Cruise Ship Diving - Any warnings?

[David_L]

I'm taking a cruise with my wife in February to Mexico. I am planning on booking two dive excursions through the ship (Carnival). Have any of you had experience doing this and is there anything to watch out for. Except for tanks I plan to bring all my own gear. I have about 16 logged dives in the past year. Some in springs around Gainesville and about a half dozen in the Middlegrounds in the Gulf of Mexico.

Thanks for any info!


Dave

 

[Daylonious]

Well, I'm taking my very first cruise (starting this weekend, the 7th (WHOOHOO!!) with two booked scuba outings, and two I've setup myself. I'm bringing all my own gear (besides tanks) as well. I'm going on the Grand Princess to the Western Carribbean.

The reason I didn't book all 4 was that in Majahual and Belize City, my choices were very very limited (pretty much the cruise ship excursion or nothing) - GC and Coz have lots of ops to choose from.

The other reason is that I was leery of going out with the "cruise ship" cattle boats.. (I think I was quoted something like there being 25-30 divers going out at once...)

I tried to find small 4-6 person operations. Also, since I was diving solo, I wanted to try to minimize the chances of getting stuck with someone who really didn't know what they were doing.

(Not that ALL cruise ship divers are newly certified divers, I'm just making the gross assumption that there's probably a higher percentage of them on a cruise ship then who would book directly with a local operator)

Here's what I've figured out so far:

1) In Cozumel (or any other place where they're using ship-tenders) if you're doing your own dive trip (not booking through the ship) get in line early and get your ticket so you can get off the ship fast. (could make the difference between a two tanker and a three tanker)

2) You can't bring a dive knife on the ship.

3) Get back before the ship leaves.

4) I would heartily recommend getting some dive insurance (either through DAN or DiveAssure) - not that anything bad would happen, but just to be safe.

D.

 

[ScubaCrow]

I was on a Carnival Cruise two years ago and dived in Coz when the ship docked. It actually was a good experience. The DM was very professional and gave a detailed safety briefing before we did a 90ft drift dive. The group from the cruise ship was a mixed bag with a couple of people who hadn't dived in a couple of years. If you don't have a buddy, be careful to talk to the other divers to determine who would be the best buddy match for your skill level.

 

[SStrecker]

Cleaning, storage and drying of your gear could be a practical issue. Nevertheless, the most important rule is "Don't miss the boat".

 

[Whit]

My wife and I took our first cruise last summer. I was able to dive Coz and had a great time. The level of diving experience ranged from a retired navy diver to a freshly minted open water diver. As Butch said, try to choose a buddy with similar experience, it makes the dive more fun. We are cruising again this summer and I plan on booking thru the ship (Carnival Inspiration) again.

 

[Swan1172]

My wife and I went on a cruise to Cozumel and Playa del Carmen last January. Rather than booking my dives through the cruise ship, I booked them directly with a couple of dive operators. If I had to do it again, I would probably go with the cruise excursions as they are better organized and will always get you back to your ship on time. Instead of getting picked up in a nice air conditioned bus like the divers on the ship, I was picked up in a rusted out old Jeep. Price ended up being about the same.

 

[lisa_j]

Just got back from a Western Caribbean Cruise. Check out the report here: http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=122609

Details of our dives in Coz, GCayman and Majahual! Have fun!

 

[fmw625]

Last summer we went cruising to Coz and Beleze on the Carnival Inspration. The dives were booked thru the ship and I brought my own gear except tanks and weights. The dives (2) in Coz were great, the dives (2) in Beleze were great also. In Coz the Dive shop had a diver filming each group of 6 divers. They were avaliable for sale before the ship departed for cash in DVD or VHS format. It was great. The divers were the stars in the film, and got credits at the end. In Beleze they filmed the whole group 20 people and I didn't purchase one of them. My understanding is that if you book the dive thru the boat, the dive operators will make every effort that they can to get you back to the ship on time. If the unforseen happens and they are late the boat will delay until you return. If you book independently of the boat you are on your own.

 

[WicketsMom]

I've done one cruise ship dive excursion from the cruise ship, and also have gotten stuck on boats that were filled with 'cruise-shippers' when I was staying on-island in a couple of places. The main problem I see is many people get on the ship, look over the list of excursions and see the scuba one and say 'Wow, I haven't done that in awhile, think I'll sign up for that!'. My one cruise ship excursion, I was also diving solo so I was looking for a responsible buddy and got in a conversation with a guy who also needed a buddy. After talking for awhile, I found that he was not certified but had 'borrowed' a c-card. I separated from him at that point (incorrectly assuming that the dive op would see when he filled out the release forms that the person in the photo wasn't him). The dive op informed us that there were too many to go on one boat and they were going to put 10 divers on the smaller boat, there was a rush to that boat and I was lucky enough to be one of the ones in the smaller group. We had a very nice dive, it seems the more experienced divers ended up in our group. I saw him back on the ship later, with his not-so-happy wife because he had ruptured his eardrum since he didn't know you needed to equalize.

Not to say that all cruise-ship divers are bad, but I seem to run into a higher percentage on those trips than when diving with a land-based group that is usually there only to dive.

If at all possible, I would book my dives directly with the dive operator. The downside to this is that if the itinerary changes due to weather and you skip a port, it's usually easier to get your money back if you're booked through the ship.

If you're doing Grand Cayman, there is a great shore dive just to the right of where the cruise-ship tenders drop off called Eden Rock. It's shallow too so snorkelers can tag along.

 

[jmani]

Just to drop my $.02.
If you are going to Grand Cayman, I strongly recomend Neptune's Divers. It is one of the 6 divers max operators, has a clean fast boat and Casey the Instructor/owner is a great person to dive with and knows all the best spots.

I dove with them for an entire week in March, and they worked around my schedule very nicely. They usually only picked up 1 or 2 cruise divers so book early.

http://www.neptunesdivers.com/