Introducing our new Cruise Forum

[DEEPLOU]

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.

Just back from short cruise on Carnival to Nassau. (By back I mean at my FLorida house)
there was nothing to book through the ship, they gave some excuse about arrival time, but we arrived at 10 am and didn't depart till 7am the next morning. Well, I did book with Stuart Cove. They pick u up right by the pier and transport you back and forth no additional charge.
On their web site they said they separtate divers based on experience (I witnessed no such thing). the dives were so so. And they wanted you up from the first dive within 30 min or 800 psi. Seemed little too restrictive (although I got bored before reaching either limit). Second dive they pulled in to very shallow area all sand and there was some coral a descent swim away. But again not much life.
It was the first time I was on three different boats in one day.
First boat took us to the first dive site (apparently they had engine trouble with one engine). Then for the surface interval and transit to second site there was another boat. When we surfaced they said they were transferring us to a third boat to take us in. It wasn't too clear, but apparently there were two divers from another ship that had to be back by 5pm, but they were not organized enouth to separate the divers from my ship and the other ship.
On the up side, there were four other divers from my ship and we made new friends.

 

[idocsteve]

On their web site they said they separtate divers based on experience (I witnessed no such thing).

I dove with them..sure they separate divers by experience. "You can go to 100 feet, you stay at 90 feet"..lol. That's about it.

the dives were so so... Second dive they pulled in to very shallow area all sand and there was some coral a descent swim away. But again not much life.

Yeah I found Bahamas diving to be rather dull and lifeless..other than the Shark Dives, messing around with the DPV's over the walls and into the swimthroughs, and a few scattered wrecks (mostly from movie sets), the diving (in my opinion) gets old very fast.

And they wanted you up from the first dive within 30 min or 800 psi. Seemed little too restrictive (although I got bored before reaching either limit).

Yup, they restrict your dives so they can stay on schedule..nice, eh? Who cares that you might dive one week a year and you aren't a heavy gas user..that's not THEIR problem!

 

[Nuts4koi]

Hi all. Got back from our cruise on Monday the 25th. I did a two tank dive with Sea Sports Belize. The DM was Jose and the Capt. was John. There were eight of us from two different Carnival ships. We left the dive shop late because one couple had to wait for a tender to fill up before it would leave the ship. We went out to a location on the Barrier Reef about 40 minutes from Belize City for the first dive. When we anchored, we had 4' swells, and it was good to get into the water. The viz was at least 80' and the max depth was 83'. The reef appeared to be very healthy. I am really going to have to take the fish ID class so I can explain to people what I saw. There were a lot of very colorful reef fish, and most of them seemed to be curious about us as they would come right up to us. It didn't hurt one of the divers vomited through his reg. The little fish were real happy for a while. The DM coaxed a Tiger Eel out of his hole by using a long forceps with some food. There were five rays that were swimming lazily in the area. One of them came right up to the mask of one of the ladies diving with us, and just hung there for a minute. There was a Barracuda that was about 5' long that was sitting still at a depth of 55'. I was hoping it wasn't hungry. The dive time was 35 minutes. Considering I am an air hog, I came back to the boat with 700 lbs. After everyone was aboard, we went to another location that was somewhat sheltered and had lunch during our SI.

Once we were done with lunch, we went to the second location and got back into the water. This was a wall dive. Max depth in the area was 112', and my max depth was 73'. The viz started out about 80', but due to surge from a fairly heavy wind, the viz dropped to 60'. We saw the same varieties of fish as at the first location. I did see two huge lobsters. One was about 3' long and his buddy wasn't much smaller. Again the dive lasted for 35 minutes. I did better on air on this dive. I finished with 900 lbs. By the time we came up, the swells were about 6' and by the time we got on the boat we were all a little green.

As far as I'm concerned, even with leaving later than planned, this was a super dive. I would not hesitate to book with Sea Sports Belize again, and would recommend to anyone who would like to use Belize City as a base. I don't have any pictures as I couldn't convince the better half to let me spend $600 on a camera. Maybe next time.

 

[donfey]

My son and I cruise every January, ever since we "discovered" that a curise WITH great meals is cheaper than a hotel WITHOUT meals. From 96 to 99 we did a four night Carnival cruise out of Port Carnival to Freeport and Nassau in the Bahamas. In 96 there was no dive through the ship so we booked online with a local dive shop, (Fred Riger's Grand Bahama SCUBA,) took a cab to his location and asked the Taxi driver to pick us up again in 3 hours. He did and, after a cool lunch (with no other tourists in sight) were back to the ship in plenty of time.

In Nassau, Stuart Cove's has a bus stop right outside the port gate. Again we booked our dives in advance online, and have never been disappointed.

This year we cruised out of Long Beach. We were supposed to go to Catalina and Ensenada, but the weather was so bad we "had to go to Cabo San Lucas instead!" Here we did a two tank dive through the ship excursions, and it was great.

Don't know where we're going in '11 yet - possibly out of Galveston.

Prices, when you buy way early like we do, are GREAT. In fact, the air fare costs us more than the cruise.

