Book dive through ship, dive shop or on shore after landing

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Not sure if you tried Puerto Vallarta Ocean tours by email or contact form, but their email is hard to see up top on their page and is info@pvoceantours.com

I've been finding that some dive shops are on What'sApp now and they're pretty good at responding that way. Not sure about that op.

Hope that helps...
 
Things went better today, I searched a little deeper in Mexico on this forum a bit more out of the cruise heading just Mexico, found more info theres a lot less to find on the west side of Mexico, I havent booked but I have solid information from several places in each port. Hoping Cabo Private Dives can get us in motion while were in Cabo San Lucas at an affordable enough price to do, it sounds like they will not only provide us with a smaller group but get us out and back in time to still be able to see Cabo a little.

Thanks for the input
 
Things went better today,

Glad to hear - I sent a message through an ops (St. Lucia) website contact form as well as to their email address just last week - no reply back. I generally give the benefit of the doubt that an email didn't go through and try again - didn't this time as it wasn't really that important as I booked a dive through the cruise ship.

(We're going on another trip in a couple weeks, diving St Thomas, St Maarten, St Kitts, St Lucia and Barbados

That's the trip I'm taking next week! Only diving in St. Lucia, but considering last minute (if available) in St. Thomas and/or St. Maarten.
 
We have only been on one cruise we booked our dive through the ship. My experience booking through the ship wasn’t what I’d call stellar the boat was overloaded the pick up and drop offs from other boats was agonizing it was hot And it ate up about 4 hours just picking up and dropping offf divers all over the place on another note the dives were great. No complaints but it leaves me with questions.

This was in Cozumel When we got off the boat there were dive operators everywhere standing on shore with signs looking for divers And there were also a number of dive outfits that did smaller groups if I booked them myself. We opted to book through the cruise because they guarantee to get us back on the boat.

Upcoming trip two places that we cold dive from

10 hours at shore Puerto Vallarta and 12 hours at shore Cabo San Lucas we are at both ports with what I think is plenty of safety time even if things go mildly wrong if things go majorly wrong well thats another story all together. Any recommendations on how to book a dive or even wait and find a dive shop as we port.

thanks

It depends on the port and the time window you have.

Generally you will have to find a dive shop that is willing to devote a boat to the cruise ship schedule. Since a typical shore window is 9-4 it is not possible for the dive boat to follow a typical "morning dive leaves at 9, afternoon dive leaves at 1" schedule and accommodate the shore window. You have to find someone who will give you a late morning departure, unless your shore window is unusually early or late. I have found dive shops that will work with this schedule but it takes some calling around.

Tender ports are particularly hard to accommodate. If you are on the cruise line's shore expedition they will put you on one of the first boats to shore. In some cases the tender will drop you off at a dock closer to the dive operator; this used to be the case in Belize but I am not sure if it is still the case. In any event, Cabo San Lucas is a tender port and so you would want to investigate alternatives closely. Otherwise you can lose an hour waiting for a tender.
 
That's the trip I'm taking next week! Only diving in St. Lucia, but considering last minute (if available) in St. Thomas and/or St. Maarten.

If you're interested in St Thomas or St Maarten, I can give you my two cents.

This will be the sixth time I've done this cruise since 2009, and I've always dived in every port, every time. The last time we went was a few months before the hurricane it (which was Fall 2017, IIRC.) And it seems the hurricane really did a number on St Thomas and St Maarten.

For all previous times, we used Blue Island Divers in St Thomas and they were outstanding... great boat, small group, great service, great people. But last time we found out that BID had been taken over by another shop (I forget the name...) and things changed a little. They were okay, but that's all.

I went to look up St Thomas shops for this trip and it seems that shop has now disappeared. So I had to start from scratch. I booked with JJ Divers. They were a little pricey ($130 for a two-tank trip), but I liked their website... all the info I needed was right there. Gave the impression they have their act together, which I assume will translate to how they run their boat too.

St Maarten... oy vey. We've used Scuba Fun in the past, and they were always great. Their shop was (maybe still is?) a short walk down the street from the cruise ship pier (less than 10 minute walk.) But their website is still where it was when the hurricane hit. And I couldn't get a response from them. They message on the site is that their boats were destroyed and they'll try to get up and running again as soon as possible. But it might have never happened.

So this time we're booked with Dive Sint Maarten, which is practically right next door to where Scuba Fun was (i.e. short walk from the ship.) Communication was a bit challenging with them, but from everything I've read (reviews on Tripadvisor, etc) they are top notch where it matters... on the boat.

Basically what I found on both islands is that there seems to be far fewer dive ops now than there were before the hurricane. I't seems a lot of boats were wrecked and plenty of dive ops simply threw in towel, while just a few had the resources necessary to keep going.
 
It depends on the port and the time window you have.

Generally you will have to find a dive shop that is willing to devote a boat to the cruise ship schedule.

Tender ports are particularly hard to accommodate.

All very true... which is why detailed communication with the dive shop is so important. I've always been able to find shops to accommodate our schedule, coming from the ship. It helps to make arrangements well in advance (I'm a bit obsessive, so my diving is usually booked at least two months out), more time to iron out the wrinkles.
 
Just back from my cruise. Big BUST on the one day of diving on St. Lucia I booked through Carnival - got a notice 2 days before arrival that the tour operator had cancelled the dive. Did talk to some people who were diving with an op they booked with (for several years) and told me to give them a call to see if I could get in - since I didn't have phone service, I just decided to forego the diving.

St Maarten... oy vey. We've used Scuba Fun in the past, and they were always great. Their shop was (maybe still is?) a short walk down the street from the cruise ship pier (less than 10 minute walk.)

I also used Scuba Fun in the past - they were good. Walked by when we docked and if I remember correctly (from just a few days ago) the shop is now Dive Adventures.
 
Just back from my cruise. Big BUST on the one day of diving on St. Lucia I booked through Carnival - got a notice 2 days before arrival that the tour operator had cancelled the dive. Did talk to some people who were diving with an op they booked with (for several years) and told me to give them a call to see if I could get in - since I didn't have phone service, I just decided to forego the diving.

Dang... more motivation to make plans to go again? We dove with Dive Fair Helen again last week and so far they're still batting a thousand. Smooth operation, fires on all cylinders, picked us up at the cruise ship and dropped us back there nearly two hours prior to the ship's departure.

I also used Scuba Fun in the past - they were good. Walked by when we docked and if I remember correctly (from just a few days ago) the shop is now Dive Adventures.

ohhhhhhh... hmmm... I don't know how I missed that. We ended up one shop over, nearly next door, with Willem at Dive St Martin. I'll dig up the Dive Adventures website and check it out. Thanks!
 
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