Dive Review of Avalon - Jardines Avalon III in
Cuba/Gardens of the Queen

Other Cuba reports
Subscriber Content Preview
Active subscribers go here

Avalon - Jardines Avalon III: "Great trip to Havana and G of the Q, shortened by Hurricane Rafael", Nov, 2024, by Christopher Watt, NH, US ( Contributor 19 reports with 22 Helpful votes). Report 13234.
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	We traveled on AA BOS-MIA-Havana outbound and Camaguey-MIA-BOS on the way home. Visa and immigration forms relatively straighfoward; US homeland security don't seem to blink twice these days about US tourists returning from Cuba (no questions whatsoever despite all the itinerary documentation we had with us) Really enjoyed the few days we spent in Havana staying in an AirBNB and touring the old city, doing a Hemingway tour, an evening city drive in a 50s convertible, enjoyable restaurants. Everything was very inexpensive if done with private AirBNB operators and tour guides. The economy continues to feel the pain of a decrease in tourism. Bus transfer from Havana to Jucaro port was smooth but about 6 hours - filled mainly with US folks on the various Avalon boats and the Aggressor. We took a few rest stops along the way. The JA III liveaboard is large and comfortable. I was lucky enough to have my own cabin (2 single beds). En suite bathroom. Adequate storage on wall hangers, under beds, in a night stand between the beds and on shelves. Crew will stow any bulky bags you have elsewhere on request.Comfortable beds. Crew was friendly and helpful, although at times a little disorganized. Dive guides were great, although I tended to be lagging the group looking for video subjects.....so honestly not 100% sure on spotting ability. My cabin was 1 level down from the dive deck and main lounge. Dining room (all buffet) is on 2nd level....this level also includes a open air, covered sitting area on the stern. Top deck has a hot tub, bar area and open area with chase lounges. No dive "stations" on the mother ship dive deck as your BC/tanks/weights live on the tenders for the week. All divers have small cubby hole storage in a sheltered area of the dive deck to stow mask boxes, computers, etc. There are open air showers on the rear dive deck, with hot towels provided after every dive. Unisex bathroom on one side of the dive deck. 2 sizable, multilevel camera tables with air gun. Separate camera rinse tank. Wetsuit rinse bins on the stern platform adjacent to the showers. Charging could be done in the cabins only if you were present; most folks charged in the main salon adjacent to the dive deck. There were also US-style 110V plugs on the camera tables on the dive deck. Crew did a good job handling cameras. Due to hurricane Rafael we only got in 1.5 days/6 dives of diving.....but the diving was good for those few days. Very sharky, with LOTS of very curious black tip reef sharks circling (and sometimes camera bumping) on every dive. The usual suspects in terms of Caribbean marine life = hawksbill turtles, green morays, angels, large schools of grunts/snappers, Nassau groupers, silky sharks, Goliath groupers, etc. The JA III was moored in a mangrove area 25-30 miles off the south coast of the mainland, with other boats and we dove off of sizable, fast (twin 150s) hard-bottom tender boats. Cruises to dive sites were 5-15 minutes. Tender Boats were very stable and had some shade, but definitely important to bring hat/buff for the sometimes bumpy/spray-filled ride. On day 1 we returned to the mother ship after each dive; on day 2 we stayed out for 2 dives with water and snacks provided. There is storage on the tender (mainly nets handing from the ceiling)....definitely being a waterproof bag if you want to keep anything dry, change batteries, etc. The mother ship did not move during our time out there; not sure if this is the norm during a full week trip. As we returned from our second morning dive on Monday, they briefed us that the Cuban coast guard had ordered all boats in the area to return to shore due to the coming storm. We had 3+ hours of cruise time to dry and pack gear and arrived back in port in the early evening and were taken to a luxury beach hotel on the north side of the mainland. Most folks in our group changed our flights and flew back to the US on Tuesday. I was able to get some reimbursement via trip insurance for the trip interruption. I've already made plans to return next year - hope to have a more complete report!
Websites	Avalon - Jardines Avalon III
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	501-1000 dives
Where else diving	New England, FL Keys, St. Lawrence River, Red Sea, Maldives, Italy, UK/English Channel, Turks & Caicos, St. Vincent, Roatan, Costa Rica, Belize, Hawaii, Bermuda, Raja Ampat, Lembeh, Little Cayman, Cayman Brac, Galapagos, Socorro/Mexico, Philippines, St. Kitts, Solomon Islands
Closest Airport	Camaguey	Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, windy	Seas	calm, choppy, surge
Water Temp	83-84°F / 28-29°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	50-80 Ft/ 15-24 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	[Unspecified]
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	N/A
Large Pelagics	N/A
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	There is not a separate camera or charging room. Most folks stored their camera rigs in the salon just off the dive deck or on the camera tables on the dive deck. Multiple folks from our group brought power strips, so there were always plenty of outlets to go around in the salon. No camera towels provided. There seemed to be no shortage of US 00V outlets on the boat and in our AirBNB......so I never used the adapter I brought

Leave a comment (Subscribers only -- 200 words max)
Subscribers can comment here

Subscribers can post comments, ask the reviewer questions, as well as getting immediate and complete access to ALL 90 dive reviews of Cuba and all other dive destinations. Complete access to all issues and Chapbooks is also included.

All Cuba Dive Reviews and Reports
Diving Guide to Cuba
Diving Reviews for All Dive Destinations

Want to assemble your own collection of Cuba reports in one place?
Use the Mini Chapbook Facility to create your personalized collection.

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.

Undercurrent Home

Page computed and displayed in 0.45 seconds

Get more dive info like these and other important scuba updates sent monthly to your email. And a FREE Recent Issue of Undercurrent
Get a free monthly email and a sample issue!

Dive Review of Avalon - Jardines Avalon III in Cuba/Gardens of the Queen

Avalon - Jardines Avalon III: "Great trip to Havana and G of the Q, shortened by Hurricane Rafael", Nov, 2024,

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 Avalon - Jardines Avalon III in
Cuba/Gardens of the Queen