Ideas for Cruise Diving

[Aquatic Eagle]

Hey guys. Recently, Norwegian Cruise Lines initiated a new program that basically is encouraging all of us on the inside to brainstorm for ideas to make things better for our guests. Before I became an employee with NCL, there were two different departments regarding shore excursions. One was the Shore Excursion department and the other was the Dive-In program. The Dive-In program was made up of all of the dive instructors and dealt strictly with snorkeling and diving tours while the Shore Excursions dept. dealt with all of the other tours. Now those departments have merged and just become the Shore Excursions Dept. Less emphasis is placed on the old Dive-In tours with this merge. While lurking about on ScubaBoard, I hear a lot of the same thing. A lot of people don't like booking dives through the cruise line when they go cruising, they book them on their own. This could lead to many problems of course because nothing is guaranteed. The cruise line doesn't have a contract with these other operators and so it's not quite as firm a deal. I would like to hear from all of you who have been cruising or will be cruising and have had diving in mind. I want to know all of the reasons that people prefer booking diving on their own instead of using the preselected dives. Let me know all of your opinions because I want to do something with this cruise line to put more emphasis on diving tours. We have tons of people sign up to snorkel but we almost never fill up even one dive tour. Give me as many ideas as you can because I will probably be with NCL for some time and I want to initiate something. Any travel agents out there, let me know what your customers want. I know there are a few of you out there on this board. All opinions are welcome. Thanks!

 

[cdiver2]

Colin no cattle boats> the last one I was on with you the Coz dive was murder no room to set up without asking people to move. Something I would like to sea is storage for dive gear preferably near the disembarkation point its murder trying to get along them corridors with dive gear and hundreds of other people trying to get ashore. Also hard washing/ hanging equipment in your cabin.

 

[tndiveinstruct1]

I want to know all of the reasons that people prefer booking diving on their own instead of using the preselected dives. Let me know all of your opinions because I want to do something with this cruise line to put more emphasis on diving tours. We have tons of people sign up to snorkel but we almost never fill up even one dive tour. Give me as many ideas as you can because I will probably be with NCL for some time and I want to initiate something. Any travel agents out there, let me know what your customers want. I know there are a few of you out there on this board. All opinions are welcome. Thanks!

As a fellow instructor and as a past cruiser, I think I can give you a couple of reasons they don't fill up.

1) The PRICE. You get a 1 tank dive from a cruise line for the same price as a 2 tank dive if you walk in the street.

2) No Advance bookings. When my wife and I did our cruise, I checked out the shore excursions via the cruise line's web site. I should be able to book my shore excursions in advance from the web.

Those are the 2 biggest obstacles as I see it. It appears to me that ALL cruise lines could improve on this aspect.

Hope this helps you get started...

Randy Cain

 

[cowprintrabbit]

That's what my husband and I were afraid of when we booked our excursions this May through Carnival. We had short enough port times that we were afraid to book our own, though. We were pleasantly surprised - they went through really good local ops and the small boats they used did not seem too full. I have been on land resort excursions where they had divers going off the back of snorkeling/"booze cruise" catamarans - awful!

I agree with the gear washing/hanging, it looked like we had decorated our cabin with a SCUBA theme, and it was always humid & sticky from everything drying. (Our cabin steward got into it, though, by making washcloth/towel sea creatures to put amongst our gear - cute!)

 

[diveborg]

I prefer to dive with operators that will let me dive my own profile using my computer. I don't want to dive with 20 of my new closest friends. I prefer smaller boats and more advanced diving. While I appreciate the connivence of booking ahead using the cruise personalizer on Princess, the prices are indeed higher thru the cruise line. This is also an obstacle to going thru the cruise line shore excursion.

 

[NINman]

Everyone here made very good points and I think the two that bothered me the most were the Cost and the Cattle boat. We went to Grand Caymon and spent some time at Sting Ray City and while we were there we waited outside the site as we watched the cruseline cattle barge come in. It was a mess didn't look like there was any room on that boat. I don't like been pushed and poked... so again:

1. Price
2. Boat Size (Cattle Barge)

 

[crpntr133]

1) The PRICE. You get a 1 tank dive from a cruise line for the same price as a 2 tank dive if you walk in the street.

