Cruise Coz

[ggunn]

Booking a dive through the cruise line won't do much good if they aren't going to arrive in time for the dive boat's scheduled departure time. DUH.

If you book through the cruise line the boat is hired by the cruise line and will schedule the trip to fit the ship's arrival and departure times. DUH, yourself.

 

[Prop Joe]

The only good thing about booking through the cruise line is that if god forbid something happen with the diving, op, ops boat etc... And it is booked through the cruise line then if the ship leaves without your a$$, they are responsible for getting you back on the ship (at considerable expense). That being said I dove for years booking my own diving from cruise ships in the Caribbean and never had a problem. Do your home work though. Your on the right path with this crew of DSV Scubaboard. We try to look out for ya!

Garrobo, I hope you can find a ship to fit your/Pappa Hoggs itinerary. I wish you the best in your adventure!
I'd still go here no matter which ship your on:
Diving from Cruise Ships

 

[Garrobo]

Various posters: Thanks for the replies. I already checked with a Carnival sales rep who told me that the arrival times posted on their website are the actual local times that the ship arrives and that it usually takes about an hour to get off the boat with maybe a shorter time if I care to exercise my rights as an "ugly American" and muscle my way in line like a lot of people do. PappaHoggs is about a two minute taxi ride from the docks. Also, I never intended to book diving through the cruise ship and don't even know if it is available on a 4-day. Here's the scoop. If I fly down on Continental: The last time it was $550 for the round trip. If I remember correctly the Via Blanca Hotel and two days diving with PappaHoggs was around $400. If I take a 4-day on Carnival's specials I sometimes can get an inside room for $179/double occupancy. That's about $550 with taxes. BUT I get a room, booze and food and all the trappings of a cruise along with a couple days of floating around the Carib, in the sunshine and oggling the pretties though only one day of diving. I have two credit card round trips on Southwest now and one more coming up. I'm ready if I can find the best ride. I think it was the Inspiration out of Tampa with the best iteniary for what I want to do. Worst thing would be that the boat was too late to get out but you can still shore dive all day.

 

[rivers]

Various posters: Thanks for the replies. I already checked with a Carnival sales rep who told me that the arrival times posted on their website are the actual local times that the ship arrives and that it usually takes about an hour to get off the boat with maybe a shorter time if I care to exercise my rights as an "ugly American" and muscle my way in line like a lot of people do. PappaHoggs is about a two minute taxi ride from the docks. Also, I never intended to book diving through the cruise ship and don't even know if it is available on a 4-day. Here's the scoop. If I fly down on Continental: The last time it was $550 for the round trip. If I remember correctly the Via Blanca Hotel and two days diving with PappaHoggs was around $400. If I take a 4-day on Carnival's specials I sometimes can get an inside room for $179/double occupancy. That's about $550 with taxes. BUT I get a room, booze and food and all the trappings of a cruise along with a couple days of floating around the Carib, in the sunshine and oggling the pretties though only one day of diving. I have two credit card round trips on Southwest now and one more coming up. I'm ready if I can find the best ride. I think it was the Inspiration out of Tampa with the best iteniary for what I want to do. Worst thing would be that the boat was too late to get out but you can still shore dive all day.

Garrobo, excuse my language, but the sales rep is full of ****. 99% of the people shoreside have no idea what happens on a ship. The ship stays on local time of the home port (IE Galveston, Miami, Mobile, Tampa, LA, etc). Most of the time, it does not take an hour to get off of the ship, unless it is a tender port or the ship is ridiculously late pulling into port. As a crewmember, I was off the ship within 20-30 minutes of ship clearance. which, if the ship is on time, is about 30 minutes after the stated arrival time. And, also as a crewmember, I was not allowed off of the ship until the "rush" was over.
Take it from a crewmember, the ship stays on local time of the homeport. It confuses people when you switch the times on the ship. Just don't use your cell phone or ask a local the time in Coz if you leave out of a Florida port. Every sign on the ship at the gangway says to stick to ship's time. Your arrival and departure times will be on ship's time.

 

[Diver Kat]

Garrobo - have to agree with rivers. The sales reps are notorious for giving misinformation. It's been many years since I was on a ship where they changed the time to match the port. The norm is to stick with the port of departure time. As for disembarking, we usually found it pretty easy to get off fast -even if tendering - if we got to the gangway area before they started announcing the ship was cleared. There was usually a window between the actual clearance and the announcement where you could get off and miss the stampede.

For awhile when cruises were cheap out of Texas, we would jump on cruises and be able to dive a number of ports including Coz. These days, with the price increases, it's cheaper for us to fly to Coz for a week.

 

[WestHoustonDiver]

Based on our 20 cruises over the past 12 yrs, half out of Galveston, half out of Miami, we have always scuba on most of those trips. Within the past few yrs, our practice is when we travel w/out our kids, I dive with the cruise ship's excursion dept, wife shops. It's about $20 more than booking on my own, no biggie.
But when we travel with our 2 teenage kids, we always book on our own.
In Cozumel, we've been using Scuba Mau lately.
We usually take our time getting off the ship, around 10:30am, 7 min taxi ride from Carnival's Puerta Maya pier to shop. Mau even pays the taxi fare.
Costs: $65 ($75 w/ all equipment)
They have a private fast boat for our family, we leave a little after 11am, do 2 excellent dives. They even drop us off at the next private hotel pier, quick 5 min walk back to the cruise pier. We tip them well for the outstanding service.
Figure we save $80 - $160 per dive trip, depends on location, Grand Cayman & Honduras higher savings, but Cozumel is closer to $80 for us 4. But we get to dive our own schedule/time, our own personal boats, smaller group. Straight from pier to shop, with no waiting around from 15 - 60 minutes at the pier waiting for others to get off the ship, being herded onto big bus for trip to shop, if you book through the ship.

 

[heydn62]

Dive with Martin is located at the International pier right as you're exiting the dock. You can also use their gear with no added charge if you like. Stayed at a nearby resort last month. Looks like most Carnival and Royal Caribbean ships docked here (there are 3 piers in Cozumel). Their boats leave at 7:30 and 12:30. As noted before, if you leave from a Fl port, that would be an hour later by ships time.

I've been diving in Cozumel twice on Cruises. Both times I had no time to do anything else after taking a taxi to the dive op, waiting for other people to show up, and then getting back to the ship, so timing is important if you'd like to do anything else while you are there.

Good luck with whatever you do!

 

[rivers]

Dive with Martin is located at the International pier right as you're exiting the dock. You can also use their gear with no added charge if you like. Stayed at a nearby resort last month. Looks like most Carnival and Royal Caribbean ships docked here (there are 3 piers in Cozumel). Their boats leave at 7:30 and 12:30. As noted before, if you leave from a Fl port, that would be an hour later by ships time.

I've been diving in Cozumel twice on Cruises. Both times I had no time to do anything else after taking a taxi to the dive op, waiting for other people to show up, and then getting back to the ship, so timing is important if you'd like to do anything else while you are there.

Good luck with whatever you do!

Very rarely does Carnival dock at International Pier. Carnival's pier is Puerta Maya, which is right next door...

 

[heydn62]

Very rarely does Carnival dock at International Pier. Carnival's pier is Puerta Maya, which is right next door...

You're probably right. We stayed close by and some ships that appeared to be at the International pier were actually at the Puerta Maya Pier. They're practically side-by-side.