Cruise ship diving
- Thread starter Palmcoastdiver
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A point someone raised for me was that if you dive with the ships dive ops you WILL get back on board the ship whereas useing someone else it is up to you to make sure you are there. I must ask OP--why aren't you keen on using the ships own dive op?
Theres NO hook in the question. I'm concidering a cruise for our next holiday
Theres NO hook in the question. I'm concidering a cruise for our next holiday
OP
Palmcoastdiver
Registered
Great advice everyone...I appreciate it! Especially the time zone thing..our itinerary says 7 or 8 am at each port so it sounds like enough time to get a 2 tank morning dive done.
OP
Palmcoastdiver
Registered
Kazbanz...it's a money issue..cruise dive shore excursions run at least $80 more per dive.
OP
Palmcoastdiver
Registered
I googled Subway Watersports that sound like they cater to cruise ship divers..has anyone used them in Roatan? They have decent website..
Roatan scuba diving, snorkeling and dive lessons, Bay Islands Honduras
Another question..if I had to choose 2 dive excursions between Roatan,Cozumel, Belize an Grand Cayman..what would be the best Two picks?
Roatan scuba diving, snorkeling and dive lessons, Bay Islands Honduras
Another question..if I had to choose 2 dive excursions between Roatan,Cozumel, Belize an Grand Cayman..what would be the best Two picks?
TN Traveler
Contributor
That is not always the case - if you add in Taxi fares (including tips) and lunch, sometimes the costs are maybe $20 more - plus no worry about getting to the dive on time or back to the ship on time. Just be sure you compare apples to apples.
flots am
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The ship's dive excursions frequently suck.
The dive ops are expecting a bunch of roto-tillers, and that's what they get a great deal of the time, and will often take you to beat up dive sites that you can't damage. I actually approve of this practice, since I hate to see reef destruction and the infrequent divers are so awe-struck that they don't usually notice.
The dives are nearly always cut short because someone sucked through their 80 in 30 minutes, so the entire mob has to go back to the boat. If the DM is feeling tired, and doesn't think anybody will notice, they'll sometimes take everybody deep or move really fast to burn through the air faster.
However this varies by island and dive op. Hugh Parkey (Belize - mentioned above) has a large boat that holds (40?) divers, but splits everybody up by skill level, so if you can get an hour out of a tank, you won't have to get dragged back to the boat in 30 minutes. Also, they seem to have nicer dive sites. The dive op on Grenada, for example really sucked (tremendously overloaded, under-maintained boat and horrible dive site), as did a few of the others.
I generally try to book my own if port times allows.
flots
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I was on the same Itinerary back in january. We dove Roatan and Cozumel. We used the ship's dive op on Cozumel which was a huge mistake as it was the worst experience i have ever had with a dive op. Roatan we booked with Barefoot Divers and it was great, it was just us and a DM on the boat. We dove Mary's Place which was awesome. We never made it to Belize due to tendering issues and we did the Dolphin/Stingray City thing on Grand Cayman so i can't comment on the diving there.
fdarden
Contributor
Im scheduled for a similar itinerary on Princess in the springtime. This thread is very helpful.
I think this is the point. The port time. I will be in a cruise (RCCL) next February that will touch Roatan, but the port time is so little that the cruise is offering a 1 tank excursion with AKR. I've already asked to Barefoot Divers (strongly recommended here and there) and they also offered a 1 tank excursion owing to the short port time. What discourages me about Barefoot divers is that they didn't know the RCCL timeframe. I thought they should be aware of those details as there should be many cruise divers every week.
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