cozumel cruise dive

[Ga Diver]

I am going on a Carnival Cruise with 14 family members and will be in Cozumel on 12/31. Two of us plan on diving. Does anyone know what dive shop Carnival uses? Also, should a 3mmshorty be enough, and should we bring and use our own personal gear? If anyone knows from experience, what time is the 2 tank dive from the ships excursion, as we also want to enjoy time at night with the family. Any and all information would be most appreciated.

 

[SterlingDiver]

6 of us were on a Carnival cruise this past July. We dove with "Diving with Martin" and had a fantastic time. Their shop is right by the cruise ship pier. The have small, fast boats. Their rental gear was new Mares. 2 dives for $50 included all gear, weights and tanks.

It was a great time with a very good value. Do a search on line and you will find their website and can make your arrangments if youl like.

Good Diving!

SterlingDiver

 

[Tim Ingersoll]

Use the search function on this board. This question has been asked many times. Best advice - arrange your own diving. Many of the dive shops in town cater to cruise divers. IMHO Aldora does a very good job with this but then again I have never used anyone else.

 

[richhagelin]

I've used Alison Dennis at www.scubawithalison.com. I was very pleased with her operation. She can be reached via e-mail and is good about responding.

Rich Hagelin

 

[bobert]

Don't know what op they use but I can say from personal experience that there are plenty of good ops in Cozumel and if you plan carefuly you can get a couple of good dives in and still have time to spend in town. I used Eagle Ray Divers last time and despite some mix up about the time and the delay of the ship arriving I still got two GREAT dives and time to dump my gear back in our aft cabin eat lunch and still have several hours in town.

 

[ggunn]

bobert once bubbled...
Don't know what op they use but I can say from personal experience that there are plenty of good ops in Cozumel and if you plan carefuly you can get a couple of good dives in and still have time to spend in town. I used Eagle Ray Divers last time and despite some mix up about the time and the delay of the ship arriving I still got two GREAT dives and time to dump my gear back in our aft cabin eat lunch and still have several hours in town.

I have no direct experience with cruise ships but I do know from a lot of sitting on Cozumel and watching them come and go that there is a lot of variability in arrival times, departure times, and the length of time they stay. Although it is true that there are scads of good dive ops on the island, whether or not you can arrange a dive with one of them without going through the cruise line will depend on a) if you can hit the dive ops' "window" on your time to dive (basically and conservatively 8 am to 1 pm or 2 pm to 6 pm), or b) arrange for a dive op to conform to the time you have available. If you go outione the cruise ship's planned activities and are not aboard when it is ready to leave, they will depart without you. Of course if I had my choice of places on the planet to get stranded, I would probably pick Cozumel... ;^)

If you have a choice between diving in the morning slot or the afternoon, I recommend the morning; the light is better, especially on a sunny day.