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#2635
Sandals Royal Bahamian July 2014
John_giu - 7/20/2014 1:54 PM
Category: Travel
Replies: 0

Updated Dive Safety at this resort.

OK, everyone on the dissing Sandals band wagon just move on. I’ve heard it all before.

Now that that’s out of the way We just returned from another stay at this Sandals resort.
I thought I would post as a service to other divers considering a visit there.
Still a nice place for those with a non-diving spouse to enjoy two guilt free dives a day, all included in the price of you stay.

The not so good, a lot of divers on the boat yes, However I always find the dives well organized never rushed and I don’t mind the other divers. After all it’s really just you and your buddy.

Bad buddy, well the luck of the draw, sometimes great sometimes not so good. But if you hook up a good buddy your first day chances are you’ll meet up again during your stay.

Guided trips only, but once the crew sees you are on your game they’re happy not to have to mother hen you and as long as you don’t stray to far you can enjoy the dive.

Sign-up as soon as you arrive at the resort so you can get in on the next day dives.
There is no diving on the day of arrival or departure, and no diving on Sunday so plan to arrive Sunday
to maximize your dive days.

Dive at least 90 days prior to your stay or you will have to do an orientation session.
I think any scribble in your log will do, but if possible do a local dive and at least have a buddy
sign it.

The thing that surprised me was all the safety updates to their program. This may have been the result of their Antigua team losing a couple of divers a few year ago.

On the boat is a DAN peg board. Before slashing you take a number from the peg board and tie it to your D ring. They log you out and after the dive log you back in when you return your tag.

They have also added a hang bar at 15’ for the deco stop along with deco regs at 15’ and 20’. Along with any number of down rigs and Jon lines for drift dives and recovery.

In all it’s no stress easy diving with the dive boat steps away from your room. By the time your non-diving spouse makes it to the pool you are back from two dives, usually by about 11:00 11:30.

Also there’s a small rocky reef just behind their "private" island which is a lot of fun to snorkel. Make sure to at least bring your own mask snorkel and fins to explore as they will not lend you equipment for a free lance outing. Of course guided snorkel trips are included with a private trip once a week for people staying at club level or above rooms.

In short if you a going to an all inclusive with a non-diving spouse this is not such a bad alternative.