Cruise Ship Diving - Hit or Miss Situation

[oversea]

Yikes, talk about bumming you out before you go on a cruise. I'm taking my family during NH Winter vaca on Norweigan Sun out of Miami on Western Carib cruise. We're making stops in Gr. Cayman, Roatan, Belize and Coz. That would suck having to have to miss a port if some person had to be evacuated!

I'm planning on doing some diving. Beliz, hooked up with Cruises operator (Hugh Parkey) and in Coz, going on my own based on Matt's recommendation. Papa Hoggs.
Will probably do discover scuba with my 11 year old in Roatan and Snuba with my 8 and 11 year old in Grand Cayman. So looking forward to it.

My parents have cruised NCl for the last 10-15 years at about 6 cruises a year. Bad weather and illnesses have only caused a disruption in the itinerary once or twice.

 

[ozarkjim]

I'm planning on doing some diving. Beliz, hooked up with Cruises operator (Hugh Parkey) and in Coz, going on my own based on Matt's recommendation. Papa Hoggs.
Will probably do discover scuba with my 11 year old in Roatan and Snuba with my 8 and 11 year old in Grand Cayman. So looking forward to it.

We almost pre-booked our diving via the net. Really glad we didn't since we were a day late into Coz and didn't get to Belieze.

 

[MSilvia]

I am sorry but I have to strongly disagree. I like to cruise because it is much cheaper than anything else. You can practically go for nothing and have food and bedding included.

Okay, food and bedding is included, but for the price of a cruise, you can find adequate lodging that's much cheaper in most places, and food that's just as good for a much better price. Food and lodging aren't free on a cruise, they are the cruise. That's what you pay for. If you want to do anything interesting (like dive) at your destination, you can expect it to cost double what it would if you booked it yourself.

If you really want a diving vacation, you can do MUCH better. Just as an example, I've taken a 3 day liveaboard trip on Flower Garden Bank for around $450 including airfare, meals, lodging, and 4 or 5 dives a day.

I also have a wife that is a non-diver. I don't think she'd be too keen on a liveaboard.

Okay, I'll conceed that if you want a general vacation, a cruise is fine. It's just not the best way to have a diving focused vacation IMHO. Too much expense for too little diving opportunity. Besides, I thought most of the shipboard activities were comparable to being trapped in a luxury hotel for days at a time. That might be great for some, but I'd rather spend time off the ship than on it.

I've done several dives while cruising, some with the line itself and some privately booked, there was no difference. In fact, the cruise organized tripos were much smoother than with the private ops.

Me too, and in my experience, the cruise ship excursion dives are about double the cost of going with a similar operation on your own. In Cozumel, we booked ourselves in advance through the internet and got a private 2 dive charter for 4 with lunch and an excellent DM for $45 a piece. In Roatan, we went through the excursion desk onboard, and paid $110 a piece for a spot on a cattle boat with inattentive DMs and a swarm of divers who for the most part probably shouldn't have been given C-cards. In Belize, we were picked up at the ship by a charter operation the excursion desk had arranged for another $100+, and over the course of two dives they had to borrow from my repair kit to fix their rental equipment on the fly, left the prop engaged when divers were trying to board and nearly mangled a diver who wasn't paying attention, and then abandoned a group of seven of us on the surface for an hour and a half. As I said before, we missed Cancun.

Needless to say, I stand by my opinion.

 

[Cecil]

Interesting discussion since I just got back (first week of Jan.) from my first (and last) cruise. I did get to dive Cozumal and Grand Caymen. Loved both and would go back to either but not on a pod. No reflection on anyone that likes cruising but I thought it sucked badly. Not enough time anywhere, not enough control of your schedule and way, way to many people. Never again.

I just finished the slide show from the trip, it can be found on my web page at here.

 

[matt_unique]

I went on the NCL from Boston to Bermuda last year and had a great trip. We foolishly booked a trip for the hurricane season. We were lucky but we lost a day in Bermuda. We had to return early to avoid weather. I would NEVER take a cruise again that was not booked within two weeks of departure so I knew what the general weather was looking like. If the weather is bad near where you plan to visit they will try to find other locations. For the NCL out of Boston, this meant Canada and New England instead of Bermuda! Thankfully that did not happen to us but that was the case for travelers two weeks prior. I would never risk that again.

