Instant Reader Report on Diving
Dive 'N Stuff/Victoria House in
Cayman Islands/Grand Cayman in
2003/07

 Little Cayman, Belize, Grand Turk, Bonaire, Grand Bahama, Bimini, Key
Largo, Hawaii 

Dive Conditions

Guidelines were given 100 feet for deep dives 50 feet for shallow dives,
but not strictly enforced  

Plenty of room on the westside pontoon boat to set up if need be. Paul puts
out a separate rinse bucket for each person with a camera so all the
cameras are not piled on top of each other in a single bucket.   

Overall Rating

This was our third trip to Grand Cayman, our second stay at Victoria House
and our first experience with Dive 'N Stuff. We have dived twice before
with the sister operation to Dive 'N Stuff in Little Cayman, Conch Club
Divers and loved the personal service given by that operation. We assumed,
rightly it turns out, that the operation in Grand Cayman would be very
good. There were a few reviews each year in the Chapbook. Each review was
good and Undercurrent had given Dive 'N Stuff a good review several years
back.

In short, Paul Deegan was as good as a divemaster could be. He was very
laid back but paid attention to each diver's skills. He is readily
available via his cell phone while you are there and extremely flexible.
Most of the divers on the boat (excepting us) were repeat customers of Dive
'N Stuff over several years, which speaks for itself. We met Paul each
morning at the public beach at 7:40 AM. Other divers he picked up before us
at the beach of their condos and others after us. We were ALWAYS the first
boat out on the west side and thus had the pick of dive sites each day. He
was more than willing to set up the tanks himself, and was remarkably
effecient getting everyone ready. He then led the deeper dives after giving
excellent dive briefings. He didn't go in on the shallower dives unless he
had a resort diver, but that was just fine with all the divers on the boat.
We dived 2 tank dives in the mornings, one tank most afternoons (he would
do two if we asked) and did one night dive on the Oro Verde. We didn't dive
the North shore because visibility had been pretty poor there the weeks
before our arrival. Paul took us out to Stingray City at our request and
got us there during the lunch hour when there was NO ONE else there. By the
time we left 3 or 4 boats had arrived with more on its way. It was nice to
be at Stingray City without it looking like Grand Central Station.

Paul has a great sense of humor and gave us our best tips on restaurants
on the island. We particularly enjoyed Neptune (my wife said it was nice to
be treated special as we were there even though we were not special) and
Calypso Grill at the Northeast Tip of the Seven Mile Beach end of the
Island. At each restaurant I had one of the best meals I've ever eaten. We
enjoyed the Wharf, too.

I really like Victoria House, as did the two other families who had not
been there before. The rooms were nice, and the ladies who cleaned them
each day did a great job. The beach is fantastic with the large Casuarina
trees and hammocks. The location is far enough up Seven Mile Beach so as to
be past the worst traffic. Many days we felt like we had the beach to
ourselves there. 

Dive 'N Stuff is one of the best dive operations I have been with and I
give Paul Deegan my unqualified recommendation. 

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