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Dive Review of Ocean Frontiers/Morritt's Grand Resort in
Cayman Islands/East End, Grand Cayman

Ocean Frontiers/Morritt's Grand Resort, Jan, 2003,

by Eric Frick, IL, U.S.A. . Report 324.

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 5 stars Shore Diving 3 stars
Snorkeling N/A
Value for $$ N/A
Beginners 5 stars
Advanced 5 stars
Comments My buddy was able to snag a week @ Morritt's Grand Resort just below the northeast corner of the island. Morritt's is a timeshare development built in about 2000. The facilities are just fine. The dining room is nothing spectacular and is expensive in the usual Cayman style. Our 1-bedroom unit was clean and comfortable.

Ocean Frontiers (OF) is located less than 3 mi. south of Morritt's. I had taken nitrox training @ my local scuba shop & arranged for a referral to OF for my checkout dives. Using e-mail to make arrangements w/ OF for the checkouts & diving was easy. Their 2 boats each comfortably accomodate 12 divers & are equipped w/ DAN oxygen & first aid kits. This is an organized outfit. Rides to most divesites are well under 30 min. As we tied onto a mooring, one of the divemasters drew a detailed picture of the reef, our mooring position, etc . . . on a large whiteboard they keep on the boats. It included written info like max. depth, whether the dive was guided or unguided, advice re a safety-stop, the time they expected everyone to be back on the boat, etc. . . Dive duration and max. depth information were duly collected from ea. diver after ea. dive. After the trip you put your gear into a plastic crate w/ your name on it. They took your gear up to the shed, rinsed it, hung it to dry & it was waiting on board your boat the next time you were scheduled to dive.

The wall off of Grand Cayman is justifiably famous. The top of the reef is about 60' below the surface. The edge of the wall is notched w/ sand channels and other cracks. The wall drops vertically for well over 100' further down, then it slopes off for a ways before plunging even further down. Within a short distance from shore, the depth drops off to more than 6,000'.

We arranged morning and afternoon 2-tank dives, a night dive as well as their 3-tank "safari" trip. 2-tank trips consisted of a wall dive to between 80' & 115', then a shallower reef dive. The "safari" 3-tank was supposed to be to a couple of the more northerly sites. We had rough water on the day of our "safari" so the 2nd dive was @ "Stingray City". The animal interaction was interesting enough but not worth it. My advice: if the plan is to hit Stingray City, skip the 3-tank "safari" if there is room on the boat doing the regular morning 2-tank. Whether for reasons of convenience or speed, OF chooses to do their night dive on a shallow reef close to shore. It was a fine dive but a night trip to the wall would have been more spectacular.

The island: There may not be tons of topside things to do on Grand Cayman but there certainly is enough to keep you busy. Cayman is not a cheap destination so be prepared to spend but you can economize easily. Unless you are staying @ one of the swank hotels just north of Georgetown, a rental car is mandatory. The restaurant meals we had were quite good but if you go much above a hamburger meal, prepare to pay handsomely for it. We did have some very good seafood.

Ocean Frontiers: This is a first-class operation. They are organized. The boats are well-equipped and not too crowded. Their prices are not too bad either. Their staff is top-notch.

The accommodations: There are just a couple of small diver-oriented hotels on the East End as well as a few condos & timeshares. It seemed that every other beach house had a "Cayman Villas" sign out front so I bet there are a ton of places you could rent for a larger group.

The diving: Outstanding wall diving w/ plenty of coral, fish, etc . . .

Reporter and Travel

Dive Experience 101-250 dives
Where else diving Great Lakes, Fla. Keys, Hawaii, Cozumel, USVI, misc. Caribbean
Closest Airport Getting There

Dive Conditions

Weather cloudy Seas choppy, noCurrents
Water Temp 79-81°F / 26-27°C Wetsuit Thickness 3
Water Visibility 50-100 Ft/ 15-30 M

Dive Policy

Dive own profile yes
Enforced diving restrictions Boat captains asked that you be back within time limits (usually 50 min.) or whenever you hit 500 p.s.i.
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 4 stars Tropical Fish 4 stars
Small Critters 4 stars Large Fish 3 stars
Large Pelagics 4 stars

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

Subject Matter 4 stars Boat Facilities 4 stars
Overall rating for UWP's 4 stars Shore Facilities N/A
UW Photo Comments 1 rinse tank on the boat was for cameras & computers only. One small table on the boat was for cameras, computers & other fragile items only.
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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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