Gear on Cruise

[fire_diver]

If the place you are diving with doesn't have high-quality gear you should be thinking twice about diving with them anyways.

But we are discussing diving while on a cruise and often (especially in unfamiliar ports) it's better to book your dive through the cruise ship. This means you won't know what company you are diving with or what quality of gear you might get from them. It's usually a lowest bidder type arrangement with excursion providers. Some times you get a great company some time you don't. It's not uncommon for the cruise ships to change excursion vendors fairly often.

 

[Mike]

You don't have to dive with the cruise ship's operator. There is no such thing as an unfamiliar port due to the internet. With as much negative things posted and being so worried about bad equipment and such, I'm surprised the ship's operator is even an option for most of you.

 

[KeithG]

IMHO: Don't mix vacations....

If you want to dive, then go diving. If you want to cruise, then get in line for the buffet.

The last 2 years I got included on several Caribbean "sales" conferences (Jamaica & Nassau). I took only mask & snorkel so I could splash about on the beach. Best decision ever. The diving on offer was like inviting Tiger to the local Eat n Putt.

It is really hard for a cruise operation to live up to liveaboard / bonaire diving freedom...

 

[timetraveler]

I agree that arranging your own dives for port days is usually preferable to taking the ship's dive excursions. But sometimes it's just not possible due to the ship's schedule. And it can create a huge hassle when the ship changes its itinerary or docking times at the last minute.

 

[jimbeeler]

IMHO: Don't mix vacations....

If you want to dive, then go diving. If you want to cruise, then get in line for the buffet.

The last 2 years I got included on several Caribbean "sales" conferences (Jamaica & Nassau). I took only mask & snorkel so I could splash about on the beach. Best decision ever. The diving on offer was like inviting Tiger to the local Eat n Putt.

It is really hard for a cruise operation to live up to liveaboard / bonaire diving freedom...

Ideally that's true. Did a week in Bonaire earlier this summer and it was great. I do like to get a taste of other locations to see if it's worth while to schedule a trip there. It's easily done on a cruise.

Jim

---------- Post added September 15th, 2014 at 06:25 AM ----------

I agree that arranging your own dives for port days is usually preferable to taking the ship's dive excursions. But sometimes it's just not possible due to the ship's schedule. And it can create a huge hassle when the ship changes its itinerary or docking times at the last minute.

Absolutely... with no way to contact the shore vendor while on ship... For me, using the ship excursion is the way to go. For others maybe not.

Jim

 

[Mike]

I I do like to get a taste of other locations to see if it's worth while to schedule a trip there. It's easily done on a cruise.

Jim

Totally understandable from a top side perspective, but not for diving. You can use scubaboard or lots of other resources to know whether a location is a great dive destination or not. In reality if you judge a dive destination by your experience with your cruise ship dives you probably are not doing the place justice as your experience is highly filtered since the dive sites cruise ship divers are taken to are based on proximity, easiness and churning divers through them as fast and as cheaply as possible with a pre-scripted 35-40 minute bottom time at most, and not on seeing the best of the destination.



---------- Post added September 15th, 2014 at 06:25 AM ----------

Absolutely... with no way to contact the shore vendor while on ship... For me, using the ship excursion is the way to go. For others maybe not.

Jim

Being late or being diverted isn't an issue with a good independent operator, you won't be their first cruise ship diver experience, they've been dealing with the unique issues of cruise ship divers for a long time. Your arrival is not a secret and good operators check in with the harbor master in the morning to confirm your ships arrival time. If you are supposed to contact them instead of them already being proactive and doing what needs to be done to be waiting on the dock when your ship does arrive, you've got the wrong outfit. If you get diverted any decent independent operator will automatically refund your deposits.

The one plus that no independent can touch is the guarantee that if you book through the cruise and it's the excursions fault for missing the ship departure, the cruise ship will wait or make arrangements to get you to the next port. However, the independents have been dealing with cruise ship divers forever, and they rarely have dive schedules so close that this would ever be an issue, you're usually done with your dives many hours before departure anyways. However, if you're a worry wart or you are in a port with a very short shore time, this is something to consider.

 

[jimbeeler]

Totally understandable from a top side perspective, but not for diving. You can use scubaboard or lots of other resources to know whether a location is a great dive destination or not. In reality if you judge a dive destination by your experience with your cruise ship dives you probably are not doing the place justice as your experience is highly filtered since the dive sites cruise ship divers are taken to are based on proximity, easiness and churning divers through them as fast and as cheaply as possible with a pre-scripted 35-40 minute bottom time at most, and not on seeing the best of the destination.

Just to be clear... I take a diving vacation for the diving. I do NOT take a cruise for the diving.

I take a cruise because my wife likes cruises and it's her vacation. My vacation is a diving vacation. Occasionally (usually on the spur of the moment, the night before we arrive in the foreign port), I'm allowed to take a dive excursion and the cruise line excursions are the only viable option. Ideally, I'd schedule with a provider that folks here recommend for whatever port I'm going to be in. On a cruise where my excursion schedule is highly variable depending on what my wife wants to do at the moment, sometimes the cruise excursion option is the only practical option.

Not the best, but the most practical and simplest option to allow me to get wet and allow my wife to enjoy her cruise vacation however she wants to.

Jim

 

[LowVizWiz]

Not the best, but the most practical and simplest option to allow me to get wet and allow my wife to enjoy her cruise vacation however she wants to.

Jim

I take my dive gear and my camera gear too and my wife hates to have all that stuff in a small cabin so I keep it as orderly as humanly possible.
Under the bed is a good spot. I also pack little of anything else so my two bags are equal to her two bags

To me it is not a big deal since we drive to the cruise port like you probably do too, if I were flying I'd probably leave everything!

In my opinion it's better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it, but only you know what's going to make your wife happy.

 

[jimbeeler]

Under the bed is a good spot. I also pack little of anything else so my two bags are equal to her two bags

If truth be known, my dive gear is probably the same weight and volume as her shoes.... As she was packing to come home, I counted 11 pairs and I don't think that was all of them (a one week cruise). I don't think it's possible for a male to understand the shoe fetish of a woman.

Of course a man's preoccupation with dive gear is perfectly understandable.

Jim

 

[yardpro]

i cruise every year with the monster in law... she is a huge cruise fanatic and takes us every year for a Christmas present....

so i drink a lot or dive a lot. my wife thought that it was better for her relationship with her mother that i dove more and drank less... lol...

I carry my regs, mask, fins, gloves, boots, and computer. i rent bc.. i dont wear a wetsuit, but if i did i would carry mine.. i hate wearing something that a thousand people before me have peed in...

dont carry a knife.. it will be confiscates, and the dive operator will probably not let you take it..

many places you cannot even wear gloves. (cozumel).