Dive Review of Ocean Frontiers/Compass Point in
Cayman Islands/EAST Grand Cayman

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Ocean Frontiers/Compass Point: "Fun swim thrus and Pro dive op", Nov, 2023, by Douglas , IL, US ( Sr. Contributor 22 reports with 12 Helpful votes). Report 12843 has 1 Helpful vote.
Photos Submitted with this Report Click on an image to see an enlarged version and captions
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	EAST Grand Cayman is an architecture adventure park of swimthrus, caverns, canyons and cuts on virtually every single dive, along with short trips to the majestic walls to start the first dive of many boat trips. Ocean Frontiers is an extremely well run, friendly and organized dive operation, supervised by their pro and helpful manager Andy. Once you check in, they take care of your gear and have it ready for you on the boat every day. Mid-week, I noticed them “topping off” our pony bottles, without us even having to ask. . impressive double-checking! Nitrox analyzers were on deck, and while they pre-analyze for you, we always meter our own tanks as a doublecheck and caught one bottle at 29 instead of the declared 32, quickly swapped out. They were safety conscious with great briefings and super comfy boats which included water, oranges, biscuits, freshwater shower and a clean white towel. Dive profiles involved a guided tour for the first 40min and then finishing the dive within sight of the boat, for as long as you want to stay wet. The experienced divers typically came up at 55-65 mins, by their own choice. The guides didn’t seem too interested in finding critters to look at, but they always made sure that you didn’t get lost. My wife and I, at the back of a group, stopped to focus on a sand critter in a small cutout “meadow” in the architecture, and I’ll admit that we lost track of time and the group. We “woke up” when our excellent dive guide had backtracked from the front to find us and make sure that we were ok. I saw dive guides several times doing this for others as well. Diving was tons of fun. Hard corals are struggling to recover and survive, but soft corals are healthy and plentiful, along with some big barrel sponges. My log notes for 22 dives show a good number of gray reef sharks, along with Creole Wrasse, Snapper, BarJack/Rainbow Runner, Chubb, Jack and Black Tang groups. There were a free swimming 4’ moray, 7’ nurse shark and separate baby shark, 2 eagle rays off a wall, a turtle, a scorpion fish, hogfish, lots of sand gobeys (so cute!), and about 15-20 sleek silver 4’ tarpon at Tarpon Terrace. Other “usual suspects” were seen at times as well. To be fair, the fish life felt a bit thin on occasion, but perhaps that is the case with most all Caribbean diving these days, or perhaps because I just got back from Raja. My wife noticed more lifeforms than myself, because I typically dive for the “overall” feeling. A local told us that Cayman rainy season is Sep-midNov, and busy season is Dec-Mother’s Day. Our diving was late Nov, sunny every day with a good breeze, and viz was almost always 80+, but 20ish on about 2 dives near end of the trip. 85 deg water. Seas were a bit bumpy and that made it important to be careful getting onto their solid boat ladders. A bit of underwater surge was felt on the last days of our trip, but usually pretty calm underneath, and virtually no currents. Compass Point rooms are big and clean and feel “modern.” We stayed on the ocean side in 2015 and this time on the pool side, both rooms really comfy and nice. Eagle Rays restaurant has simple outdoor patio décor with insipid Caribbean style covers of lame U.S. songs (smile), but has quite fresh excellent food, menu online. There’s a nice Mexican restaurant across the street, and lots of good restaurants on the island, a good reason to have a rental car. As a side trip, we thought the Cayman Crystal Caves tour on the North Side was quite fascinating.
Websites	Ocean Frontiers Compass Point
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	501-1000 dives
Where else diving	Raja, Solomons, Truk, Yap, Palau, Coral Sea, GBR, PNG, Roatan, Maui, Jamaica, Florida Jupiter and Keys, L'il Cayman and Grand Cayman East, Belize Ambergris and Isla Marisol, Grand Turk, Cabo Pulmo, Cozumel, Dominica, Bonaire, Fiji, Komodo and Lembeh, Bonne Terre mine, Saba and Statia
Closest Airport	Georgetown	Getting There	ez pz lots of options
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, windy, dry	Seas	choppy, surge, no currents
Water Temp	85-85°F / 29-29°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	20-80 Ft/ 6-24 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	No restrictions.
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	Lots	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	1 or 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
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]

Report currently has 1 Helpful vote

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Dive Review of Ocean Frontiers/Compass Point in Cayman Islands/EAST Grand Cayman

Ocean Frontiers/Compass Point: "Fun swim thrus and Pro dive op", Nov, 2023,

Photos Submitted with this Report

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

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

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

Dive Review of Ocean Frontiers/Compass Point in
Cayman Islands/EAST Grand Cayman