RCI-Nassau & Coco Cay

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mac66

Contributor
Messages
203
Reaction score
154
Location
SE Mich
# of dives
25 - 49
Dived recently through the RC Allure in Coco Cay and Nassau.

First stop was Nassau. Most if not all cruise lines use Stuart's Cove as their dive operator. They are located on the other side of the island. I tried to book them separately but ship passengers pretty much have to go through the ship to dive. When you book through the ship transportation is included which accounts for the steeper price you pay. It is a long ride to their base from the cruise port, I can't imagine what a taxi would have cost.

I wasn't going to dive, but then the ship's price fell to around $150 for a two tank dive. It was previously around $180.

Anyway, we were picked up at the port and driven across the island. Once arrived we were assigned to a boat. There was a half a dozen dive boats waiting. I had brought my own wetsuit but needed everything else. The price I paid included everything I needed though it doesn't say that on the cruise line's description. I expected to have to rent fins/mask/regulator etc. but there was no additional charge.

There ended up being 14 divers on our boat including a female dive instructor off the Allure who went with us. I don't know if the ship sends someone or she just happened to be along on her own.

The seas were very, very heavy which forced the boat captain to go slow. It took a long time to get out to the dive site. We were assigned buddies and once in the water I immediately lost mine. I later learned he had a bad mask and had returned to the boat. Not exactly realizing this at the time I was signaled by the female ship instructor to stick with her. I am a relatively new diver so that was fine with me. We dived on a reef, saw numerous sharks and swam to a wall which dropped off into the abyss. It was pretty cool.

The heavy seas made getting back on board the boat a challenge but once on board we were okay. The next dive sight was just a series of coral formations which was pretty boring. Not much sea life seen. Then the long slow ride back to shore and the long, long ride back to the ship. We got back to the ship 2 hours later than scheduled. My wife who was waiting on the ship was pretty worried.

The next day we stopped at Coco Cay, RC's private island. They do a one tank dive which varies in price from $55 up to around $70 depending on when you book it. I waited until the price fell to $55 and then used $50 of on board credit.

What you do is walk off the ship to the dive shack to get your equipment. Then walk to the shore with your equipment. Once in the water you are towed one at a time behind a jetski out to the reef off shore. You then form up and swim around the reef then are towed back to shore. A storm had blown through the day before which churned up the water. Visibility was about 5 feet. As soon as we went down we formed up again. There was about 8 of us diving, we spent most of the time stopping to keep track of everybody. It was an absolutely horrible dive. One on occasion, I was signaled to buddy up with someone else as my buddy had to surface. I later learned that he had a bad O ring on his regulator and was losing air. After about 30 minutes the dive master thankfully called a halt. I've read that the dive on the reef at Coco Cay was actually pretty good. It wasn't to be this time. A total waste of time and money. Oh well.

So the question is would I dive these two places again.

Stuart's Cove is the only choice when cruising. Their operation is large and efficient and I wouldn't have any qualms about diving with them again. However, It is quite an ordeal to dive in Nassau. The diving is good but the ride across the island is long and laborious. The rough seas increased the time getting to the dive sites by 2 or 3 times. Under normal conditions I would consider doing it again, but now that I've been there and done that, probably not.


I expect to be on more cruises that stop at Coco Cay in the future. I am hoping to get a chance to dive there when the water is clear. I think it is worth $50-60 for the risk of getting good weather, though your can always cancel before hand. If I had known about the weather conditions before hand, I probably would have this time.
 
Interesting!

I've dived Stewards Cove maybe 6-7 times on cruises and they're generally not bad. I've had a few "meh!" dives on massive boats with way too many people, some decent dives and I've had one absolutely spectacular dive when we were only 3 experienced divers off the ship and the DM brought us in a small boat to really nice wreck with tons of sharks.

I was in Coco Cay last month and it surprised met. I was not going to dive there as I expected it to be a crappy dive with nothing to see... A friend I was travelling with finished his OW dives and got certified at the previous two port so I joined him for his first "real" certified dive in Coco Cay. Ended up we had a nice calm ocean and the reef is actually decent (for a cruise line resort island) and we saw plenty of wildlife. I came in expecting nothing and ended up pleasantly surprised. The only things that need improvement are the seadoos to get us to the dive point (the process is too long), and at least half the divers there had HORRIBLE buoyancy control, my buddy who was on his first official dive had most of them beat by a mile.
 
I’ve dove coco cay as well. Our weather was reallly great visibility wise. The seas were a tad rough and we got banged around one by one on the jet skis. They also ended up towing us back to shore after the dive as well since the seas weren’t getting better up top. Below everything was great. Had some sharks and fish. It was also eagle ray mating season so we had tons doing underwater dances with each other all around us. That was an amazing experience. I actually had $50 on board credit from my travel agent and purchased online prior to boarding during a presale and ended up paying nothing out pocket. Can’t beat that.
 
Thanks for the report. Getting ready to do a first time dive while on a Caribbean cruise with Carnival and am absorbing all of the info I can.
 
I have a cruise planned on Celebrity next March, going to the southern Caribbean. Stopping on 7 islands in 10 days. Diving on 4 or them. I pretty much started diving just to dive on cruises since my wife and I typically do a couple (sometimes 3) a year. We've been to a lot of Caribbean ports and thought it was time to see them again underwater.

But as I said, I would probably dive Nassau again if I find myself there, though they typcialy only go there on short cruises. They only added Nassau to this cruise when they dropped Roatan (which is the reason we booked the cruise in the first place). I was scheduled to dive in Roatan but they canceled due to propulsion issues. RC in also adding Coco Cay to a lot of cruises since they've redone it so I will probably get a chance to dive there again. Positive reports are encouraging. Bad weather sucks.
 
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