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[DEEPLOU]

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.

Just saw this now, when you posted this I was packing for 4 days on the Carnival Imagination.
Previously on this thread someone mentioned an operator in Cozumel who I tried to hook up with. They indicated the timing didn't work with their schedule. So, the week before I (actually my wife) booked through the ship.
The two tank excursion without gear (i brought my own) ran less than $80, and that included the boat, tanks and weights and taxi to and from the operator. They used Sand Dollar Resort
I was paired up with a diver who (luckly) was even better on air than I. The first dive was Santa Rosa Wall. We did between 30 and 40 min at 80ft (or so). Good dive, but the second dive was a shallow reef not far from the resort. reef seemed mostly dead although there was ample fish life. Only thing was after 30 min at only 40 feet, the DM/Guide was banging looking for us, we still had 1500 left. After listening to the banging for about 10 minutes, we decided we saw enough and came up (still with ample air to do another dive)

Overall, it was not a bad experience. Just wish they had dive excursion in Key West. (there the ship schedule was even worse to try to book on our own)

 

[Nuts4koi]

As of today, the dive trips are still not listed as a shore excursion through Carnival. I went ahead and booked with Sea Sports Belize in Belize City. A two tank dive on the Barrier Reef will cost me $110. There are also two other divers on my ship that have booked with Sea Sports as well.

When we get back, I'll post a review of the dive op and how the dive went.

 

[rivers]

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.

If I were you, I would not book the Carnival dive excursion. I have used Sand Dollar twice and while they are all right, there are better dive ops out there that will also take you to better sites. I personally like to use Sea Robin (Sea Robin Cozumel - Sea Robin Cozumel). They are a small op with only one boat, but Eduardo is a great DM. But there boat is also fast. I'm a crewmember and they manage to get us sites on the southside of the island. Our last dive, we boarded the boat at 10am, did a 45 minute dive at Palancar caves and a 55 minute dive at Cedral, and were back before 2. I have also heard good things about scuba with alison. If there are enough of you, I would just book your own. you'll get to better sites. Santa Rosa is nice, but the second site isn't the best that Sand Dollar take you too.

 

[VeloErika]

I took Carnival Cruise line to the Bahamas and dove Freeport. I booked through the cruise and was happy I did as we were delayed returning to the ship after the second dive. However, the dive went really well and I was one of three people from the cruise ship diving and the total dive party on the boat was maybe 10.
I'm cruising again through Carnival and there is a dive option at Turneffe Atoll, Belize. However, the excusions says it's two hours to the dive site!? And, Carnaval doesn't state which dive shop it's booked through.
Any feedback is welcome.

Erika

 

[DonWinchester]

My wife and I took our Belizean dive excursion off Wind Surf in 2005 out to Elkins Bay and Chasbos Corner on Turneff Reef. Unfortunately, I didn't note the operator in my log as I was a new diver and our excursion had been set up by the cruise line, however it was well worth the somewhat long boat ride. The op had about 10 people on board each of two well-equipped and maintained boats and on the way out and back the trip was mitigated by a stop (ostensibly for supplies) at a marine research station on one of the islands. The dives were stupendous with a great, relaxing guide/dive master, 150-foot vis and wall-to-wall reef fish and marine life making it difficult to figure which way to look. Color was everywhere among the corals and sponges. Not much large stuff though we saw a juvenile turtle and some jacks and barracudas off in the distance. It was like diving in somebody's well-stocked aquarium. We were treated to a dolphin pod escort during our return with some dancing in front of the bow and several frolicking off the stern in the wake. Though I hate the modern overuse of the word, in this case, it fit -- just Awesome!

 

[DMdoogie]

I'll be at OR on a Celebrity cruise next month? The shore excursion rate for a 2 tanker is $99. The ship won't be in port long enough to try to get with another dive op. My wife and I are Divemasters with thousands of dives all over the world, but never in Jamaica. Would we be disappointed with the diving in this scenario?
DMdoogie

 

[fonfon5]

I am going on a southern Caribbean cruise at the beginning of April - my first ever cruise. Can anyone recommend reputable diving companies for Barbados, as well as the US and British Virgin Islands? Would you recommend we bring our own equipment on the cruise or leave the regs at home? Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. Cheers.

 

[DEEPLOU]

Been to Beleze about 3 times on different cruise lines, (but I don't think any was Carnival). All 3 times the ship anchored out and you had to tender into Belieze city. I booked through the ship all three times and the dive boat came up to the side of the ship took us out to the sites and back to the ship. (as result of this I still have never actually been in Belieze.

Yeh, the boat rides in Belieze are typically 2 hours.

Doing short cruise to Nassau on Carnival this coming weekend. Didn't see a dive excursion in their itinery. Will be trying Stuart Cove.

 

[pamawi]

Just back from a 7 day cruise on Carnival Triumph from New Orleans to Belize, Roatan and Cozumel. Dove with the ships dive ops in Belize (Hugh Parkey's) and Roatan (Anthony's Key) and was very happy with them. We only had about 10 divers. In Belize it really makes sense to book through the ship because of the convenience of being picked up and dropped off at the ship by the dive boat without having to ride the tenders to shore. The dive op/resort is located on an island so you never set foot on the mainland. I have yet to dive with the ship's dive op Sand Dollar in Cozumel, but heard the other divers on the cruise that used them were very happy with them. I booked in Cozumel this time with Blue Angel who had a 10am boat and took snorkelers on the same boat which we needed. We were happy with them, but it was a rough sea day in Cozumel and we didn't see as much as I'm used to. Roatan was my favorite this cruise. I like that the reefs are only a 5 minute boat ride from the resorts and you can go back to the resort/dive shop for your surface interval. The guide was great at finding things for us and there was plenty that we could see on our own. We saw two free swimming morays, several large crabs and a lionfish. We didn't see any lionfish underwater in Coz, but apparently they are having a big problem with them and paying dive masters to remove them from the water. Also some people are eating them and saying it might become a new Cozumel delicacy. I think I'll pass.

 

[idocsteve]

I recently did a Carribbean cruise with NCL out of Miami, with a day stop in Cozumel and in Grand Caymans. I booked dives for our group through private Ops rather than through the ship, and I'm glad I did, and not for the usual reasons (more expensive through the ship, cattle boats, beat up sites).

Due to a "Government issued warning", the cruise line (or the Ops they contracted through) canceled ALL water sports on the day were were in Grand Cayman.

Our dives with the private Op (Off the Wall Divers) went perfectly well and there was no significant current.