Nassau~ Whch dive operation?

[Divegirl42]

Quick question if any one is willing to help? My husband and I are 30 + experience divers and our son will be diving his first ocean dive since being certified in Nassau next week. We will be arriving by cruise ship and docked 8am-5pm. We could book through Carnival and dive with Stewarts Cove but my concern is my mother who is not a diver will be sitting on the beach waiting for us to return from our dive. It seems Stewarts Cove is ~45min from the port and would add about 2 hours onto the travel. Plus who knows how much extra time there would be for hearding the cats I looked into Bahamas Divers and its appealing that would be back to shore by noon. Has anyone dove with them? Or do you recommend Stewarts? Also anyone cruise in to dive here? Can we even get to Bahama Divers in time? If you did cruise and book with Bahama did you put a deposit on your trip or just chance it? Any suggestions are appreciated. Thank you.

 

[miked]

Bahamas Divers IS much closer to the cruise ship piers than SC's,(IIRC they are located near the bridge to Paradise Island) but I have heard mixed reviews about their dives. Additionally, if you are arriving at 8 a.m. it is possible that that is too late to get picked up for the a.m.dive. SC is a big OP, also with reviews that are all over the place (Personally, I have enjoyed diving with them for several years). At SC's, they do go out of their way to get the "cruise ship people" back to the ships on time.
(If Carnival books with SC, they too have an interest in getting you back on time.)
Whatever you decide, enjoy your trip.

 

[diversteve]

Bahama Divers is 2 miles east of the port. Whether you can clear and get there in time arriving at 8AM? I don't cruise so I really don't know. Check-in time is 8:30 at Bahama Divers and it's about a 5? min. ride over. Almost all the cabs are vans so you'll have room for any gear plus Mom.

Bahama Divers does not pick up at the cruise port either. They will drop you off there after diving. Policy | Bahama Divers

Mom could actually share the cab with you to Bahama Divers then continue over the bridge to the Atlantis Mega-resort - BD is on the shore side of the bridge just past the bridge to Paradise Island. She should be able to find something to do there...

Mom can also return downtown via the ferry - it docks one short block east of the cruise port. There's also an Atlantis shuttle bus that IIRC goes right by the cruise port also. Here's an image showing all of it:

 

[briankinley2004]

Tossing this around myself. Have the same itinerary on RCL. Don't normally cruise but mixing business with pleasure and want to dive Bahamas as I never have. I emailed Bahama Divers and they said its 5 min to dock, boat leaves at 9am sharp and check in is 8:30 am. If boat gets at dock at 8 am that might be a rush getting there by 8:30 as disembarking may take some time. They didn't encourage or discourage me from booking with them. I was hoping for a hint of "we do this a lot and make it work around your cruise" or "we have had issues with people getting there on time" or some kind of hint. If I book through SC its the contract carrier for the cruise line so its guaranteed I will get there on time. Also won't have to pay for the cab however BD is $119 for a two tank dive while SC is $160. For two of us that's 80 more. $80 a tank is a lot for diving in my book however the cruise is cheap.

 

[drobertsca]

I've done a few cruises and have booked my own diving and gone with the cruise line, depending on the circumstances.

Personally I would find stressing about disembarking and possibly rushing to get to Bahama Divers in time for an 8:30 check in would probably harsh my mellow. Which is never something I like doing while cruising or diving. All it takes is disembarking to be delayed for 10 minutes to move you from a meh, lots of time to, wow we're going to have to push it to not miss our dive. Then you get to spend the dive boat ride out trying to come down off the agitation high instead of chilling and working on island time. Or at least, that's what would happen to me.

I think in this case, I would book through the cruise line for the peace of mind. You know neither the dive boat nor the ship are going to be sailing without you.

---------- Post added May 29th, 2015 at 11:17 AM ----------

Wow ... I guess I'm operating on island time. I suspect my reply to a 6 month old post was very unhelpful