Client Comments

Just wanted to drop a line and let you know the trip was a huge success! Thanks for everything!

We loved everything! The diving was pristine. The reefs were very healthy and busting with life. The only sad note was that the islanders have overfished some of the larger species like the groupers and angelfish and so there's a notable absence of large fish and an insanely high proportion of those creatures that are normally preyed on by the larger fish. Our divemaster Reggie was great. He has a terrific eye and was able to spot alot of cool stuff like a seahorse and a frogfish. The corals were healthy (not alot of gorgonians) and the sponges were enormous. Large populations of schooling fish in aggregates. Enormously huge feather duster worms, crinoids and sea anemones. Eels everywhere! Squid and octupus too! At night right in front of the resort, 2 of our divers saw schools of flying guanards, bat fish, turtles. To not see anything here, you would have to have your eyes closed! We also saw several sperm whales on the whale watch.

The hotel staff was polite and friendly. The food was terrific. The dinner menu changed every night and was interesting, expertly prepared and presented. The only difficulty we had was cashing traveler's checks and bills over $10. We may wish to advise traveler's to bring low demonination cash and/or make sure they make time to get to a bank. Also, the hotel staff kept trying to charge us for items that were included - but in all cases these misunderstandings were easily and quickly corrected.

We signed up for 2 more land tours because there was so many interesting things to do. The hotel's land guide, Jonathan was very knowledge, friendly and accomodating. Even when he picked us up at the airport he would stop and get out and bring back coffee beans, grapefruit, bay leaf, cinnamon, etc. He knew almost all of the names of the plants and flowers. The tours levels of difficulty may need revising for the average tourist however. The Freshwater Lake, Trafalgar falls, Hot Springs tour was wonderful but taxing. It was rated a "easy tour". It was an hour and a half walk up steep hills to get to the lake and a 30 minute climb over huge sharp boulders to get to the Trafalgar Falls. I'm happy to say the majority of us divers made it to these remote sites but we're totally spent. I come back a much "fitter" person! What an incredibly beautiful island and people!

The airport hotel was very convenient -

This trip was a #10! (both underwater and on land!)

Two thumbs up!

Teresa Sorensen

Well, we are back in the cold, snowy, miserable midwest. We actually got back a day later than planned - Indy had high winds on Monday night so our flight from Atlanta was cancelled. Delta did put us up in a Days Inn and gave us breakfast vouchers and we were able to fly out the next morning.. Other than that problem, the flights were good. We were very pleased with ALM, and as you had indicated, they even had good food!

We were pleasantly surprised to find someone waiting for us at the airport in Curacao - the driver was very informative (as much as we could understand) about the island, sights, etc on the way to the hotel. It was after dark when we checked in and found the "ocean view" from the room was mostly the view of a restaurant, parking lot and construction, with a very small spot of ocean from a corner of the balcony. The next day we went down to see if there was a mistake and they moved us to a room with a great ocean view. (They did say that a room was considered ocean view if you could see the ocean at all). This room overlooked the pool, bar area, beach, ocean and had a perfect view of the sunset!

I don't know if you are aware of it, but they are in the process of converting the hotel to a Radisson, so there was some construction going on, but they left a letter of explanation/apology in the room along with a sampler of three small bottles of Curacao .

The beach and grounds were very nice. We had windy weather with scattered clouds the entire time but that kept you from getting too hot on the beach. Temps were in the mid 80's, water temp was 82 and the only rain we had was a 2 minute shower during dinner one evening, and then about an hour of rain as we were waiting for the transportation back to the airport on Monday.

The dive operation was great! I'll let Perry tell you more, but he dove every day. He hooked up with a gal from California on the first day and they were dive buddies for the week. She was an experienced diver and doing a lot of underwater photgraphy. She and Perry got along very well - she kept telling me what a good diver he was. She was particularly grateful for his navigations skills - not one of her strong points. The divemasters were great - a lot of fun. They let me go out on the boat three days when it wasn't full. So that was a real treat for me - something I had never done. I got to see more of the island than I normally would have.

