Air Canada, Little Cayman Beach Resort, Cayman Airways Express.
This trip was absolutely wonderful.
There are some really bad itineraries between Toronto and the Caribbean. This is not one of them. The flight to Grand Cayman left mid-morning and arrived mid-afternoon. No getting up at 0300 or other such nonsense. We were scheduled for a two hour layover in Grand Cayman, but, because another flight was late, and Cayman Airways are flexible, we only spent half an hour at the airport on the way down.
Coming back, we had an early morning flight to Grand Cayman and a late afternoon flight to Toronto, so we rented a car and visited the Queen Elizabeth Botanic Garden. That was fun. Plus, we got home at a decent hour.
There are a couple of baggage issues, which I'll address later.
Our room was warm and dry with functional plumbing and that's all we ask. It also had a television with some American channels. Sometimes we watched tv, sometimes we didn't. The televisions in the rooms do not have input jacks for digital cameras, but the ones at the bar do. There is also a book exchange, which is nice.
The restaurant is fantastic. Neither Patti nor I can remember better food anywhere. We had lobster tails for our first meal, and then things got better. All meals were buffets so when we couldn't decide whether to have baby back ribs, shrimp and crab crepe, or roasted quail, we had all three. And was it ever good. A nice touch at breakfast was that, in addition to the usual collection of melons, pineapples and oranges, we also had blueberries and raspberries. No strawberries though, they were on the dessert menus.
Better for the taste buds than the girlish figure, thats for sure.
These guys offer a valet dive service, much like Divi Tiara in Cayman Brac. Specifically, on your first day of diving, you put your gear outside your room and go for breakfast. Then you go to the boat and there it is. You do your original hookup yourself, but for the rest of the trip, the crew would swap tanks for you. For the actual dives, you would go to the back of the boat and have a seat. The crew would bring your rig which you then don. Then you stand up and jump into the water. Coming back, you hand up your fins, climb the ladder and sit down. You doff your rig, and they carry it away. Doesn't get much easier than that.
The boats were big and comfy. Even though there were 16-18 dives on each trip, it never seemed crowded, either on the boar or in the water. There were spots in the sun and spots in the shade, so you could take your pick.
The itinerary started with 0830 departure. The boat rides were 20 to 30 minutes and then we did a 50 minute dive, 45 minute interval, and a 60 minute dive. Then we went back for lunch. The boat left again at 1430 and the afternoon dive was 60 minutes. The dives were timed (otherwise we'd be late for lunch)and either guided or not - your choice. One of the crew would be the last one in and first one out and would guide whoever wanted to dive with him, or her. We just went on our own.
What really set this dive shop apart was the between dive snacks. They had fruits and nutrition bars, much like most dive shops. But, the most popular snack, and my personal favourite was, (pause for effect), barbeque chips. Yummy.
The diving was very nice. The best diving is on the north side of the island and we did every dive except one on that side. On the west side is Bloody Bay Wall where the top of the wall is somewhere between 20 and 40 feet deep, with a nice reef on top. Further to the east is Jackson's Point where the top of the wall is 40 to 60 feet deep, with a sandbar on top leading to a mini wall closer to shore. Both areas are very nice. The water is clear, but, since we went in mid-December, if you went down the wall on the first dive, it was kinda dark.
Little Cayman has the usual collection of Caribbean fish. Compared to other places they had more turtles and queen triggerfish, but fewer angelfish and Sgt Majors. The coral was in decent shape.
The aircraft that fly between the three Cayman Islands can only lift so much weight. So there are luggage issues. There is a 55 lb weight limit, including hand luggage. Plus, if you are travelling on a weekend, on the way in, your luggage might arrive the following day (it happened to the lady in the room next to ours). On the way back, everyone was asked to send their luggage ahead to Grand Cayman a day early. Most people, including us did so. The big issue was drying the wetsuits after the morning dives, but it was a nice sunny day and mine got dry enough to send. My Plan B would have been to send my parka to Grand Cayman, give the suit more time to dry, and switch it around the following day.
This whole luggage thing sounds a lot worse than it is. There were guys there with housed camcorders, and housed digital SLR cameras with twin strobes, and they said they made weight. Just make sure you have your bathing suit in your carryon on the way in, and you'll be fine.
| Trip Dates2005-12-11 to 2005-12-18 | Trip Report Index |