ports of call -- not the best part of my first cruise

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I have done a few dives from cruise ships and something that has always worked for me has been befriending the dive guides really early. Even before we get on the dive boat. I do exactly as they tell me to do during the briefings, etc. Generally this has paid off at the end of the dives when most people are back on the boat I'm usually getting a private tour.

Last month I dove in the Bahamas from a cruise ship, we were diving a fairly shallow and sandy patch reef where this dive op usually does shark dives. At the end of the dive when just the dive guide and I were in the water we went back to check out the small broken down wreck we had swam over earlier as a group and found an octopus and huge moray eel, then heading back to the boat the sharks came to check us out and a huge school of horse eye jacks formed a swirling tornado right underneath the dive boat.

Even the worse sites in the caribbean have really interesting sea life if you get the chance to look for it. YMMV.
I've had several experiences like that, well maybe not as exiting as that one, but to me being in the water beats d'heck out of some tourist trap tour :)

---------- Post added March 19th, 2014 at 10:19 AM ----------

Ah, there's the thing: At home, I have difficulty "doing nothing." I always feel like there's something else I should be doing. I kind of liked being "trapped" on the ship. The high cost of Internet communication and resulting low expectation by my employer that I could maintain contact was a bonus. I really could disconnect and not feel guilty. Reading a book--what a novelty!

That's exactly how my wife feels... We usually do 2 cruises a year, one just us and the second trip with the kids. When it's just us, if we can't find something that we both want to do she's happy staying on the ship and I may go diving or just get off and check out the town. On sea days I get cabin fever while she reads :shakehead:
 
For me, the ports of call and price are the only reason we go cruise diving. My first cruise ship diving experience was in 2011 on NCL Star out of Tampa. We stopped at Roaatan, Costa Maya, Coz, and Belize. We dove the first three ports using local dive ops found by way of researching helpful posts from fellow SB'ers. Diving experience was very good thanks to using quality dive operators. I plan on having the same good diving experience when we embark on RC Independence Of the Seas out of Port Everglades. Again, we will not be using cruise ship operators and will be renting equipment. Ports are: Georgetown, GC, Falmouth, Jamaica, and Labadee, Haiti. For GC, we plan to walk down the street to Sunset House and shore dive upon arriving at port. For Falmouth Jamaica, we are diving with Scuba Jamaica. And for Haiti, we'll just hang out on beach without any schedule. For days at sea, nothing on agenda other than reading a Carl Hiaassen book, cold brew, and chatting with other scuba divers we might happen to meet on the ship.
 
For me, the ports of call and price are the only reason we go cruise diving. My first cruise ship diving experience was in 2011 on NCL Star out of Tampa. We stopped at Roaatan, Costa Maya, Coz, and Belize. We dove the first three ports using local dive ops found by way of researching helpful posts from fellow SB'ers. Diving experience was very good thanks to using quality dive operators. I plan on having the same good diving experience when we embark on RC Independence Of the Seas out of Port Everglades. Again, we will not be using cruise ship operators and will be renting equipment. Ports are: Georgetown, GC, Falmouth, Jamaica, and Labadee, Haiti. For GC, we plan to walk down the street to Sunset House and shore dive upon arriving at port. For Falmouth Jamaica, we are diving with Scuba Jamaica. And for Haiti, we'll just hang out on beach without any schedule. For days at sea, nothing on agenda other than reading a Carl Hiaassen book, cold brew, and chatting with other scuba divers we might happen to meet on the ship.

Of the ports you have mentioned I have ben to Roatan, Costa Maya, Cozumel, Belize and Grand Cayman. Roatan always used ship excursion (Anthony's key) Costa Maya, done both ship excursion (Dream Time) and private (Nomad Divers, no longer there as of this year), ship dives were just as good as private dives. Belize due to long tender ride always used ship excursion. Cozumel have used Aldora Dive, steel 120's long dives, and sites much different than ship excursion. Grand Cayman, used Off the Wall divers, most I ever had on the boat was 5 people, of which 3 were crew. Went to great sites that they wanted to go, unless we had a preference.
Will be doing the Western Caribbean again next year.
 
I've done 3 Carnival cruises and found that I really hate sea days. I don't drink, gamble, or tan. We play a lot of trivia, and always have fun, but I MUCH prefer the time in ports.

Yes, our ports are always hectic, and we schedule them like crazy, but they have all been fabulous. We like to do a mix of water days and history days. We don't shop.

