NCL NYC to Nassau Dives

[Greg Di]

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.

Jerry

I know, it is kind of sad. I was on your NCL cruise itinerary last year on the Sun and I was not certified. I did do a Discover SCUBA in Coz which prompted me to get certified. We had about 15 people on that excursion and I remember seeing a flock of 20 or so people (with their own gear) on the pier to do the certified SCUBA dive in Coz (and the other ports too).

The only thing that I can think of is that the cruise lines have such bad reps for treating diving like a "regular" excursion that divers have smartened up and sought out alternate vacations where diving is the focus and they are treated with respect.

It's very bad customer relations to notify a cancellation on the ship rather than before boarding when the person could make alternate plans to seek their own charter.

However, seeing as how the cruise lines hard sell everything (booze, art reprints, photos, souvenir glasses), I "think" their rationale is that they DON'T want people booking their own excursions because the cruise line doesn't get a taste. I have a sinking feeling that the cruise companies beat they hell out of the excursion operators to maximize their take.

 

[Aquatic Eagle]

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

Jerry,
Don't appologize for piling on NCL. I wasn't necessarily defending them, just explaining. I wish they would send out letters or emails about things like that cancellation of the dive. But the prebooking system with NCL really sucks and we constantly complain about it to the head office. I agree with you about the diving, the great diving like Blue Hole is too far away to do on a cruise ship day. I believe the Blue Hole is something like 40 miles away from Belize City. Ever since they merged the Shore Excursion dept. and the Dive-In department, we have lost numbers on our dives. Passengers used to become familiar with the NCL instructors because we accompanied them on the dives and now it's not as friendly and we don't know as much about the sites because we never get to dive them. Therefore, we can't sound quite as enthusiastic about it when we've never dived it. It really suck on our end to never get to dive, but the money's good and that's what I need at the moment. That's the thing with the dive industry, you either make good money and never dive or you dive a lot and make just enough, if that, to get by. Especially for me, I'm NAUI so it's that much harder to find a job since I'm not PADI instructor. Not planning on crossing over anytime soon though. Good luck on your future trips though. If you have to, do a liveaboard instead of a cruise ship. That's where the diving is. Take care.

 

[ScubaDobe]

NatureDiver,

This is very sad to hear that NCL has done away with the Dive In program and combined it with the Shore Excursion desk. It along with the FreeStyle concept set NCL above and beyond the other cruise lines. My husband and I were married on the Norwegian Sky in Barbados almost two years ago now and have only cruised with NCL since - 5 cruises in the last year and a half with the Dream scheduled in November and the Star in March. We have had a great time diving with you all Dive In Inst. and gotten to know some of you well enough that you recognize us. We did notice that Jamie had become a Shore Excursion manager and no one seemed to accompany us in Feb. 2004 on the dive tours. I would hate to see NCL start to loose its diving cruisers as a result of this move. We have had a couple of bad experiences - the Dawn cancelled Miami and Nassua dives on us as well - and the onboard experience of the Wind last October could have been better. All in all we love cruising and diving with NCL and I hope corporate gets things straightened out soon. Good Luck with your personal NCL frustrations.

 

[DEEPLOU]

Interesting reading here. Currently booked for the Carnival Legend which I believe goes to GC, Belize, and Coz. (or maybe Roatan some where in there). My wife was thinking about changing to NCL (not sure which ship) doing similar itinery.
You guys are getting me worried about any dive excursions. I like to book through the ship as I am a lone diver who is bit lazy about researching operators in the different ports.
I usually forget what lines and ships we have been on, but I think we used NCL for a trip several years ago that did GC, Roatan, Belize, and Coz. Did get to dive at all four ports, but no Blue Hole. The year before we did Premier Cruise line (now defunct) same itinery, but in Belize they did do a Blue Hole trip. It did take the entire day we were in Belize though.
Then couple of yrs ago we did NCL in Hawaii. In the one port, we got off the ship and the excursion guy comes to us says the operator blew up his engine the day before, so no dive. But he was helpful in letting us use his cell phone and the local directory to line up another operator at the last minute. We were lucky to find someone who was able to handle the 12 of us at the last minute.

Last year (Feb) did HAL, and a couple of times I was the lone certified diver and they still did the trip. It appeared that couple of lines used same operator so excursion still went off.

Hopefully this Feb (05) will not be any problems.

 

[cdiver2]

I dived with NCL in Feb this year GC, Roatan, Belize and Coz.
At that time NCL had no dives in Belize but Nature diver recommended Hugh Parkeys. Other than having to hump our gear for 20 minutes it was a great dive, after the dive the dive boat took us right back to our boat (I gave a big tip for doing this).
Hi ND great to hear from you again have you run into that English man again (IAN)?.
All the best hope you get your boat soon.

David&Colleen

 

[Aquatic Eagle]

NatureDiver,

This is very sad to hear that NCL has done away with the Dive In program and combined it with the Shore Excursion desk. It along with the FreeStyle concept set NCL above and beyond the other cruise lines. My husband and I were married on the Norwegian Sky in Barbados almost two years ago now and have only cruised with NCL since - 5 cruises in the last year and a half with the Dream scheduled in November and the Star in March. We have had a great time diving with you all Dive In Inst. and gotten to know some of you well enough that you recognize us. We did notice that Jamie had become a Shore Excursion manager and no one seemed to accompany us in Feb. 2004 on the dive tours. I would hate to see NCL start to loose its diving cruisers as a result of this move. We have had a couple of bad experiences - the Dawn cancelled Miami and Nassua dives on us as well - and the onboard experience of the Wind last October could have been better. All in all we love cruising and diving with NCL and I hope corporate gets things straightened out soon. Good Luck with your personal NCL frustrations.

The Dream in November? See you there! I'll be on the Dream on October 24th so maybe we can go out for a drink. Jamie Petts is a manager and is on the Spirit. He was my first manager. Nice to hear from a frequent cruiser. Hope to see you soon!

 

[Aquatic Eagle]

I dived with NCL in Feb this year GC, Roatan, Belize and Coz.
At that time NCL had no dives in Belize but Nature diver recommended Hugh Parkeys. Other than having to hump our gear for 20 minutes it was a great dive, after the dive the dive boat took us right back to our boat (I gave a big tip for doing this).
Hi ND great to hear from you again have you run into that English man again (IAN)?.
All the best hope you get your boat soon.

David&Colleen

Hey! Yes I have run into him again. He is my manager again now that I have gotten back to the Wind. I will be leaving in two weeks for vacation though and then on to the Dream. How was it you know him again? Anyway, life is good out here on the high seas. Hope everything is well with you.

 

[ScubaDobe]

The Dream in November? See you there! I'll be on the Dream on October 24th so maybe we can go out for a drink. Jamie Petts is a manager and is on the Spirit. He was my first manager. Nice to hear from a frequent cruiser. Hope to see you soon!

Yes, I'll see you there! This will actually be a first for us - my oldest step-daughter, will be along for the ride. Her OW cert. should be finish in mid-Oct. We'll see how comfortable she is before we dump her in with a tank to see some real fish. A question for you, but I'll ask in Nov. if I don't hear back from you before then. Next November (2005) we will be bringing our younger daughter along. She will be OW certified Oct 2004 as well. Her 12th birthday will be Nov. 16, 2005 - Will she be allowed to dive with us, let's say on the 10th if she is techincally 11 years old still? Thanks for any insight you can give!

PS - We'll be on the Dream on the November 7-14th sailing.