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Dive Review of Ocean Frontiers/Reef Club in
Cayman Islands/East End

Ocean Frontiers/Reef Club, Mar, 2003,

by Randy Nelson, Co, USA . Report 415.

No photos available at this time

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Accommodations 4 stars Food 4 stars
Service and Attitude 5 stars Environmental Sensitivity N/A
Dive Operation 5 stars Shore Diving 3 stars
Snorkeling N/A
Value for $$ N/A
Beginners 4 stars
Advanced 4 stars
Comments Ocean Frontiers is as good as reader reports in Undercurrent lead us to believe. It was a very easy and efficient to book our week of diving and accomodations at the Reef club through them online.
After a 10 minute drive from the Reef Club to Ocean Frontiers headquarters (we had a car rental but O F provides free shuttle service) all you had to do was check in at their office and walk down to the boat where they would have all your dive gear on board and set up.
Boat rides to many dive sites are short and they dive both the north and south sides of Grand Cayman. First dive was an escorted 100' wall dive. The walls have healthy sponge and coral, but are lacking in larger fish life. Second dive was either an escorted or unescorted ( your choice) 50' dive with terriffic topography ( lots of swim throughs, caverns etc. to explore with lots of small fish and critters. Saw 1 reef shark, 2 turtles, one large green moray, but lots of smaller reef fish, spotted morays, massive schools of silversides, and of course, 20 to 50 tarpon on the shallow dives. The dive briefings were very detailed including large detailed maps of the dive sites, which made unescorted diving the obvious choice.
When you return to the dock OF provides plastic crates at the boat to put your gear into. They will then rinse and store your gear and have it set up on board for your next dives.
Only complaints about the diving would be the limited bottom times (35 min on deep dive, 50 min on shallow dive) and the lack of larger fish. ( But this is an island of over 30,000 people and lots of fisherman) I would rate the diving a notch or two below Litle Cayman for that reason.

Accomodations at the Reef Club are 4 star with newer,nicely furnished beachfront Condos, pool, a decent restaurant and beachfront bar. The staff was very helpful. Lots of families with small children, but our all adult group was comfortable there also. Only complaint would be that the restaurant didn't open until 8 AM which meant you had to cook breakfast in your condo every morning if you were diving. (But this did save quite a bit of money as Cayman restaurants are very expensive.) It was an easy drive from the East End to a number of fine restaurants for dinner. $$$$= Portofino, The Light House $$$= The Edge and we even went into Georgetown for dinner one night.

Overall, If you're looking for a good compromise between out of the way hard core diving and US type quality accomodations and dining, then Grand Cayman East End fits the bill nicely.

Reporter and Travel

Dive Experience 251-500 dives
Where else diving Little Cayman, Belize, Honduras, Bonn Aire, Cozumel
Closest Airport Getting There

Dive Conditions

Weather sunny Seas calm
Water Temp 80-82°F / 27-28°C Wetsuit Thickness 3
Water Visibility 50-100 Ft/ 15-30 M

Dive Policy

Dive own profile yes
Enforced diving restrictions Typical Cayman 100' max,
100'for 40 min first dive 50', 50 mins second dive
Liveaboard? no Nitrox Available? N/A

What I Saw

Sharks 1 or 2 Mantas None
Dolphins None Whale Sharks None
Turtles 1 or 2 Whales None
Corals 4 stars Tropical Fish 4 stars
Small Critters 4 stars Large Fish 2 stars
Large Pelagics 2 stars

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Subject Matter N/A Boat Facilities N/A
Overall rating for UWP's N/A Shore Facilities N/A
UW Photo Comments [None]
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Note: The information here was reported by the author above, but has NOT been reviewed nor edited by Undercurrent prior to posting on our website. Please report any major problems by writing to us and referencing the report number above.

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