Turneffe AtolL or Hol Chan for new Junior OW diver?

[trpltongue]

Hi all,

We are taking a cruise in July and will have a day stop in Belize. Myself, wife, and 12yr old daughter are all brand new OW divers with only 5-6 dives under our belts.

We have 2 options for diving in Belize:
1) 2 tank Turneffe Atoll trip through the cruise line
2) 1 tank dive in Hol Chan and then snorkeling in Shark Ray Alley through Aqua Scuba which involves a 20 min sea plane flight

I'm wondering which is better in terms of our skill level, especially since my daughter will have a depth limit of 12 meters (~40 feet)? My understanding is that Hol Chan is shallow but has some current. I have no idea about Turneffe Atoll depths.

If there's a better alternative, I'm all ears as well

Thanks for the help!

 

[Altamira]

I took my Jr. OW grandson on a ship's excursion to Turneffe Atoll with Hugh Parkey's (the ship's dive op) when he was 11 and 12 years old. At age 11, he was restricted to 40' and there was plenty to see at that depth. At age 12, he could go to 60' and there was the same amount of coral and wildlife as at 40', and both dives were very suitable for beginning Jr. OW divers. Hugh Parkey's DMs will take very good care of your dive group, and you will not be disappointed.
Another good reason to use the ship's dive op is they pick you up and return you directly to the ship, so you can avoid the 15 minute tender to shore.

I have not dived Hol Chan with the snorkel to follow, but I would avoid any dives that involve an airplane flight after the dives. There have been several discussions on this website about flying after dives, even ones planned for low altitude, and as a retired Air Force and major airline pilot, I very strongly do not recommend that option. There are those on this board that are willing to take the risk, but in my opinion, they do not adequately understand the many situations that could cause the pilot to climb to a much higher altitude than planned. In my opinion, it is a foolish risk, when you can have great dives at Turneffe Atoll without the dive/fly risks.

 

[trpltongue]

Altamira, that is fantastic feedback! Thanks! I should ammend my previous post, as I just checked with our dive instructor and he informed me that my daughter is certified to 18m. We kept to 12m only because of visibility issues on our OW dive 3 and 4. So that's good news

Unfortunately, it turns out the cruise ship has canceled the tour because we get in 1 hour later per local time due to daylight savings time. Now our only option is option 2 or to dive in Belize city which I've heard is not that great. Time to do some research on Belize city diving.

 

[Altamira]

You might still check with Hugh Parkey's and also Sea Sport to see what each of those dive ops might offer considering your arrival and departure times. I know Sea Sport can take you to Hol Chan/Shark Alley, without and airplane ride, but not sure if they offer the trip on the day you will be there. Be very careful though with the differences in ship's time and local time and tender issues. If not on a ship's dive tour, you will have to tender to and from the ship to Belize City, and tender operations can be very slow, not to mention the 15-20 minute ride each way. Also, if you are not a frequent cruiser, I will tell you the ship's give tender priority to the ship's excursions so you may not have much priority for getting off the ship in a timely manner unless on a tour. However, I have found that if you make your way to the deck where the tenders pick you up and hang out by the exit with your gear, you can often sweet talk your way on to an early tender if they are not full. No guarantees on that though, but we have had pretty good luck trying to fit in tenders that were not full. Just be very conservative with you timing because I have seen divers watch their "off ship" meet times go bye bye because they could not get off the ship in time to meet the dive boat departure time. I do not know how much time in port your cruise ship is scheduled for on your stop, but between the later arrival time, tender operations, etc., if you can't work out something with one of the dive ops, you might have to use the ship's dive excursion at the reef outside of Belize City. While not as good as Turneffe Atoll, it should still be a nice dive, especially for a newly minted Jr. OW diver.

I would still avoid any diving that involves an airplane ride after diving. You might get away with it, and be fine, but it is an unnecessary risk for your family. In my opinion, there is no dive worth getting in an airplane after diving. If you do decide to take the flight, and you have dive insurance, I strongly recommend you scour the policy, line by line, because I think with DAN there are some clauses pertaining to that type of flight operation. There will be other trips to Belize.

