Dive operators leaving at 9 or after

[Thresa]

I am in the planning process of booking a diving trip in Belize and was wondering what dive operators have 2 or 3 tank dives that leave at 9am or after....10 or after would be best. I am on vacation and would like to sleep in and eat breakfast instead of rushing to a dive boat at 8 am or earlier.
Thanks in advance for advice,
Thresa

 

[peterbj7]

The normal time for two morning dives to start here is 9am or earlier. You won't find any regular operators who leave much later for their first dive. You can always book onto their second dive of the morning (on AC it'll probably leave around 10:30-11:00) and take pot luck on whether they'll have an afternoon dive.

It's bright and sunny from just after 5am these days, so all you need to do is adjust your internal clock so you get up earlier. If you're only up and around at about 10am you've missed a significant part of the day, debatably the best part. Dawn is a lovely time to be up and around here.

If you go to a small specialist operator you may be able to dictate other timing, but expect to pay more per dive. Or go to a specialist resort where they will do exactly what you want - again at an appropriate price. Thatch Caye in southern Belize is a good example.

If you don't go out for the first dive until 10am and then do two dives you'll miss lunch (which means the boat crew also miss lunch) and your afternoon dive if it happens won't leave before say 3pm.

If you charter your own boat and crew you can adopt any timing you wish. But if you want other guests around to help defray the costs then you'll have to fit in with whatever the norm there is.

 

[underseasian]

I have recently got back from Thatch Caye in southern Belize and they will dive whenever and wherever you want - their attitude to us was 'it's your holiday, what do you want us to do to make it the best we can for you?'. An attitude that a few other dive operators I've been with over the years would do well to replicate!

 

[georoc01]

I just spent a week at the Tides, diving with Petajos, I don't think we ever have a boat leave the dock before 9 am. Most days it was closer to 9:30. And in the afternoon they were shuttling dive groups in and out of the dock.

I can't speak for other operators, and for our trip out to the Blue Hole we left almost exactly at 6 am, the scheduled departure time. But it seemed for most of our trip, everything seemed to be on island time.