Interesting Cruise

[DiverLS]

I've been on two Princess cruises and booked all my diving through them. The only frustration I had was that my buddy and I were the most experienced on the boat. We saw the best the areas had. 1st cruise, Barbados, St. Lucia and St. Thomas. I'll skip Barbados next time, all sand. 2nd cruise, Western Caribean, Jamaica, Cayman Islands, Cosumel. Almost hurricaine at Jamaica so didn't dive. We all know the other two are must dive spots.
The reason to dive through the boat - just what happened to the original post. The boat WAITS for you.

 

[mike_s]

The boat dives from the ship pretty much all suck. Although I have no first-hand knowlege, I suspect that the dive operator is selected based on:

• Their ability to handle large groups of divers
• How cheap they're willing to work.

In any areas with competition, the ship dives have been uniformly mediocre.

You are giving them way too much credit. It's all based on how cheap they are.

They obvisousely don't care if they can handle large groups of divers by overloading the dive boats.

 

[KBeck]

WebMonkey--
I can't vouch for the specific site you went to in Grenada, but I think it does warrant mentioning that Hurricane Ivan was a Category 5 when it went over a few years ago. I know that after our rounds of hurricanes (which were much smaller in scale) gave the reefs here in Florida a good pounding. A lot of broken, grey coral is still normal, though the reefs are recovering.

Just a thought to give Grenada some credit. When I went in 2001, it was reasonably healthy and vibrant. Likely not comparable to Bonaire, etc., but good diving in general. I would guess that if it has a chance to recover from Ivan it may be worth diving at least once while there. I would certainly dive there again if given the opportunity. (As for dive ops......those are not atypical of what I've seen in a lot of other destinations.)

 

[Lake Mead Tony]

Went to Cabo last year and was expecting and got a nothing dive, but thanks to the boat captain throwing food off the boat, there was a lot of pretty fish. Next time I'll do more research on the local dive opps ( this year ). We learn as we go!!

 

[Web Monkey]

I've seen the damage in Florida and Cozumel and believe that the damage in Grenada was caused by divers.

It's certainly possible I'm wrong, but even in Coz (which looked like God took a lawnmower to the island) once you got down to any reasonable depth, was in pretty good shape.

The dive site we went to in Grenada looked like it had seen hard times from it's users, even at 60' - 80'.

OTOH, since at least 80% of the divers from the ship have terrible buoyancy control or just don't care what they ruin, it's probably a good thing to bring them somewhere they can't do any damage.

Terry

WebMonkey--
I can't vouch for the specific site you went to in Grenada, but I think it does warrant mentioning that Hurricane Ivan was a Category 5 when it went over a few years ago. I know that after our rounds of hurricanes (which were much smaller in scale) gave the reefs here in Florida a good pounding. A lot of broken, grey coral is still normal, though the reefs are recovering.

Just a thought to give Grenada some credit. When I went in 2001, it was reasonably healthy and vibrant. Likely not comparable to Bonaire, etc., but good diving in general. I would guess that if it has a chance to recover from Ivan it may be worth diving at least once while there. I would certainly dive there again if given the opportunity. (As for dive ops......those are not atypical of what I've seen in a lot of other destinations.)

 

[Web Monkey]

Cayman Islands, Cosumel. Almost hurricaine at Jamaica so didn't dive. We all know the other two are must dive spots.
The reason to dive through the boat - just what happened to the original post. The boat WAITS for you.

Unless it's a really short port stay, you can generally setup your own dives and make it back to the ship in plenty of time. However this requires that you do your own contingency planning, and don't dive up until an hour before the ship leaves. When I was diving in Coz, I was back on the boat at around 5pm, and the ship didn't leave until something like 10pm. That's enough time to swim to shore from a sunken boat and walk back to the ship if necessary.

In any event, now I only go on the ship dives to get great stories for OW class, or if I'm desperate to hit the water and don't have time to setup my own dive. However the "goodness" of the dive mostly depends on what you expect to get out of it. When I do a ship dive now, I'm looking for stories to tell my OW class.

Students can read about buoyancy control and surge in their book, but, there's nothing like describing a guy who looks like he had a motorcycle accident in a cheese-grater factory to explain why bouyancy control and awareness of surge is really important.

Or describing the guy who did a backroll with his air off to drive home the importance of always checking your own air and making sure you can reach your own valve or at least reliably ditch weights.

It sounds macabre, but going on a cruise dive is like signing up to watch one of the "close brush with death" articles in DAN or the other SCUBA mags while it's happening.

Terry

 

[Michael Schlink]

One of the BEST posts I have read, hit the nail on the head. I have had my fair share of similar experiences in my travels.

 

[Carribeandiver]

I did a cruise with Norwegian last Oct. Stopped at Cozumel, Costa Maya and Belize. I contacted dive shops at all of the above ports and tried to book a dive trip on my own. All of them replied that they contracted with the cruise line and could not book individual cruise passengers.
I was grossly overcharged for the dives by the cruise line. I was booked with people so inexperienced they would have to practice to be labeled inexperienced. I felt like a cow on a cattle car and will NEVER, ever, book a dive trip through a cruise if I ever do a cruise again, which is not likely to happen.
I did two dives in Belize that were mediocre and two dives in Cozumel that were pretty good. I was also booked in Costa Maya through Dreamtime Diving but the dive was cancelled because of rough seas. I have dived with Dreamtime before and paid around $800 US for the week including 3-4 dives a day. The cruise line charged me $140 for two dives. I paid the same $140 in Belize with Hugh Parkey that I know is normally around $80 for a two tank dive. For whatever reason the Cozumel two tank dive was around $90 which felt cheap after what I paid for the other two ports.
The DMs had to shepherd the inexperienced around and the dive was more like follow the leader than a relaxing dive but the sites were nice and the last dive was with almost no current (yes, I know in Cozumel, no current, hard to believe aint it?). I enjoyed the Cozumel dives but the Belize dives made me feel if I never get back to Belize I wont miss anything.

 

[highlandfarmwv]

Too bad you didn't dive in Aruba when you were there. I just came back from a week and Bonaire and a week in Aruba. Going back to Aruba in April. For the poster that asked about a dive op in Aruba: "Dive Aruba" was great. Clive Paula is the operator and he takes 7 max. He has been diving for 40 years and has had this buidness for 12. He goes to the lush southern reefs, not the north where the others go. The only trip I would skip with his op in the Sonesta airplanes and that is because that part of the reef has some algae. O course I have to admit I saw the biggest green moray I had ever seen there!

I booked him through internet, he was recommended from people on this board in the travel section.

 

[Bullswan]

I leave on the EXACT same Princess Cruise on Saturday. Glad to hear your report. I am keeping my wife happy as well and only diving in Bonaire. Can't wait. The rest of the time will be snorkeling with her. Did you book the dive trip in Bonaire through the ship? I didn't see that in your report. I was told that the only good reason for booking the dive trips through the ship was IF anything caused a delay and for some reason you weren't going to get back to the ship for the scheduled departure they will accomodate that. Otherwise, you are on your own. We booked Bonaire through the excursion planner and I am wishing we didn't but we'll see........

Thanks again,
Greg