A quick review. I was in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, for a day on a cruise ship in December 2024 and booked a two-tank dive with Aqua Adventures independently since the ship didn't offer a dive excursion. This seems to be the norm now. Since Covid, many cruise lines are not offering scuba diving as an excursion. This was my first and last time to dive in the DR. I just wanted to get in the water and I'm tired of the typical cruise excursions.
I made a good choice going with AA. They offered round-trip transportation, about a 30-40 minute drive to Sosua Beach, for $60. It was well worth it. The DR is not exactly safe to move around in outside the port area. The owner, crew, captain and shop staff were very friendly and helpful and made the diving fun, and they made an accommodation for my late arrival because of the ship's schedule.
There is no dock at Sosua beach, and a shore entry is required to get into the boat. It's the rainy season in the Dominican Republic, so the visibility on the dives wasn't great. I had very low expectations for the quality of the reef, and it was as expected...mostly dead and brown. What used to be 6-foot wide purple sea fans are now brown and there's considerable die-off of a lot of the corals. Very few fish. We were timed at 50 minutes for the dive. On a good dive site, that's just not enough time, but it got a bit boring, so 50 minutes was fine.
There is no swimmer/boat/diver safety rules here. Dive boats, catamarans, divers and swimmers all share the same small beach area, and it's a free for all. When a boat is coming in, everyone just scatters in the water. Watching the chaos was a bit unnerving, but the locals know what to do to get out of the way.
I made a good choice going with AA. They offered round-trip transportation, about a 30-40 minute drive to Sosua Beach, for $60. It was well worth it. The DR is not exactly safe to move around in outside the port area. The owner, crew, captain and shop staff were very friendly and helpful and made the diving fun, and they made an accommodation for my late arrival because of the ship's schedule.
There is no dock at Sosua beach, and a shore entry is required to get into the boat. It's the rainy season in the Dominican Republic, so the visibility on the dives wasn't great. I had very low expectations for the quality of the reef, and it was as expected...mostly dead and brown. What used to be 6-foot wide purple sea fans are now brown and there's considerable die-off of a lot of the corals. Very few fish. We were timed at 50 minutes for the dive. On a good dive site, that's just not enough time, but it got a bit boring, so 50 minutes was fine.
There is no swimmer/boat/diver safety rules here. Dive boats, catamarans, divers and swimmers all share the same small beach area, and it's a free for all. When a boat is coming in, everyone just scatters in the water. Watching the chaos was a bit unnerving, but the locals know what to do to get out of the way.
