February Cruise Diving Belize or Roatan

[scubatonysj]

Thank you BamaDiver23 and pepperbelly! I'll post my experience here when I'm done

 

[Altamira]

Scubatonysj,
One other consideration on which ports to dive (if you have to choose) for a January dive, is winter winds. Belize is a great dive location, but if the winds are up, cruise ships sometimes have difficulty negotiating the narrow entrance through the reef to the anchor spots. I have had more Belize port stops cancelled than all other ports combined due to strong winds.

 

[DEEPLOU]

My last cruise was NCL Getaway stopping in Roatan, Belize, Costa Maya, and Cozumel.
In Roatan, used ship excursion (due to timing) they use Anthony's key Resort.
Belize , NCL doesn't do any dive excursion in Belize City anymore. Also heard that the next trip after ours, NCL will be pulling into it's private island Harvest Caye. I doubt any dive excursion there or any chance to book privately.
Costa Mays used Doctor Dive (or is it Dive Doctor?) Nice operation. got some nice dives although visibility was not optimal (only about 40 or 50 foot)
Cozumel used Aldora. Had a new DM and new diver with a full face mask (I think her name was Dyson Hoover). the DM called the dive when she ran low on air, it was the shortest dive I ever did with Aldora, I came up with almost a half a tank. This was quite a contrast to the DM we had in March who just took the heavy breather to the surface got them on the boat, and came back and continued the dive.

 

[Bison]

Just finished the western Caribbean cruise on the Carnival Splendor. There was no option to dive in Belize. I was informed from another diver that Carnival had poor experiences with the Operator and subsequently dropped them. It all worked out since we dove in other ports and used Belize as family time.

 

[DEEPLOU]

Don't know about poor experience. But several years ago we did this itinerary and there was no dive excursion in Belize. My son indicated he heard that previously there was an incident and they were investigating. Subsequent cruise on Carnival there was an excursion (using same operator that had been used for several years). More recently have been using NCL (who used same operator as Carnival) until this past November when they dropped the dive excursion just before they opened their " private island" in Belize where there is no dive excursion or chance to book privately.

Sounds like all cruise lines are eliminating diving in Belize even though it is a world class diving destination