My husband and I wanted to go to Little Cayman to celebrate our anniversary. We had recently received a flyer about a special McCoy's was having, so we booked. We received a prompt reply and preliminary invoice. So far, so good.

Upon our arrival at the quaint airport Friday evening, we wandered around for several minutes, and finally walked up to one of the 4 cars parked there to ask if anyone could help us find McCoy's. We were told they were in the next truck over. (Thanks for leaving it up to us to find you.) After taking the long way around the island, er, I mean, the scenic route, to McCoy's, Mary, the owner, walks to our room without a word and opens the door, then disappears. Okay. So we drop our stuff off and walk around for a bit getting our bearings. As we are returning to our rooms, we hear a bell ringing... dinner time? We follow the sound to the dining room, complete with plastic chairs, tables, etc., and which has not been updated in the 20 or so years the lodge has been in operation. Luckily, there is another couple there to explain how things work. What you eat is what they serve - they prepare one meal for all the guests; if you aren't going to be there you need to tell them well ahead of time otherwise you will get charged. Fine, we can adapt. Mary comes in as we are finishing to set up breakfast times for tomorrow and inquire about diving. The conversation was something like... "Yes, of course we want to dive... Yes, we told you when we made the reservation we'd need to rent gear... Excuse me? You don't have gear?... What? Maybe you can scrounge something up?... Great." Needless to say, we weren't excited about what gear we'd end up with; if we had known it was an issue ahead of time we'd have traveled with our gear. After some socializing, we return to our rooms to prepare for bed. My husband attempts to shower, however there is not enough water pressure for the valve on the showerhead to stay closed. We figured we'd take it up with management in the morning. As I'm getting into bed, I notice a couple of mosquitoes in the room. I attempt to grab my flip flop as defense... however there is a cockroach who has laid claim to it. Yikes.

The next morning, all that is left of the cockroach we killed is his wings (I'm sure a little gecko had a nice breakfast). After breakfast, we meet the divemaster (who had only been working in Little Cayman for several weeks), help him load up the truck with tanks and gear, and drive to the other side of the island where the boat is now docked (even though we are diving not far off from McCoy's on the wall - makes perfect sense). The divemaster was very friendly, and the diving was spectacular. We see eagle rays, turtles, lobsters, and in general tons of awesome fish and coral. We really can't say enough about the diving on Little Cayman. My husband only had a small air leak coming from his air guage - no problem. When we return to McCoy's, we are served lunch - soggy pasta covered in barbeque sauce (not a local favorite that I know of); we let them know we are making other arrangements for dinner. As advertised, there are bikes available for use; however, the brakes are rusted out and most of the tires were flat. We ventured out anyway, and lived to write this review. We rode over to the Hungry Iguana for dinner, tried to eat enough to last the rest of our trip, and made it back just before dark. We discussed the water issues with the other guests, the divemaster, and finally Sam; apparently, because they are running off an old cistern with an old pump, that is the state of affairs. Perhaps they have done something to fix it, because now we are able to get enough pressure for the shower to work... sort of; the water is on for about 20 seconds, off for 5, on for 20, off for 5. Once again, we adapt.

Day 3... Same adventure getting to the boat. The boat, however, was not cooperative this morning and we barely made it out to the dive site on one motor. Luckily, the diving was once again amazing, and we saw more turtles, eagle rays, stingrays, lobsters, and lots of other neat creatures. Lunch today was an easier on the system cold cut tray.

Day 4... We spent very little time at the lodge as we rented a car to drive around the island. We returned to check out, which was another interesting experience. The bill was totally wrong, so Mary starts hand writing things in and adding and subtracting different numbers in her head to come up with a magic number in the end. A bit of a shock to our systems was the amount charged for the meals we ate at McCoy's. Normally with package deals they are included, but with the a la carte special we had, they were CI$12, 16, 28 for breakfast, lunch, dinner (US$15, 20, 35). US$70 per day for soggy pasta with barbeque sauce and cold cuts?

If hot showers, bug free rooms, and food choices are your thing, this isn't the place for you; if you just want great diving, a place to lay your head at night, and a plate food put in front of you, McCoy's is the perfect choice.

We just returned from a week on Little Cayman, staying at Sam McCoy's Dive Resort. If you love to dive, own and bring all your own equipment and don't care about delicious meals, this is the place for you. The location is wonderful right down the beach from Bloody Bay Wall, but the resort is frankly in poor repair. There were only two rusty bicycles, and the resort is far enough away from the rest of the town that it was a pain to get to phone and internet services. All the meals were satisfying, but....... Bob, the current dive master is superb and does his best to get you everywhere you want to go, but the equipment owned by the resort is super shoddy, and diving is dicey enough without having to worry about your regulator hose leaking. The help was very friendly. The rooms were very basic, poorly decorated and had ZERO water pressure. The little bar was cozy and wonderful, and so were the sunsets. Get your estimate in writing up front, the family running the resort has gone through a lot of changes and management needs to be more reliable.
Little Cayman is the best ever to dive though, if money isn't a concern then you are better off at Pirates Point (5 star and uber friendly all the way, diving included) or at Southern Cross.
Be aware that Little Cayman Beach Resort has had two Dive fatalities this year (2007) one a guest, and the other an instructor.This info is obviously not well publicized. In our opinion we would spend time at the Brac and Little Cayman next time, Grand Cayman just doesn't have the character, and way too many cruise ships.

Going to small very out of the way places always seem to be a mixture of Pros and Cons. One thing is for sure, cast aside any paradigms you might have and just be flexible. Having stayed with Sam several times we can say that every time we visited there was a problem or two, but the diving and the friendly attitude more than made up for it. If you are looking for a nice hotel with mini-bars and room service go elsewhere. If you want to dive, eat, dive, sleep, dive, eat, dive, sleep... then you are at the right place. The night life is composed of conversation, reading books, and listening to whatever MP3s you brought with you. Or, you can do a night dive right from the local dock. We did and it was wonderful. Morays, lobster, squid, flounder, et. al. We have dove the Med., the Pacific , the Atlantic, and the Keys. The best water we have ever been in was off the beach at Little Cayman. It was as clear as some fresh water Artesian wells in central Texas and much, much more lively. So, wipe all expectations about acomodations from your slate and just go dive! (Please excuse my spelling)

Don't expect much notice from these folks. They must be very layed back. I dived with them once when staying next to SSC and back home I tried to check on reservations with them the next year. I tried phone calls and faxes and they never responded. So good luck if you try to do biz with these folks.