Cruising question?

[robint]

My Wife & I were talking about vacation ideas and she would much like to take a cruise. Fantastic!! I'm thinking: Agressor, Nekton,Solomar.....

Reality check.... She's thinking: Royal Caribbean, Carnival.....

Is there an option that will provide both the "Big Boat" cruising experience and frequent quality dive opportunities?



Any suggestions?

Thanks

Steve

No, not really. :depressed: The "big boat" cruising experience - formal dining, casino, pool, shows, shopping... not on any liveaboard. However, some liveaboard boats do tend to lend more to the fancier side with sitdown dinners and some shore activities. By doing so you do limit the diving time which most people don't want to do! There are some liveaboards that are luxury but you pay big $$$$ for it. I don't think that is what you want as it is still a dive boat first and foremost.

so you really need to decide which type of trip is best for you both.....

 

[Mossman]

There's a "smaller" cruise boat in the South Pacific - Paul Gauguin. Scuba is a featured activity and they do a program with JM Cousteau.
Paul Gauguin Luxury Cruise - Onboard - Activities

We're booked on the Paul Gauguin July 4-15, so I'll report back. It's more like a giant liveaboard than a normal cruise ship in the following ways: (1) it has a fold down marina that allows direct access to the water to get picked up by dive dinghys, avoiding having to take a separate tender to shore; (2) they maintain and store your gear in their dive facility and have it set up for the next day's dives.

Where it's not like a liveaboard, besides the obviously finer dining experience, swimming pool, much larger cabins (some with balconies), room service, casino, and shows and musicians galore, is in the number of dives offered. On our 11-night trip, since we're at sea a lot, I've so far been able to book only two dives in Rangiroa, one in Nuku Hiva, one in Moorea, and two on Bora Bora (plus we're planning to do two from the hotel in Tahiti before the cruise). For a lousy 8 dives maximum, I'm not even bothering to lug the camera gear. However, I've heard it's possible to do more dives on their standard week-long Society Islands itineraries since the ship spends much more time in port and you can book additional dives with outside operators.

So if that's frequent enough, you probably can't go wrong with the quality.