Don

 

[DEEPLOU]

My son and I cruise every January, ever since we "discovered" that a curise WITH great meals is cheaper than a hotel WITHOUT meals. From 96 to 99 we did a four night Carnival cruise out of Port Carnival to Freeport and Nassau in the Bahamas. In 96 there was no dive through the ship so we booked online with a local dive shop, (Fred Riger's Grand Bahama SCUBA,) took a cab to his location and asked the Taxi driver to pick us up again in 3 hours. He did and, after a cool lunch (with no other tourists in sight) were back to the ship in plenty of time.

In Nassau, Stuart Cove's has a bus stop right outside the port gate. Again we booked our dives in advance online, and have never been disappointed.

This year we cruised out of Long Beach. We were supposed to go to Catalina and Ensenada, but the weather was so bad we "had to go to Cabo San Lucas instead!" Here we did a two tank dive through the ship excursions, and it was great.

Don't know where we're going in '11 yet - possibly out of Galveston.

Prices, when you buy way early like we do, are GREAT. In fact, the air fare costs us more than the cruise.

Don

As we have a house in Florida in addition to our NY residence, inexpensive cruises for us are out of Miami or Ft. Lauderdale (only 45min to 1hr drive)
Just did 3 nighter out of Miami on Carnival to Nassau. I too booked through SC. Quite frankly, after diving the reefs around Boyntan Beach, FL, I was a little disappointed.
They were too regimented, wanted us to do short dives and the marine life was scarce.
Next on the menu is a 4 nighter going to Key West and Cozumel. As that is not till Nov got lots of time to figure out who will book with.
Until then, its Florida diving and Wreck Valley diving (south shore off Long Island, NY)

 

[idocsteve]

As we have a house in Florida in addition to our NY residence, inexpensive cruises for us are out of Miami or Ft. Lauderdale (only 45min to 1hr drive)
Just did 3 nighter out of Miami on Carnival to Nassau. I too booked through SC. Quite frankly, after diving the reefs around Boyntan Beach, FL, I was a little disappointed.
They were too regimented, wanted us to do short dives and the marine life was scarce.
Next on the menu is a 4 nighter going to Key West and Cozumel. As that is not till Nov got lots of time to figure out who will book with.
Until then, its Florida diving and Wreck Valley diving (south shore off Long Island, NY)

Is this Lou from LI Scuba?

If so, hey it's Steve S!

If not, well happy diving anyway

 

[ecologic diver]

hi there guys and gals ,
we have had the same problems in our lives , so what we have done is set up our 2 50 ft cats for sailing and diving charters so your family can allways be together , full time cook, skipper and private dm , so you can do as much diving as you please. we are based on ambergris caye san pedro , if you have any question or want to have a look check out Welcome to Ecologic Divers!

 

[divengolf]

Next on the menu is a 4 nighter going to Key West and Cozumel. As that is not till Nov got lots of time to figure out who will book with.

In Key West, I'd strongly suggest Dive Key West or Southpoint, esp. if you're going to do the Vandenburg. Southpoint is probably more convenient to the crusie ship pier, but DKW might pick you up.

 

[mahea]

Take home message of my review: I highly recommend Ocean Explorers for diving St. Maarten! Friendly, knowledgeable staff, small boats (6 divers total on the day I went), great dive sites, and cruise ship friendly!

The more lengthy review:
My buddy and I dove in St. Maarten on Feb 10 with Ocean Explorers and had a really wonderful time. We were coming off a Royal Caribbean cruise ship (Oasis of the Seas) and the staff of Ocean Explorers was very accomodating of our itinerary. I chose to book with them rather than with the cruise ship operation because of their small boat, and I was very happy that I did so! Ocean Explorers offered very personalized and friendly service.

Pre-dive: I received prompt and informative email replies from the extremely helpful Luciana while planning the trip. Once in St. Maarten, we took a taxi ($15 for a 20 min ride) from the cruise ship dock to the dive shop. Upon arriving at the shop (~8:00am), we were greeted warmly. After an efficient equipment fitting, we were off!

Boat & conditions: The boat was fast and we got out to the dive site within about half an hour. I'd read that the conditions can be choppy in St. Maarten, but it was relatively calm the day we went, and I had taken meclizine that morning anyway so I had no problems at all. There were a total of 6 divers and 3 dive masters (two of which dove, and the third captained the boat).

Dive #1: Really neat wreck with some cool swim throughs. We saw a few stingrays, an awesome bearded fireworm, and a variety of fish. We basically went at our own pace, with the only stipulation being that we kept the dive master in view. Max depth was ~60 ft at the bottom of the wreck, dive time 45 min. We then took a 45 min surface interval on the boat -- water bottles were provided.

Dive #2: This reef dive, which was called "lobster hotel", lived up to its name. We saw three huge lobsters and a baby one as well. Lots of other cool stuff too, including a brittle star, cleaner shrimp, a flounder and more stingrays. Again, the dive was very relaxed, with one of the dive masters showing us around for the first 10 min or so, and then letting us explore for the rest of the time. Max depth was ~50 ft, dive time ~45 min. Really enjoyable dives! We were back at the shop around noon.

I can't say enough good things about Ocean Explorers! We will definitely dive with them next time we are in St. Maarten!

 

[3000dives]

Thanks for the new forum!

I hope it will be helpful for the cruise I am planning to the western caribbean