Cozumel?

[susan6868]

Easyrider003-
I can't give you any advice about cruise ships and schedules but I can tell you don't want to miss the opportunity to dive in Cozumel. Make it happen, you won't regret it. And then make sure you come back to the boards and tell us what a spectacular time you had! Have a safe trip.

 

[tlmainer]

The dive that we booked through Carnival was only about $10 more per person than if we booked it ourself. A person was waiting when we got off the ship to take us to the boat that was waiting for us. 6 divers on the boat, all 6 of us from our cruise ship from over 3000 people on the ship. So no, it is not a big interest from most cruisers. Again the main advantage to me of booking through the ship, if something were to go wrong and you were running late returning to the ship, they would wait on you. I have read other threads regarding people booking their own excursions and getting left behind.

 

[Sue Sue]

I am gonna try to go on a cruise hopefully next may if I can get my days off at work that I need. I am probably gonna be going to Mexico. Gonna try to go to two places, one being Progresso and the other being Cozumel. I am thinking to do a dive trip while I am there. It says that it would take about 4 hours and cost between $50 and $100 dollars. Just wondering if anyone has ever been scuba diving in cozumel and if so what was your experience like? Would you do it again if you had the chance, (in Cozumel)?

Easyrider...Welcome to Diving and Scubaboard/Cozumel. You are in for a real treat for your first Cozumel Dive. People travel from around the WORLD to dive Cozumel. DH and I started with a cruise ship dive. Booked the excursion with the ship. It was OK, just A LOT of People. Afterwhich, for the next cruise, we contacted a local dive shop and were fortunate to arrange our first 6-pack dive with Blue XT Sea Diving. We have been diving with Blue XT Sea ever since. In fact I am only 16 dives away from #100 with Blue XT SEA. Hopefully next year I make that goal. Anyway, do some research for dive ops once your cruise is booked. Perhaps you will be able to find dive op that can work with your schedule. If you need any advice, there are many folks here who can help. Just beware, You may just get bitten with the Cozumel addiction and before you know it...you will enter the Cozumel Land Based Vacation zone..... Have a wonderful time in Cozumel. Sue Sue

 

[Fordan]

No one ever scuba dives in Cozumel, and those who have dared to dive in Cozumel won't come back. Sorry, couldn't resist...just a funny question to be asking on a forum dedicated to diving in Cozumel.

Well to be fair to the original poster, he didn't post in the Cozumel forum (which is why I posted a link to it). A mod moved it here.

 

[RonFrank]

OI just don't believe that they structure the shore time of several thousand people just to keep an extremely small percentage of them from diving off their plan. And I don't think that their policy of leaving you behind if you don't make the call is just to force you to dive with their program, either.

I agree with you 100%. I don't think they structure the shore time of several thousand people around diving, I think they structure them around everything they offer! That was my point about my buddies experience with salmon!

 

[RonFrank]

The dive that we booked through Carnival was only about $10 more per person than if we booked it ourself

That sounds great. Who did you dive with, and what were the costs? I would not mind doing a family cruse, but did not think it would ever work out with my diving interest. I'd do a cruise if I could get some serious diving in while the family was relaxing.

 

[PlayaCountryBoy]

Hola Easyrider...have a look at this video ( http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/tr...-guggie-greg-chi-explore-santa-rosa-wall.html )and tell US what you think about the diving around Cozumel! And I recommend Blue Angel or Blue XT Sea. Pony's workin behind the desk in place of Jeanine at Blue Angel and talk to Christi over at Blue XT Sea. You can't go wrong :no with either outfit. Good luck and have fun! Its AWESOME diving over there!

 

[tlmainer]

It was around $80 p/person for a 2 tank dive through Sand Dollar Sports (the Dive Op that Carnival used at the time). There were only 6 of us on the boat, all from the ship. That was about 3 years ago. The only reason we went on the cruise is that our land package in Coz was canceled by Funjet after the hurricane and the cruise was a last minute choice. I MUCH prefer land package/diving. The shore excursion times are so short, if you do a 2 tank dive, you might have 1 1/2 hours to spend before you have to get back on the ship. It was the same when we went to Bahamas on the same ship. We did a 2 tank dive, ate lunch in town and had to hurry back to the ship.

 

[Christi]

Well to be fair to the original poster, he didn't post in the Cozumel forum (which is why I posted a link to it). A mod moved it here.

I was of course teasing him, but thank you for the clarification. It wasn't obvious to me that the post had been moved

 

[BurBunny]

Y'all knew I had to jump in here at some point, didn't you?

About port time schedules. They have first to do with the local harbor authority and port costs (the harbor masters dictate the port times) and second to do with the rest of their schedule. It takes x hours at y speed to get from port to port and different ships have different speeds and can make different itineraries. That's why you often see the newer ships first in port in Cozumel - they're often a bit faster.

Ships excursions are designed for convenience of the passenger, and profit for the cruise line, not for best experience at the best price. For many cruisers, they're willing to pay for the convenience and security of a cruise excursion. Others (like me) avoid them whenever possible. There are a lot of resources out there for cruisers to work with reputable companies to get a superior experience usually at a lower price. Cruise Critic, for example, has Ports of Call boards and their Roll Call boards designed just for that.

You can have a great diving cruise. I often recommend it for my clients who are in "mixed" marriages - one partner dives, one doesn't. Several lines do a Cozumel, Grand Cayman, Roatan and Belize itinerary which is good, and some Eastern Caribbean itineraries are now visiting Grand Turk (usually along with at least one other diving port, on as short as a 5-night cruise), but my favorite itineraries for diving are in the Southern Caribbean. There are itineraries which go to ports like Bonaire, Curacao, Aruba, St. Lucia, Dominica, St. Thomas, Tortola, Barbados and others (of course not all on the same cruise). I've several times done 4-5 days of diving on a 7-night cruise. That is just a 2-tank day, and yes there isn't a lot of time left over afterwards, but it gets you a nice variety and keeps peace in the household.

Cruising isn't my preferred way to dive, as I like more time in a location. The only times I cruise the Caribbean anymore is for work, and this last time I didn't even take my gear (eeek!). But had I not just come back from a 2-week trip, and if I didn't have conflicting obligations (not to mention wanting a nice, long lunch with Christi), I'd have brought my gear and had no problem at all arranging dives. Takes a bit of effort, but it is worth it.