Diving Belize While on a Royal Caribbean Cruise: Advice?

[flyhimd]

Diving Cayman While In Port on Cruise: Advice?
My partner and I will be diving Belize while on a Royal Carribbean cruise. Time in port is limited (7am-5pm, with the ship being tendered), so it'll be tight. Any recommendations for a dive operator and dive locations?

Anyone know about fly-and-dive options out to Ambergris?

We're trying to avoid the cruise line's house arrangements; we're advanced open water and do a lot of photography...taking the cruise line's cattle boat trip will likely mean being packed in with once-a-year novice divers, will be too limiting in the "stay with your group" sense, and probably would end up at some shallow and over-dived site.

Any recommendaions appreciated! Also hitting Cozumel, Grand Cayman, and Costa Maya/Mahahaul on the cruise, diving in each port (talk about a spacious liveaboard). Ideas for those places also welcome.

Thanks.

 

[riftvalley84]

Hi, our family of 5 took a Royal Carribbean cruise in February and we did all our research before we left by going to http://www.padi.com . We choose dive operations that were PADI approved and made all our arrangements online. It is definitely the way to go since you can express your desire to be grouped with other similar experienced divers. It was a little hectic getting off the boat at each stop with all our gear but it was worth it. Also, we didn't think about our dive knives when we boarded the ship so we had to make an extra trip back to security to explain them. You are not allowed to keep your knives on board. At each port, security will bring them to you. If you have your own gear, your room will be a little cramped. We were OK since we had a family suite which had 2 large window sills which was where we kept our BCDs & we hung our wet suits in the shower. We didn't go to your stops so can't help with specific locations. Enjoy your trip! Can't beat cruise food, that's for sure!

 

[peterbj7]

With those time constraints you're very limited in choices. Most dive operators will be inaccessible to you.

 

[Diver18]

I dove Belize last week though a Carnival Cruise. The operator was Hugh Parkey's Dive Connection. We dove "Terrace" Atol and Chazbo's corner. Profile was conservative, as dictated by the cuise line, but the dives were awsome. **You have to be alive to spend money on their ship**

The operator was really professional and organized, their gear was well maintained, the boat was spacious and easy on/off, and the crew did everything for us. It was the best diving out of all the stops (Grand Caymen, Belize, and Costa Maya). Check their web site for prices - I think it was 150 US for the day including food, drinks, gear, etc. They seemed flexible on priing but we were already locked in with the Cruise bought tour.

Costa Maya was a mess - small boat, 10-15' swells, poorly maintained gear, unorganized crew, and the gauranteed connection back to the ship was a taxi. Surprise!

Have fun!

 

[drl]

In most places you can easily arrange your own dives, but for logistical reasons, in Belize you might be best off taking the ship's excursion. We did this off RC; they also used Hugh Parkey. Big groups but well-run op. Ships anchor very far from land in Belize due to the shallow harbor; it's a very long tender ride to shore (I think they said 45 minutes) and then you'd have to go back out again. The excursions pick you right up at the ship--instead of getting on a tender, you just get right onto the dive boat. It was still a long boat ride to the dive shop and then to the site. If you had to do all that from Belize City, there wouldn't be much time left to dive.

 

[peterbj7]

I take it the last comment is talking about trips cruise ship customers can make? Because the problem here is purely related to the cruise ship schedule. They know the time they give you here isn't adequate to do lots of things and they could easily change it, but they want to get back out into international waters so they can re-open their casinos (where they make their real profits) so they cut back on shore leave. Quite cynical, and puts me off the whole idea of a cruise.

We do get determined people who fly up here to Ambergris Caye, have some relaxing dives and a leisurely lunch, and get back in time for departure. But they have to pay their air fare (around US$50 round trip) and be prepared to fly shortly after diving (to maybe 1000' in a puddlejumper). Overall the cost works out about the same as taking the cruise ship alternative. The people who do this always enjoy it, but they have to be proactive types.

In Belize City there are two dive operators who work with the cruise ships, "Belize Dive Connection" and "Sea Sports Belize". They operate fairly similarly and charge similar prices. For logistical reasons you're unlikely to gain if you approach them directly, and you may not get to dive at all.

We quite often get people who think they can dive the Blue Hole from a cruise ship. On these timescales that's simply not possible, though again if the ship were to arrive earlier and leave later, perfectly possible in terms of sailing schedules but unattractive to them financially, then it would be possible.

