Cruising with Superstar Virgo to Redang to dive?

[January]

Hello people,

I need some advice, I'll be heading to Redang via Starcruise on 6th May. Starcruise is actually having some packages such as Dive package(consist of 2 boat dive, boat transfer and dive master at SGD$155 excluding meals and an additional of SGD$36 for equipment rentals)

1) I have briefly checked with my friends, they mention per boat dive is about SGD$25 directly from the dive centers at Redang (I'm looking at doing 1-2 dives as well) however i doubt they would include the boat transfer hence anybody know how much is the boat transfer? (I called starcruise to make the enquiry, apparently they have no idea!) Is it really workable to just go to Redang island and find a Dive center to do 1-2 dives instead of going with the package Starcruise are providing?

2) My intention is to try out a few new equipments hence, I do not need to rent the entire set of equipments, anybody knows if you are allowed to rent individual eq by itself?


Anybody have experience diving in Redang during cruising? If yes, kindly advice!!:depressed:

 

[Searcaigh]

I usually stay at Redang Bay Resort when I visit Redang and negotiate an unlimited dive package with them.

They are the closest to the only decent shore diving, 100M walk down the beach, easy entry and max depth is about 12M, great night dive.

Some comments and information here

Malaysia

I cannot imagine for one minute a cruise liner coming in to Redang Bay, way too bizarre for me

 

[January]

Thanks for the information.

Haha! The cruise liner wouldnt literally park near Redang bay.. we have to take a boat transfer.

 

[Quero]

That's actually a pretty steep price for two dives, but it's fairly typical of shore excursion prices from cruise liners. If I were you, I'd phone a few Redang dive ops and ask what they can do to accommodate you. It might be that your arrival and departure times are not a good match for their daytrips and that you will have no choice but to do the charter through the ship's excursion desk. If this is the case, the ship will have chartered a special trip just for cruise passengers, and they may have had to pay premium prices for this.

So the first thing to find out is about your arrival and departure times. Have you got a detailed itinerary? I did a weeklong cruise in the Caribbean a couple of years ago and didn't use the ship's dive charters at all. I was able to get bookings independently through local dive operators because I was able to specify times pretty accurately. Not only was it less expensive, but the quality of the dive sites I visited was superior.

 

[January]

Yup, I didnt get to dive on this trip however I have already did a sourcing on the island on several dive center over there, hence in the future, I'm able to just do 1 boat dive at RM90 with any one of the dive center there instead of paying that much via starcruise.