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[DEEPLOU]

Been to both several times. I highly recommend Neptunes Divers in Grand Cayman. Taxi ride to and from 7 mile beach (easy) and Nitrox is avail. They cater primarily to island guests but work great with Cruise guests as well (dove with them 3 separate trips)

For Cozumel Aldora is awesome! They run multiple boats and will leave very early to accommodate cruise guests. Also group up by abilities, so you'll have a good dive (3 times with them as well). They also have Nitrox and use 100CF tanks standard. They take a nice long surface interval (lunch not included) and will drop you at the dock next to the Cruise Pier.

I am doing Carnival Imagination departing Oct 19 with stops in Key West on Tues. and Cozumel on Wed.
Contacted Aldora but so far they say I am the only one from ship and otherwise they don't have a trip I could fit in on.

If anyone is scheduled for this cruise let me know!

 

[mbwilliamn]

I am doing Carnival Imagination departing Oct 19 with stops in Key West on Tues. and Cozumel on Wed.
Contacted Aldora but so far they say I am the only one from ship and otherwise they don't have a trip I could fit in on.

If anyone is scheduled for this cruise let me know!

That's very surprising to me! What time does your boat leave? If you are leaving before 2pm boat time, they won't be able to get you back in time.

 

[DEEPLOU]

That's very surprising to me! What time does your boat leave? If you are leaving before 2pm boat time, they won't be able to get you back in time.

supposed to arrive Cozumel 1 PM and leave 10 PM

 

[mbwilliamn]

supposed to arrive Cozumel 1 PM and leave 10 PM

Even more confused....all I can figure is there business is down a lot (whole lot!)....they had 3 boats in the am the last time we were there several months back.

 

[Nuts4koi]

My wife and I are booked on Carnival Miracle for January 15, 2010. I could hardly wait until we hit 90 days before the cruise so I could book shore excursions. I got online yesterday to book the dive excursion they had listed first, only to find it wasn't listed. In fact, they are only showing a Discover Scuba excursion. I will be calling Carnival tomorrow to find out if they are offering the dive excursions or not. If they aren't going to offer them, they need to remove them from their list. If Carnival doesn't offer anything, does anyone have a suggestion as to a good dive op I could contact. We will be in port for nine hours.

 

[pamawi]

I'll be interested to hear what they say because I had the same type of experience this week. I was able to book a scuba dive in one port Belize, but in Roatan, they only showed a discover scuba experience. Last time I booked privately in Roatan with Subway and was happy, but I also heard great things about Anthony's Key that the cruise line uses in Roatan so I was looking forward to trying them.

 

[Nuts4koi]

I talked to Carnival today, and they said to give it up to two weeks for the dives to show up. They said the Miracle has a split itinarary, and sometimes it takes a little while to get the shore excursions sorted out. I don't want to wait too long, so I may contact a couple of dive ops and see what they say.

 

[DonWinchester]

My wife and I dove with Anthony's Key during a Windstar cruise, one tank at Pablo's Place and the second was the dolphin dive, January 2005. Nice boat. Good equipment. Great personnel. Spectacular dives. The divemaster guided us around Pablo's Point with a slate showing and naming stuff we would surely have missed had we dove on our own.
The dolphin dive was worth it, also. There are two dolphins that follow you out to the dive site. The dolphins are free to come and go as they please even though they have a connection with the guides through their training. One decided he didn't want to interact and returned to their haven and the other played like a very friendly dog, zooming around the group of us kneeling on the sandy bottom. He flashed within inches, even having to pull his fin in to keep from hitting me in the face as he glided by. It was spectacular!

 

[scubafan99]

My 14yr old son (PADI jr open water, 8 dives) and I (PADI advanced open water, 30+ dives) want to go someplace warm to dive for his winter Break this January 17-24, 2010.

Someone suggested to me that we might do OK with a cruise ship, probably Carnival. The 4 and 5 day ships I've found for that week of January go to Nassau, Bahamas; CocoCay, Bahamas, or another is Freeport, Bahamas; Nassau, Bahamas; Great Stirrup Cay, or Miami, Florida; Key West, Florida; Cozumel, Mexico Miami. A Disney cruise going Cape Canaveral, Florida; Nassau, Bahamas; Castaway Cay, Bahamas; Cape Canaveral, Florida, or A Carnival Cape Canaveral, Florida; Freeport, Bahamas; Nassau, Bahamas; Cape Canaveral cruise.

I don't have to have advice on the ships themselves, as whatever they are will be fine (I hope!). I'd been told I DEFINITELY want to somehow arrange the dives myself (advice please?). What I really wanted to know is whether any of these itineraries would provide good diving compared to getting a hotel in Cozumel & arranging dives there.

I'm told CZM will be about 75 to 78 degree water and anywhere from 60 to 80 air temp. If we went there we'd get him his advanced OW and we'd both learn to drift dive. We'd get to do a lot more diving, BUT, the total cost for hotel & diving seems like it'll be a good bit more $$$.

I also have heard that Bahamas in Jan is more like 72 degrees (Brrr!) and other than that I don't know which area have more cool things to see at that time of the year....

Any advice?

Thanks!

 

[mbwilliamn]

My 14yr old son (PADI jr open water, 8 dives) and I (PADI advanced open water, 30+ dives) want to go someplace warm to dive for his winter Break this January 17-24, 2010.


Thanks!

If you are going to dive, I would recommend either Cozumel or the FL Keys. Since you have to fly either way, check out the flights. I've dove off of cruise's on quite a few trips, but always arrange my own. An hour or so of internet surfing will usually net you some operators. Bahamas we had a pretty good trip with Stuart Coves, but they had some inexperience DMs, so don't blindly follow their directions (good advice in almost any location).

I've dove Cozumel as a cruiser and several friends as shore guests. Great diving and several good operators. I have used Aldora and been VERY happy (although recent posts show they are not running as wide of a schedule right now)....last time the put us on the boat, ran to a hotel pier and picked up the other three divers (6 per boat) and we headed out....shore guests gear was already on board and set up.

If you want to add to your training the upper Keys (Islamorada) has some great sites and operators. I have been diving with Conch Republic Divers for about 4 years. Gary and Brenda run a great operation and have high quality instructors (Dean an Clint are great). 2-4 dives a day for a week, and you'll have a whole new experience!

Good Luck!