Sandals Grande Antigua, Antigua

We had a very disappointing experience with this dive center which was offered through our hotel stay at the Sandals Grande Antigua resort. We are novice divers. Everything went well during our morning training sessions in the pool. After lunch we headed out on the boat with at least 8 other divers of whom 7 were very experienced. Very quickly the water turned rough to the point where one of the veterans was losing his lunch over the side of the boat. By the time we finally got to the dive site the swells were significant. That's when the chaos started. The veteran divers were quickly jumping into the water and descending for their dives. The swells were so high that we had to time our jumps into the water to avoid leaping from at last 10 feet in the air. Our Dive instructor was yelling at us to "hurry, hurry, get in the water". I have sinus issues and decompressing is always a slow, methodical process for me. My husband knows this and was following me slowly down the descent line when suddenly he came crashing down on my head from above. This caused both of us to panic and pop back up to the top. Apparently our Dive Instructor was impatient with how long my husband was taking so he pulled the cord on his BCD causing it to deflate quickly. Two things we had been told over and over in our pool training sessions: 1) always take your time and do everything nice and slow while diving and 2) NEVER touch a diver from behind. Apparently these were rules for everyone except the Dive Instructor. After this episode we no longer trusted our instructor and did not continue in the water -- resulting in sitting in the boat for the duration of the tour. When the group returned to the boat our Instructor would not meet us in the eye and in fact never acknowledged that we were unable to complete our dive -- he simply didn't speak to us at all. I would not recommend this dive center unless and until they get a new Dive Instructor.... Show More Mar. 7, 2018