, the people we have gone with on boats have always been very patient, it is probably just me who feels rushed. We actually did have one time when my wife was a little under weighted, so we just swam up to the boat and got a couple of extra pounds. We didn't even have to get back out of the water. I can tell from reading reviews about Neptunes that they are very experienced and helpful when dealing with newer divers. And their email response is some of the best I have experienced thus far. We are now confirmed with them for January 19th. Getting on one of the first tenders should be no problem, my wife definitely knows how to not take no for an answer:rolleyes: We will try to post a quick review when we get back.

 

~Mike

 

Oh no, you're certainly not adding to my nervousness. It helps me to hear how things work and to know what to expect. And I really feel good about doing our first real dives with Neptune's Divers. It's nice when you communicate with the company's personnel to know that you're talking to the people you'll actually be diving with. And knowing that they take out a maximum of 8 people per trip is nice also. Once I sent them an email telling them our diving experience, Casey sent back an email saying...

 

"Thanks for updating me on your diving experience. No worries at all as we do provide you with an instructor/guide for every dive to guide the dives, point out things of interest that you might miss and to assist with any needs."

 

I feel really comfortable going with them. But I'll keep an eye out for your review :).

[kthy66]

We're diving Grand Cayman with Neptune's Divers, Belize through Shoretrips.com (you've probably seen the long thread about Ambergris Caye) and Roatan through Anthony's Key Resort which is a Carnival excursion. We decided not to do Cozumel because of it mostly being drift diving and also because we wanted to tour the island.

 

Thanks for the heads up on Neptune! We are also doing Belize through shoretrips (the fly and dive looks fantastic!) and Roatan through Anothony's key but were up in the air on who to use for Grand Cayman.

[CaribQween]

Thanks for the heads up on Neptune! We are also doing Belize through shoretrips (the fly and dive looks fantastic!) and Roatan through Anothony's key but were up in the air on who to use for Grand Cayman.

 

No problem. We're all glad to share the info so everyone can have a fun, safe trip. Enjoy!!