NCL NYC to Nassau Dives

[Aquatic Eagle]

I have also asked around with the other divers onboard this ship. The manager here has been on that itinerary before on the Dawn and just as a warning, he says that the diving almost always gets cancelled from lack of participation. So you might want to look up another dive operation and have a back-up plan just in case.

Natasha-

I will definitely make a full report on the Pride of Aloha when I get there and orient myself. Hopefully that will be pretty soon...I'm tired of being shuffled around so much in a few weeks. No problem with helping Greg, that's why my title is what it is. I'm here to answer any questions I can so send them my way. Take care and come cruising!

 

[Aquatic Eagle]

By the way Natasha...I don't think I mentioned this before. This is the itinerary I am currently on.

Sun - Boston
Mon - At Sea
Tues - Bermuda
Wed - Bermuda
Thur - Bermuda
Friday - Bermuda (Depart Bermuda at 12PM)
Sat - At Sea
Sun - Boston

Just thought you'd like to know. This was my first time in Bermuda and it's been beautiful weather this week. At sea currently and heading back to Boston for another 1500 or so glorious passengers.

 

[seaangel]

NatureDiver,
Did you do any diving in Bermuda? If so how is it there? I have always been curious a bit about Bermuda. What about the temperatures there both land and sea?

 

[Aquatic Eagle]

NatureDiver,
Did you do any diving in Bermuda? If so how is it there? I have always been curious a bit about Bermuda. What about the temperatures there both land and sea?

Unfortunately I have not been able to dive in Bermuda yet. I've only been on this ship for a week so far so I still have chances. I just have to do it quickly before I get shuffled to the Pride of Aloha anytime now. I have led snorkeling trips now though so I can tell you water temps and things like that. Land temps are usually high 80's to mid 90's with high humidity but you can't feel it very often because there is always a mild to strong breeze going to cool everything off. The water temps this time of year are about mid to high 70's. A wet suit is good but not required unless underwater for a long time. There are lots of shipwrecks here. One for instance, the Pelaniaon is a 300+ foot long wreck that sits in about 70 feet of water. The wreck sticks up as far as ten feet below the surface so it's also one of our snorkeling sites. The wreck is not in great shape but you can still see the keel, some superstructure, and a boiler at the surface. There is a good amount of marine life. Yesterday, we saw a bright blue adult pufferfish, which is a color I'd never seen on a pufferfish. So the sites here are good. Are diving is run through a company called Triangle Diving and so far, they seem to be pretty nice people. I'll let you know when I get to dive here. Later!

 

[Greg Di]

Hey Greg. On the Norwegian Dawn's itinerary in August, there is only scuba diving in one port. Scuba diving is offered from the ship in Nassau, Bahamas and is offered by a company called Divers Haven. The dives change each time, depending on conditions. The dives are either at a shipwreck, local reef, or something called the Paradise Caves. This is an operation that is on Paradise Island in Nassau. Here is their contact info, but it looks like they have no website as of yet.

The cruise literature and excursion booklet specifically mentions diving in Miami as well. You didn't mention that...I'm concerned!

Thanks for all your research so far! I really appreciate it!

Greg

 

[Aquatic Eagle]

The cruise literature and excursion booklet specifically mentions diving in Miami as well. You didn't mention that...I'm concerned!

Thanks for all your research so far! I really appreciate it!

Greg

I'll take a look at it again once I get settled on the Wind. I'm boarding the Wind again today. Miami doesn't seem like a port that would have many excursions though. It's in such bad shape. Lots of construction going on there. I'll let you know what I find out!

 

[Greg Di]

Upon arriving in my cabin, there was note saying that the Miami dive excursion was cancelled because Norwegian was unhappy with the service they were getting from the dive operator they were using. I went to the DiveIn desk onboard and ask for the specifics, but they would not provide any "real" explanation.

While we were still in NY harbor, I used my cell phone to contact a variety of dive charters in Miami. Since it was a Sunday night, I only managed to get two ops on the phone. Long story short, they needed four divers to run a charter (and I only could provide two at the moment -me and my buddy).

This prompted me to go back to the NCL DiveIn desk and ask for a list of the people who had booked the Miami dive so that I could try to put together my own private excursion. They would not give me any names (I figured they wouldn't) of other people on the cruise. I then wrote down my cabin number, name and cell number and asked them to give MY info out to any disgruntled divers. They took my info reluctantly and I left. Two hours later, I sent my buddy to the desk on a "covert" mission to see if they would provide my info to other people. When he asked about the Miami dive, they told him it was off and that was that. They did not give him my info.

Well, no thanks to NCL, I couldn't get the Miami charter going, so no dives.

The Nassau dive was still a go, so I was looking forward to that. I assumed that out of nearly 3,000 guests, maybe 15-20 were divers. WRONG! While waiting on the pier for the dive op to pick us up, I saw three other people there other than my buddy. Pretty depressing. My buddy and I were the only people with our own gear!

We walked nearly a mile to another pier (humping our gear in the heat no less) and hopped on a decent boat (maybe 27 feet or so) with Diver's Haven. We had about a 15 minute ride out to "The Shipyard" which was about 1/4 mile off shore in front of Atlantis. We did a 25 minute dive to about 90 FSW and checked out three intentially sunk vessels in close proximity to one another. In hindsight, I probably wouldn't even snorkel with the DM we had because he was not safety conscious in the least bit and did not do much underwater other than swim to the wrecks. He never went over air limits (remaining PSI), hand signals, separation issues, overhead pentration, and what not. I was running low on air and was trying to get his attention (he never looked back at the group during the dive). I finally grabbed his fin and gave the signal (pointing to my palm) to let him know I was getting low on air. I flashed him five-five-one and he looked confused. I finally had to shove my gauge in his face and point the PSI. Scary when a DM doesn't look back, ask if everyone's OK and check PSI once in a while.

