Need advice about booking a dive trip from a cruise

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Our family's been on 20 cruises, with half of them stopping by Cozumel. The last 5 stops, we've been using Scuba Mau.
They are an excellent operator. Our cruise ships usually dock at 9 - 10am, so they wait for us with a custom small 6 person boat, special time for our family of 4 (or 6, if we have friends joining us). They even pay for the taxi ride to their shop. We don't bring equipment anymore, since it stinks up the cruise cabin, so the cost of the 2 tank boat dives, equip included, is $80. They take us to the best 2 dive sites based on our dive experience & weather condition that day. They even drop us off at the next pier over from cruise line's pier for a short walk back to the ship.

We're booked with Scuba Mau again when our cruise heads back to cozumel next month.
Great service. Great price. Highly recommended.
 
Having been on over 30 cruises and also being a dive instructor, I will tell you to stay with the cruise line for your trip. I have actually watched a cruise ship pull away from the docks while I watched due to an operator running late.

in my case the trip was arranged by the cruise line so they sent a boat to us to bring us out to the cruise ship. If we had not been organized by the line, it would have been a much different story!

just my .02

Two thumbs up to this advice.

Yes, it may be more costly to arrange it through the cruise line but if there is a hiccup in getting you back to the boat in time the extra the cruise line charges for the dives would be cheap. I went on a shore excursion to Mayan ruins on the western boarder of Belize and we got back to the dock 45 minutes after the ship was scheduled to sail. I asked if the ship would have left us on shore if the excursion wasn't booked through the cruise line and the answer was, "Yes."

Another thing to consider (also recommended by another poster) would be to consider a skin diving excursion instead of scuba - Something I did two years ago in Cozumel due to a variety of reasons. Not having dove recently might be a good reason for you. It was a very good experience and you will see most of the same sea life that the scuba divers will see. I remember seeing a group of scuba divers passing below me and being briefly envious but quickly deciding that I was perfectly happy with my free diving trip. That being said I will have to confess to having been a dedicated free diver and occasional underwater hockey player in the past so YMMV.

Paul
 
Hi smelton, My DH and I were in the past Cruisers and have done several dives via the cruise line as well as booking with Non-cruise line ops. Both have certain Pro's and Con's. One pro I feel in booking a Non-cruise op is that you will not be part of a cattle call and will have a more individual attention.

-If you wish to dive with a non-cruise ship Dive Op, begin with checking out the reviews and also Dive Op recommendations from other folks who have asked this question. Then choose the top 3-5 and contact them with your request and information. Include your Ship name/Cruise Line, Date and posted time you are in port. Which leads to the BIGGest Con...Missing the ship !! :-(. Do choose a Dive Op that is familiar with booking cruise ship divers as they have the experience to avoid any scheduling glitch. Remember , there is sometimes a difference between ship time and port time.

-Do mention your diving experience. Considering you have been out of the water for some time I would recommend a pool refresher at home as well as a Private DM in Coz. Also, please do purchase DAN insurance. The top plan is excellent and recommended very often, however, at the least purchase the basic plan.

Regardless of your decision , Best Wishes for a wonderful trip and Happy Anniversary.

Sue
 
smelton - congrats on your 1st cruise AND your Anniversary! The DH & I started out cruising before diving, but once we started diving, found cruising a way to check out different dive locations. Cozumel is one of the best (IMHO!) and a place we now go back to again & again. When cruise arrival/departure times allowed, we always chose a non-cruise dive op. And with Cozumel being such a small island, missing the ship is much less of a worry, unless your times are really tight. As a few others have mentioned above, we use Scuba with Alison. Originally found her on-line and booked a days diving with her on our Thanksgiving cruise stop at Cozumel. She was great. We used her a number of cruise stops after that, but these days we just fly in, and dive with her for a week.

Sue Sue listed some great advice - do a bit of research, contact a few OPS that look like they suit you, and see what works out from there. And a refresher before you leave would be ideal .... you want to be able to enjoy your time in Coz, and not spend it trying to relearns stuff and worrying!
 
I also forgot to mention when setting up with a Non-cruise contracted Dive OP..

- do confirm your meeting spot. Taxi's are ready and waiting as soon as you are off the ship. Ask the Dive op you book with what the approximate fare will be to wherever you need to go.

-you most likely will have to wait your turn to disembark the ship. Usually, Cruise ship tours get first priority, followed by the assigned general disembarking schedule. Just be packed and ready to go for the quickest exit as possible. However, as mentioned, a Dive Op who has Cruise Ship booking experience should know how this system works. They also know the importance of getting you back to the ship on time. As Kat said, the island is small, and many of the top dive sites are close to the cruise ship pier. TIP: upon returning from your dive, do take note of the time you have before your ship departure time. One thing I did prior to leaving the ship was to set a watch to ship time and kept it with me. This way, my dyslexia would not cause any trouble for me when adding or subtracting time. :blinking: Also, it is easy to loose track of time when upon returning to your cruise ship pier if you go off shopping or walking about.

-confirm refund policy if your ship does not port. For May it most likely won't happen, but, just in case

-do establish an email address and phone info prior to setting sail. You can get connected onboard your ship to check emails. Let your Dive Op know that you will check your posts the night before as well as at the last opportunity before your arrival in case there are any changes in the plan. Also, many of the cell phone services work in Cozumel. Just make sure the "Roaming" is turned off. Or, use texting of course. There are so many ways of getting connected these days. For instance the B & B my DH and I stay at, Villa Escondida, does not have Phone service in the room. (I will add that phone messages are promptly delivered). In order to keep in contact with my Dive Op in Cozumel, BlueXTSea, we actually connect through Facebook with personal messaging. This way if we have any changes to our daily schedule we are connected.

OK, that was just a few more thoughts. Have a wonderful time !

Sue
 
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Check out Aldora , we booked a cruise with them last year. We were also on a cruise, when we got to coz the harbor master shut down the harbor due to weather. Aldora has boats on both sides of the island so we got to dive when no one else did. They also use steel tanks witch means less weight and longer bottom time. They also had another boat with us just in case. Excelent dive opp. Also every dive I do from cruise ships usually has people on them from the same ship I am on , If you book from a cruise ship you will pay more. Go to cruise critic type in your ship and talk to other people that have been on the same ship that dive.
 
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