2) No Advance bookings. When my wife and I did our cruise, I checked out the shore excursions via the cruise line's web site. I should be able to book my shore excursions in advance from the web.

Those are the 2 biggest obstacles as I see it. It appears to me that ALL cruise lines could improve on this aspect.

Hope this helps you get started...

Randy Cain

I do have to agree on the price. I did a HAL cruise in April and didn't book on my own. I wasn't disappointed but it was bit higher than usual. Worth the cost of planning your own and taking the risk, probably not. This was also no cattle boat trip. There were 6 on the boat before us and then 5 on my trip out.

Also I wonder how many people in the world are actually certified and still current with their skills so they feel comfortable with diving. I have ran into many people that are certified but when you ask them where they dove last you will find that it was ten years ago on vacation. For snorkeling you just need to float, for the most part.

As for the prebooking, most won't let you prebook because you have to present your c-card, from what I have been told.

 

[nitrogenaddict2]

Why people like to prebook their dives with independant operators is naturally the cost. The ships prices can be double what the local operators are offering. I run a dive centre in one of the cruise ship ports.

The first reason why I do not operate with the cruise lines is the expectations of the cruise lines for their operators. For the small operator we cannot afford to have large boats, the exorbitant liability insurance demanded.

The second reason is that I have prices displayed for any walk in clients, cruise ship and normal tourists. This then upsets the cruise ship clients when they find out what they would normally have paid for a trip other than privately. This does not help the small operators as it then seems that we are being greedy, but in reality we do not receive what is charged on the cruiseship. The difference goes to the cruise ships. This tends to make people feel ripped off. We all know the cruise ships have to make something from organizing the tours but do they really have to make nearly double the normal price to be paid. This keeps small but well organized dive centres out of the market able to cater to divers of experience and not wanting to be with the 2 or 3 year a time diver.

 

[tndiveinstruct1]

I do have to agree on the price. I did a HAL cruise in April and didn't book on my own. I wasn't disappointed but it was bit higher than usual. Worth the cost of planning your own and taking the risk, probably not. This was also no cattle boat trip. There were 6 on the boat before us and then 5 on my trip out.

Also I wonder how many people in the world are actually certified and still current with their skills so they feel comfortable with diving. I have ran into many people that are certified but when you ask them where they dove last you will find that it was ten years ago on vacation. For snorkeling you just need to float, for the most part.

As for the prebooking, most won't let you prebook because you have to present your c-card, from what I have been told.

As someone who is the Project Director for a major web site, that problem is easily overcome. You make the form on the site in such a method so that the person booking the excursion has to put in their number AND the agency. Then when you check in at the dock, you show them your C-Card at check-in along with that other C-Card, your credit card. If you can't produce the Scuba C-Card, then your shore excursion gets cancelled.

It's really not that difficult

 

[Aeolus]

I have gone cruising/diving with several lines, Carnival, NCL, Princess and Royal Carribean. I usually book the dives through the ship, but that is only so that they will wait for us if there is a problem. Several issues are often associated with the dive trips through the cruise lines

1) PRICE - a profit is one thing, do not get greedy.
2) Operator - often the cruise line only chooses based on the rate offered by the dive op - see item 1. Often the operator is of poor quality and overcrowded.
3) Procedure - two times my paper work was misplaced and I had to find my own dive op anyway since the ship staff had screwed up.
4) Storage - It would be great to have a place to store my dive gear instead of in my already small room, especially when it is wet after diving.
5) Booking - need to have a better method, preferably in advance, to reserve a spot on the dive list - see item 3.
6) Onboard activities - Maybe fish identification, local site info, maybe even some skills training or games related to diving. Dive themed party for open discussion of dive related topics.
7) Schedule - allow an option for more than one or at the most two dives. Start early enough to get in more if you want. A single tank dive makes it almost not worth the effort; a lot of people will schedule their own to be able to get in more dives.

PS - I will probably be joining you for a Hawaii cruise next year after the bugs get worked out. Good luck on your new assignment, I hope you enjoy it - I cannot see how you could do otherwise.