missed the boat?

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all4scuba05

Contributor
Messages
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Location
Wallingford, Connecticut
# of dives
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wow...have not been here a year yet. But SO SO many times I see the warnings, "book your dives with the cruise ships or you'll be taking a huge risk of being left behind."
I never book with the cruise ships. Why? because not one person has ever told me here or anywhere that they didn't make it back to the ship ontime. I bet that if we count the times that divers have missed the ship, it would be less than 1% of the time.
Last month I had a choice of diving with the ship's group for $140 or drift diving with a guide for $92 which included 2 tank boat dive and a fire pit cookout on the beach. Got back to the ship 2 hours early. The dive op kept asking me if I wanted to head back. He was more concerned about the ship than I was. Even if he hadn't been. I would've asked to go back to the beach and call me a cab. Point is that for the most part, cruise dives and locally scheduled dives are a world apart.
So lets stop with the warnings already... Actually, don't stop scaring them, so that when I go on vacation, they'll always have a spot for me since most cruisers have booked with the ship and are now on the cattleboat.
 
The issue as I understand it is that some dive ops have a fixed schedule--the morning dive leaves at 8 and gets back at noon, the afternoon dive leaves at 1 and gets back at 5, or something similar. Those usually don't quite fit the times the ship is in port, so you risk either missing the dive boat because you got in late, or missing the ship because you got back late.
If a dive op is flexible and willing to work with your schedule instead of a fixed one, no problem, and apparently that's becoming more common.
So far I've never had any issues with dives booked through the ship, but as I get more experienced that may change.
And I have seen people left behind--not divers specifically, usually it's shoppers, seen running down the pier screaming, loaded down with bags, as the ship sails away!
 
drl:
And I have seen people left behind--not divers specifically, usually it's shoppers, seen running down the pier screaming, loaded down with bags, as the ship sails away!
Maybe they should have done their shopping through the excursion desk?
 
I would never book a dive excursion (or any other) through the cruise ship excursion desk. They inflate the cost for the exact same tour. Some value the convenience of meeting in the ship in the morning, prearranged transportation to the dive shop, etc. I personally prefer to arrange for all of this myself. The boat works on a schedule so just make sure you arrange and account to be back on time. Cruise ships go through considerable effort to make sure all guests are back on board.

I cruised to Bermuda two years ago. The ship was scheduled to leave at 5pm on the last day. They decided to leave two hours early to get ahead of some weather. There were 5 guests who did not get the word and one of the ships rescue vessels stayed behind to ferry them back. We were having dinner when the rescue vessel arrived and they were hoisted up to the top deck right outside our window.

--Matt
 
matt_unique:
I would never book a dive excursion (or any other) through the cruise ship excursion desk. They inflate the cost for the exact same tour. Some value the convenience of meeting in the ship in the morning, prearranged transportation to the dive shop, etc. I personally prefer to arrange for all of this myself. The boat works on a schedule so just make sure you arrange and account to be back on time. Cruise ships go through considerable effort to make sure all guests are back on board.

I cruised to Bermuda two years ago. The ship was scheduled to leave at 5pm on the last day. They decided to leave two hours early to get ahead of some weather. There were 5 guests who did not get the word and one of the ships rescue vessels stayed behind to ferry them back. We were having dinner when the rescue vessel arrived and they were hoisted up to the top deck right outside our window.

--Matt
I agree it shouldn't be a problem to schedule your own dives if there is time, it's simple enough to allow sufficient time on both ends to meet the schedules, though tendering could be a bit of an unknown. But there are going to be ports where the ship schedule doesn't work with any dive boat schedules and there is no dive op available that can/will be flexible.

When they change the departure schedule and people don't know, I can certainly see them jumping through hoops to get people back, they're responsible for that. But I don't think they go through that much trouble when people simply miss the officially scheduled time.
 