In terms of the diving, you pay more for the same dives and the same local dive operator! It's a complete waste of money to do any shore activities directly with the cruise ship. Take some time to do your own local research and set it up. It will be less costly and possibly less crowded. For the Bermuda trip I had everything planned in advance with a local shop. I arrived as scheduled and went out with 4 other divers. It was fantastic.

I personally don't care for spending much time aboard the cruise ship. The NCL from Boston to Bermuda was perfect. You leave at 4pm Sunday and arrive in Bermuda Tuesday morning. Then you can spend the rest of the time exploring the islands and doing your own thing. For my trip I mentioned we had to leave early, they got away from Bermuda to avoid weather then slowed the ship so we would arrive in port at the scheduled time. That was too long to be on the ship. You will be sick of the shipboard activities after about 1 full day in my opinion. With that being said, I would recommend the NCL from Bos - Ber do to the limited time at sea. It was a cool experience to be at sea for that long. I brought my GPS (geek) to get a sense of speed/location. This giant ship cruises at about 20 mph and Bermuda is just about 800 miles from Halfway Rock (Mass).

--Matt

 

[Danny D]

aquageek,
I dived Grand Cayman only out of the Caymans. I ended up diving Spanish Anchor and another spot called Round Rock. I just wasn't happy to pay $100 some odd dollars to see nothing on a dive. The divemaster took me around the same place like 3 times to try to interst us in stuff that just wasn't there.
The area that I was at was greatly affected to the point that alot of outfits sent their american divemasters back home until the industry could recouperate (so I was told). The island had been under 8 feet of water during the hurricane and you could tell from the trees on the island that this was the truth.
On the same cruz I dived Cozomel and it was breath taking the beauty that was underwater. Don'tt get me wrong the weather was perfect in both these spots and I enjoyed just being able to get in the water in both places. Crand Cayman was just effected by the hurricane and Im sure it will regenerate quickly to the diving that usually goes on there.

 

[reefseal]

In Belize, we were picked up at the ship by a charter operation the excursion desk had arranged for another $100+, and over the course of two dives they had to borrow from my repair kit to fix their rental equipment on the fly, left the prop engaged when divers were trying to board and nearly mangled a diver who wasn't paying attention, and then abandoned a group of seven of us on the surface for an hour and a half. As I said before, we missed Cancun.

Needless to say, I stand by my opinion.

re: Belize, I read that because it's a tender port, you are best to go through Cruise line. (Only let folks off first that have excursions through cruise co..) I believe they use Hugh Parkey. Your suggesting I can call them direct, and not through Cruise, then when they pick up the Cruise ship passengers that went through cruise ship, pick me up?? Let me know if that will work and save me a few $$$


Also, I'm only doing the cruise thing as last time I did a resort thing with Family,(bonaire) The wife practically tore me a new one. I got 22 dives in. After that, she said no more. So the cruise was my idea. I can be with family unit but not dive all time and still get a "little" diving in...

 

[diveprn]

Don't feel that bad about missing Grand Cayman. I just got back from a cruise two weeks ago and i had the chance to dive Cayman. It was certenly not what I expected and read about over the years. The vis was good however there was nothing to look at. The past hurricanes really did a number to the Island and the surrounding reefs. There wasn't even that much marine life to look at. I went with Red Sail scuba who is a well known shop in the area its not their fault it is just that the hurricane decimated the area thats all. So summing up my story you really didn't miss anything at Grand Cayman!

Where on Grand Caymen did you dive?

 

[deepstops]

I'm a Diamond Level member in RCCL's Crown & Anchor Society so I've done a good bit of cruising. Cruising is not the way to do a "dive vacation". It's a great way to see places you want to see but don't want to spend a week in them. And along the way do a dive when the location is a good dive location.
I've had one dive related snafu and it so happens it was on my last trip in 12/04. I dove Aruba, transited the Panama Canal locks, checked out the sloth sanctuary and Costa Rica, and my dive in Cayman was scrubbed supposedly because the weather was supposed get bad. No biggie, I tendered off with my gear and hooked up with Don Foster's and got two real nice dives in. I'm not sure what (really) happened with Red Sail Sports but I still got my dives in (and saved $10).

 

[Danny D]

Diveprn ,

I dived Grand Cayman only out of the Caymans. I ended up diving Spanish Anchor and another spot called Round Rock.

Nothing was wrong with Red Sail at all. They are a great dive business , just the spots we went to were hit thats all