Dive Review of Reef Divers/Little Cayman Beach Resort in
Cayman Islands/Little Cayman

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Reef Divers/Little Cayman Beach Resort: "DAN / UHMS Dive Medicine in Little Cayman", May, 2019, by Robert Schlamowitz, FL, US ( Reviewer 3 reports with 3 Helpful votes). Report 10921.
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
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	This dive experience was a balance between learning/refreshing one's dive medicine knowledge base and relaxing in perfect dive conditions. I boarded Cayman Airways from Miami International to Cayman Brac with no difficulty. The airport in Brac has been upgraded since I was there in 1999 with Wi-Fi and I had a comfortable interval before boarding the small Twin Otter flight (lasting only ten minutes) to Little Cayman. The grass runway has now been paved (grass in 1997) but the 'terminal' is little more than a two room building. The plane pulls right up to it where a shuttle to the Beach Resort awaited me. Weight restrictions are tight given the size of the plane so plan your packing appropriately. You really don't need much clothing (shorts, T shirts and swim suits will suffice) and your dive gear and photography gear will be the bulk of your bags (close connections from the USA in Grand Cayman frequently delayed delivery of checked bags of my friends until the next day so carry what you need). The resort has been modernized nicely since my last visit in '97 and I was awarded an attractive logo T shirt adorned with their signature Iguana picture for being a return customer despite the long interval. Our group of 50 doctors, nurses, therapists and other interested parties enjoyed six days of four hour lectures (usually from 8-12) followed by six days of two tank dives (a additional night dive on Wednesday was optional). Instructors were from South Africa, Brazil, Seattle, North Carolina but all the participants contributed with a truly world experience of diving and dive medicine. The food (buffet style) was awesome with choices for all dietary needs and plenty of it, usually announced by a loud ringing bell. The bar was a center of activity at night (karaoke, movies, iguana lectures, trivia) but expect some pricey drinks (my bourbon was $15 and my beer was $9). The dive shop offered rentals and lots of shirts for sale but was a bit limited otherwise so bring what you need (consider redundancy of critical stuff). We all dove Nitrox 32% and they are fantastically organized. Each day you would analyze your two tanks, label them with your initials and the assigned boat designation and the crew would lug the tanks to the boat and set up your gear. Once on the boat, all you have to do is put on your wetsuit and fins and sit on the transom seats as this is truly Valet service. The boat's crew (captain and DM) would bring your gear to you there (at the end of the dive, they reversed the procedure so all you had to do was get to the back of the boat and they would haul all gear). They switched over your tanks (we all checked the set up anyway individually) for you. Dry towels were provided for the day. Camera table got crowded with all the fancy rigs brought and no camera bucket was available (clearly prevented any de-fog from contaminating O rings) but they were very good about carefully bringing your camera rig to you after you jumped in or when you were returning. Dive sites included "The Great Wall", Mike's Mount, Lea Lea's Lookout, Randy's Gazebo, Eagle Ray Roundup (no eagle rays seen) and Nancy's Cup of Tea as well as several others. The wall is sheer (90 degrees down from the reef straight into the abyss) with huge sponges and coral formations (Bloody Bay Wall is the pinnacle for this), tunnels from the 30 foot reef emptying out at 100 feet with the best tunnel having a 'Zen Room' side cavern (holes in the roof provided rays of light into the cavern). Arches, grottos, cut-throughs and canyons made the topography of the dives as interesting as it gets. Visibility over the wall was over 100 feet (doubt you can really judge accurately beyond that) and nearly as good over the shallows where the boats would moor. Groupers were so friendly they inserted themselves into your arms. Yellow headed jawfish with mouths full of eggs were everywhere. Squid schools investigated us on both day and night dives coming close enough to see directly into their eyes and tickle your fingers with theirs! Small friendly turtles made for some exciting photo ops as well. Mantis shrimp, pipe horses as well as pipe fish, sailfin blennies, fairy basslets and octopus kept all the photographers busy. Pelagics were not in abundance but a few small nurse sharks cruised through our group periodically. The night dive was notable for blood worms swarming our lights but slipper lobsters, octopus, squid and spiny lobsters highlighted the show. Our lights gave the resident jack the diner's delight as he sped through the reef gobbling everything illuminated at warp speed. The Reef Divers boats are Newton 46' and are new. The DMs are friendly and despite setting the dive profiles, they were never 'dive police', allowing each of us to follow their 'recommendations' but without having to show our computers to prove our compliance. I have encountered other operations that are obnoxious about this issue, but Reef Divers isn't one of those and I commended them for this. After the dives, all we needed to do was carry our wetsuit, booties, fins and cameras (no gloves allowed) to the shop in the complimentary mesh bags provided and rinse them all in the dunk barrels to wash them down. An open air building for hanging the wet gear was right there and no one hesitated to leave their gear there overnight to dry. BCs, regulators, and even console computers were safely kept on the boats (which were anchored away from the docks at night) and the Reef Diver crews rinsed those gear off each night as well with fresh water. Once back at the resort, Wi-fi is available everywhere, but so are the Rock Iguanas so keep your fingers to yourself so that they don't nibble. They seem harmless and are fascinating to watch. At the end of the week, the resort shuttle took us back to the airport and I flew off to Grand Cayman for my connecting flight back to Miami. My only complaint was the nearly four hour delay Cayman Airways inserted when they changed my early afternoon flight to a late afternoon flight (my guess: too few passengers to justify the flight for the afternoon). Otherwise, no complaints.
Websites	Reef Divers Little Cayman Beach Resort
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	Over 1000 dives
Where else diving	Great Barrier Reef; Cayman Brac/Little/Grand; Dominica; Saba/St Kitts/Statia; Bonaire; Cay Sol Bank; Exumas; Turks and Caicos; Red Sea; Honduras; Bimini; Bahamas-Nassau, Columbus Isle-San Salvadore; St Lucia; Florida-Jupiter, Miami, West Palm Beach, Alachua, Key West/Largo/Looe/Marathon/Islamorada,
Closest Airport	Miami	Getting There	Miami to Brac to Little Cayman to Grand Cayman to Miami
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny	Seas	calm
Water Temp	78-83°F / 26-28°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	80-100 Ft/ 24-30 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	First dive: 110 ft for 50 min; second dive: 60 ft for 60 min
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	1 or 2	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 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		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	Great for Macro as well as wide angle but obviously, set your goal before diving in. No camera buckets and limited space on the camera table but the staff are very careful with everyone's gear as they bring it to you for each dive and retrieve it at the end of the dive.

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Dive Review of Reef Divers/Little Cayman Beach Resort in Cayman Islands/Little Cayman

Reef Divers/Little Cayman Beach Resort: "DAN / UHMS Dive Medicine in Little Cayman", May, 2019,

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 Reef Divers/Little Cayman Beach Resort in
Cayman Islands/Little Cayman