Diving Cozumel by Cruise

[Basheirt]

Cruising to Western Caribbean over Christmas week. Stopping in Cozumel, Belize, Honduras, and Costa Maya. Cruise offers many excursions in each locale, but they only offer diving in Honduras. VERY surprised they aren't offering it in Cozumel.


My son and I would like to dive in Cozumel (without a cruise-sponsored excursion) some time during our 8am-5pm visit.


Any advice on contacting a dive shop there directly to arrange for a dive?


Unfortunately, I think we are only going to be "allowed" to dive in one port, given that we are traveling with others who don't fully appreciate the dive experience. We get one shot. We've been to the region before, so diving Cozumel seems like the best option for us. Since we've never been to Belize or Honduras, my thought is that we should do our regular sight-seeing in those places (even though I'd rather dive in all the ports).

Someone please compel me to change my mind and dive in Honduras or Belize!!!


Thanks,
Jeff

 

[CoasterFreak]

I absolutely loved the diving in Roatan. Very different from Cozumel, but not sure I could say which one I liked better. Dove with Anthony's Key and had an absolute blast.

 

[sparky923]

Roatan, Honduras has great diving. I'm diving there in March with Barefoot. We used them a couple of years ago and they are fantastic. 1st class all the way.

Costa Maya is really a good dive port as well. We used Bucanero del Caribe and hung out on the beach with the rest of my family until the dive boat came and picked us up. After diving, they dropped us back off with the rest of our crew. We liked them so much, that my son and I flew down and spent a week there diving last August.

I would pick those two spots over Belize. I dived there once, and it was about twice as expensive, and wasn't nearly as good of a dive.

 

[Aguablanco1]

If you decide to dive Roatan off the cruise ship this will probably be with Anthony's Key. While I have heard many good things about AK, their dive experience for cruisers is definitely not something I will do again. We did this twice with them and was thoroughly underwhelmed both times. I have dived all of the ports you mention and my favorites were Costa Maya and Belize. Since there is so little to do in CM, why not dive there and one other port like Belize?
RichH

 

[nofish]

west end divers in roatan they were great to work with .I cant wait to go back

 

[tkt0912]

We were just in Cozumel this past Sept, on the Freedom of the Seas. We used Aldora Divers and highly recommend them!!! We had a great time and dove two BEAUTIFUL sites!!!! Columbia Reef.....ask for that site if you like swim-through's!!!!
Here's the link to their site. Bienvenidos - Aldora Divers | Only the best of Cozumel Rachel was our Divemaster that day. VERY friendly and helpful.
Have fun!!!!

 

[YYJValerie]

We're doing this same itinerary the first week of December -- we've done it before -- but we have Grand Cayman instead of Costa Maya. We are using Eagle Ray in Cozumel -- we've used them a lot and they are excellent. Using Coconut Tree Divers in Roatan -- also have used them before -- fantastic and very reasonable -- their price includes pick up from the cruise port.

We are also at a loss as to what to do in Belize. The diving off of Ambergris is excellent... but the only real way to do it is to fly over... which makes it really expensive. Would love some suggestions????

 

[DeputyDan]

Wouldn't try to dive Belize if on a cruise boat. Do one of the Mayan ruin tours. It's an alternative that you will enjoy.

 

[bdklein]

If you choose to dive in Cozumel, I highly recommend Aldora. They work well with cruisers.

 

[LiquidDivingAdventure]

I would also recommend Aldora in Cozumel. My first choice. Small groups, first class operation. That said, Cozumel does offer a huge choice of quality dive ops.