We haven't dove off the ship yet, as we only recently became divers, and we canceled the cruise we had planned to spend the week in Cozumel instead, but most of the days on Cozumel we picked up a few cruisers on the dive boat. Those divers got the same two dives I did- and our schedules were in no way rushed or truncated to fit them in- everyone dove their own tank/ NDL, we had our regular surface interval. The only downside to diving off a cruise ship seems to be you can't "prove" to the op you are a good enough diver for the advanced sights, so you have to go to the easier ones- but at least for the week I was there, that didn't seem limiting, as I spent 5 days without repeating a site, and the cruisers just went to wherever we were headed that day. None of them were boring or crap "test dives". Washing your own gear in a cruise cabin would be a pain, but we rent...
 
Yeah, I (the OP) knew when I wrote my thoughts that they might be a minority opinion--which is why I wrote them :)

It's true that once situated with the dive op the cruise ship people follow the same schedule as other divers, but where we felt rushed was in being herded off the cruise ship and the process of linking up with the shore excursion operator (for snorkeling, in our case), traveling to the site where the snorkel boat left from, and the whole thing in reverse. It was organized mayhem. It's just alien to the way we normally do things, where we can leave as much time for things as we want. It was almost painful to be in Cozumel--a place we were familiar with--and not be able to hang out at a leisurely pace the way we would if not on a cruise. I felt like I was tethered to that ship, constantly checking my watch, etc. In contrast, on the at-sea days I don't even need to wear a watch! I didn't check my watch, I ate when I was hungry, slept when I was tired, and didn't think about any kind of schedule. I didn't use the Internet at all--it was incredibly relaxing to be so disconnected and independent. So that is why I liked the at-sea days more than the stops in ports.

Others have pointed out that not all cruises have such little time in port as we apparently did. The main reason we did not book diving as our shore excursion was that we were with a wedding party, and everyone was drinking heavily the whole cruise. I could definitely see giving diving a try as a shore excursion if my wife and I were to do a cruise by ourselves.
 
I could definitely see giving diving a try as a shore excursion if my wife and I were to do a cruise by ourselves.
No need to give cruising another try if it isn't for you, but I do bet it would be very different without the wedding party to tag along with.

However, judging by cruise critic, it seems a pretty even split between port people and sea day people. Heck- some people never leave the ship at all.

(My sea day style has me checking my watch a lot more than port days, where I just set an alarm for when I need to head back. On sea days we have so many events to get to all around the ship. I'm not good at relaxing. I find it boring... though I do like a good nap, land vacation or sea vacation)
 
I'll cast another vote for resort over cruise ship.

I always feel bad for the people on the dive boat who are rushing to get their dives in and get back to the cruise ship in time. I've see tons of people doing it, so I know it's possible, but I would personally hate knowing that I have to get back to the cruise ship. I'm on vacation so I don't want to be "on the clock." I like the freedom of being on a resort and diving as much or as little as I want. On non-diving days, I'd much rather relax on the beach and not have to haul my gear back onto the ship every day.

I definitely don't fault anyone who enjoys cruise ships. Cruises can be more economical and you can dive a bunch of islands in a short amount of time. It's just not my cup of tea.
 
I think cruising as all about figuring out what kind of trip you like and matching the cruise to your preferences. And its certainly not for everyone.

When we go on a cruise we usually read a lot during the day, my wife out in the sun, myself where ever I can find a big chair with cool temps. In the evening we generally visit the on board shows, comedians, dueling piano bar or what have you. But when its shore day we generally sleep in a bit to avoid the lines trying to go ashore and then we go and just wonder the town, or find a historic site or local museum. Shopping is always an option too, though not much buying goes on other than souvenirs. That's what works for us. I wouldn't dare book a cruise with a scuba dive involved, my wife would shoot me since then I could not go exploring with her in port. She did go on a snorkel excursion with me and the kids in cozumel and we all had a great time, with plenty of time for shopping after.

If you "always need something to do" a cruise might not be the best idea for you. I find the options and no hassle aspects of a cruise to be very pleasant and it suits me well. I will add that the first time I went it was my wife's choice of trip for our 20th anniversary and I was quite surprised how much i enjoyed it.

Jerry
 
My wife doesn't dive. But she likes to cruise and gamble. Thus most of the cruises involve ports where I can dive.
Cozumel is the port we've been to most and I don't think I've been to the same site twice. But with my memory, I may have and just don't remember
 
I don't think I've been to the same site twice. But with my memory, I may have and just don't remember

Narcosis out of the water really stinks, I suffer from the same symptoms :wink:
 

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