In a perfect world, divers taking cruises would have done like we did last month. Found other divers who were on our cruise through cruise critic and other avenues and we all booked locally. Because we had a group, the dive op had a boat waiting to take us at whatever time we made it off the ship. They even provided shuttle service.
Dove 3 of the 4 islands. 2 tank boat dives. Never limited to a 30 minute dive.
 
all4scuba05:
In a perfect world, divers taking cruises would have done like we did last month. Found other divers who were on our cruise through cruise critic and other avenues and we all booked locally. Because we had a group, the dive op had a boat waiting to take us at whatever time we made it off the ship. They even provided shuttle service.
Dove 3 of the 4 islands. 2 tank boat dives. Never limited to a 30 minute dive.
Sounds like a fun dive trip. I recently got back from Hawaii with my whole family. 7 of us are certified divers and we did both (booked with boat) and independant. I think you're right, there didn't seem to be any need to worry about missing the boat with the independantly booked dives. The Dive operators depend on cruise ship divers and seemed extremely familior with the cruise ship schedules. Why pay more for the same thing?
 
About 4 years ago I was almost one of those "left behind" stories on Grand Cayman. Was shore diving with DiveTech at Turtle Cove. Doing part of my AOW there, and wanted to get in 3 specialties. Worked with DT to make sure the timing was good with plenty of extra time to get back to the ship. Problem was, they were doing construction along 7 Mile and there was an accident which had traffic stalled for about an hour each direction. My taxi was delayed picking me up (DT tried to get me another one, but no one else could get there sooner, either), and then stuck in traffic on the way back to the tender dock.

All the way, I kept praying a ship's excursion had also gotten caught in the tie-up. My driver was on the phone to the police to try to find a way around it, nothing doing. My driver was busy trying to reach the port agent, setting up housing that night if I needed it with his daugher, researching options for me to catch up with the ship, etc. He was wonderful!

Got to the tender dock over 30 minutes after the ship was due to leave. She was still out at anchor. Lept out of the taxi, with my gear, ran down the dock to the Princess sign past all the Royal Caribbean people yelling "Princess, Princess - don't leave!" Turns out one tender had been left behind and the ship delayed because a passenger had been hospitalized that morning, and they called the ship at the last minute saying they were going to release her to go back to the ship. The ship was waiting for her, but also looking for me. Weren't going to wait for me, but because I beat her back, I was safe. The Security Officer looked at me when I got there and asked "do you know how lucky you are, young lady?" I assured him I did and apologized. Told the woman when she boarded the tender she was my guardian angel that day.

When I got back on the ship, the friends I was traveling with asked if I was okay - that they'd been paging me for quite awhile on the ship that afternoon. They were definitely going to leave without me and just wanted to make sure I hadn't come back aboard without them scanning me in.

Did that turn me into a cruise ship excursion diver? If you've read any of my recommendations, you know I'm not unless it's the best option logistically and offers decent quality (such as in Belize). Otherwise, I'm a huge advocate of going on your own. But do I leave more time now getting back to the ship? You betcha!
 
all4scuba05:
So lets stop with the warnings already... Actually, don't stop scaring them, so that when I go on vacation, they'll always have a spot for me since most cruisers have booked with the ship and are now on the cattleboat.

I usually go with the cruise lines. It's easier and if you are not docking and using a ferry service to get to shore, they let you off the ship first when you are on one of their excursions. You are right that it is more expensive, but usually only by 10 bucks or so but also more convenient.

Maybe I've been lucky, but I have never had a bad experience and never ran into an overcrowded dive boat. I've had probably 15 cruise ship scuba excursions and they have all been fine ( Bermuda, Roatan, Cozumel, Grand Cayman, St, Martin, etc...) The other few times I booked myself were about the same.

John C.
 
jchaplain...next time I book a cruise, I'll pm you just incase you're cruising too...$10 difference is not bad at all...i'll try the ship's excursion desk atleast once...can't knock it till I try it...
 

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