Nov 26 to Dec 3 Cruise.

[mwhities]

Norwegian Sun out of New Orleans.

Sun Nov 26 New Orleans, LA 5:30pm
Mon Nov 27 At Sea
Tue Nov 28 Costa Maya, Mexico 10:00am 6:00pm
Wed Nov 29 Santo Tomas de Castilla, Guatemala 8:00am 6:00pm
Thu Nov 30 Belize City, Belize 8:00am 6:00pm
Fri Dec 1 Cozumel, Mexico 8:00am 6:00pm
Sat Dec 2 At Sea
Sun Dec 3 New Orleans, LA 7:00am

Will anyone else here be on this cruise? I'm considering diving in Costa Maya and Belize. (I know Belize for sure.) Was wonder your opinions on going with the cruise ships excursions or shuold I book my own? I know Belize has a LONG tender and that would be the one place I'd worry about missing the boat. Costa Maya wouldn't be all that bad.

It'd be great to have a fellow SBer on board and possibly be a dive buddy.

(A little info about myself: Currently SSI OW certified. I only have 10 dives as of right now. I'll have 4 to 5 more this weekend. Only have one-arm, but I seem to do pretty well underwater. My air consumption stinks right now, but I think I've figured out why. (Cucumber bun is a little lose, I feel as though I'm trying to stretch my stomach out to keep it on. I haven't had "great" viz dives, so I feel like "flying" (finning fast) so I end up wasting (using) a lot of air. I know I need to relax and slow it down.)

Thanks for any comment or suggestions ahead of time.

Michael

 

[Jay_SMART_Diver]

In my opinion with Cruise Ship Diving booking off ship on your own is cheaper and you usually get to dive better sites. Not to mention you usually get to dive with an operation with better service/staff and dive with more skilled/serious divers who go out of their way to book good dives. For the Cruise ship charters, the operators and staff can be somewhat apathetic because they get 20-30 divers a day no matter what. Not to mention you can be in a mix of skill levels from resort divers to who knows what. The contact people I booked with actually hooked me up with e-mail address of other divers on the ship, we made contact before the cruise, and met up on the ship prior to diving, and shared cab fare on a couple of stops to and from the diving.
The Tenders in Belize take you into Belize City to the tourist village. I would recommend Sea Sports Belize, they are just out side the gates of the tourist village and have a great staff with small fast boats. You won't be able to dive the most pristine Belize reefs, they are way too far North to make it there and back. But SSB will take you on some nice reefs feed you lunch and drop you off back at your cruise ship. I used them last Nov for a cruise and was very impressed, after they dropped us off we still had time to drop gear, clean up and make it back to Belize City for a little shopping and a few beers at the Thirsty Lizard. Linda Searle is the manager/owner and was SUPER!
For Cozumel try Scuba with Alison she caters to cruise ship passengers by leaving after you make port and disembark. The marina she goes out of was only about a five to ten minute ride away, small fast boat with a max of 8. We had super dives with a relaxing SI on a nice beach with a little café. Actually that day all the water excursions on the cruise ship got canceled due to the seas being a little choppy, but by booking of the ship I still got to dive!!!
Take a Power strip there is only one outlet in the room and one in the bathroom. It is a little pain lugging dive gear on and off the ship I would suggest a rolling duffel bag. Just a little info, Have a great time on your cruise. I'll be in Playa Del Carmen Nov 2nd-7th doing a little diving of my own. - Ciao.