 

[boulderjohn]

According to both DAN and NOAA, an ascent to altitude that does not exceed 2,000 feet can be taken at any time after diving. If you are diving Shark Ray alley, it is not much more than a safety stop in terms of depth. I would not worry about it at all myself.

 

[Altamira]

According to both DAN and NOAA, an ascent to altitude that does not exceed 2,000 feet can be taken at any time after diving. If you are diving Shark Ray alley, it is not much more than a safety stop in terms of depth. I would not worry about it at all myself.

As I have pointed out in other threads relating to this topic, there are a lot of situations that may force the pilot to climb to an altitude higher than 2000', and you as a passenger are going to have no input in that decision. After 33 years of professional flying, half of which involved flying very low altitude, fast movers, I can't think of a single flight where I could absolutely guarantee I could stay below 2000' if the wrong set of circumstances popped up. If you feel the dive is worth the risk, that is certainly an individual's decision. But, if you are at all concerned about "trust me" dives, you should be very concerned about "trust me" flights after diving. At least on a "trust me" dive, you are the ultimate decision maker as to what you will do or not do. You are not going to have that capability as a passenger in an airplane.

 

[trpltongue]

Well, I've received a lot of bad news from the diver operators and the cruise. They have cancelled the cruise excursion altogether. There is no cruise option for diving Hugh Parkey informed me that they have ceased cruise operations as of May 31st

Hugh Parkey also informed me that they've basically stopped dive operations in Belize because of this. They said that the cruise ships were their primary customers. They could arrange something, but I would have to find 12 people to meet minimum costs.

Our boat opens the gangway at 7:30 local time, with a last tender at 3:30 local time. We will get priority tender by showing a confirmation of booking a trip with an outside vendor so that is good.

I would guestimate that we could be on shore by 8:45 local time at the latest.

It's looking like the only real option is to do a dive out of Belize city or reconsider our entire cruise excursion itinerary and dive in Roatan or Cozumel instead. Not happy. This is the second time something like this has happened on an RCCL ship for us.

 

[mmmbelows]

It's looking like the only real option is to do a dive out of Belize city or reconsider our entire cruise excursion itinerary and dive in Roatan or Cozumel instead.

Why wouldn't you dive in either Roatan or Cozumel, seems like a no-brainer to me, both locations are better known dive locations and you can certainly book dives there with or without the cruise ship's vendor very easily and the boat rides to the dive sites at both places will be short too.

 

[Altamira]

Follow mmmbelows advice on diving Roatan and/or Coz instead of Belize. You will get very good diving without the very long boat ride to Turneffe Atoll. RCCL dive op in Roatan is Black Pearl divers, and they run an excellent operation at Pristine Bay Resort on the North Shore, and the diving is even better than Turneffe Atoll, in my opinion. Highly recommend this cruise shore excursion as they actually let you dive your air (unlike Sand Dollar in Coz), and the underwater topography is more interesting, with little or no current. Only problem with Black Pearl is they have a 14 year old minimum age restriction, which is ridiculous, but I was able to get that waived by emailing Mike, the dive shop director, and then working the waiver through RCCL Shore Excursions. Other dive operators I have used on Roatan are AKR on the north side, and Barefoot Divers on the south side. Both are excellent dive ops, and you will love diving with them as well.

Diving at Cozumel is excellent also, but there are better operators than the ship's dive vendor, Sand Dollar. My only real complaint with them is the slightly shorter dive times (we did 45 minutes and 51 minute dives last week), and the fact that they tend to use Paradise Reef as their second dive site. It is not a bad dive site, but, there is too much white sand bottom between the reef sections for my taste. Check the Coz forum for dive ops whose trips might be compatible with your arrival and departure schedule.

Good luck and have fun.

 

[trpltongue]

I may try to re-work our schedule, but we're part of a 14 person family cruise so Belize was the compromise where we could sneak off and do some diving. Roatan the group is doing snorkeling / beach day, and Cozumel the group is doing Chichen Itza Myan Ruins.