Best Dive Location/Itinerary from Cruise ship?

[Zenshift]

Kind of self-descriptive .... what is the best dive location or experience you have had from a commercial cruise?

Alternate question: If you were in the state of Florida, what cruise (company or itinerary) would you book for one or multiple dive locations ... "local" dive trips after arrival at a pier?

 

[cowjazz]

I've only been on one cruise (Carnival Conquest out of Galveston, TX), and the only stop we did where I could dive was Grand Cayman. I booked the dive on my own, and had a great dive.

I have found an interesting cruise on Carnival's ship Valor out of Miami, FL that has a diving destination intentive schedule. It stops at Belize, Roatan, Grand Cayman and Cozumel. If the wife demands another cruise, I may consider this one.

 

[Taupiz]

The Carnival Valor is what my wife and I did last Sept. We were able to dive in Roatan, GC and Cozumel while we opted for the cave tubing in Belize. This is no liveaboard by any means but it was great nonetheless. We booked both thru the cruise and on our own and everything went perfectly at each port.

 

[aprils0909]

I am doing Caribbean Princess in August (W.Caribbean) and am doing Grand Cayman and Cozumel. I could do Jamaica, but I hear the reefs are destroyed.

 

[mike_s]

Zenshift,

one of the things you have to look at here is the "time in port" for the destination that you are visiting.

Many of the cruise ships don't arrive until later in the morning (like 10am) and leave at 3pm or 5pm for example, so they might only be in port for 5-6 hours at an odd time of day. This might complicate dive times as some shops do only early morning departures or afternoon departures. This all varies by port of call of course.

Ships that anchor and "tender" in also take more time to get off the boat compared to boats that dock. just something else to factor.

For the ports that I've found have the longer "ports of call" are the Bahamas ports. I guess this is because it's closer to east Florida and less travel time is required.

hope that all helps some.

-mike