CrawfishDiver
Contributor
I am going on a cruise in Dec. to Hawaii. Its on the pride of hawaii from Norwegion. Should I take thier dive trips or plan my own never done a dive thru the ship before
Cruise or find it local
- Thread starter CrawfishDiver
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find it local, check out this site, Most, if not all of the diving in Hawaii is reachable from Shore. if you want details for Oahu let me know and I will gladly give you some of the best.
http://www.scubaonthe.net/
http://www.hawaiiscubadiving.com/index.html
http://www.shorediving.com/Earth/Hawaii/index.htm
http://www.scubaonthe.net/
http://www.hawaiiscubadiving.com/index.html
http://www.shorediving.com/Earth/Hawaii/index.htm
BurBunny
Contributor
NCL's ships have excellent time in port, so should be easy to arrange the dives on your own without difficulty. I'd definitely book independently on this itinerary.
bluesbro1982
Contributor
Definitely book on your own. The last ship I worked on, the shorex people were asking me and the other guys that dove where to send pax who wanted to dive. It'll be much much cheaper and as long as you give yourself enough time to get back to the boat, you'll be fine.
rocketry
Contributor
You have to weigh the ups and downs. I booked a dive through royal carribbean at grand cayman (the cruise's excursion, not my own) and the dive boat picked us up RIGHT at the docks. It was Red Sail Sports. Dive was great, crew was good. Another operator would probably need to be travelled to.
JAMIE MCG
Contributor
I agree with rocketry, weigh you options. I took a cruise last month and planned all the dive's through the ship, I'm glad I did when we boarded the ship they informed us our itenerary had changed, due to a tropical storm, instead of going to Half Moon Cay, St Thomas, San Juan, and Grand Turk, we started at Grand Turk, San Juan, St Thomas and then Nassau. I was soo glad I didn't have to take time out of my trip to call and try to reschedule, Plus if you go through the ship they wait on you, if you reserve outside the ship you better be back at the boat on time. I know I pay a little more but for me it like insurace.
OP
CrawfishDiver
Contributor
Great Link on Shore dives I my do a cruise package with the woman for ease and some shore dives at other locations
While you can book a dive with another outfit than the cruise ship you need to compare apples to apples. The cruise dive operation will probably pick up right at the end of the pier where the ship is docked. They will transport you to the boat and back. If you dive with another operation you will probably have to hail a cab to transport you to the other dive company and then hail a cab back. So that 30-40 buck savings turns in to 10 or so bucks. I personally like to use the ships excursion for diving. But, that's just me.
Carribeandiver
Guest
definitely DO NOT take the dive excursions offered by NCL. They rip you off by charging twice what the dive shop charges AND most of the divers in your group will be skill deficient - it is incredible to think some of these people got certified at all.
Because the skill levels are assumed to be low, all dives will have a guide dive master and you play follow the leader. When the first person runs low on air, presto, your dive is up. Even if you have 2100 psi left, time to surface cause the clowns that were flailing their arms about trying to swim and bumping into you because buoyancy is a foreign term to them are down to 100 psi.
I just got back from a NCL cruise and did two dive excursions,, I can promise you I will NEVER EVER cruise with NCL or take a dive excursion again. We had one lady bump her head in a swim through in Cozemel, knock herself out and had to be taken up by the dive master - of course she had no concept of buoyancy control. Another ignored safety stops and ended up spending 5 hours in a chamber and missed the boat home.
You can meet some nice people who are competent divers but the majority are beyond horrible and ruin a potentially good time.
On the other hand, even if you are a mediocre diver, these people will make you look like Jacque Costeau.
I tried to independently book my excursions and the shops refused because they had contracted with the cruise line so instead of paying $75 for a two tank dive in Belize I paid $140 and in Costa Maya I paid $119 instead of $75 and in Cozemel, we used some dive shop that exclusively services cruises. I do not know the shop name as they never mentioned it. I think I paid about $90 bucks for that two tank dive.
Because the skill levels are assumed to be low, all dives will have a guide dive master and you play follow the leader. When the first person runs low on air, presto, your dive is up. Even if you have 2100 psi left, time to surface cause the clowns that were flailing their arms about trying to swim and bumping into you because buoyancy is a foreign term to them are down to 100 psi.
I just got back from a NCL cruise and did two dive excursions,, I can promise you I will NEVER EVER cruise with NCL or take a dive excursion again. We had one lady bump her head in a swim through in Cozemel, knock herself out and had to be taken up by the dive master - of course she had no concept of buoyancy control. Another ignored safety stops and ended up spending 5 hours in a chamber and missed the boat home.
You can meet some nice people who are competent divers but the majority are beyond horrible and ruin a potentially good time.
On the other hand, even if you are a mediocre diver, these people will make you look like Jacque Costeau.
I tried to independently book my excursions and the shops refused because they had contracted with the cruise line so instead of paying $75 for a two tank dive in Belize I paid $140 and in Costa Maya I paid $119 instead of $75 and in Cozemel, we used some dive shop that exclusively services cruises. I do not know the shop name as they never mentioned it. I think I paid about $90 bucks for that two tank dive.
You might find this comparison between cruise ship excursion diving and making your own arrangement to dive to be of some help.
Personally, I prefer to make my own arrangements. I don't want a follow the leader dive. I want all the bottom time I am entitled to get. While there are some instances when you'd be better going with the ship's excursion, like what happened to JAMIE MCG, that is quite unusual.
Personally, I prefer to make my own arrangements. I don't want a follow the leader dive. I want all the bottom time I am entitled to get. While there are some instances when you'd be better going with the ship's excursion, like what happened to JAMIE MCG, that is quite unusual.
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