Blue Grotto getting pricey

[stairman]

Man,I just got another bite in the butt.I just found out my daughter left her Zeagle escape bc at blue grotto.Just called em and none turned in.We were sharing a table with a DIR fundamentels class.With a female instructor.They must had got it by mistake cause we checked the table before we left.

[OFG-1]

$40.00 for Blue Grotto???
That is why I always suggest going to Hal Watt's, Forty Fathom Grotto.
Where else can you see, or at least run into, in one dive:

A submerged Corvette
A submerged Volkswagen
Parts of a sunken airplane
TWO, not one but TWO sunken boats
A large plastic Polar Bear Head
Assorted plastic toys clipped to lines everywhere
Ghetto style shade covers built on old worn out, listing pontoon boats
Shakey stairways with rope handrails at knee level

ALL OF THIS, PLUS MR. SCUBA, AT ONLY $30.00??????

Those crazy rednecks want $25.00 for Jackson Blue, and they dont even have ONE sunken boat, let alone two. And they would get mad if you sunk one little Geo in JB, let alone a Corvette. Hell, they don't have MR. SCUBA either, just Edd hanging around.

Damn the standards, be independant, take all your students to Hal Watt's, Forty Fathom Grotto. (Make sure your insurance is paid)

http://www.40fathomgrotto.com/

[CaptainSpeleo]

The last I heard, Blue Grotto and Devil's Den were both charging $38.00 and Paradise Springs was charging $30.00.

$30.00 to dive at 40 Fathom Grotto? There is no way you can convince me of that. The last time that I made a dive there was in 1990 and it cost me $50.00, and that was only because I was given a special rate for having paid $787.50 to go through the entire deep air course in 1987.

[stairman]

It must have started out as one boring dive to sink all that crap in there.Ive been there to look at but didnt dive it.Had to hire a guide or something.

[CaptainSpeleo]

I don't know what the new rules are because I haven't dived there in 15 - 16 years. The old rules required you to go through(and pay for) one or more levels of deep air training before you could dive there. The deeper dives also required one or two staff members to accompany you.

There was no on-site fill station back then, so you had to arrive with full tanks. If you wanted to decompress on the 100' oxygen lines that were hanging down at 20' after you finished making a deep Air guided dive, you had to pay an extra $25.00 for it.

[jeandiver]

We did a dive there recently for a class (40-Fathom) and I believe the price I saw for the depth we were going to was $65...(with a guide , of course).
That is the price I saw also on their website.

Our instructor is a trained guide for 40 Fathom so ... He gave us the tour.

Jean

P.S. I still dive Paradise and yes , $30 dollars is the price. Now as for Blue Grotto and Devils , no....
Blue grotto because of the cost and Devils Den because I can't dive my doubles there at all (the rules). And I don't have any single configs left so ...

[CaptainSpeleo]

I'm just the opposite. All my doubles have been converted to sidemounts and to singles with H-valves. I rarely dive with back-mounted doubles anymore, unless it's a deep Trimix dive.

My best dives at Blue Grotto have been in the small cave system. Unfortunately, that came to a halt several years ago when the overhead supports to the aluminum ladder going down the shaft entrance collapsed, and when the pumping apparatus was installed in the slough and blocked access to the main entrance. It was a great single tank dive with depths averaging 20' - 25'.