Carnival Legend: Roatan, Cozumel & Belize

[timetraveler]

I'm following EllyBell's thread, "Dive Stops in Western Caribbean". I have some questions of my own and rather than hijack that thread, I'm posting a new one.

My buddy and I will be on the Carnival Legend in May. We want to dive in all ports: Grand Cayman, Cozumel, Roatan, and Belize. We don't care much for cruise-ship dive excursions and would like to learn about some alternatives.

Grand Cayman: We've decided to do shore dives at Eden Rocks.

Cozumel: We'd like to go with Blue XT-Sea Divers, but our ship isn't scheduled to dock until 10AM. I've emailed Christi, but haven't heard back yet. Does anyone have any other suggestions - maybe a dive shop on or near the pier (I think we'll be at the Puerta Maya pier) ?

Belize: We're seriously considering going with the cruise dive tour because the last time the dive boat picked us up right from the ship, and I hope that's still the case. Any other suggestions?

Roatan: No idea. What do you think?

 

[cddfamily]

We did the same trip last August with my new certified 20 yr old daughter and 17 year old son.

In GC we did the boat dive with the cruise ship, ok 1st ow dive for them. good safety. moderately loaded boat. good dive operation. not an overwelming spectacular dive. you can easily do eden rock on your own/with another operator.

In coz, I arranged with Aldora divers ahead of time. easy walk from the cruise pier, excellent service, the DM was outstanding for safety and training the new divers. they had all of the sizes ready for my kids, assessed skills and we agreed on the two tank dive plan. small boats with 4 to 6 divers means you are diving matched skill levels. steel 100s/120s and dive computers give you max times. I highly recommend these guys and they will synch up with the ships schedule. go to their web site for more info. the divers who booked through carnival in coz were mostly disappointed: crowded, ~60min less dive time vs us with two new divers!, and simple dives to the least common denominator.
You can't go wrong with either Blue XTC or Aldora.

Belize is a long tendor and you really on have time to go through carnival. The good news is the vendor was Hugh Parkley and the shop is first rate. good safety, boat, food, operation, ecology ... Average difficulty dives, but solid none the less. The DM from Aldora really got the kids comfort/confidence and skill levels up, so they enjoyed this dive the most.

Roatan was very mixed. We went through carnival and the vendor is Anthony's key resort, which has a solid reputation. But this was the least professional dive of the four. A great boat, but a definite cattle boat. The second dive can be a drift dive depending on how they assess the skill level of the group on the first dive - again least common denominator sets the dive. No DM, just guides - you are on your own. The kids sat this one out and it proved to be a good assessment. Marginal safety [no roll calls]. Three of us were doing our safety stop when the screws started up. I surfaced and alerted the crew who then did a count and started looking for the other two divers who had drifted further down. Several now and then divers pushed/exceeded no decon limits based on my computers. Twice I had to drop 20+ft and signal them to come up then hold to off gas. Best reef and life of the four. Not sure how long it will stay that way. The guides were banging the coral and chumming. some of the wildlife is already tamed and follows you for a handout. You definitely get the feeling this is a low bid effort; not the top rated experience they are known for. I tried to book with them direct, but when i said i was coming in on a carnival ship, they said I needed to go through carnival. we did use every minute of the port of call time: dock to AKR to dives to back to dock. If i were to do it again, i would either get AKR to book me separate or book with another operation.

We had a great time. I wasn't looking for the technical challenging dives, because we were going for basic skills and confidence building with my two new dive buddies. I hope this helps - cddfamily

 

[diverrick]

Last time I went to RTB on a cruise ship we used Bay Island beach resort, which is right next door to AK. They are a much smaller, more intimate dive op. Just hop in a cab. thay acually gave us a ride back, because they wee going that way anyhow, so we saved some on cab fare. It was good.. Sorry to hear all that stuf about AK though. We also did dives at Cocoview from a cruise ship as well, now we just go to CCV and spend our money doing "real" dive time. I would not recommened diving out of Belize City..All the good stuff is WAYYY out there, too far to get to , in the time alotted by the cruise lines. Make sure you take along all the contact info, because we have had out trip destinations change while enroute, and we had to cancel our prearrainge dives as a result. If you don't cancel properly, you could loose your deposit or all of your money you have already paid.