Air Canada, Little Cayman Beach Resort, Cayman Airways Express Expedia.
This was a return trip. We spent a week at LCBR in December 2005 and liked it so much, we decided to go back. The report for that trip is here.
This was a late March trip that we were booking in early January. We had planned a Saturday to Saturday trip, but there were no seats left on any Saturday morning flights from Little to Grand Cayman, so we stayed an extra day. Once we had our flights figured out, we attempted to book using the Sears Travel website. It wouldn't accept our credit card so we used Expedia. They were fine. We booked LCBR separately, using their website. Reserving the room and making the deposit was rather straightforward, but the website did not offer a way of paying the balance. We did that by email.
Our actual travel went reasonably smoothly. We had a late morning departure from Toronto and a late afternoon flight to Little Cayman. Since the Caymans don't use Daily Savings Time, we were effectively going from Eastern to Central Time, even though we were going east. One result was that when we got to the Grand Cayman airport, we had to stand around in the Cayman Express lineup for a half hour or so because they didn't have any staff there.
There were snowstorms in the US on the day we flew to Cayman. This delayed some flights from US cities and we saw two families that appeared to miss their connecting flights to Little Cayman or Cayman Brac. Plus, once we finally got our boarding passes, the departure lounge was jam packed full of people waiting for their flights home. I don't think I've ever seen it so crowded.
Coming back, we had an early morning flight to Grand Cayman and a mid afternoon flight to Toronto. We chose to hang around the airport so once again, we had to wait for an airline (Air Canada this time) rep to start taking baggage and issuing boarding passes. However, eventually that happened and, interestingly enough, we departed 15 minutes early. All the people were on board, so why not.
The Sunday departure had another effect. We didn't have to send our heavy luggage to Grand Cayman the evening before. We had to do that last time, and some of the couples who were leaving on Saturday this time also had to.
As was the case last time, 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. Since we were repeat guests, we got free t-shirts.
The restaurant is still wonderful, but a little less exotic than last time. One thing I thought was funny was that they served salmon. I don't think that's a Carribean fish. They may have served snapper, but they didn't offer either grouper or tuna, which are.
We were on a meal plan plus two free drinks per day. The free drinks were advertised as beer or wine. They also had a drink of the day which seemed just the ticket after the afternoon dive. While less than their normal price, these were costlier than beer or wine. I asked if it was included in the two free drinks and was told it wasn't. Then, on our last night, the barmaid said that the drinks of the day were now included in our package, and when we finally checked out, this was made retroactive for the entire week.
These guys offer a valet dive service. 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 divers on each trip, it never seemed crowded, either on the boat 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.
The between snacks were different this time. Instead of chips and fruit, we had chips and cookies.
The diving was very nice. The best diving is on the north side of the island but whether or not you go there depends on which way the wind is blowing. We dove on the south side a couple of days which is still nice, just not as nice as the north. On the west side (of the north 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, but the Jackson' Point area seemed to have more sand on the coral than I remember from before. They have had a hurricane there since our last trip.
Little Cayman has the usual collection of Caribbean fish. We saw at least one turtle every day so Patti was happy. There are also a couple of Nassau Groupers that will allow you to pet them. Another neat thing we saw was a free swimming green moray that was being trailed by those two groupers. Patti figured the eel was on the hunt and the groupers were on the mooch.
| Trip Dates2008-03-22 to 2008-03-30 | Trip Report Index |