Rinsing and storing gear on cruise ships

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Just came back from one 3 weeks ago. We took our own gear and also had a balcony. Couple of points that we learned.

We were able to do a rinse at every dive operation that we went through so we didn't need to worry about when we got back to ship.

Everything dried fine on our balcony between dive days and that includes wetsuits.

If we did it again we would just rent BCDs and not carry our own to cut down on the amount of gear that we needed to haul.

Hope you have a blast
 
We rinsed our gear in the shower/tub with no issues. Inflating the BCD's and hanging the wetsuits in the room or laying on the balcony was easy and everything was dry in a day or so.

The biggest pain is getting off the boat in port. I was the Mule for 2 complete sets and 2 partial sets. It sucked. We were ready to go early but The disembarkation procedure requires waiting until a specific number range was called. We had a large rolling dive bag so that helped. It took 45 minutes to an hour to get off the boat with lots of stairs. If you can get an early disembarkation pass, it would be worth it.

Since there were 4 of us, we chartered our own boat for not much more than the standard cost to dive. That meant the dive boat was waiting for us on our schedule (within reason). No one had to wait on us and there was no risk of the dive boat leaving without us. I did not like the reports of the cruise line dive operator so booked our own. That worked perfectly.

Good luck, safe travels.
Jay
 
What I remember about diving from the cruise ship was waiting.

We once used the official cruise line excursion, and there was a LOT of waiting. Wait in the meeting space while they go find the missing passengers that overslept the excursion. Wait to load up on the x-fer boat or bus. Wait while everyone does paperwork, and argues about lost c-cards. Wait while everyone is fitted and tries to find matching fins or the right size BC. Wait while they turn them in and check off the list. Wait for the person who needed to use the bathroom before the bus ride back to the ship. It sucked.

My advice is to find a local reputable dive shop to take you. If you don't mind a little extra fee, find a semi-private or small private boat. It goes much faster, much more smoothly, with fewer frustrations and difficulties.

The cruise ships drop you the sales pitch "If you use our excursions, you get priority debarkation." and "We won't leave without you if you're late, as long as you use our excursions." Scare tactic. Sure, it has probably happened somewhere sometime, but not often, otherwise you'd hear all about it online.

Example: I found a guy in Cozumel who picked me up 50 yards from the pier, and took me on two private guided dives tailored to my skills and abilities.
 
There are a lot of good suggestions in previous posts. We do a lot of cruising, and take all of our gear if going to ports with decent diving. I normally carry my gear to and from the ship by wearing the bcd and dive boots, threading my wetsuit through the tank straps, and hooking my fins and mask to large carabiners on my chest D rings. I carry my regs/computer in a mesh bag. It works great, and do not need a dive bag (I have several now being stored in a closet). Most of the dive ops, both ship and off-ship vendors, have at least a hose, which I personally prefer to "community" rinse tanks, and rinse everything I can at the dive op. Then I return to the ship configured as I departed. By the time I get back on the ship, especially at a tender port like GC, everything but my boots and wetsuit is mostly dry. Since I never know about the quality of water coming out of the dive ops hose, I thoroughly soak my regs on the ship. FWIW, I never take my passport on a dive boat, unless the passport is required by immigration to get off the ship, but I do keep a photocopy in a small dry box, and have pictures of important documents and cert cards on my phone.
 
Rinse in the shower dry on the balcony. I am the only diver in the family so only one set of gear. I have a set of travel gear that i travel with that I can get in one carry on except my fins so don’t worry about an extra bag for gear.
I did 2 dives in one cruise stop that convinced me to bring all my own gear.
 
I have two cruise ship dive trips, one in the Carribean and the other in the Greek Isles.

One the first cruise we took all of our dive gear. Had to check-in and out our dive knives. But overall it was not too much of a burden. One of the things we did was to book our dive excursions thru the cruise line. If you book a dive trip or any other excursion thru the cruise line and for any reason you are late getting back to the ship...they will wait. So while we were safe from missing the ship, the dive operators that the cruise line choose were very safe, did very simple dives and kept them very basic, not very complicated...beginner level.

On the second cruise, we took just our masks, regs, computers and cameras. We rented locally the rest. I booked the dives ahead of time after researching the local dive sites (did the research on SB). We had a great time and left plenty of time afterwards for any unforeseen delays. The had a great time.

For us we had to evaluate the risk of missing the ship vs doing the type of diving we wanted to. I think regardless of how we choose our dive operator we had ago on time. But by taking such minimal equipment and renting the rest we had a much better trip not hauling dive bags around the ship and piers.
 
Spill yer guts and spell it out for us please!
On Roatan a MAJOR operator picked us up, we set up our gear and someone had a faulty reg set they DID NOT have a SPARE reg set. We had to go to shore to get it fixed. We were not on the the operators side of the island but on the cruise port side of the island because of weather.
We got back from the first dive and one of the divers said her depth gauge was not working. A DM came back looked at it kind of shrugged his shoulders and walked away. I had a spare and loaned it to the lady for the dive.
Setup our gear for the second dive and after the SI we found out that they did not have enough full tanks. We had to wait, 45 minutes to an hour, for a boat to bring a fill tank from the FAR side of the island.
One screw up maybe you can forgive but 3 big ones like that not in my book. I do not ever plan on diving with them again, The taste in my mouth is to bad.
The ironic thing is that the Shore Excursion Director for the ship was on this excursion as well as the owner of a dive operation in the next port.
When I put the review on the cruise lines web site they pulled it before it ever got posted..
 
