Dive Review of Dive Dominica/Castle Comfort in
Dominica/South

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Dive Dominica/Castle Comfort, Jul, 2006, by Janine Davis, TX, United States . Report 2593.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity	N/A
Dive Operation		Shore Diving
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$	N/A
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	The Dominicans were sometimes friendly, sometimes downright surly in their attitudes. There is a 15% VAT on EVERYTHING you buy. Also a 10% service charge at all restaurants. So a Sandwich that costs $10 EC (about $3.85 US) will end up costing $ 12.50 EC - add $1.00. THe restaurant at Castle Comfort was appalling. Food was mediocre and the service abominable. Breakfast was included in our package, and one could select from a limited menu. Fruit and toast as wellas juice and coffee were part of the breakfast. If you had already eaten your allotted fruit and requested a banana (one of our group did just that) the response was NO! You were requested to order lunch during breakfast, so "it would be ready when you got back from diving) which I did on the first dive day - a tuna sandwich, which was unrefrigerated, and the bread so stale and crusty it had to have been prepared at breakfast time! When I requested wheat bread instead of the stale white, I got the same wilted lettuce and wrm tuna on new bread. When we asked staff people where else we could eat, we were told that they were not allowed to suggest alternative places. We found a couple anyway - the Green Flash, just south of the lodge about 1/2 mile walk was wonderful. The dive operation was somewhat better, and the dive crew took care to only take us where there was good visibility and no current. They were courteous, and helped out when asked, but no more than that. They were not all trained, and one poor soul tried to take a BC off a tank by lifting the tank and pulling the BC off from the bottom! The offered boat night dive is extra, and so is nitrox. Shore diving is free, if you stay at the resort and dive with Dive Dominica. The island has fabulous waterfalls and rain forests, and on the day prior to departure, we did a tour called Waterfall Mania ($80 US including VAT - not including tip). Saw 8 waterfalls at 3 locations, but some of them were challenging to get to. Wear waterproof shoes (preferably not slip ons). Also, some of the climbing is slippery, but safe enough. Shopping was nonexistent - and expensive, compared to the same items anywhere else I in the Caribbean. The diving was very good, including the shore dives. My buddy and I opted to skip a day of boat diving when the previous day the boat had gone out with 16 divers and 3 crew - (management response was that the craft was coast guard rated to 24 people) - too many divers for the boat and for me - the first several days there were between 7 - 10 divers. I am glad I went, but the experience could have been made MUCH better by a little bit of courtesy and had I not had the feeling I was being squeezed for every dime I could afford to give.
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	Over 1000 dives
Where else diving	Maldives, Wakatobi, KBR, Tasik Ria, (Indonesia), Truk, Palau, Yap, Tahiti, Belize, Cozumel, Puerto Vallarta, Catalina, Monterey CA, FL, TX, Jamaica, St. Lucia, Costa Rica
Closest Airport		Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, rainy, cloudy	Seas	calm, noCurrents
Water Temp	82-84°F / 28-29°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	40-100 Ft/ 12-30 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	?
Enforced diving restrictions	100 foot max depth (Dominican restriction)
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	N/A
What I Saw
Sharks	None	Mantas	None
Dolphins	Schools	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	Fresh water rinse tank - covered on boat. Adequate area for cameras on one dive boat, minimal on the other. Good macro and healthy corals, but fished out - the largest grouper I saw was about 12".

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Dive Review of Dive Dominica/Castle Comfort in Dominica/South

Dive Dominica/Castle Comfort, Jul, 2006,

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 Dive Dominica/Castle Comfort in
Dominica/South