Sandals Grande St. Lucian

★ 1 · Robert R. · 2010-02-11

We dived with a local operator and were underwater when a Sandals boat dropped its load of divers on top of us. What started off as a relaxing dive soon turned into a jumble of sand and bodies. I have no wish to complain about novice divers. (We all started somewhere.) but when we moaned to our captain he said it was normal for Sandals to just turn up and drop off divers. The local aggreement is that the second boat on a divesite asks permision of the first. This is not what Sandals skippers do. It means that a site that will take 10 divers easily can be swamped with 20 as Sandals don't ask how many are below.

★ 4 · Nigel W. · 2009-03-05

We went to Sandals for both a getaway and because the diving is all included in the price (except the wetsuit so take your own if you have one). Dives for qualified divers are 2 tank back-to-back Mon to Sat, depart at 8.20, usually back at 1pm. Dive sites are limited, and 30 to 45 mins away (more if the Grande's own compressor is down and the boat has to call for tanks in the main harbour). 46 foot pupose built dive boat is fine as we had 6 to 12 divers only. Visibility good, little current and max of about 20 metres (65 ft). Water 27 deg C, so 3mm shorties were enough for us (some hardier types were just in swimming costumes). Reefs in reasonable condition, and it's a patrolled marine reserve (no gloves allowed). Divemasters and instructors for our trips were no problem, but do your own buddy check, they dont remind you. We asked to do the Japanese Wreck at 115 feet listed on their website and were told that even though there were 6 advanced and above divers, the 1 open water diver meant we couldnt visit it, and they wouldnt do an 'advanced and above only day' for us. Surface intervals were sometimes over an hour (even an hour and a half) when for the depths we went to, 40 mins was enough. They did have snacks and water on the boat though. No big stuff on our 13 dives - no rays, no sharks, but nice coral heads, sponges and some interesting drums, jackknifes, octopus, etc. So,in summary, easy and pleasurable diving, but not very challenging for the moreadventurous diver. But good value as its all in the package price!