Cruise Western Carribean

[chuck e]

I did this itinerary a couple years ago off the Valor. I would suggest using the ship operation in Belize and booking a local operator in Roatan. You do not dock in Belize and the ship operator, Hugh Parkey at the time, picked us up on the ship and took us to Turneffe. In Roatan we used Subway Watersports who provided round trip transportation to the dock. AKR is on the north side of the island and a longer ride from the ship dock. Subway Watersports is on the south side closer to the dock and closer to the better dive sites, e.g. Mary's Place and Calvin's Crack. A shore dive in GC is a good idea. Consider Dive Tek's shop near the turtle farm.

 

[Ocean Hunter]

In caymans and probably every where else... most boat dives leave at 8 am for the dive....
in caymans I made by skin of my teeth... make sure you are the first off the boat and catch a cab fast.... also call dive shop and make arrangements.

They have deep water sub.. pretty cool to do...few hundred bucks... but if you get on the standby list... (they like to take 2 down) can go for much less. goes to 800 1000 feet down.

good luck and have a blast.

 

[Mike_Nelson]

Hi Sanny179,

I sailed the Carnival Valor on January 20-27, 2008, and dove at all 4 ports utilizing the excursions through Carnival and I was completely satisfied with all the dive operations, except for Don Foster's in the Caymans. The DM/Instructer at Don Foster's (Sally) insisted on seriously underweighting everyone on the first dive, but on the second dive after complaints from everyone onboard the boat, the second DM/Instructer allowed everyone to properly weight themselves which made the second dive an enjoyable experience.

As a general overview, I think Carnival did a good job in selecting it's dive operators, and I would have no problem in booking any future excursions through the Carnival Cruise ship. I found that when we arrived at each port, we always met early at pretermined locations on the ship and we were usually given priority in being the first group off the ship.

The 4 ports, dive operators and diving site were as follows:

Port - Grand Cayman / Dive Operator - Don Foster / Short Tender 1000'
Good Equipment / Excellent Dive Boat

1st Dive - Eagle Ray Rock - Max Depth 80'
2nd Dive - Arm Chair Reef - Max Depth 60'

Port - Roatan / Dive Operator - Anthony Key Resorts - Dock at Port
Good Equipment / Excellent Dive Boat / Well Organized & Divided Group Based on Experience

1st Dive - Mandy's Ell Garden - Max Depth 70'
2nd Dive - Romeo's Elbow - Max Depth 60'

Port - Belize / Dive Operator - Hugh Parkley's / Long Tender to Port
Good Equipment / Excellent Dive Boat / Picks you directly from Carnival Ship using their own boat as the ship must tender passenger a good distance to the port / Well Organized & Divided Group Based on Experience / Suggest using the Carnival Excursion as we were given priority and were the very first off the boat, and arrived back 15 minutes before departure.

1st Dive - Aldo's Armchair - Max Depth 80'
2nd Dive - Creek Ozeen - Max Depth 60'

Port - Cozumel / Dive Operator - Sand Dollar Sports - Dock at Port
Good Equipment but dated / Good Dive Boat but crowded compared to the previous 3 Dive Boats/ Well Organized & Divided Group Based on Experience

1st Dive - Santa Rosa Wall - Max Depth 80'
2nd Dive - San Clementa - Max Depth 60'

P.S. Had a great time aboard the Valor, the cruise ship staff really go out of their way to give you an enjoyable experience.

William

 

[DiveLabby]

DIVERDOWN71-
Do you know who Royal Caribbean uses in Ochos Rios Jamaica? We will be there in June and I want to book through the ship there and am curious who their dive op is.

 

[Stephanie_L]

hi! we did Cozumel last April and we went with Sand Dollar Sports and will never ever again. It was terrible. That being said, i regret not diving in Belize when we were there instead because everyone on our ship that did both said they had a better time there. Also, Cozumel wasnt that nice. I thought Maui (Molokini Crater) was WAY better and would dive there a thousand times over than Cozumel. Have a great trip