Beginner Scuba/Scuba in Cayman on Private excursion

[saru96]

Hey Everyone,

 

I need to book my Scuba Diving excursion soon and wanted some input from the fellow board memebers.

 

I'm going to go to Grand Cayman in Sept. I know we will be the only ship in port that day so it wont be hard to get a reservation with either of these sites.

 

I was curious had any of you had any experiences with the following companies.

 

Abanks

Sunset House

Eden Rock

Dive Tech

 

This will be my first time scuba diving, and i have check that every place has beginner scuba. So i wanted some input if any of you have taken the beginner scuba class from them or just scuba in general with any of these dive companies. (i.e. old equipment, not friendly etc)

Any feedback helps!

 

Thanks

[John_Nebraska]

This reply is probably late for you, but it might help someone.

 

I booked 3 beginner's SCUBA dives through Island Marketing before our cruise ($99US each), along with a tag-along certified diver. I only needed to rent an air tank & weights, while I wanted the other 3 in the group to experience SCUBA diving.

 

The Carnival Liberty arrived in port on time, but it took us over an hour to get off the ship. There were about 4 other cruise ships in port this day, making it a slow process to get off the boat onto tenders. Unfortunately, Off the Wall Divers didn't know it was taking everyone a long time to disembark, and when we arrived at the excursion meeting place, nobody was there to meet us. We don't have international cell phones, and I couldn't figure out how to make a local call on their pay phones. A nice gentleman at a visitor's information booth used his cell phone and called Off the Wall. I was only able to get their voicemail and leave a message. Very frustrating! I found a taxi who didn't know where Off the Wall was located but the driver called the number also, and also got voicemail. I remembered we were going to be diving the Cheeseburger Reef and that the Reef was supposed to be across from the Burger King, hence the name, so I asked the taxi if she could take us there. The ~1 mile ride cost $14US.

 

We discovered that Off the Wall operates out of the Lobster Pot Dive Center across the street from the BK and right on the water. After explaining what happened to the dive instructor, Denise, at the dive center, she was able to accommodate our small group. They have you watch a video in a small room, then you walk out, suit up, and go through the equipment operation & safety in the water right off the beach. Once everyone had the hang of it, we then all swam a couple hundred feet out to the reef.

 

It was an easy dive, but a lot of fun. It averaged about 25' in depth, with a max. of 40'. We saw large Tarpon fish and other sea life. It was a very enjoyable dive and Denise K. made sure we saw everything we could.

 

What started off being a potentially bad day in the Caymans turned out to be a very good one thanks to Denise at the Lobster Pot Dive Center. It was a good experience and a good beginners dive. Although I'm a certified diver, I had a very good time too. I highly recommend the Lobster Pot Dive Center and the dive operators who work out of there. :)

 

 

 

After the dive we stopped at Hammerheads, an open air lounge on the water & next to the Royal Watler pier, for drinks (about $3US per Caybrew beer), then stopped at the little lounge inside the pier for one (~$8 for a Caybrew). I'd recommend just staying at Hammerheads until you are ready to take the tender back to the ship.