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Dive Review of Little Cayman Beach Resort/The Club in
Cayman Islands/Little Cayman

Little Cayman Beach Resort/The Club: "Great Accommodations; Good Food; Very Average Diving", Oct, 2016,

by Michael J. Millet, CA, US (Top Contributor Top Contributor 91 reports with 57 Helpful votes). Report 9241 has 3 Helpful votes.

No photos available at this time

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

Accommodations 4 stars Food 4 stars
Service and Attitude 4 stars Environmental Sensitivity N/A
Dive Operation 2 stars Shore Diving N/A
Snorkeling N/A
Value for $$ 3 stars
Beginners 4 stars
Advanced 2 stars
Comments We spent 10 days at Little Cayman from late October into early November, 2016.
Our accommodations on Little Cayman were a condo unit at The Club. We had unit #4, which is a 3 bedroom unit. We had 2 large bedrooms with the 3rd locked-off. The unit has a washer/dryer, modern kitchen well stocked with dishes and cookware, large flat-screen TV, WIFI with good connection, large lanai, pool & hot tub, beach front. It is about 3 minute walk to Little Cayman Beach Resort (LCBR) where we ate lunch and dinner. We bought breakfast foods and beverages at the island's small market and liquor store. Both are fairly well stocked for being so remote. Prices are high especially with the negative USD to CI exchange rate ($1US=.8CI).

We ate lunch and dinner at LCBR. All meals are buffet with plenty of food and a nice variety of different cuisines. Very good desserts. The staff was always very friendly and helpful.

The dive operation is Reef Divers. Nitrox is available at the pricey cost of $10US per tank. We dived off a a 46' Newton dive boat. The boat offered fresh water, towels, snacks and fruit. Dived the first 3 days before the photo class arrived and there was no camera rinse on the boat despite such being requested. Then the photo class arrives and - WALAH! - a camera rinse container suddenly appears.

The dive briefings were quite thorough and complete. The crew made a good effort to get all the dives in spite of high winds and choppy seas. We dived 2 days on the south side due to rough conditions.

The dive guides are primarily younger people from the UK. In my view, they are very "high anxiety -- high control". To describe them as RIGID, is a serious understatement. They tended to treat all divers as beginners. They were a bit condescending and arrogant. I've been diving for 25 years with over 2000 dives and expect to be treated as an experience diver. I was not.

I personally had 2 negative interactions with the dive guides. First,my dive buddy and I were discussing the rigidity referenced above when one of the dive guides got in my face in a very rude and disrespectful manner. He threatened to report my to his boss if I didn't fully comply with all of the operation's many rules. In an attempt to smooth over the friction, I later apologized to him. He offered no such apology to me.

The 2nd occurrence involved the other dive guide. I was at about 70' photographing jawfish on the sandy bottom. My 2 dive buddies were about 20'-30' above me. The dive dive boat was visible overhead. The dive guide swims by and gestures asking about my dive buddies. I immediately pointed to them above. He then gave me the "Hey, Dumbshit" gesture by tapping his finger to the side of his head. Again, disrespectful and condescending.

The irony about these negative experiences is that there were two situations when divers really needed the help of the DM's in the water; however, they both stayed on the boat.
On one occasion, 2 older divers (one with a big camera rig) came up on the wrong dive boat -- 2 moorings away. The dive boat maneuvered closer to pick them up but because of the choppy waters was still 100'-150' away. At this time it became known that the diver with the large camera had lost a fin. The DM's threw out a pick-up line, but it kept drifting away from the 2 divers who were clearly struggling. One of the DM's should have swam the line to the distressed divers and assisted them back to the boat.
There was another occasion during which the high-control DM's performed poorly. Divers were returning to the boat after a dive in very, very choppy water. The dive boat was pitching and rolling with the dive ladder banging about. Divers were lined up on the pick-up line struggling with their fins and camera gear. One diver was in a state of panic yelling that she had run out of air. One of the DM's should have gotten in the water to assist divers with fins and gear in clearly a stressful and dangerous situation. A banging dive ladder can be lethal. However, both DM's remained on board while my dive buddy and I helped some divers back on the boat.

This was my 4th dive trip to Little Cayman over the past 12 years. There are still plenty of Nassau grouper, barracuda and hawksbill turtles. But it seems to me that the abundance and variety of marine life has diminished.

I rate this dive trip as very good regarding accommodations and meal; average regarding marine life; and disappointing regarding the dive operation.

I don't see my dive buddies or I returning to Little Cayman in the foreseeable future.
Websites Little Cayman Beach Resort   

Reporter and Travel

Dive Experience Over 1000 dives
Where else diving All over the Caribbean; Galapagos, Socorro, Fiji, Solomons, GBR, Vanuatu,
PNG, Philippines, Indonesia, Palau, Yap, Kosrae
Closest Airport Little Cayman Getting There Must connect thru Grand Cayman; irregular flight schedule

Dive Conditions

Weather sunny, windy, rainy, cloudy, dry Seas choppy, surge
Water Temp 80-85°F / 27-29°C Wetsuit Thickness 3
Water Visibility 50-100 Ft/ 15-30 M

Dive Policy

Dive own profile yes
Enforced diving restrictions No deco; most dives were 60'-80' for 60-70 minutes
Liveaboard? no Nitrox Available? yes

What I Saw

Sharks 1 or 2 Mantas None
Dolphins None Whale Sharks None
Turtles > 2 Whales None
Corals 3 stars Tropical Fish 3 stars
Small Critters 2 stars Large Fish N/A
Large Pelagics N/A

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

Subject Matter 3 stars Boat Facilities 3 stars
Overall rating for UWP's 3 stars Shore Facilities 4 stars
UW Photo Comments Dive boat did not have camera rinse on board for the first 4 days of diving; one was provided after a photo class came aboard. 2 large topside camera rinse tubs; no topside camera room.

With photo class on board, the dive boat camera table was packed with cameras including a large rig that had to be placed on the deck beneath the camera table. Its a situation conducive for dome ports getting scratched.
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Subscriber's Comments

By kathleen lynch in galveston, US at Nov 09, 2016 15:03 EST  
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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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