We found 2 good places to eat within walking distance of the hotel. Right next door is the Seaside Cafe (basically a trailer with outdoor tables). Definitely nothing fancy but good seafood and very reasonable prices. About a 10 minurte walk away was the Fishermans Wharf - very nice with both indoor and outdoor seating. A fanicer place with entrees starting about $16 - excellent food and service! The hotel breakfast that was included in the package was also very good.

Well, I know this is kind of long but I thought you might like some feedback that you could pass on to anyone else thinking about going there. We had a great time and the only bad part was having to come home to temps in the teens and 6 inches of snow yesterday.

Thanks again for all of your help - if you come across any deals that include quiet beaches & good diving, let us know. The first few days down there it was very quiet with few people on the beach (my preference), but they were starting to get a lot busier about half way through the week.

Deb & Perry

RE: Curacao Dive In, Sept 2 - 9, 2001

Judy and I both greatly enjoyed ourselves and had so much fun with you and Ray (and Mike and Diane). We definitely need to do this more often. I hope you and Ray managed to get through the hurricane last week with no damage.

The Lions Dive Hotel is a very quaint Caribbean lodging with a pleasant twist. While many such resorts often have deficiencies in the upkeep of their rooms, The Lions Dive Hotel is kept in excellent repair with every appliance operating (AC, refrigerator, lamps, electrical outlets) and problem free plumbing. The rooms were kept clean and tidy by the staff, who were very friendly and eager to make our stay enjoyable. We would definitely stay there again.

The "Ocean Encounters" dive operation was one of the finest it has ever been my pleasure to dive with. The staff are exceptional, and Hans and Sandy run a first class establishment. The boats were in excellent shape, although I would recommend some carpeting or matting on the decks to prevent slippage and would also suggest some deck-tread on the boarding ladders for the same reason. If I stayed anywhere else on the island, I would still dive with Hans and Sandy at "Ocean Encounters".

The island of Curacao has a lot of history, only some of which we had time to explore. Next visit, and we have no doubt there will be another visit, we will do a little more island exploration.

As a personal note, I would also like to say a special thanks to you and Hans for arranging the ride in the police helicopter. That was a piece of this vacation I will never forget. thanks you. Do you have an e-mail address for Hans and Sandy so that I can e-mail a personal thank you to Hans?

Thanks for arranging this trip Sabah. Let's do it a gain soon. Bring Ray!! :-)

Tim & Judy Kary

Rachel and I are now back from Grand Cayman. We had a wonderful time and I wanted to let you know how much I appreciate the arrangements you made for us. Everything worked perfectly! The accommodation and the dive operations were excellent. Rachel passed her Advanced Open Water (I was very, very impressed with DiveTech and would highly recommend them.)and I had a great time!

So thanks for everything. I will certainly recommend Caribbean Adventures/World Dive Adventures to my friends and colleagues.

Julian

Everything was excellent.
Island Pine was a nice place, especially as it was
next to the Royal Palms beach bar. Used Frank's Water Sports for snorkeling
and had the best time with Captain John John. I would recommend him to anyone
needing a boat captain near shore or offshore.

Thanx for you help in setting this up.

Tom Robinson

Well we certainly had a great time, but then you knew we would. While Little Cayman may be first island we've visited that we could NEVER afford to live on, it is certainly a great place to visit. The diving
was stunning and Harold & Vinnie at Paradise Divers are great. Thanks to the tropical wave that stomped us on Sataurday, we had a few days of winter like rough seas, reduced visibility and strong currents and it was still even better than Bonaire. Our villa was wonderful (we weren't in the one that had a collapsed cieling from a leaking water pipe) and the only thing between our villa's porch and the ocean were Sea Grape trees with hammocks. I'll let you know when I post images from this trip. In the mean time, I've included a video frame grab of one of two octopus we saw on my last day of diving that were out for a stroll during the day.

