I visited Turquoise Bay Resort in June, 2024. This resort is not a dedicated dive resort and a significant fraction of the guests just come here to relax. It does have a nice beach. There is not much of a resort orientation when you arrive. It was also uncertain who is the person in charge at the resort. My visit was during Hurricane Beryl and the resort staff didn’t say much to reassure about the hurricane.
As I went there primarily for diving, I had a basic garden view room behind the restaurant but close to the boat dock. Room was a bit run down. The shower leaked and there was no screen in bathroom window. Furniture was quite beat up. However, the room was clean and the in-room WiFi worked.
Food was alright. It is cafeteria-style food served from buffets. It is all you can eat. Much of the food is fried. There were some vegetables but not many. I am not vegetarian but if you are, you might not like it. If you eat inside the air-conditioned dining room it is very loud and echoey. You can’t really carry on a conversation. Food was such that I can’t say I looked forward to meal times. Staff were attentive and helpful at meals.
The dive operation is overall competent. They use Caribbean cattle boats where each boat holds over 12 divers. Dives are guided and in groups. You have to stay with the group. Unfortunately, the reefs are highly degraded. I would estimate 80% of the coral is dead and covered in algae. Pillar coral, staghorn coral, lettuce coral are all dead. Most of the brain coral is dead, but I did find some sections of living brain coral and a few pieces of staghorn coral alive. There are still some nice green star coral colonies. I did see some tropical fish; a queen angel, a rock beauty, a jewel fish. There was a small nurse shark following the dive master but that is because he has fed it lion fish. There were a few large groupers that would come up to us but that was because the dive master has fed them. I have been scuba diving for 40 years and the diving here was the worst I have seen in the Caribbean.
Still, this resort would be good for a newly certified diver. When I was there in June the water was 84F and the visibility was 80ft so a new diver would be thrilled with that. However, if you are an experienced, well-traveled diver you will find the diving here to be boring and depressing. You will feel like you have wasted your time and money.