Cruise Bahamas (Nassau)

[ohioscubadiver]

Hi everyone,

I'm new to scubaboard and looking for some information on dive operators in Nassau. My family and some friends will be going on a cruise in November. This Cruise has stops in Grand Turk, Half Moon Cay and Nassau. The cruise line (Carnival) offers dives in Grand Turk and Half Moon Cay but not in Nassau. This is the second cruise we have been on that stopped in the Nassau but neither offered diving in this location. Anyone have any recommendations for dive operators in Nassau?

I would appreciate any information anyone may have.

David

 

[BurBunny]

Part of the issue with Nassau may be your time in port being too limited to do any diving. Stuart Coves is the largest operator on the island, and vendor for most of the cruise lines, but some of the cruises are only in port 4-5 hours which doesn't work well logistically. What are your port times?

 

[mstevens]

I absolutely and enthusiastically recommend Custom Aquatics, which are actually located in Coral Harbor but will pick you up in Nassau. As far as I know there are only 2 other operators, Bahama Divers and Stuart Cove's. Fran Doyle (who runs Custom Aquatics with her husband Monty) was Stuart Cove's own instructor (and he was her safety diver when she was doing stunt diving for James Bond movies) and is teaching his daughter, and I was very happy that she certified my son. We just spent a week diving with them. Apart from my wife, they're probably the only people I'd unquestioningly dive with anytime, anywhere.

Now the bad part (which isn't the cost, since you get LOTS more diving for your money with Custom Aquatics): The two big operators are set up to get you from the ship, out on the water, in/out, in/out, and back to the ship before she sails. Custom usually had us out on (and under!) the water all day, and we typically didn't get back to our hotel in Nassau until nearly 4PM. No cattle boats and no bus - it's just the two of them and your group (in our case 3 of us), so the only schedule is yours. Why's that the bad part? With a typical cruise schedule, you may not have enough time ashore to get the full benefit of Custom Aquatics compared with the cattle boat guys.

http://www.divecustomaquatics.com/
http://www.bahamadivers.com/
http://www.stuartcove.com/

 

[ohioscubadiver]

Part of the issue with Nassau may be your time in port being too limited to do any diving. Stuart Coves is the largest operator on the island, and vendor for most of the cruise lines, but some of the cruises are only in port 4-5 hours which doesn't work well logistically. What are your port times?

We will be in Nassau from 7am to 3pm. The last cruise we were on (Royal Caribbean) was only in port for 5 hrs. so we didn't attempt to dive. If I remember correctly we docked at Nassau, so getting off of the ship should not be an issue. The dive at Half Moon Cay is a single tank dive, and I have not seen any information about diving there. We may decide to skip the dive at Half Moon Can and do a dive in Nassau.

 

[ohioscubadiver]

Now the bad part (which isn't the cost, since you get LOTS more diving for your money with Custom Aquatics): The two big operators are set up to get you from the ship, out on the water, in/out, in/out, and back to the ship before she sails. Custom usually had us out on (and under!) the water all day, and we typically didn't get back to our hotel in Nassau until nearly 4PM. No cattle boats and no bus - it's just the two of them and your group (in our case 3 of us), so the only schedule is yours. Why's that the bad part? With a typical cruise schedule, you may not have enough time ashore to get the full benefit of Custom Aquatics compared with the cattle boat guys.

Obviously getting back to the ship on time is a big concern. We are traveling with several other couples and currently there are 3 divers that have confirmed they are going. There is a possibility there may be more. It would be nice to have a dive boat all to our selfs and be able to pick the dive sites. We will contact Custom Aquatics once we know how many divers are going and decide which islands we will be diving on. (Since our spouses don't dive we will have to spend some time with them on the Islands).

 

[mstevens]

Obviously getting back to the ship on time is a big concern.

Just so you'll know, we're NOT morning people. We asked to be picked up at 9AM. That's much later than Fran said she's used to picking up divers.

 

[BurBunny]

We will be in Nassau from 7am to 3pm. The last cruise we were on (Royal Caribbean) was only in port for 5 hrs. so we didn't attempt to dive. If I remember correctly we docked at Nassau, so getting off of the ship should not be an issue. The dive at Half Moon Cay is a single tank dive, and I have not seen any information about diving there. We may decide to skip the dive at Half Moon Can and do a dive in Nassau.

If you can arrange it, I'd rather dive Nassau than Half Moon Cay. The diving is okay at HMC, but the island itself and beach is fabulous. If you're only diving one day, try to arrange it in Nassau first.

 

[ohioscubadiver]

If you can arrange it, I'd rather dive Nassau than Half Moon Cay. The diving is okay at HMC, but the island itself and beach is fabulous. If you're only diving one day, try to arrange it in Nassau first.

After doing a little more research we will probably skip the diving at HMC and try to schedule a dive at Nassau. It looks like it will be a good stop to just relax on the beach and maybe do a little snorkeling.

 

[osprey]

The only dive operator in Nassau now is Stuart
Cove's. www.stuartcove.com