Going Deep with April May Precious

April May Precious and her Turks and Caicos Dive Resort is clearly a diving icon.  We first reviewed her magnificent resort with untouched reefs and fishes in 1992 when it was in the Caymans and provided a phone number to call for information.  We received 600 phone calls.  We reviewed her T&C operation online in 2007 and again earlier this month in an email we sent on April 1.  If you missed the review, before reading further in this blog see the full story here It will add to your appreciation of the blog and our readers comments.

Scores of our readers responded to our review of Precious Island, so we thought it would be fun to post several of those responses in our blog just in case you decide to make the trip. As you will see, some folks didn’t realize it was too good to be true.

— Ben Davison

I stayed in Little Caicos for a week in the 90’s, at a dive dump that was the only place to stay there at the time. At that time the vis was the best I had seen ANYWHERE, (and I’ve done 500+ dives in the Carib, Indian & Pacific Oceans) there were absolutely huge stingrays the size of a VW and large schools of Eagle Rays. However the rest of the diving was pretty mundane, more like G. Cayman today, NOT the South Pacific. Are you sure you weren’t enamored by the young lady who runs the place? Your description of the place is not credible from my experience. And I dove there 20 yrs. ago when it was really a virgin area.  — Bob K

You had me going there, did sound too good to be true. My son and I spent a great week on Providenciales in 2009. You should have mentioned the sharks in your piece, we saw many, many.  — Craig Wood

You SOOO ROCK!!! — Dena Evans

Ben, How could you do that?  I was ready to call my wife to her where our next dive trip was going to be when I read the first letter or every paragraph.  Payback is going to be a bitch!!! —      Doug Dellsianti

You had me up until the Mantas. — Jeff Bloomer

You got me!!! I started looking up Precious Island to find pictures! Then, I read the last note. LOL, good one. — Kim Krebs

How do you feel not having parents? — Paul Ross

You had me fooled Ben.  I was ready to jump on a plane right now and go diving.  Rotten April Fool’s Day joke. — Bett

Bastard! I bought into the whole thing right until the end and was already cancelling my June vacation plans so I could go there! I’d give anything to be able to dive the Caribbean that existed 50 years ago. So much that I didn’t even see this one coming. You are evil. — Chris Smith, DVM

Good thing I caught the warning. Had my Visa out and was ready to go, deaf to the rising crescendo of my long-suffering wife’s complaints… U doggie dog dog, u! — Dave Ross

Happy April Fool’s Day?? — Peter A. Hughes

That was funny! We have a vacation home in the Turks and Caicos, and I was particularly interested. My suspicion was raised with the ocean sunfish though!  Great joke. — Cindi Robertson

Ben, This is dated.  I married Precious after the first time I read this.  We’ve closed the resort and now live in Tucson in order to be closer to our grandchildren.  It was great while it lasted but then all the coral died and all of our customers began to go to Indonesia instead.  We’d love to dive in Indonesia but the last few years before we closed the resort really ate up all of our funds.  Precious is now in the personnel office at the Marriot and I just nailed a position at a nearby McDonalds. — Fred Kolo

Cruel April Fool’s joke it was, but clever. Thanks for the great publication. — Gary Matts

You are a very, very bad man! Hard as it was to believe, I HAVE heard great things about the Turks and Caicos, and was only too willing to believe your review. Had you not warned us, I would have spent a lot of time scouring the web. Bad Man! — Greg Liebman

Are you sure this is a great resort??? Sounds a bit biased….. — Irene

Ben, you’re “killing” me! Please don’t ever do that again! Especially next year- it ain’t gonna work (I hope!) 🙂  🙂 — Jeffry Morrison, DVM

The article about April May was “Precious”! I was ready to book that trip my friend, great job, you had me going big time! — John Munro

Nice one!  You had me going!  I was ready to drop everything for a quick trip to the T&C!  Thanks for the heads up at the end. 🙂 — John Whitehead

I read your article on Precious Island with a great deal of interest.  Do you have an email or URL for booking? — EM

YOU ARE BAD!!!!! I was all ready to book and go. April Fools to you too. — Nancy

Nice spoof. I was totally sucked in, reef hook and line, and weight belt! — Nick McGregor

Ben, the first time you did this, I was upset because you wasted most of the printed newsletter on this spoof. Online, it’s OK. Actually, the 1st time I got the issue just before departing for Pirate’s Point & showed to Gladys who was mystified a bit. We neither could believe it, but took some time to figure out. — Ollie McClung.

Thought wow, went looking for a picture of April May Precious.  Internet doesn’t know her.  Looked up 3rd runner up in 1998 Miss America pageant.  It was  Arizona – Stacey Momeyer – hmmmm.  Your description of where Little Caicos is, has me scratching my head.  You say 42 miles SW of Grand Cayman, then say you took a 60 min hover craft ride from Providenciales??  I think you meant to say Grand Turk may be? — PO

Hook, line and sinker– YOU GOT ME GOOD!   I had my hand on the phone ready to make my reservations before I even finished reading!  Best April Fool’s joke of the day- Nice piece of writing Editor!!! — Richard

Damn, you got me Ben.  Just as I was dreaming of a short flight, great diving in the Caribbean and a fabulous topside resort (I’m a veteran of 18+ hour flights to get anywhere special these days) you absolutely crushed me!  Alas, I’ve always said fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me – but this, unfortunately, was about the best (worst) April Fool’s joke ever pulled on me! Great. — R. Kuznetz

April Fool’s day.  That’s GREAT!!  I just hope the write-up is for real.  Going to check with Ken at Island Dreams to make sure it’s for real!! 🙂  — Sandy Alexander

My wife now thinks I’m the biggest idiot on the planet.  We’ve traveled to Provo at least twice a year for 20 years, and I still fell for the Precious Island story.  I sort of brushed over the Geographic description of the Island?? — Scott Baler

You know, it’s not often I get fooled! BUT you got me! Even though I saw many items in your story that didn’t jive, I thought but this is BEN! By the time I got to the end, I had my credit card out and was looking around for an address to get started!! I hope we are all able to find this place soon! There aren’t many I’m sure but IT’S POSSIBLE!!! Thanks for the entertainment!!! — Wayne Ayer

Ben, you naughty boy, you…just when I was t-h-i-s close, I read your disclaimer….naughty, naughty Ben…. — Yvonne Lanelli

How do you contact this resort?  I read your article and would love to go. — Clark

Please, how can I learn more about Precious Island resort?  I didn’t understand your comment about “the first letter of each paragraph.” — Margaret L

Ben! No fair. Many of us have fragile constitutions, and our life support consists of dreaming of the next dive resort. I feel stranded… without an octopus. — Randall Rothenberg

In your first paragraph you say that the island is 42 miles SSW or Grand Cayman.  That doesn’t appear to be correct.  — Todd C

So the whole article is an April Fool’s joke? —  Pam Rudy