In fact, after we did a safety stop at 22 feet (I don't think he had a depth gauge!) we had a 27 min. SI and went back down to 44 FSW.

This last dive was pretty dull at a place they called Trinity Cave. It was more like a sloped rocky bottom--no caves to be seen. Not much to see in the way of coral or fish. He did not want anyone to do a safety stop for some reason.

Once back on the ship, I ran the dives on my tables and was horrified to see that we had hit the very last black box on the table for the first dive. Another minute and we would have needed to do an 8 minute safety stop. I think the DM was diving by the seat of his pants or really didn't care, because he had no computer on the dive. The safety stop at 22 FSW is a good indicator of that. Granted the tables are VERY conservative, and my computer (Cobra) did not throw any alarms, but I think it's pretty scary to put three divers in the water (two who hadn't dived in three years!) with beat up rental gear and be red lining the tables like that.

No one from NCL accompanied us on the dive. Not that it would have mattered. I was glad to get wet, but between the Miami dives being cancelled, little help from the DiveIn desk, and the mediocre dive op, I would not reccommend NCL for a hardcore diving vacation.

 

[yogi_tala]

Hardcore. I wouldn't even say softcore

NCL pulled similar crap on my trip in January. Canceled one dive before the cruise, and another during. Luckily, I had connections for the first already in line, but wound up having to walk on and try to find one in Belize. Got lucky, there, though. But absolutely no help from the NCL goobers.

BTW, isn't it amazing that of that many passengers, only a few will dive? I am always shocked. Even in Coz, I have seen only 3-6 at a time.

Jerry

 

[Aquatic Eagle]

Sorry that you guys had bad experiences. I won't try to cover for what happened on your cruises guys but I can tell you what may have happened. The problem with NCL right now is that there is no Dive-In department anymore. I along with other instructors are still employed by NCL as dive instructors, but we work pretty much the same job as the Shore Excursion staff. Dive-In staff don't escort dives anymore or at least, very very rarely. We only escort certain snorkeling trips anymore. Greg Di, you probably spoke to a Shore Excursion staff member rather than a diving instructor, which would show why they may not have tried very hard to spread your info. It also could have been another person who your friend spoke to at the desk and they may not have had the info. I agree that it is very sad to see how few divers there are on cruises. The most I have sent on a diving trip has been maybe 8-9 at a time. Sad to see that. As for your experience yogi_tala, the Belize dive being canceled isn't NCL's fault. We didn't have a dive operator in Belize earier this year until about mid March because the operator we were using, Aqua Divers, left two or three of our divers in the water for about an hour. So I hope you can understand why we stopped using them. It's not a quick process to pick up a new operator. We have to go out and find one, then send one or two of us on an inspection to see how they run, then it has to be approved by the Miami office, where things take forever to get approved. It's a long process but we do have an operator there now who has nothing but good feedback. Hugh Parkey's Dive Center is who we use now. Sorry again for your bad experiences but being here onboard for months at a time, I am happy to say that we get more good feedback about our dives than bad feedback. And as far as our diving goes, to give you an idea of how much we dive, I've been with NCL since January and I've been diving twice. So it's pretty frustrating on our side to never get to dive when we're employed as dive instructors. Anyway, I hope your experiences in the future are better. Maybe I'll see you onboard one day. I'm headed back to Belize soon on another ship. Farewell for now!

 

[lostboy]

NatureDiver,

Strangely enough, I did find out what happened in Belize, from one of the stranded divers. Certainly could not fault NCL for dropping them; and I will make the supposition that this wasn't Aqua Divers first transgression from other conversations I have had. My only real gripe about that was the fact that NCL didn't tell us before the cruise. After sign up a month in advance, I would have expected an email or something saying "Hey, the dive in Belize is canceled <enter excuse>. Would you like to sign up for one of other great excursions."

That is what I find so amazing. When we dropped anchor in Belize, there must have been 8, maybe 9, other ships. All larger than ours (NCL Sea). There was one Carnival boat that looked like an aircraft carrier. And, having gone out with the other dive shop (Sea Sports?), they had one boat out with 4 divers and ours went out with eight!?!?!? So, 12 divers from ~15,000 passengers? I can see why NCL is devaluing the Diving options on their ships, if the vast majority were interested in something else. Sad, though.

BTW, I wouldn't dive Belize, again, from a cruise ship. Certainly not an NCL. Not to pick on them, but if the ports included Roatan, GC, and/or Coz, the dive from BC was not on par with any of the other three. Roatan was fantastic, and Coz is Coz. But, with the tender loading, time wasted in transport, and the quality of the reef that you can get to easily from BC, diving is not nearly as nice. Dive the others and use BC, as a day trip: go cave tubing, or ruin hopping.

And, NatureDiver, sorry to pile on NCL. Other lines are moderately better or worse than NCL as far as dive setups are concerned. Perhaps, NCL should advertise more to divers and on diving. A cruise that hits Roatan, Coz, GC, and <pick one> should be perfect for somone wanting a few dives while enjoying a cruise. <shrug>

Jerry