Holland America Caribbean

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Sluggoaafa

Registered
Messages
9
Reaction score
9
Location
Minneapolis, MN
# of dives
25 - 49
In February 2018, I did a 3-week Caribbean cruise on the Rotterdam.

When the time came to book excursions, I actually booked mine through Holland America's site for all my dives. I dove in 1) Costa Maya, 2) Aruba, and 3) Cayman Islands.

In Costa Maya, we dove with Dreamtime Dive Resort and felt they were extremely patient and safety oriented. Thankfully, there were only two of us from the ship, and each of us hadn't been diving in quite sometime, so a quick 30 minute refresher really helped getting us re-acquainted with equipment and knowing what to do.

In Aruba, we dove with Red Sail Sports Aruba where at first, I felt a little put-offish, but I realized it was more of my feeling than them ensuring everyone felt safe. The waters were great, warm, and lots of activity in the water to remember.

Finally, in Grand Cayman, our dive shop was Cayman Diving where the water was just luxurious. Crystal blue, could see long distances, and again, felt very safety oriented.

Even though these shops are not owned by Holland America, I felt that the cruise line did a good job of including them with excursion packages, and I would definitely look book them all again in the future, whether it be with Holland, or another line.
 
Several years ago I dove on a cruise in Costa Maya and I think Dream Time was our provider, too (it was Royal Caribbean's Liberty of the Seas). They had larger tanks available (colored bright chalk white - I'm guessing Faber brand) for an added charge. Was nice since a brother-in-law was along, too (plus I like my extra air, too). The 2 sites we were I enjoyed; it was not drift diving, just general reef diving.

Is that similar to what you experienced in Costa Maya?

Cruising is a nice way to have an 'appetizer sampler plate' of Caribbean islands, to get a sense of where you might like to spend a week on a dedicated dive (or just vacation with some diving) trip. A good way to see first hand that St. Lucia is beautifully lush and mountainous, Aruba quite arid and scrubby looking, etc...

Glad you had a good time. Cruising was my favorite hobby - before I got into scuba diving more. It's still my wife's favorite.
 
Yes, the two sites we dove were Dos Ojos and Acuario. Both were reef dives and pretty damn awesome for just getting back in the water and experiencing something other than the muddy waters of Puerto Vallarta in February from the spawning whales!
 

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