NCL costa Maya and belize, which one to dive, through NCL or indy

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When you were at Harvest Caye, were there no options offered to go inland and cave tube see Mayan ruins or the ATM cave?

I don't remember all the options, but yes many mainland excursions (which include pickup on the island) were offered thru the cruise line. I think they also recently added a ferry service to Placencia on the mainland following many complaints from passengers who want to book private excursions. I may be wrong but I think it's around $20-$25 per person.
 
Yup it was a nice cruise! Cozumel is the nicest stop for diving. It's a nice relaxing drift dive with lots to see. Also you can easily book a dive thru the ship or a private op as there are dozens available. I would go for a 2 tank myself, it's roughly half the day.

I dived in Roatan, Costa Maya and Cozumel on this cruise. No dives available in "Belize" (I put belize in quotes because the stop is not on the mainland but on a "private island" which is just a beach stop, so you're not really in Belize).

The dive in Roatan was with Anthony's Key again, fairly large boat but many DM's and divers split into groups of 4-5 by experience level. Plenty to see under water and quite a nice dive. During the surface time between dives we got to go back to the dive shop and visit their beautiful resort around the bay (I wouldn't mind spending a week there!)

The dive in Costa Maya was with Dream Time again and once more they delivered. We were a tiny group of 3 divers. The dives were quite nice and we enjoyed some nice canyons, but the water was a bit turbid with sand suspended. Lots of wildlife.

Cozumel was my favorite once again. We dived with with Sand Dollar on a huge boat. Fortunately we were split into groups of 4-5 according to experience and enjoyed a really nice long drift dive along the reef with a few swim thrus in mini caves and saw tons of wildlife. The dive boat picked us up right at the cruise ship pier.

Pat
Thank you for this. One more question. Drift dive in Cozumel. How easy was it? I have a newly certified partner, so I want to be able to assist her if needed. I'm DM with some experience (200 dives) so I can keep eye on her, but if current then you just need to focus too much on keeping close. Clever thing to do is dive before Cozumel too, so she gets her diving orientated and is relaxed to start with, but I do want to do some shore activities too.
 
Drift dive in Cozumel. How easy was it? I have a newly certified partner

It's not bad at all... they are used to having cruise ship divers with varying levels of experience so they separate them in groups. On our first dive the more experienced divers went a bit deeper on the side of the reef wall where the current can zoom you away if you stray too far away from the wall, the less experienced divers (we had 3 or 4 newly certified divers on the boat) dived on top of the reef where the current is not as strong.

It is a great dive if you want to get your partner hooked on diving :)
 
I would avaid Belize and Roatan/Honduras totally.
 
I would avaid Belize and Roatan/Honduras totally.

To each our own of course...

Personally I've been to Belize and Roatan at least 10 times and love both places, they have their charm. On the other hand, I will not set foot in mainland Honduras.
 
@FinMaky. I do not wish to hijack Pat.D's very helpful trip report, but also wanted to chime in about new diver drift diving in Coz. FWIW, I took my newly minted OW diver wife and young Jr. OW grandson (not at the same time) on their first ocean dives in Coz. It was no problem for either of them, and they had wonderful, safe dives. I would not hesitate to take your partner to Coz.
 
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