Simcoediver has brought up a couple of great questions. My wife and I are on the Feb 9, 2019 Symphony sailing with the same itinerary. We cruise on Royal about 4 times a year. Lemme share my experience of cruising and diving.

Yes there are a lot of good reasons for bringing your own gear, I always do. I bring all the essentials and then I add gear to my rolling dive bag until it is about 10lbs shy of what the airline baggage maximum is. I leave a 10 lbs buffer in case the the gear is wet on the way back home or we happen to have bought more souvenirs than we expected. We always sail in a balcony room or above and drying my gear is an important factor. I also spend a lot of time out there on sea days.

My gear gets rinsed in the shower and dried on the balcony. The water onboard is quite salty (it is refined seawater) but it is close enough to freshwater for my gear. I bring along about 25' of cheap paracord and some clothespins. I make a temporary clothesline on Day 1 just below the wooden railing and above the glass panels. Finding attachment points has never been an issue on any of the 25 Royal ships we have ever been on. Hanging things here like bathing suits, booties, and rash guards is discrete and dries things out quickly. My BC, wetsuit, and regs get layed out on the table or on the back of a chair. I leave these things out there until they are dry and little more, then they are put back into the dive bag for the next port or the return flight home. If you leave items on your balcony for a long period of time you can get a subtle note from your room attendant "Notice: Please remove your personal items off the balcony, We are doing maintenance/cleaning in your area of the ship tomorrow". That maintenance/cleaning may or may not occur; but please take the hint: They don't want their ship looking like the outside of a dormitory.

As others have mentioned, you can dry your gear in your bathroom. There will be a retractable clothesline in there. The problem is there is no ventilation fan in any of the cabin bathrooms. So as another poster mentioned drying is dependent on the air conditioning. There likely won't be a lot of space in there either.

Part of divers gear bag should be small explosion proof box made by Pelican or Otterbox. If not just because it is waterproof and ideal for logbooks, cell phone, cash, passports, etc. It is also the perfect safe keeping spot for C cards, sunglasses, jewelry, or your ship ID card. A waterproof case is also a sand proof case--for those days at the beach. If you don't have a waterproof case as apart of your gear bag already--you need one.

Dive operators. Truth be told my wife and I spend a lot of time selecting a future cruise and it's itinerary. And on top of whatever ridiculous amount of time that is I spend another 3X that amount selecting what dive operator I want to spend my money with. Most times it turns into a spreadsheet. I factor in the expected ships time of arrival, who I might be able to get a 3rd or 4th dive in with, locations of the dive shops in comparison where the ship docks, previous experiences with different shops, what shop might offer a great or unusual location, what are the costs, reputations, and who is likely the ships excursion provider. Just finding all the dive operator opportunities other than the ones listed on PADI will take some time. I'll be honest, sometimes the ships excursion is the best option as much as I generally don't like to go that route.

So for our itinerary Simcoediver let me give you some helpful hints with dive operators at each port.

Nassau: You are diving with Stuart Cove and you have very, very, very limited second choices. Stuart Cove is the dive excursion provider for every cruise ship that sails into Nassau. And they are probably the largest dive provider on the planet and by most accounts do an excellent job. Can you save money by scheduling the dives on our own? Well, that will get a little questionable when you get on shuttle bus from the pier to the shop. Your two tank dive is going to cost $179 and be the most expensive you spend for any cruise ship diving.

Roatan: Anthony Keys is Royal Caribbean's dive excursion provider and has been in business for an impressive amount of years. There are a bunch of other options but.......?????

Costa Maya: I'm not sure who the current dive operator for Royal is. I was just there last December and I chose a 1 tank afternoon Lionfish Hunt with Octopus Divers. That's what my spreadsheet told me was my best option. Maybe the spreadsheet tells me something different for February 2019?

Cozumel: This is why I make spreadsheets. Seriously, are there not close to 100 dive operators in or near San Miguel??? I believe Sand Dollar Sports is the excursion operator for every cruiseship that docks in Cozumel. They are all about volume and diving with them has about a 98% chance of being a cattle boat. In addition, one of their dive boats operating as a Royal Caribbean/Celebrity dive excursion actually sunk during the excursion just a couple weeks ago. So; you have soooo many other good choices. I suggest you look no further than this: Your local dive shop probably has yearly trips to Coz. Who do they use? And, what better way to give back to your local shop then by asking their recommendation and then making your reservation specifically saying you were referred by the name of your local shop. That will give a pat on the back to your local shop and also tell whoever the dive operator is in Coz that your local shop is "doing the right thing".
 
I did not know that there were this many divers bringing their gear on cruise ships! Every time we did, we never saw other divers (just snorkelers) and the ship crew and dock crew always commented as we walked by with our large dive backpacks, “Divers!”

They seemed surprised, I think...but really not sure how to interpret the comment.
 
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