Dave Beebe

Thanks for all your assistance with our travel plans. Our trip to Grand Cayman was absolutely perfect. We had a wonderful time enjoying the beautiful surroundings and fabulous activities. Of course, we snorkled nearly every day and took a boat trip to stringray city and the reefs. Jack also chartered a fishing boat. Troy and Jen caught two barracudas!

We rented a car and explored the island...Pedro's castle was especially interesting. From there we went to Rum Point, which was the only site we were alittle disappointed in (very crowded and touristy). Horsebackriding on the beach, trips into Georgetown, and relaxing poolside rounded out the week.

We were very pleased with Georgetown Villas. The accomodations were perfect, the staff was exceptionally helpful, and the condo was immaculate.

We had an excellent dinner at Casanova's in Georgetown and overall were very satisfied with the food and service wherever we dined.

Unfortunately, our trip home was alittle frustrating. Our bags were held in Grand Cayman because of a weight issue and we didn't find out till we arrived in Charlotte and were waiting for our luggage to go through customs. One of our group, Jen, was flying out the next morning for Japan and had packed her
bag to take with her. Additionally, our flight out of GC was delayed so we missed our connecting flight out of Charlotte. We were booked on the next flight at 10:20 p.m. which was also delayed until 11 p.m. Two of our bags were forwarded by the next day, but the last two took five days to reach us and
for Jen's bag to catch up to her in Japan. It was definitely good to see them!

Overall, the vacation was awesome. Thanks again, Sabah, for all your help and I'll be in touch when we begin planning our next trip!

Sincerely,

Dawn McCall

Awesome...we had a very good time. Thank you for all your help. The people at Georgetown Villas could not have been nicer. We are already thinking about when we want to go again next year. We would certainly stay there again. I am just curious if you represent any of the other MANY developments along the beach. The car was great, we had a lot of fun in our little open air Suzuki, we drove around a lot. Definitely the best way to go.

Anyway, I have a weeks worth of work on my desk, thats the price for going away and swimming with the stingrays!
Thanks again,

Bruce, Jan and Andy Love

Just wanted to thank you again for arranging our incredible trip to Grand Cayman. All 4 of us had a spectacular time! The weather was perfect, the accomodations fantastic and of course the diving fabulous. You were certainly right about the Anchorage! Thanks for switching our rooms. It was
just PERFECT!! I really appreciate your help----You are the BEST. I am passing your name & e-mail address onto some friends who want to go to Grand Cayman in November. Also, how are we doing on info. and prices for Christmas?
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANKYOU!!!

Moe Mullen

I wish to express my enthusiasm with Caribbean Adventures of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. I had no intentions of making a trip to Grand Cayman this Summer, but after receiving your newsletter and Summer Price Special I decided to enquire about a trip.From the very first telephone conversation with Margo, I was not only pleased but excited! Her excitement and professionalism are an excellent and rare combination. I found her to be knowledgeable and very east to work with.

After several conversations, the arrangements were finalized. I was very happy except for the fact that a flight from Buffalo to New York involved a small plane. This was a significant problem for two out of the three divers in our party. I made Margo aware of the situation but believed it to be a 'done deal'. I was absolutely ecstatic five and a half weeks later to receive a telephone call from margo stating that she was still working with the airline on this problem. A change fee might be required but there was the possibility of a solution. A week later, following several more conversations with the airline, Margo called with different flight arrangements involving a large airplane and NO CHANGE FEE!

I was very impressed and satisfied. I wish all my travel arrangements for dive trips were taken this seriously and followed up on with this type of dilegence. I formally recognize Margo's efforts on my behalf and she will certainly direct my travel choices in the future because this has been such an easy and pleasant experience! Her work ethic is yet another example of the excellent service I have come to expect from Fisheye over the last several years.

Sincerely

Moe Mullen