Valor - Diving in March?

[pleasan7]

Hello,
This is my 4th trip to the Carribean on a Cruise ship. I am a newbie diver early 40's married to a man who is an experienced diver. We are looking forward to diving in all 4 ports of Belize, Roatan, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel with windows of about 8 hours. I would love to hear your thoughts on dive excursions. Tell me stories of dive trips that you loved or let me read your trip report..
Thanks for the help!
Carol

 

[diveborg]

First, you didn't say when you were going. It it is before November 15, I would say a stop at GCM is doubtful. If it is later, say December or later, then you should probably make it.

Are you looking for dive operator recommendations?

I'll give you mine for Coz and GCM.

In Grand Cayman, I went with Neptunes divers. They are a decent, cruiser friendly dive op. Many of the dive OP's that I contacted either were full or left too early for a cruiser to make the morning trip.

There is also shore diving in GCM. Divetech has a shore site by the turtle farm. You can rent tanks/weights at their shop. There are 2 dive op's, Abanks diving and Eden Rock diving, very close to where the tenders dock in Georgetown. They are to the right a couple of blocks very close the the Eden Rock shore dive site.

In Cozumel there are about 70 different dive operators. I went with Blue XT Sea diving, but there are other cruiser friendly dive op's as well. Dive with Martin and Papa Hogs were both recommended to me.

In Belize, I would probably make an exception to my "Make your own dive arrangements" advice and just go with the ships excursion just because of the logistics of arranging my own. The ships excursion leaves right from the ship, but if you do your own, you have a long tender ride ashore, then you have to find the dive op. After the dive you still have that long tender ride back to the ship.

On Roatan, someone else is going to have to help you there.

Have a great time.

 

[pleasan7]

Hi diveborg
Seems like I was on the side of GC before.. humm.. I bet we will be docked in Georgetown. Thanks for your information!
[- I hid the month in the title. ]
Carol

 

[Taupiz]

Carol, I will be going on the same cruise next Sept and intend to dive all 4 ports as well if we can. I will be interested to get some feedback since you will be going first.
Thanks, Patrick

Hello,
This is my 4th trip to the Carribean on a Cruise ship. I am a newbie diver early 40's married to a man who is an experienced diver. We are looking forward to diving in all 4 ports of Belize, Roatan, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel with windows of about 8 hours. I would love to hear your thoughts on dive excursions. Tell me stories of dive trips that you loved or let me read your trip report..
Thanks for the help!
Carol

 

[pleasan7]

Hi Patrick,
I am pretty good about writting up my trips so I will be sure and post after my trip as well. When do you get to go?
Carol

 

[pleasan7]

Hi,
Thanks everyone for your help. We are still planning a vacation but the cruise idea did not work out as expected. We are not going..
Back to planning,
Carol

 

[tropicalfan]

Sorry you opted out of this cruise. This is to be our first cruise, although we have dove most of these places in the past (with the exception of GC). Since this is a new ship I guess I'll have the first report back--unless anyone going earlier in Jan?

 

[Taupiz]

Sorry you opted out of this cruise. This is to be our first cruise, although we have dove most of these places in the past (with the exception of GC). Since this is a new ship I guess I'll have the first report back--unless anyone going earlier in Jan?

Well I will depend on you now for a report as my trip is not until Sept.

 

[Tizzy]

Hey there, I will be cruising the Valor 4/3/05, and plan on diving all 4 ports. If you have not yet viewed the CruiseCritic web site I suggest you do, a wealth of information. As for dive operators the line up so far is Neptune's Divers/Grand Caymen, SaltnPepper/Roatan, BlueHa/CostaMaya, PapaHogs/Cozumel. We have only dove with PapaHogs, the rest were based on information I have gleaned from this & other boards. These dives have not been booked yet, so things could change. I will probably make reservations around Feb., I think this should be soon enough. If anyone has any thoughts/suggestions on choices or when to book please share.
Cheers!
Tizzy

 

[pammyk]

Hi everyone...lots of fantastic advice. I am making all kinds of notes. I've been on 3 cruises in the past but was not scuba certified at the time. Now that I am, I tried to plan a cruise that would get me diving in as many locations as possible with as long a stay as possible. This cruise seemed to be one of the better ones out there. It goes to Belize, Roatan, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel. Whoever goes on this cruise before May 1st please send me as much information as you can. It's a brand new ship...I think it just made its maiden voyage. I'm a little afraid to make my own arrangements with the dive shops because I don't want to miss the ship...but the information I've received just from reading all your reports have made me a little more comfortable about doing it. We're in Belize from 9am to 6pm, Roatan from 7:30am to 3:30pm, Grand Cayman from 9:30am to 5:30pm and Cozumel from 11:00am to 11:00pm. Thanks in advance to anyone with more info.

Pam :dazzler1: