Thumbs Down

When Undercurrent subscriber Charles Levine (Red Lion, PA) signed up with a group of 70 divers for a conference at Beaches Resort in the Turks and Caicos, he, along with the other divers, dutifully filled out the forms about diving abilities, dive log histories, and so forth. In fact, in the months leading up to the trip, they were asked to fill out and send in these forms not once, but three times.

Then, upon arrival, they were asked to fill out yet another such form, and any divers checking the box saying they had not been diving in 18-24 months were now told they could not dive the first two days. Instead, they would have to take a refresher course at an additional charge, something many would have done prior to arrival if they had been informed of the policy in advance.

It didn’t get much better from there: late departures from the dock, up to 36 divers per boat, and straight “60 feet for 30 minute” dive profiles with a follow-the-leader dive plan. For a final kick in the seat of their pants, on the fourth day, weather washed out their dive. When the group showed up the following morning, they were told “sorry you missed the previous day and that you didn’t sign up for day 5,” even though they had prepaid for 6 days of diving. Well, they figured they had another day left to dive, so they could just sign up for the next day. “Sorry,” they were told, “it’s first-come, first-served, and you have to sign up 24 hours in advance. The dive tomorrow is at 8 am, and it’s now 9 am.”

As experienced divers, we don’t have high expectations for the dive operations at all-inclusive family resorts, but we expect a whole lot better than this.