 

[smatterchu]

We're going in a few weeks, and I was to chicken to book outside of the cruise ship. The thing that keeps me from doing it is the fear that there will be some delay with the dive and we'll miss the ship. Obviously, a ship-trip is going to be timed with the departure - and any delay would be handled with the ship. They would either wait for us or somehow have us meet up. Unfortunately, if we are on XYZ trip, they probably wouldn't wait...that's my fear.

We will be diving in Cozumel and Belize - we can't wait!!! When is your trip?

 

[plagsage]

Diving Cayman While In Port on Cruise: Advice?

We're trying to avoid the cruise line's house arrangements; we're advanced open water and do a lot of photography...taking the cruise line's cattle boat trip will likely mean being packed in with once-a-year novice divers, will be too limiting in the "stay with your group" sense, and probably would end up at some shallow and over-dived site.

Any recommendaions appreciated! Also hitting Cozumel, Grand Cayman, and Costa Maya/Mahahaul on the cruise, diving in each port (talk about a spacious liveaboard). Ideas for those places also welcome.

Thanks.

I resemble the remark about "once a year novice divers" :mooner: .
However, I am going on the same RCCL itinerary in March and would like to know about each of the locations for diving. I will be with the family and don't want to take too much time away from them. So, I have to pick and choose locations.

 

[DocVikingo]

Hi plagsage,

"...would like to know about each of the locations for diving. I will be with the family and don't want to take too much time away from them. So, I have to pick and choose locations."

Where a dive op goes on any particular day depends on a whole lot of factors besides where one customer wants to go. Such variables as how much time is available (i.e., docking and embarking times of the ship), weather and sea state conditions, viz, where others on the boat want to go, where those on the boat are appropropriately skilled to go, where the boat went the previous day, what the crew feels like doing, etc., will, in the aggregate, weigh heavly on what sites are visited.

That having been said, the premier sites are outside of the local diving venues and include Turneffe-Elbow, Turneffe-North & Lighthouse Reef. It's questionable that you'll have the time to do these, but you might want to check anyway. Locally, I'm partial to the far southern sites such as Shark & Ray Alley, Hol Chan Cut & Hol Chan Canyons.

Have fun.

Regards,

DocVikingo

 

[smatterchu]

We just got home from our cruise on the RCCL Enchantment of the Seas. We dove in Cozumel and Belize, and Belize was a wonderful experience!!

While the sun wouldn't come out for us, everything else was perfect. The dive operators were very professional and did everything they could to make our dive a success. As was mentioned, the dive boat picked us up on the cruise ship. This didn't happen in Cozumel, and it was a huge headache.

We had a great time...the boat wasn't crowded at all (I was fearing a total cattleboat). They took us to the first dive and then showed us a great place to snorkel during our surface interval. I would have been satisfied with the snorkeling, to be honest - it was fantastic!! After the snorkeling, we got back on the boat and headed to our next dive.

At no time were we rushed. If a diver had to surface, the buddy was given an option to continue on with the Dive Master. There was no time limit...just the air in your tank. The Dive Master led us through the dive, but I never felt like I was chasing the group. I had plenty of time to stop and really enjoy some of the smaller points. Many times, I would look up and just find her hovering in the water, turned around watching us dive.

The boat seemed to be in very good condition. It was clean, well-kept and there was plenty of room for our gear. The ladder was much better than the one in Cozumel.

The crew was friendly and helpful. They helped us load and offload our gear, and they offered fresh fruit and bottled water during the trip.

I am definitely looking forward to going back there. I was afraid that a 'cruise ship dive' would be a less than great experience, but I thoroughly enjoyed our Belize dive!!

PS: It's not that I didn't enjoy Cozumel, but things were much less smooth. The ship was late coming in, so the dive ops were very rushed with us in the beginning. Once we got going, things were great, but the tendering was a real pain. I was head over fins when we saw the dive boat at the cruise ship door in Belize. It was so awesome to be picked up and swept away like that. I'll definitely be letting RCCL know how much I appreciated that.

BTW - in Cozumel, a sweet guy named Angel did a fantastic underwater video of us. It was really great - with lots of close-ups and plenty of footage of all of us. We were really impressed with how quickly he was able to make the disks and get them to us...about an hour after the dive!!