Service Provided By
Air Canada (http://www.aircanada.ca),     Little Cayman Beach Resort
(http://www.littlecayman.com),     Cayman Airways Express
(http://www.caymanairways.com), and Expedia www.expedia.ca.

Executive Summary

This was a return trip. We spent a week at LCBR in December 2005 and
liked it so much, we decided to go back. The report for that trip is
here.

Travel - Including Preparations

This was a late March trip that we were booking in early January. We
had planned a Saturday to Saturday trip, but there were no seats left
on any Saturday morning flights from Little to Grand Cayman, so we
stayed an extra day. Once we had our flights figured out, we attempted
to book using the Sears Travel website. It wouldn't accept our credit
card so we used Expedia. They were fine. We booked LCBR separately,
using their website. Reserving the room and making the deposit was
rather straightforward, but the website did not offer a way of paying
the balance. We did that by email.

Our actual travel went reasonably smoothly. We had a late morning
departure from Toronto and a late afternoon flight to Little Cayman.
Since the Caymans don't use Daily Savings Time, we were effectively
going from Eastern to Central Time, even though we were going east.
One result was that when we got to the Grand Cayman airport, we had to
stand around in the Cayman Express lineup for a half hour or so
because they didn't have any staff there.

There were snowstorms in the US on the day we flew to Cayman. This
delayed some flights from US cities and we saw two families that
appeared to miss their connecting flights to Little Cayman or Cayman
Brac. Plus, once we finally got our boarding passes, the departure
lounge was jam packed full of people waiting for their flights home. I
don't think I've ever seen it so crowded.

Coming back, we had an early morning flight to Grand Cayman and a mid
afternoon flight to Toronto. We chose to hang around the airport so
once again, we had to wait for an airline (Air Canada this time) rep
to start taking baggage and issuing boarding passes. However,
eventually that happened and, interestingly enough, we departed 15
minutes early. All the people were on board, so why not.

The Sunday departure had another effect. We didn't have to send our
heavy luggage to Grand Cayman the evening before. We had to do that
last time, and some of the couples who were leaving on Saturday this
time also had to.

The Resort

As was the case last time, our room was warm and dry with functional
plumbing and that's all we ask. It also had a television with some
American channels. Sometimes we watched tv, sometimes we didn't. The
televisions in the rooms do not have input jacks for digital cameras,
but the ones at the bar do. There is also a book exchange, which is
nice. Since we were repeat guests, we got free t-shirts.

The restaurant is still fantastic, but a little less exotic than last
time. One thing I thought was funny was that they served salmon. I
don't think that's a Carribean fish. They may have served snapper, but
they didn't offer either grouper or tuna, which are.

We were on a meal plan plus two free drinks per day. The free drinks
were advertised as beer or wine. They also had a drink of the day
which seemed just the ticket after the afternoon dive. While less than
their normal price, these were costlier than beer or wine. I asked if
it was included in the two free drinks and was told it wasn't. Then,
on our last night, the barmaid said that the drinks of the day were
now included in our package, and when we finally checked out, this was
made retroactive for the entire week.

The Dive Shop

These guys offer a valet dive service. Specifically, on your first day
of diving, you put your gear outside your room and go for breakfast.
Then you go to the boat and there it is. You do your original hookup
yourself, but for the rest of the trip, the crew would swap tanks for
you. For the actual dives, you would go to the back of the boat and
have a seat. The crew would bring your rig which you then don. Then
you stand up and jump into the water. Coming back, you hand up your
fins, climb the ladder and sit down. You doff your rig, and they carry
it away. Doesn't get much easier than that.

The boats were big and comfy. Even though there were 16-18 divers on
each trip, it never seemed crowded, either on the boat or in the
water. There were spots in the sun and spots in the shade, so you
could take your pick.

The itinerary started with 0830 departure. The boat rides were 20 to
30 minutes and then we did a 50 minute dive, 45 minute interval, and a
60 minute dive. Then we went back for lunch. The boat left again at
1430 and the afternoon dive was 60 minutes. The dives were timed
(otherwise we'd be late for lunch)and either guided or not - your
choice. One of the crew would be the last one in and first one out and
would guide whoever wanted to dive with him, or her. We just went on
our own.

The between snacks were different this time. Instead of chips and
fruit, we had chips and cookies.

The Diving

The diving was very nice. The best diving is on the north side of the
island but whether or not you go there depends on which way the wind
is blowing. We dove on the south side a couple of days which is still
nice, just not as nice as the north. On the west side (of the north
side) is Bloody Bay Wall where the top of the wall is somewhere
between 20 and 40 feet deep, with a nice reef on top. Further to the
east is Jackson's Point where the top of the wall is 40 to 60 feet
deep, with a sandbar on top leading to a mini wall closer to shore.
Both areas are very nice, but the Jackson' Point area seemed to have
more sand on the coral than I remember from before. They have had a
hurricane there since our last trip.

Little Cayman has the usual collection of Caribbean fish. We saw at
least one turtle every day so Patti was happy. There are also a couple
of Nassau Groupers that will allow you to pet them. Another neat thing
we saw was a free swimming green moray that was being trailed by those
two groupers. Patti figured the eel was on the hunt and the groupers
were on the mooch.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Trip Dates
2008-03-22 to 2008-03-30

Photos for this trip can be seen at
http://s275.photobucket.com/albums/jj291/DanBracuk/aLittle_Cayman_Mar_2008/

Dan Bracuk
Never use a big word when a diminutive one will do.

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