Furner:
Perfect thread as I am going on a Panama Cruise with Princess in December! Thanks for planning ahead!
Interesting conversation with Princess Cruises today
- Thread starter Furner
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Perfect thread as I am going on a Panama Cruise with Princess in December! Thanks for planning ahead!
Hey Chris
I went on a cruise with Carnival in April and received the same reply from them, they cant give that info out. I was trying to plan operators for my wife to get cert'd. I ended up doing the research on my own. While she was training, I dove with Bob Soto's in GCM it's a 5 min cab ride to the shop or a 15 min walk down the main street. Was a decent dive and had a good time. Enjoy the diving. I will be doing a liveaboard with Blackbeards in Oct. It will be my first, and looking forward to it. It sounds pretty interesting. Check out their website at blackbeardscruises.com
Bryan
I went on a cruise with Carnival in April and received the same reply from them, they cant give that info out. I was trying to plan operators for my wife to get cert'd. I ended up doing the research on my own. While she was training, I dove with Bob Soto's in GCM it's a 5 min cab ride to the shop or a 15 min walk down the main street. Was a decent dive and had a good time. Enjoy the diving. I will be doing a liveaboard with Blackbeards in Oct. It will be my first, and looking forward to it. It sounds pretty interesting. Check out their website at blackbeardscruises.com
Bryan
khemicals
Guest
I was on a Carnival cruise to Cozumel in March and dove with Aqua Safari (though, this was part of a resort course my Fiancee wanted to take but bailed out on, so I sucked on her tank down to the reef) for a single afternoon dive. This allowed for lots of time in the morning/afternoon for a good cheap lunch of fajitas downtown along with shopping the main drag.
On a previous trip I dove with Dive Paradise. Jose was one of our DMs and we had a great time. They may also be good options for you. I found the dive I enjoyed the most was with Aqua Safari, but that likely was only because there were 2 divers and the dive master, so he had time to help point out the neat sites while we were down there and that really was nice.
On a previous trip I dove with Dive Paradise. Jose was one of our DMs and we had a great time. They may also be good options for you. I found the dive I enjoyed the most was with Aqua Safari, but that likely was only because there were 2 divers and the dive master, so he had time to help point out the neat sites while we were down there and that really was nice.
khemicals
Guest
Also, worth noting, is that cabs are cheap in Cozumel (just make sure you agree to a rate before you get in, they are set, but sometimes they'll try to get you), so that shouldn't become an issue.
I dove with Aqau Safari in Cozumel off of the Golden Princess. Like you I didn't want to pay for equipment I wasn't going to use. Did two drift dives and was back at the ship with plenty of time to spare. I took a cab to the shop and back.
Jeff Moir
Guest
Just got back from Tahiti w. Princess. Booked everything on my own to save $. Cruise seems to tack on about $20 per excursion over booking it yourself. In the interest of doing any touring after diving in the morning, I recommend booking with the cruise line dive excursions. They will make sure you're back for your afternoon dry land tour, and if not will give you a refund.
Jeff Moir
Jeff Moir
RAD Diver
Contributor
Im going with Royal Caribbean in October and their excursions were what the local dive shops would charge us (we e-mailed them), but docking times & departure times would not allow any time to spare.The ship only offered diving in St. Maartin so we are doing that & in St. Thomas we booked a 2 tank morning dive with Chris Sawyer. No one would guarranty us being back to ship for departure times due to traffic.
Twisticles
Registered
I work for a cruise line (for my sins). Not Princess but similar
As crew, our shore leave is more limited than guests and in most ports I can book with an independant operator of my choice and be back onboard in time. (In some ports I have 'crew deals' with operators if I can get a mimimum six divers.)
In Grand Cayman for instance you could even shore dive (Eden Rock springs to mind) but the better dives are by boat there.
Cruise ships of course offer 'cattle' style, lowest ability denominator diving. If its a busy shore excursion, you can be stuck on a crowded boat, diving in a crowded group of fat, overweight punters on the verge of a heart attack diving 30' reefs and feeling like you're an unpaid DM. Having said that, I've done these shore excursions a fair bit to check the operator out for cruise lines, and some of them can be VERY good - I've been taken out on my own before now because nobody else signed up. The operators are usually the bigger, more popular operators, and they are checked out by the cruise lines periodically to check their safety standards and customer satisfaction levels. Unlikely to get discount for own gear through the cruise ship -but the most important part is:
If anything goes wrong to delay the trip, the ship WILL NOT leave without you if its ship excursion. And the ship is much more likely to reimburse if it goes tits up and you complain enough - you have several days to work on them!
Feel free to message me if I can answer any questions.
Twisticles
www.cryogen.com/twisticles
As crew, our shore leave is more limited than guests and in most ports I can book with an independant operator of my choice and be back onboard in time. (In some ports I have 'crew deals' with operators if I can get a mimimum six divers.)
In Grand Cayman for instance you could even shore dive (Eden Rock springs to mind) but the better dives are by boat there.
Cruise ships of course offer 'cattle' style, lowest ability denominator diving. If its a busy shore excursion, you can be stuck on a crowded boat, diving in a crowded group of fat, overweight punters on the verge of a heart attack diving 30' reefs and feeling like you're an unpaid DM. Having said that, I've done these shore excursions a fair bit to check the operator out for cruise lines, and some of them can be VERY good - I've been taken out on my own before now because nobody else signed up. The operators are usually the bigger, more popular operators, and they are checked out by the cruise lines periodically to check their safety standards and customer satisfaction levels. Unlikely to get discount for own gear through the cruise ship -but the most important part is:
If anything goes wrong to delay the trip, the ship WILL NOT leave without you if its ship excursion. And the ship is much more likely to reimburse if it goes tits up and you complain enough - you have several days to work on them!
Feel free to message me if I can answer any questions.
Twisticles
www.cryogen.com/twisticles
fmw625
Guest
I'm going to Cozumel and Belize in May. Checking my options with locals verses ship excursions.
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