Why I will never book dives through a cruise ship..........again

[Altamira]

Would you mind posting or dm me with the name of the cruise ship and dive op as I occasionally use the cruise dive op and would like to avoid this one if possible.
Thanks.

 

[k ellis]

This happens occasionally though none of my experiences have been this bad. I went to Cozumel with a cruise line and booked the excursion through them. (I enjoy the op they use so why not?) On one occasion they did cattle boat us but it was no big deal really. I am one I would prefer to dive with 10 curious new divers then 1 experienced diver who thinks that he invented the sport myself. On this particular dive though I was chasing down runaway divers more then I was enjoying the dive. One guy went in and was struggling at the surface screaming for help and so I swam to him and just helped him put air in his BCD and he was ok. He was just nervous. I then had to grab a runaway ascent and slow him because he had a serious panick attack. I then had to go back down and get the 12 year old who was panicking and calm both her and her mother down. Now this was not including the events both our DMs that where on the tour where trying to keep under control. All in all to me it was no big thing but to the others I did get to hear how glad they were that I came along.

Of course it amazes me when I tell people about how bad this dive was and typically I will get someone or more then one who tell me I had no responsibility to help save a life or that it was not my job and they would not have done the same. But when you live by the Police Officers Code you will find it makes life more enjoyable for those who dont know the code its "To ensure that both me and my fellow officers go home alive and safe at the end of the day."

Dont let this event deter you. Its like any thing else in life if you do something enough and long enough eventually anything you do in life will deal you a lemon.

 

[DiverRider]

Here's my input to this, I was on RCCL Freedom of the Seas and we stopped in Grand Cayman. I booked a dive through the cruise ship dive shop and it was the worst dive I ever did in the Caribbean. I call it a "dump and dive". The operator was setup very well and the dive boats were in excellent condition. The dive was quite a bit less appealling. There was no sea life to speak of, the critters took the day off. Yes I sould have done my homework and investigated this before booking it but I assumed it would be good diving there. I was wrong and the cruise line wasn't going to say anything about it. They are in it for the money. I just sent a complaint to them about it.
On a good note I setup my own excrusion for our stop in Jamaica and it was one of the best dives ever. I have a picture of a sea urchan that I have never seen anywhere, even on TV.....go figure

 

[timetraveler]

Here's my input to this, I was on RCCL Freedom of the Seas and we stopped in Grand Cayman. I booked a dive through the cruise ship dive shop and it was the worst dive I ever did in the Caribbean. ......I assumed it would be good diving there.

The best diving in Grand Cayman is on the East End or the North Side. Both of these locations are subject to weather and are a rather long trip from where the cruise ships dock. I'm guessing that your dive wasn't what you expected from Grand Cayman because time or weather required that you dive near George Town.

 

[sparky923]

I've cruised several times, but this past month was the first time I was certified to dive on one. I had heard similar horror stories about diving through the cruise excursions, so I called ahead and made reservations through local shops. My son and I dove Aldora in Cozumel (3 other divers and a DM), Barefoot Divers in Roatan (no other divers and 2 DM on one, and 2 other divers with 2 DM on the other), and Costa Maya tours ( Bucanero del Caribe) in Costa Maya (no other divers and the DM). All were excellent and we saved from 30-50 bucks EACH per day. Fortunately, our port times were long enough, that we felt comfortable using a local shop.

I only hope the next cruise we go on allows us the opportunity to use local shops again. If they don't, then I'm sure I'll just grin and bear it, but I certainly won't expect the personal service we recieved this time. All 3 shops we used turned out to be really good. They were all completely different (Aldora-professional and efficient..., Bucanero Del Caribe-authentic, Mexican small operation,...Barefoot-first class, all the bells and whistles). I don't think I could have been any happier with our experience.

 

[bob321]

Although we usually stay on dive friendly islands, we have gone on a couple of cruises. There was no way I was diving with a cattleboat. When we wanted to dive but had no idea which operator to use, we talked to the dealers in the casino. I know it sounds strange but they dont work when the ships are in port, they frequent the same islands over and over, and many of them dive. They usually work for an independent contractor to the cruise lines that provides casino service only so they arent forced to refer you to the "scuba tour." I found some who were divers and asked who they dove with. We found great diver operators this way.

 

[RumJunkie]

Thanks for sharing, using Aldora in Nov.(from cruise ship). I'm thinking of using mayapalms.com for one day of diving and then hanging out at the beach resort, it seems like a really low-hassle excursion they offer. We're still not sure if we're diving or snorkeling yet in Roatan.

 

[flots am]

In the past, I never booked through a cruise ship. For a few stupid reasons due to my poor judgement recently, I did and will never do so again. This is what I basically found out the hard way: I broke this down into sections so they can be analyzed.

1) The dive shop never asked anyone for proof of certification.

. . . stuff deleted . . . .

9) Two of us team up to release the boat from the mooring and allow the captain to reposition to pick up the 2 divers who are waiting with the DM clinging to another mooring ball. After a few throws, we connect and haul in the 2 exhausted divers. At this point the captain says we are done for the day. The DM lets us know that we will only be charged for a single tank dive. Really?

