Another cruise ship/dive op question

[bart78660]

You might try here as a back up plan. They are located near the cruise ships and have very fast boats. www.papahogs.com I remember the boats leaving the dock at 8:00 and returning around noon after two dives.

Papa Hogs keeps mutiple pathways of communication open. We keep our web site and web based email in the United States for reasons of redundancy, but at times the connections from Mexico keep us from getting out email here on the island.

At any time, you can call us at the shop or our US agent if you have questions.

From the US to the shop: 011-52-98787-21651 (011 to dial international and 52 is Mexico's country code)

Papa Hogs US Agent: 1-877-389-3629

Primary Email: Scubadiving@PapaHogs.com

Secondary Email: PapaHogs@Hotmail.com

US Agent: Judy@PapaHogs.com

Webmaster: Tom@PapaHogs.com

 

[NW_DiverDude]

Since the time in port is so short, the best way to guarantee your return to the ship before it sets sail is to book your dives through the ship's excursion program. Any excursion booked through your cruise line and supervised by a member of the ships crew will get back onto the ship, even if the ship has to delay departure.

Personnally I prefer making my own arrangements, especially in great diving loactions such as Coz, where I was again just last week on an NCL cruise ship. However, when there is real concern about enough time to get multiple dives in quickly, safely, and with reliable transportation to/from the ship and the dive boat, I will make arrangements through the cruise line, as I did in Belize last week when we dove Turneffe Atoll. The boat ride from our cruise ship to the dive loacation was more than 1 hour each way and if a dive boat has mechanical difficulties (and ours did), then you will be guaranteed to get back to the cruise ship (and we did).

If you choose to make your own arrangements, I can second the suggestion of using Papa Hogs. I have dove with several different operators on Coz and Papa Hogs was the most flexible a coulple years ago when I also was diving during a cruise ship stopover.

Have yourself a great time on your cruise and your dives!

 

[NW_DiverDude]

One more note about diving while in port on a cruise ship, you can NOT plan on getting off the cruise ship quickly as all passengers must clear customs before any passenger is allowed to step off the ship. This is all done in the background and takes no effort on your part but I have expereinced more than one delay of an hour so that is something else to consider if trying to make an 8:30am trip with Blue Angel or most other operators that insist on departing that early. BTY, I do not recommend BA from my expereince with them about 5 years ago.

The priority for getting off the ship always goes to excursions booked through the cuise line then to everyone else which comes down to your physical place in the long line to get off. Although you can not seem to book the excursion online any more, might I suggest calling the cruise line shore excursion department - they should be able to take your reservation still.

Hope this helps!

 

[Clearwater]

Thanks for the advice NW DiverDude. I'm a little surprised at your comment re BA as that's who my LDS uses for their Coz trips and from what I've gathered they have generally positive reviews on the board.

I spoke to RCCL this morning and they said online excursion booking closes 10 days out so at this point I'll just have to wait until we board. If I haven't firmed up something else by then it'll be the first thing I do!

As for the earlier question about "ship's time," in my experience (this'll be my sixth cruise) the ship has always used local time of whatever port they're visiting that day. That said, when I asked Royal Caribbean this question, I was first told "Miami time" and later "the time at the point of departure" which in this case is Galveston. Maybe it's like when you call the airlines and ask the same thing three times and get three different answers!

 

[smatterchu]

One more note about diving while in port on a cruise ship, you can NOT plan on getting off the cruise ship quickly as all passengers must clear customs before any passenger is allowed to step off the ship. This is all done in the background and takes no effort on your part but I have expereinced more than one delay of an hour so that is something else to consider if trying to make an 8:30am trip with Blue Angel or most other operators that insist on departing that early. BTY, I do not recommend BA from my expereince with them about 5 years ago.

The priority for getting off the ship always goes to excursions booked through the cuise line then to everyone else which comes down to your physical place in the long line to get off. Although you can not seem to book the excursion online any more, might I suggest calling the cruise line shore excursion department - they should be able to take your reservation still.

Hope this helps!

I agree. The priority in getting out on that day will go to people who have a planned excursion. We just cruised the Enchantment RCCL - and went diving in Cozumel and Belize. In Cozumel, the ship was late getting into port, so it really put a crimp in our schedule. It didn't make us any difference, because we knew we had a cruise-scheduled trip, but I'd have had a heart attack if I'd booked with someone else...

We had a good experience with SandDollarSports when we went. The guys on the boat work very hard to help you and get everything together. One note of caution -- always check your tank pressure before going in. On the second dive, several of us had to switch tanks because our 'new' tank wasn't full....

If Angel or another underwater videographer is on there filming, they do a great job! We bought a DVD from them, and they somehow managed to get it edited and burned to disk in time to give to some of us. We had to get all of our gear back on the ship, so they wound up mailing it to us...and they did. Angel was very sweet, and his video is amazing.....great footage and even some cool effects. We loved the slo-mo footage of us doing the giant strides off the boat -- we actually looked cool!!

Good luck and have a great time!!

 

[Hemlon]

I faced a similar problem in Cozumel during one of my cruises and I just had some great shore diving through Blue Angel. You will have to watch the current, but that not a problem.

RCI ships stay on ship time while in port, despite what nyprrtd said.

 

[smatterchu]

We changed time zones on our cruise with RCCL....it was an hour difference... It happened at sea and was in effect until the last night, I think... That time would have matched the time at port...

 

[tlmainer]

check with your cruiseline and see who they use. you should be able to find out who they are and book dives online. we went to cozumel last year out of galveston and were able to book dives on the ship. there were limited spots and a group of 4 of us got the last 4 spots so book early. the nice thing was that the dive shop (i can't remember who it was) knows the cruiseship schedule and picked us up at the pier and they had all equip. etc with them so we left the pier and went straight to the reef.

 

[Christi]

check with your cruiseline and see who they use. you should be able to find out who they are and book dives online. we went to cozumel last year out of galveston and were able to book dives on the ship. there were limited spots and a group of 4 of us got the last 4 spots so book early. the nice thing was that the dive shop (i can't remember who it was) knows the cruiseship schedule and picked us up at the pier and they had all equip. etc with them so we left the pier and went straight to the reef.

Due to contractual obligations with the cruiselines, they (the shop that the ship uses) won't/can't accept your reservation unless you go through the ship. The norm is that ship divers go on a seperate boat from the land based divers for scheduling reasons, so making reservations on your own without telling them you're on the ship would not do you any good.

All of us know the ship schedules because the harbor master puts out a list every week. The difference is that the shop that the cruiselines contract has constant communications with the ship, so they know ahead of time if the ship is going top be early or late, etc.They are also the only dive boats permitted to pull up to the ship pier.

 

[nyprrthd]

RCI ships stay on ship time while in port, despite what nyprrtd said.

Not my experience on Princess, Celebrity, Holland America, Norwegian, or Royal Caribbean; so I'd suggest checking with personnel on your particular ship. We've always been told to use local time while in port. There should also be a note on time changes in the daily news rag that they leave in your stateroom.

Whatever time it is, have a great cruise!