Beautiful Diving in Grand Cayman

Hi Melissa,
Our recent trip was great. Grand Cayman was a wonderful place to take a family vacation. The water was warm and the diving was beautiful. The first place I've been where I could dive without a wetsuit (I get cold in the bathtub). We ended up chartering a boat through Divers Down because the first dive operation we used (Red Sail) that was through the Westin just had too many people on it and had limited options for dive sites. I became spoiled after diving in Fiji and Tahiti with the small boats. Divers Down had good reviews online and their crew was really nice and was good about recommending dive sites. My stepdaughters also got their Advanced Open Water Diver Certification through them. The Westin was a very nice to place to stay and had a nice pool and beautiful beach. Please let Lori know it was a great vacation and we really appreciate her good job. We look forward to having you help us with our next travel plans.

Thank you,
L. Kiker
Camarillo, CA

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Incredible Fiji Dive Vacation

Hello Hiapo,
We had a fabulous vacation. At Papageno, they upgraded us to 1/2 a house, and it was beautiful. Zacharias, the dive master, is "one of a kind", like Dr. Doolittle under water. We were spoiled, since we were the only divers the 3 of us had the ocean to ourselves. Loved the short boat rides! Food was delicious. Elizabeth is so warm and friendly, a very nice hostess and bartender! Lydia, the nurse/resident and Scott shared a lot of stories. Initially, we were the only english speaking guests, everyone else was from Austria or Germany, but it worked out fine, we pieced together conversations with pieces of english and lots of hand signals. Week one was very laid back and ran on "Figi time", since they were not at capacity.

Week 2 was quite regimented, schedule-wise, but it needed to be, with all those divers. The bure was lovely, roomy, private and perfect! We were very late arriving, due to plane issues on the other end. However, Seta (or Seto) the Captain waited for us and transported us back to Beqa Lagoon Resort in the dark and on rough water. Talk about "above and beyond the call of duty". The meals were unbelievably delicious and the staff so friendly. It was nice to have the daily afternoon activities and evening entertainment. The dive staff, every one of them, was so friendly and accommodating! The wait staff were fun and friendly. Tu Emo is the best! He was everywhere ...escorting us to church service, leading us to the school for a tour and singing, singing in the choir, teaching about "roots to fruit" of the coconut, dive master, working on the grounds, teaching us about the kava ceremony....he's a gem (and has the best giggle I've ever heard)!

The bartending ladies were a fun bunch. Scott loved teaching them new martini recipes.

Tap water at both resorts was yummy.........that was a nice surprise, and much different than our Fiji trip a few years ago to Matangi and Maravu (altho' those islands were great too)

We did accrue more of a "cash due" bill than we expected, but that's obviously under our control as a guest. We chose to pay for specialty dives at each resort. We paid for a lot of juices, to mix with our own liquor, but also bought at the bar (yes, we're lushes). Buying the liquor at duty free was a great suggestion. The drinks we bought at the bar were reasonably priced. On both islands, we had massages, and those prices were very reasonable too.

Unlimited shore diving at BLR is not really a huge advantage, since it's very dependent upon the tide and can be a bit challenging at low tide. That's OK, the "real" diving was fabulous. The only negative is the long boat rides, but since they leave at 8:00 each day, it's a good jump start, compared to other resorts we've been to.

We wish Fiji was closer..........we'd go often. I think it was the best vacation we ever had!

Blessings to you and yours....

Regards,

S. Boucher
Stoneham, MA

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Fiji Perfect Honeymoon

Hi Melissa!

We got back from our Fijian honeymoon a little over a month ago. We wanted to let you know that we had the most wonderful time! We stayed on the main island at Waidroka Surf and Dive Resort for the first 4 nights, and we completely fell in love with that place! It was a very unique and intimate resort, and we realized that as soon as the driver drove us up really steep dirt roads to get to the resort. The staff was all really nice, and we became good friends with them in no time.The staff also upgraded us to the honeymoon bure, which was really big and cute! Ryan got plenty of surfing in, and we both went scuba diving and snorkeling. It was all really great. Plus the food was soooo amazing! They served us 3 course meals every night! And we loved everything we ate! We really loved the whole atmosphere of the small resort and didn't want to leave. After our 4 nights, we traveled back to Denarau to take the Yasawa flyer to Nanuya. It was a long boat ride, but it was amazing to see almost every island in the Yasawa's. As soon as the boat stopped at Nanuya, we knew we made the right choice by choosing that island. It was surrounded with amazing blue waters, and the bures were all hidden in the trees. We got a warm welcome from the Fijian staff, and they showed us to our Oceanfront Bure, which was incredible. While at Nanuya we did a lot more laying on the beach than at Waidroka, but we were so content to just sit and stare at the clear waters. We also did the cave dives, went scuba diving and shark diving, and did lots of snorkeling. The scuba diving and shark diving were awesome! It was so fun to be so close to the sharks and big fish and the staff made us feel really comfortable. That was definitely one of the highlights of the trip. The dinners at Nanuya were also amazing! The dinners weren't included so we were planning on just splitting them every night, but after tasting the amazing crab on the first night, we decided we didn't want to share because it was so good!

Ryan and I did a lot of research on the different Fijian islands and resorts before we made our decision to go to Waidroka and Nanuya. We wanted to get lots of diving in, as well as some lounging on a beautiful beach. We were worried about the resorts that we picked only because we had to travel a little extra to get to them. But both resorts were worth the extra traveling and I couldn't have asked for a better honeymoon.

Please especially tell Lori thank you for helping us! She did such an amazing job at giving us any details on any resort we were interested in, and I knew that she wasn't just trying to make a sale. She was very patient with us, even though we had so many questions. She made everything very easy for us, and made us feel extremely comfortable.

Thank you again for everything and we will definitely let you know when we're ready to plan another vacation!
R. & M. Brown
Fountain Valley, CA

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