This has little to do with the ship, which actually has almost nothing to do with the dive except for taking a cut of the money. It's entirely dependant on the dive operator.

I've done a lot of cruise ship dives and while many were pretty cool from a "keeping your rescue skills sharp" point-of-view,, others were actually quite nice. Hugh Parkey in Belieze did about the best job with this.

As for your specific experience, you have to dive your own dive. Nobody can make you do anything.

Just to address your points, here are a few thoughts:

1 & 2: Nobody is required to check anything. Your SCUBA C-Card is simply a piece of plastic issued by a private company that says they trained you. The dive OP isn't required to ask for or see this, any more than they're required to see your AAA card.

3: Assuming you had normal recreational Open Water training, you were taught how to dive safely with a buddy. This means "your personal buddy." A 1:1 relationship. Unless you hired him to be your buddy, the DM isn't it. He is leading the group around, and as you found out, doesn't have your personal safety at the top of his list. He has another 8 people to keep an eye on.

4: I have a bunch of dives, but when someone who dives the same spot probably 4 times a day for years thinks the current is "stronger then usual", there's a really good chance that I'll tell him to enjoy the dive, and I'll go work on my tan.

5: Unless you can ascend to the surface from the inside, you were in an "overhead environment" if you had someone in front of you and in behind you, and you panicked or ran out of air, you would have been in a world of brown stuff. I never go anywhere on a single tank recreational dive, where a complete stranger can trap me in what is essentially a cave.

5b -7: Any time you're in a dive that isn't going well, feel free to return to the boat. There's no reason to be going up and down and hiding from the current and losing people on a recreational dive. You should always know where the boat is, and end the dive whenever you're feeling uncomfortable with the way things are going. If you want to be nice, get the DM's attention, point to you and your buddy, make the "boat" symbol, show him your thumb and wave goodbye. If you can't easily get the DM's attention, leave anyway. He'll be just fine, and once you get back to the boat, you'll be fine too.

8: Your stuff is your stuff. You're responsible for it. Nobody is responsible for taking it from you on the way up the ladder. Also, you should have been taught how to re-board a boat without handing anybody your fins (which BTW is a bad idea from a safety standpoint).

The only real problem here was that this wasn't your dive. You were doing what people told you to do, not what was right, or what you were (or should have been) trained to do.

flots.

 

[sheeper]

we generally do one or two cruises a year and i always book at least one dive per cruise. The cruise lines (Princess and Holland America are the only two i've sailed with) are very customer oriented and the dive ops i've used thru the cruise line have been great as far as service.

however....the other divers are a different story. I do an easy 100+ dives a year. the typical cruise trip diver does the one or two vacation dives a year. I've been kicked, swam on top of and wated people setup equipment wrong and watched people forget all basic skills. I generally find the other experienced diver and buddy with them. And given my nature, i tend to watch the other divers. I've lost count at how many i've had to "help"

 

[Midge907]

I went to La Romana, dominican republic last year and did the cruise excursion through the ship due to logistical problems of getting to other shops. Carnival uses Scubafan who has one of the nicer dive boats that i've been on so far (only been on 4 so far). Some key things that I noticed which i'm sure plenty of other people have seen is the price was almost double the price then if I were able to book with the dive op on my own. They kept us in expierienced level groups of 5-6 per dive master, just over 20 on the boat, however everytime one divemaster would find something interesting he would call another divemater over, then all the sudden the group was 14 deep, I hated that. Usually what they were looking at wasnt that special anyway. The first dive site as the Captain Kidd ship wreck, which has gotten alot of media the last several years but the divemasters were more interested in just droping in looking around for 5 minutes, then dropping over the wall to look at the reef system. The funnest part was when we were on the boat, and one of the people couldnt figure out how to put on a wetsuit, and of course those people who tell the divemaster thier actual weight when getting setup. You can definatly tell that its the we only dive once on vacation every couple years type of mentality with some. Over all if I were to go back to LaRamona again, I would just with the ship excursion again, but I would know a little more now, they did have good help on the boat and were nice.
I also dove in Grand Turk with Blue Water Divers and in Curacao with The Dive Bus. Both places the taxi trip was cheap, and the dive ops were first class. I booked with those individually way in advance, and was so glad not to be on a cattle boat.
I did a snorkel excursion in Aruba with the cruise ship excursion ( Jolly Pirates) what a joke, and a cattle boat of snorklers, parked right next to the other cattle boat fighting for pastor. It was a terrible expierience, expecially since no one lets you know that the water is barely clear enough to see the ship wreck below, and the reef structure is dead were the take you for the second snorkel stop. All they cared about was passing out rum drinks and dancing around. And again had to pay more because I booked through the ship, they had a rope swing they couldnt use because of thier agreement with the ship (they dont tell you that), and the trip is shorter by an hour because on the private and cheaper trip they actually do a BBQ.