Diving while on a cruise

[Asta1227]

My husband and I will be going on a cruise from Galveston to Key West,Belize City and Cozumel. We plan on diving in Belize City and Cozumel.

Have any of you been on a cruise and used the dive packages the cruise line offered or did you find your own operation? I was thinking of using the excursion package the cruise line offered in Belize but finding a different operator in Cozumel.
I have no idea what operations the cruise line uses.

Bill Walton, do you think Living Underwater would be able to accommodate us? We get into port at 0800 and leave at 6pm.

Any suggestions would be appreciated!!

 

[lovetodive2]

Yes, I have been on a Cruise and did use the dive package. This was several years ago with Norway Cruise. Everything went well
using the package deal. I found the people on the Cruise to
be very Organized and the Scuba Instructors the Cruise used
were very friendly. Safety seem to be the #1 concern.
Hope this helps.

 

[DiverG]

I have taken a cruise on Royal Caribbean's Rhapsody of the Seas with a large group that arranged our own diving. If I remember right a two tank dive in Cozumel arranged through the cruise line was around $100. You can arrange your own diving much cheaper. Also if you go through the cruise line you'll probably be on a cattle boat with restricted dive profiles. One positive of using the cruise line to arrange diving is that the ship will not leave port till you get back, and that is true of any ship excursion you take. If you do anything on your own, and do not make it back in time the ship will sail without you. Have fun!

DiverG

 

[techdiver2us]

I've made dives with NCL, RCCL, and HAL and have been happy with all. The NCL dive in Belize was a great one. We even had lunch that day on Blackbird Caye at the Oceanic Society. And a 2nd dive in Curacao was memorable in that everyone else made the aquarium dive but two of us who were accompanied, loosely, by one of the divemasters and made a dive to 150' down the wall with a great deco on the reef.

 

[Bill Walton]

Best bet is to shoot Oracio Martinez and Sabine an e-mail, you can actually just cc one of them on an email to the other. But any way, as soon as you know the dates you are going to be on the island, I would shoot them an e-mail as they are getting really busy some weeks.

When I was there during July they had to run three boats but then at the end of aug. there were only three of us on every dive, except the afternoon and night dives that were just me.

We are going in November and they are already currently booked for the weekend's morning dives but have plenty of spots for afternoon dives. BUT even then, they will try to fit you in....like in November they have two boats booked to one shop and they have only filled one so far so there may be a couple spots yet.

Living underwater is absolutely great but they are a small operation still and are getting very popular due to their great service. Good news is Oracio will be growing his company and adding boats. Hopefully keeping his small custom feel that he has currently created.

go to www.living-underwater.com and you can get e-mails for both.

Good luck. You will not be disappointed.

Bill

 

[Catch22]

If you plan on diving with them, make sure you contact them at the website above. You will need to fill out some waiver forms and fax them back.

I would not wait to complete this on the island.

Enjoy your trip. You are in for some great diving.

 

[houstondvr]

I had my first introduction to diving from a Carnival Cruise. It was a blast. Sure, it was nothing but a shore dive, but I had a great time, and you don't have to worry about missing the boat when you do your dive trips through the cruise line.

I have had other friends take advantage of the dive packages offered through cruise lines, and all of them agree that they were equivalent or better to other dive packages not offered through the cruise line.

Have fun,

Fletch