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Dive Review of Sam Mccoy's Dive Lodge in
Cayman Islands/Little Cayman

Sam Mccoy's Dive Lodge, Jan, 2003,

by Jennifer Meriwether, ca, usa (Reviewer Reviewer 4 reports). Report 455.

No photos available at this time

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

Accommodations 3 stars Food 2 stars
Service and Attitude 1 stars Environmental Sensitivity N/A
Dive Operation 2 stars Shore Diving 1 stars
Snorkeling N/A
Value for $$ N/A
Beginners 4 stars
Advanced 3 stars
Comments We had a pretty bad time at McCoys and I would never go back but other people don't seem to have had the same experience so who knows - buyer beware. We had read that McCoys was "rustic" and we were prepared for that. The room and grounds were not bad - no frills, but clean. That wasn't the problem. The problem was the attitude of Maxine and Mam McCoy, the owners/managers. When we checked in, Maxine told us we'd be diving with the Southern Cross Club for the first two days. We had no idea why and no idea what would happen after the first two days. She was completely uncommunicative. Finally, after the first day, we found out that the reason we were diving with SCC was that the McCoys divemaster had left the island over Xmas and still wasn't back (we arrived in the third week of January). We had booked just one week before and they never bothered to tell us that they had no divemaster. Two days into our stay, Croy McCoy, one of Mam's sons came to the island from Grand Cayman to do an underwater survey on grouper mating activities. He was promptly drafted into being our divemaster. There were just two issues. First, since he was making three dives per day to 100 ft to monitor the groupers, he had no desire to get in the water with us. So, he would take us out to the dive sites, tell us which way the wall was and send us off. The second problem was that he and his colleagues were also using our dive boat for their work, so we had to fit in our dives around their work schedule. All of this wouldn't have been that much of an problem - we are pretty flexible and like to dive on our own anyway, but what really got us upset was the way we were treated by Maxine and Mam. We got a strong sense that we were an annoyance that they had to put up with, not guests that were paying a large sum of money to stay there and that we had ruined everyone's nice plans regarding the grouper survey by showing up and needing to use the dive boat. We were completely ignored. We never even got a smile or a hello. Given the dive irritations, I would have expected at least an apology, maybe an offer to take us over to the other side of the island where the little village was, something, anything to make up for it. Certainly, I wasn't so stupid as to think they'd actually offer to refund some of our money. Instead, nothing, even though we were the only guests, so it's not like they were otherwise busy. We got to the point where we pretty much just hid in our room when we weren't diving because it was so uncomfortable to be out on the grounds and run into them. Oh, and the food was marginal at best, although Pam, the cook was very nice. As if all this wasn't bad enough we really didn't feel that the diving was any better than the other places we've been in the Caribbean. The weather was so bad we were only able to dive Bloody Bay Wall for three days out of seven and spent the other days on the south side of the island but still, I was expecting more from Bloody Bay. Although the topography of the wall was great, the coral was average, there was alot of algae, and the fish and critter life was less than we've seen elsewhere. Maybe it was just the wrong time of year. My advice is that if you really want to dive Little Cayman, don't go anytime from Dec-March, and stay at one of the nice resorts or condos, not at McCoys.

Reporter and Travel

Dive Experience 101-250 dives
Where else diving Hawaii, Curacao, Bonaire, Saba, Grand Turk, Monterey
Closest Airport Getting There

Dive Conditions

Weather windy, cloudy Seas choppy, surge
Water Temp 78-79°F / 26-26°C Wetsuit Thickness 0
Water Visibility 40-60 Ft/ 12-18 M

Dive Policy

Dive own profile yes
Enforced diving restrictions Standard recreational limits
Liveaboard? no Nitrox Available? N/A

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 3 stars Large Fish 3 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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