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

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Reef Divers/Little Cayman Beach Resort: "Oh joy - warm water diving again after 3 years!", Nov, 2022, by Phil Hamilton, MA, US ( Sr. Reviewer 8 reports with 3 Helpful votes). Report 12282 has 1 Helpful vote.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	This trip was a postponement of a trip originally scheduled for the fall of 2020. It was the first time my wife and I had dived in warm water since late 2019 and for my wife, apart from a refresher session in a pool, it was her first time in scuba gear in 3 years. First the good. As a destination to get reacquainted with why we go on dive trips, Little Cayman Beach Resort/Reef Divers were outstanding. Both the resort and dive staffs were friendly and accommodating. Our second floor, ocean-view room was clean, well kept and had an excellent A/C. Bags were taken directly to your room upon check-in, and were collected from outside your room after check-out. The quality of the meals was excellent and varied; they also made efforts to accommodate guests with special dietary needs. The check-in for the diving was pretty easy, with most divers having supplied their information online prior to arrival. A short video covering the layout of the boats, how the diving is managed, and the boat’s safety features was shown in the bar area for arriving guests. Once you had taken your gear down to the boat, all you were responsible for the rest of the week were your mask, fins and computer, and rinsing out wet suits. Divers using nitrox had to analyze their tanks for the next day’s dives, but with 4 wall-mounted analyzers available, there was rarely any wait to analyze tanks. Reef Divers promises “valet diving” and they delivered. If you wanted, they would set up your gear for you. I finished up having to rent a BCD while I was there; they supplied me with a ScubaPro jacket BC that fitted well and appeared to be well maintained. The boats are twin engine Newtons that can accommodate 20 divers but were running with 12-16 divers per boat while we were there. The boats were comfortable, a water cooler was provided as well as a cooler of snacks. Following a descriptive dive briefing, you would go to seats at the stern with your masks and fins, and the tanks and BC would be brought to you to gear up and jump in the water. After the dive, the you handed up your fins (and sometimes weight pockets) then climbed up one of the two ladders. Once on board, the you sat at the stern and unfastened your gear, your tank and BC were then taken to your place on the boat and the tanks changed. For most of the week, we had Kari as the boat captain and Fabio and Steve as divemasters/guides. Each of the 3 crew would take turns leading a dive, doing the briefing when it was their turn to lead. Our crew were really hard working, accommodating, friendly, and always in good humor. As guides, they mentioned during the briefing what we might see during the dive and then did their best to some, if not all, of the species mentioned. The not so good. For most diving the weather affects the quality of the dive or even whether we dive at all. Mid-November in Little Cayman was no exception. Although Hurricane Ian hadn’t hit the Cayman Islands, we experienced strong winds and choppy seas during our visit. We were only able to do one dive on Bloody Bay Wall, with the other dives restricted to more sheltered sites on the north side of the island or sites on the south side. We made the trip over to Cayman Brac to dive the wreck of the Keith Tibbetts although the trip took longer and was quite bumpy. Poor weather conditions forced the cancellation of the planned night dives. There was a lot of particulate matter in the water and visibility ranged from about 70 feet during the morning (and generally calmer) dives down to about 40 feet by the second afternoon dive. Interestingly, when I looked ay my log book for our last trip to Little Cayman in late October 2004, the situation was similar – about 80 feet in the morning dropping to about 40 feet in the afternoon. Overall, the coral appeared to be in good shape with no signs of bleaching at the sites we visited. Divers who had dived in other parts of the Caribbean or in Florida during the three weeks prior to visiting the Cayman Islands were required to have their dive gear sanitized as a precaution against the spread of stony coral disease to these islands. While there seemed to be a healthy abundance of the smaller fish species, the populations of many of the larger species such as parrot fish, angel fish, and file fish seemed to be much smaller than we remembered. Two exceptions were the barracudas and Nassau grouper which have experienced a substantial recovery in numbers. Hopefully, other species will also follow suite. Although shark sightings were infrequent, turtles, especially on the morning dives, were frequently encountered. Perhaps I’m just better at spotting them, but the various shrimp populations seem to be quite abundant. Also, there were far more sea cucumbers than on our previous visit. Lionfish were present, usually between 40 and 60 feet. The most we saw on a dive was six. We were told that the dive staff from the resorts on the island have regular Saturday trips to hunt lionfish. Hopefully their efforts will keep this invasive species to a minimum. The ugly. Getting to Grand Cayman from Boston was relatively painless, and our group of about 30 had chosen to arrive on the Friday to avoid missing flights to Little Cayman due to delays from the US. We needn’t have worried. Cayman Airways had split our group among 5 flights to Little Cayman throughout the day. My wife and I were in a group of 5 scheduled to fly to Little Cayman with a stop in Cayman Brac; after a delay of over an hour, we were the only ones of our group to make it to Little Cayman that day. Apparently, Cayman Airways currently has only one aircraft serving Little Cayman, the other is in Canada being serviced. So if that remaining aircraft has a problem… We were picked up from Cayman Brac, along with guests for other resorts and some individuals, by one of the dive boats from Little Cayman Beach Resort. The rest of our group arrived late Sunday morning having been flown to Cayman Brac and ferried by dive boat to Little Cayman Beach Resort. Reef divers did arrange one dive for the Sunday afternoon and made up for the other missed dives by having 2 afternoon dives on the Monday and Tuesday. Leaving Little Cayman was relatively trouble-free, with our group departing to Grand Cayman on the early morning flights. However, after those two flights, all subsequent flight to and from Little Cayman were cancelled due to mechanical issues. At least two of our group arrived in Miami with their check-in bags still sitting in Little Cayman. Overall, we had a great trip. The diving was relatively easy and enjoyable, and the resort exceeded expectations. However, Cayman Airways needs to get its act together regarding its service to Little Cayman.
Websites	Reef Divers Little Cayman Beach Resort
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	Over 1000 dives
Where else diving	Galapagos, Indonesia, Maldives, Caribbean, Sea of Cortez, Roatan, Utilla, Belize, Costa Rica, Curacao, Cozumel, Australia, California, New England, Fla keys, Philipines
Closest Airport	Little Cayman	Getting There	American Airlines to Grand Cayman, Cayman Airways to Little Cayman. Currently, Cayman Air only had one aircraft flying into Little Cayman. If that is out of action, as happened on both the inbound and outbound trips, be prepared for delays, a boat ride to Cayman Brac to make a connecting flight, and possibly your checked in luggage not making it off the island the same day.
Dive Conditions
Weather	windy	Seas	choppy
Water Temp	81-94°F / 27-34°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	40-80 Ft/ 12-24 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	no
Enforced diving restrictions	110 ft max depth with dive computer, 100 ft if using tables. Must dive with a buddy and keep within sight of dive guide.
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	N/A
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	The boats had a table for camera gear but there were no rinse buckets for cameras. The crew were very accommodating, bringing cameras to the divers just before entering or once they were in the water, and taking the cameras beck to the camera table at the end of a dive.

Report currently has 1 Helpful vote

Subscriber's Comments

By J Christian Duroe in NY, US at Dec 20, 2022 19:13 EST

Same experience in December 2022. Good resort and dive operation but weather curtailed diving on Bloody Bay Wall and the trip to and from Little Cayman was a nightmare with members of our group late or stranded then arriving without luggage. Cayman Air needs to rethink service to the Sister Islands- never again for this group until that changes

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

Reef Divers/Little Cayman Beach Resort: "Oh joy - warm water diving again after 3 years!", Nov, 2022,

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):

Subscriber's Comments

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