Help! - Our first cruise.

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Jud1417

Registered
Messages
43
Reaction score
0
Location
Fernandina Beach, Florida
# of dives
500 - 999
Hi everyone - in a couple of weeks my wife and I are taking our first cruise with stop overs in Cayman and Cozumel. The Cozumel portion we had no problem booking our dive thru the cruise line however in Cayman they only offer snorkeling. We were hoping on doing stingray city on scuba with a local op. Any suggestions and advice since we have heard all sorts of horror stories including people being left behind by cruise lines should "something" come up....thanks beforehand!
 
Sting Ray City on scuba would be a bit of a disappointment. I believe Don Foster is right down the street from where the tenders will bring you in. You could contact them about a dive and see if they have a boat going out that will work on the ship schedule. Remember you will be on ships time for the whole trip, Cayman will be an hour different. If you tell them what ship you will be in on they should know the drill, they have some of the cruise ship contracts. You can be assured, if you take a trip sponsored by the ship, they won't leave without you. If you book a trip on your own, all bets are off if something happens and you don't get back on time.
 
You'll likely find that most of the diveops do SRC in the early afternoon. Or too early in the morning for you to get off the ship in time. Unless it's changed very recently, all cruise passengers are tendered into Georgetown.

It's probably a 15-20min. drive to the marina in the North Sound where most of the boats are kept and then 30-40mins.? to SRC. It's a 45 min. dive so as long as you're in port till 5 or later it should be possible if you get on one of the 1PM trips.

Understand that Georgetown is typically a zoo when the cruise boats disembark (I"ve seen 3 ships moored at the same time) so the logistics of getting out of there might be more than it would appear on a map.

You might check with Deep Blue Divers, they're located by the Lobster Pot in Georgetown. IIRC you could walk there from the cruise port. They do SRC dives daily. Scuba Diving Grand Cayman Dive Snorkel Cayman Island

I respectfully disagree with the above poster. SRC on scuba was a blast. You overweight and sit on the bottom while the Stingrays swim between you. Just about every nearby diveop does it at least weekly, some daily, they wouldn't be if it was disappointing. We had snorkelers on our boat also but the rays never interacted with them unless they stayed down for more than a few seconds. If you only snorkel, do the Sandbar trip instead, it's 4-5' deep so you can stand and interact with the rays.

We got mugged by several stingrays, I even had one sit on my head for a short while. The dive itself is in a sandy area with a couple of small coral clumps nearby so it's not much to look at once they leave. (when the squid is gone)
 
CJ's is a member here and works for a dive shop on GC.
Send a PM and get some additional info on your subject.
 
I'll have to politely disagree with the "Sting Ray City on scuba would be a bit of a disappointment." comment :D Fantastic dive, just find an Op that will go early in the day and stays away from other boats. I like Red Sail.

The first set of photos is from the Cayman Aggressor last September. I've done Stingray City 4 times and it's still amazing.

Cayman - September 2009

Have fun,
JP
 
I cruise a lot and now dive at most ports. Not sure which line you are using but Carnival I know uses Don Foster as they are who we went with thru carnival last November. So even if the line you use doesn't use them they do know "the drill". In other ports I have used other ops instead of the cruise lines and have not had any problems. But you should check with the dive op first to be sure they will get you back on the ships time. And no the ship will not wait for you if you chose this route. There may be a reason that your line isn't offering scuba, such as the time the ship gets to port and departs. Be sure that any op you check into is aware of your ships times of arrival and departure. sometimes a smaller op may be your best bet if the ship has a late arrival. Hope you have a great cruise!
 
I don't know why doing Stingray City on scuba would be a disappointment, if you dive and want to do it I think that's the way. I might prefer some other nice dives on Grand Cayman over Stingray City, but SC is one of those thing most people just feel they have to do once. (I do have a friend that didn't like it, the rays roughed her up a bit much for her taste.)
 

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